Several years ago, I burst into my daughter’s bedroom without knocking. I’d asked her to clean her room. Over an hour had gone by and I heard her talking on the phone, so I needed verification that the requested task had been completed. Imagine my surprise when I saw my daughter lying in the middle of her bedroom floor with a phone in one hand, a television remote in the other hand, and her room still looking like a hurricane (maybe two) had blown through. Immediately I began to fuss at my precious teenager and express myself in a way that I won’t repeat here. Suffice it to say, my starting words were, “I know good and got damn WELL…” and my ending words were, “You have 2.2 seconds to get this room together. Try me if you want to.” The young lady to whom my daughter was talking on the telephone suggested that my daughter, “check your mom for coming in your room disrespecting your private space like that!” Thankfully my daughter had not taken complete leave of her senses. She told her friend she had to go and would talk to her later.
So I ask you: Do parents have a right to enter a child’s bedroom without knocking? Do children have a right to expect privacy in their parent’s home? Does it matter if the child is an adult or not?
In my opinion, every person deserves respect. Children should be able to comfortably and confidently use the bathroom or shower without fear of someone barging in. They should be able to entertain company without being hovered over. Children should be able to have notes, love letters, and other personal items in their rooms or drawers without worry of exposure…usually! I believe that if there is something that causes alarm or concern to a parent then they have every right to check every inch of their home as they see fit. In my opinion, children living in my home – even adult ones, are not peers. While they are worthy of respect as people, they are obligated to respect the one(s) who pay the bills and provide the very shelter from which they benefit.
What say you dear reader? 
dionnerbell.com 
Privacy is just becoming a talking point with my 12-year old. He knows that I will check his phone any time I see fit for his safety.
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Thanks for sharing Shari. To your point, it is not a matter of simply being nosy or intrusive, but rather a matter of safety and protection.
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I am raising my one and only child who is now a teenager. Privacy not a chance. I go through his things like they are my own. My mom did it to me and I will continue to do it to him.
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KC thank you for the feedback. Your comment is like the one by Fitzgerald in that nothing is going to blow up because of secret things going on in the home.
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Great topic, I’m with you EB. My stance on this has soften over the years having teenage and adult children who come to visit. Yet if you are under my roof even if you contribute, since some children/adults have to move back home, you are still subject to inspection at any time. If that makes you uncomfortable move out, it’s that simple. My purpose for entering would only happen if I suspect that something is going on, that should not; while under my watch. As for a child/adult who contributes nothing but uses all resources, if the shower is too long I’m coming in to shut off the water you figure it out (soap on the body). You have no privacy or an expectation thereof, though I will give you a safety word or a safe place, but if I suspect anything out of what I believe to be ordinary everything is subject to inspection. No bombs will be built in my house. No meth lab, marijuana growth or crack will be cooked while under my watch. And let us not speak on sex play,
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If my kids don’t pay a damn bill or buy groceries kids+privacy=don’t exist. I have taken the door off one of my son’s bedroom as a punishment of disobeying.
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