Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Cup Patrol!!!


Ok, so am I the only one who gets annoyed when my kids use a different cup for two sips of water five or six times a day? Here's the thing. We still have in our possession many "kid cups" such as the old-fashioned Tupperware ones w/ sippy lids, the more advanced sippy cups with the "valve" sippy lids, and various other smallish type cups that have always been affectionately known as the "kid cups". Now, WHY, you ask do I still have sippy cups? I have no idea. Seeing as my kids range in age from 10-15, I'm pretty confident they can all drink without spilling. But when they have sleepovers they use them to drink water in the family room (thereby reducing the chances someone will wake up with a soaked sleeping bag due to a cup being overturned in the night). Ok, sure, they are quickly moving past their "use by" date, but they are the kids cups and that's that! Well, the problem with all of these smallish multicolored cups is that whenever I find them scattered about they always belong to "not me", "not mine", and "I didn't do it". So, being the genius that I am, I hit upon a solution! I bought a stack of cups for $3 at Walgreen's. These cups are a bit larger than the kiddish sippy cups (ok, so they can drink more than four ounces at a sitting!) and came in a set of 12. Three each of four colors. Four colors = four kids. I chose a color for each kid and now they each have three cups to use. I explained that you could, in fact, rinse out a cup and use it ALL DAY LONG without getting a new cup. So, of course the kids were all excited about this "new thing". And the VERY first day, my evil plan paid off. I went into my office at the end of the day and there, sitting next to the keyboard (where, by the way, kids are STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to eat or drink - mom can do whatever she wants since it's HER keyboard, after all), I found a pink cup. "A-HA!" I shouted, "the offender is Hayley!" which made her come scurrying to remove the offending detritus muttering "crap!" under her breath. I love this new plan. I think I'll move on to color coded plates and bowls next!

4 comments:

Sydney said...

You're a genius! I'm bookmarking this entry for when I have older kids. :)

Shelly B said...

Good idea, I may have to try this. My kids do the same thing.

chemrulz said...

you my friend are a genius!

Mimi/Papa said...

I love sly, sneaky parents...if you need anymore ideas, let me know and I'll let you in on some I used!!

Your loving mother! hahhaha