I caught myself telling this lie to one of my children.

Backstory -I get very frustrated when my kids waste water taking their bath. At times, they will turn on the water, let it run without putting the plug down, waiting for it to get hot. They leave the bathroom and then forget about the running water. Wasted water.

Other times, they will not watch the tub being filled and have it almost overflow.

Now, as a parent, I have some responsibility in this. I should be watching them. Usually, my oldest is responsible enough to do baths on her own while I spend time with the other kids or work on my own thing. However, it is not unusual for her to get distracted and forget.

So… the other night, oldest child was already in the tub, but then decided she needed more water, bringing it to a level that is really high and more than necessary. In doing so, she was also using up all the hot water for the other baths. Anyway, I notice the water height and start telling/lecturing her how we have to pay for all the water she uses, maybe I should charge her for the water usage, and then I said if you keep using alot, we might not be able to afford water. Really? That’s not true. In the grand scheme of things, water isn’t that expensive or so expensive that I would actually have to turn it off.

This got me to thinking. Why do I say crazy stuff to my kids? They probably know full well, it’s an empty threat. I get so frustrated at what I perceive as irresponsibility. In my head I’m thinking “Don’t you know?”. “Don’t you know that you need to be more responsible?” “Haven’t I told you this a thousand times?” “Shouldn’t you remember by now?”

In reality, they’re just kids. Kids do things like this or maybe it’s just my kids. As a parent, it’s part of my responsibility to teach them how to be responsible with things like water conservation. I’m sure I could do this without flipping out over the water usage and hurling empty threats.