On average, our family spends between fifteen and twenty minutes, brushing our teeth, daily. Two kids, two minutes in the morning. Two kids, two minutes at night. Two parents, five minutes in the morning, two parents, five minutes at night.
Within that time, there’s usually a reminder to ‘turn off the water’. A reminder that begins gentle in the morning with the kids, and ends the day with me questioning when the whole ‘turn off the water while you brush’ message will finally be absorbed.
Giving kids a visual, showing them what could be done with the clean water going down the drain can help to reduce the waste, and help the message of ‘turn off the tap while you’re brushing your teeth’ to be absorbed.
How to get your Kids to turn off the Tap
It’s as simple as plugging the sink while the toothbrush timer ticks away. Or, for more of an impact, we let Olivia fill a container while the two-minute timer on her sister’s toothbrush ticked along. We let her fill containers while the tap was running, with the goal of demonstrating just how much water is wasted when you don’t turn off the tap.
The fact that water comes so easily from the tap, makes it difficult for six year olds to understand a global water shortage.
Showing in a way they can understand, with actual water and actual containers makes it easier to demonstrate the water wasted, and convey the importance of conservation.
Colgate is also trying to help this problem, encouraging Canadians to make small changes, like turning off the tap. They’re adding a new ‘Save Water’ logo to products for a gentle reminder and to encourage families just like yours to take the pledge online. So go ahead, turn off the tap and let everyone know online. For each use of the hashtag #EveryDropCounts, it will signify 15 litres of water being saved. And that’s a start.
This post is brought to you by Colgate but the opinions and images are my own.
