The water glasses. OMFG.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone else's tween/teen do this? Observation of my children would lead me to believe it is apparently impossible to use a glass for a drink more than once. At any given moment, I could walk through my house and find a glass in the family room, in the kitchen, in the office, in each child's bedroom, in the basement rec room, in the living room...

[Anonymous]

Ha. I have the opposite problem (no teens - just DH, a baby, and I). I try to use the same water glass all day and DH is constantly tidying it into the dishwasher. Mind you, he doesn't actually move the dirty dishes from the sink in there, so it's not just general compulsive tidiness.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 tween/teens. There are 6 cups of water with ice in various states of thaw on my counter right now. All six are theirs from today.
I'm going to try the color coded cup thing. Will report back.

[Anonymous]

But do they know how to turn off a light? My DD is very smart, but cannot turn off a light. Ever.

[Anonymous]

I have three kids of my own, including one 15 year old, and our house is the "cool" house, so there are always teens running around. I swear to God, there used to be ten water glasses out and about the whole house when the older kids all came over. Then one of the glasses got shattered in my DD's bedroom, and the kids were scared to tell us (for some weird reason) and stowed all the glass pieces in a bureau drawer, where my 5 year old promptly found it. We were just glad no one was hurt.

So then I decided, OK, I'm going to keep bottled water in the fridge for when all the teens come over. As a family of five, we rely on our Brita pitcher for regular consumption. But I am not kidding – at the end of a sleepover, or a long night playing video games, I will find half-drunk bottles of water.

In. Every. Room.

Meanwhile, my 5 year old puts her Contigo water bottle back in the fridge when she's done with it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is such a teen issue! My kids do this too. Infuriating.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting, OP. Now I know this doesn't reflect a parenting failure on my part. Seriously, it is the worst part of having kids home from college for the summer. And, really, these are kids who are helpful and responsible in lots of other ways -- they take out the trash, cook dinner, walk the dog, etc., without being asked. But what is with the glasses?!! Are they doing this to force me to confront the reality that I've become my mother?!!

[Anonymous]

Yes! Glad to hear I'm not the only one. On the bright side, at least my kids are drinking a lot of water.

[Anonymous]

I'm guilty of using multiple glasses a day - I'm weird that way. But I always put them in the dishwasher. My kids, on the other hand...

[Anonymous]

We recently announced a 1 cup a day rule. There is a spot on the counter where we can put our glass / reusable water bottle / cup of choice. So the four cups sit there together. Sometimes guest cups too (not friends, but like grandma and grandpa if they visit for a few days).

[Anonymous]

I went and bought a bunch of IKEA glasses for .89 apiece and now that it is summer, they are in charge of the dishwasher.

[Anonymous]

Good god, my parents do this and they're in their late 60s. Every time they come to visit, we suddenly have no glasses. AND my mother shrieks "I'm still using that" when I try to clean up any of the glasses so we have clean ones available to use. Every surface of the guest bedroom and our living room is covered in mugs and water glasses when they're here. I may have to buy her a special cup that's just hers for the next time she visits like the PPs are doing for their teens.

[Anonymous]

I have relatives who make you mark your glass with a piece of tape with your name on it. Works perfectly.

The wasted bottle water story above is just shameful. Stop this!

[Anonymous]

I had to make a rule that guests could only have a bottle of water if they were leaving and needed a drink. I bought a bunch of plastic cups from Target and told my kids their friends had to use those. I'd find 10+ bottles of half empty water around and the excuse was always the same "we got them mixed up and didn't know if it was mine or his." Like the thought of labeling the water bottles never occurred to them??

The kids love the plastic cups, though. They know which is theirs by the color and some even have one that is "theirs" when hanging out. I'll find an occasional cup with water that was forgotten when they left, but I'll take one forgotten cup over 10 plastic bottles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good god, my parents do this and they're in their late 60s. Every time they come to visit, we suddenly have no glasses. AND my mother shrieks "I'm still using that" when I try to clean up any of the glasses so we have clean ones available to use. Every surface of the guest bedroom and our living room is covered in mugs and water glasses when they're here. I may have to buy her a special cup that's just hers for the next time she visits like the PPs are doing for their teens.

My ILs are like this. Except in their 70s. And they have no interest in reusing their mugs/glasses. They just take a new one every time they get a drink and then leave it somewhere in my house. I have to scour the house for their half-drunk mugs of coffee after they leave because they will just put them down anywhere and walk away, be unable to recall that they a.) already had a mug and b.) left a half consumed mug of coffee complete with cream and sugar on a bookshelf and just get a new one. By the end of a couple days we haven't a single cup or mug clean. And we have a TON of mugs and glasses.


I learned my lesson years ago when I found a half-drunk mug of coffee tucked behind books on a bookshelf as I was desperately hunting for a foul odor in my house.