The simple way I got my family to drink more water!

The simple way I got my family to drink more water!

How I got my family to drink more water!

I always like to share ideas that have worked really well with my family. My goal was to get my family to drink more water. We had already come off of juice and soft drinks (except for special occasions)  but we still were not drinking  as much water as I knew we needed to. My solution was setting up a water station!

A water station is just simply a water jug that the kids can get their own water with. This is a picture of mine below!

How I got my family to drink more water!

I told the kids this was for them so that they could drink water whenever they wanted. They no longer needed me to get them a cup and fill it up. They had total freedom now.

As funny as it sounds, being super positive about it really made a difference. They got to see it as an independence thing, not a health thing. Something about that clicked with them! Every time I saw them getting water I praised them for making a good choice. We had a couple of spills but it was just water so it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. We talked about a good solution to those spills was not filling the cup all the way to the top. I talked to them like they were adults (with respect) about drinking water and how proud of them I was for not making a big mess. All of these positive associations with drinking water really paid off. Now if I forget to fill the water station in the morning, they are the ones that remind me. They are  drinking more water now than they ever have so I am a happy mom!

I didn’t start out with flavored water or anything becasue I didn’t want to have to do that everyday. Yes I know that sounds a little lazy but I am just being honest! We do put ice in our water station 2x a day and that keeps it cold which the kids prefer. If I forget to put ice in it they just get it out of the freezer.

We visit my parents in Virginia as much as possible and my kids are really bad for drinking sodas there so we just are buying this one and having it shipped there so we can continue on with this healthy habit!

My kids are 5 (she was 4 when we started) , 10 (he was 9) and 16 (she lets the little kids use this and she grabs hers out of the sink) and this has worked well for them. I know some of that is age too so I would love for you to share what has worked with your kids and family when it comes to getting in more water!

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