This week I am a bad parent because….

Welcome to my weekly Bad Parent blog post. A place to get those moments we all have, off our chest. Feel free to share in the comments section, if you feel the same or just have your own bad parent moment to share. No judgment, just honesty and hopefully some humour, because frankly I couldn’t survive parenting without that!

Because I refuse to share water bottles or drinks with my family. Aka my children. I have a thing about sharing drinks, particularly bottles or containers you put your mouth around to drink from, and frankly whilst I love my children, and would give my life for them, when it comes to sharing drinks, I am out… It makes me gag watching them practically French kiss the water bottle, backwash and gargle. In fact I feel quite queasy just writing about it…

So, I always carry my own drinks bottle and my children know that the rule is “what’s theirs is theirs, but DON’T touch my water bottle…” Most of the time they are good at rememebering.

Apprently this makes me a bad parent though. I shared my thing about not sharing water bottles with a group I am in, on Facebook and was immediately made to feel like I am evil mother of the week…. “but they are your children, you gave birth to them, you have wiped their bottoms and cleaned up their sick, how is sharing a water bottle disgusting?” and other replies of the same ilk.

Really? Am I awful? Is nothing sacred. Why should I let my five year old gargle and backwash into my water bottle? It’s gross and stomach churning. I am teaching him manners, but clearly they aren’t working just yet…

Anyone else got a parenting foible like this? Or is it just me?

PS of course, if my children are horribly thirsty and need a drink and my water bottle is the only one available, or we were on a dessert island, or a lifeboat in the ocean, I would share, but down the park, when they have their own bottles, it’s hands off mine! 😉