Childrearing tip #11: ‘Sparkle up’ their Summer without the Sugar Rush.
Merquip empathises as a frustrated father froths up over fizzy drinks.
A couple of weeks back Auckland council announced they were removing sugary fizzy drinks from vending machines in council buildings. In so doing they took a leadership role in raising awareness for type-2 diabetes and posed a timely reminder for Auckland families that having a bottle of fizzy drink in the fridge is probably not the best way to teach your kids nutrition.
But try telling your testy teenagers to have a glass of water with their dinner, and they’ll probably choke on their pizzas in hysterics. As any self-respecting parent knows, the only way to get your kids eating (and drinking) healthily is to make it seem like fun.
Plain water isn’t going to cut it, no matter what exotic delicacy you’ve spiced it up with. But if you put some bubbles in the mix, it has “treats” written all over it. Believe me when I say the secret to creating better habits for your kids is make sure you have copious quantities of chilled sparkling water ready for them to quaff any time of day.
The most painless way to sparkle things up is to buy some Schweppes at the supermarket. But be warned – you’ll need heaps of fridge space, and you’re going to need military-style stockpiling to keep up with demand. I discovered this meant rushing out for a case of soda at all hours of the night. I might not have realized how absurd this was if it wasn’t for bottle shop bloke asking me why I never bought my whiskey from him too. Clearly he thought I was a closet drinker.
After that we invested in a sodastream. They’re great… at least until you have to change the gas bottle (which invariably is mid-way through the first day). Without the foresight to buy a spare you have to run down to the dairy for some L&P before the kids start breaking things. There’s other pitfalls too…
Beware of the all-powerful sodastream black-hole which sucks up all those special bottles of water you diligently stacked in the fridge. No matter how many you have, a week later they’re gone – either your partner took them on their afternoon run, or the kids lost them after footie practice.
And wait for the day you come home to find the kids put the syrup in before the bubbles. You’ll know that day because there’s a hole in the ceiling, and the kitchen is filled with sticky goo.
So I’ve come to realize there’s only one really workable solution which the kids will love, and doesn’t put a daunting burden on us mums and dads…
The ultimate solution is to have sparkling water coming right out of the kitchen tap – filtered, fresh, icy- cool, lip-tinglingly bubbly, and dying to be drunk sparkling water, straight from the tap to the glass. It is guaranteed to keep thirsty kids slaked and doesn’t leave a mess for mum to clean up.
A pipe-dream you think (if you’ll excuse my rather bad pun)?
But you might be surprised how easy it is to install your own chilled, filtered, sparkling water faucet. The friendly folks at Merquip have got a wide range of options for small or big families and they can be installed in moments right under your sink. They even supply industry-strength systems (so you never run short– even in the wildest of parties).
You’ll be surprised at how this novelty can change your family’s drinking patterns overnight. Kids’ll happily grab a glass of fizz as they come in after school, and again when they sit to dinner. And if you’re looking for ways to change things up, the world wide watery web is rampant with rapacious recipes for spritzing up your spritzer.
There’s really no excuse for not having this convenience ‘on tap’ in your home. So book yours now, ready for the spring thaw.
Merquip Ltd is a privately owned company based in Auckland, NZ, providing boiling, chilled, sparkling and filtered drinking water systems. Contact us at http://www.merquip.co.nz or phone 0800 636 0636
