I recently did something almost anathema to being a modern parent: I don’t carry around a water bottle anymore.

There’s some informal rule that once you have a kid, you need to carry every possible thing that child might possibly need for a 2 week desert expedition in your bag. Everyday. We all start walking around hauling massive amounts of…stuff. Entire industries exist to help us cart around all this junk, while other industries exist to convince us we actually aren’t carrying around enough — take a look at this new convenient gizmo that you’ve somehow been living without. Changes of outfits (plural). Food (did you leave home without carrot sticks, apple slices, and a banana? Odd, I thought you were a good, caring parent.) Toys and special lambies or blankies. Actual blankies. Toddler forks and spoons, just in case. A variety of skin ointments, because you just never know. Bless you if you still have a baby, because add in an entire Walgreens worth of the diaper aisle, and you just (just) might survive being outside with your little wonder.

Well, I’ve freed myself of one of the essentials: the toddler water bottle. Do you know what sits at the bottom of my backpack like a lead weight? The water bottle. Do you know how many water bottles we went through before we found one that didn’t also leak all over everything else? At least four. Do you know which water bottle started leaking spontaneously anyway? The fifth.

I am done with all that. I’ve replaced it with – get this – a cup.

A cup! It’s small, white, and plastic. It weighs practically nothing at all. I bought it for $1. And it can be reused into perpetuity. You can easily clean it to sparkling results, no gunky rubber straws and valves and parts that need to be dissected, sterilized, and re-configured in just the right order. AND IT NEVER LEAKS. Because it is simply a cup.

It doesn’t have a marketing campaign built up around it, so it’s possible you’ve never heard of it before.

(Should I be trademarking this?) (I totally need to make a special, top-of-the-line diaper bag drinking cup and shame every parent into buying it.)

The reality is that we don’t go anywhere that doesn’t have a water fountain. Parks, playgrounds, toddler classes, museums, libraries, even restaurants, shops, and markets. Water is clean and plentiful all around us. Why am I carrying it around like we’re on some expedition through the Sahara.

Y’all, it’s been back-saving. Also money-saving. A cup, miracles of miracles.

—————————————————————————————–

I got mine at Daiso’s bathroom accessories aisle. You can also find kid’s plastic cups at Target. If you’re concerned about plastics and BPA, check out REI for stainless steel options. Here are more enamel and stainless steel options from Michael Olaf and Life Without Plastic.