Ew, Yuck! That is the commentary I received from my five year-old when he tasted the contents of the bedtime cup of water I brought for him. I filled it from the new state-of-the-art carbon filter I recently installed in our upstairs bathroom. We have a Kinetico reverse-osmosis drinking water system downstairs in the kitchen, but I was getting tired of going down nearly every night to refill the boys’ water cups. So when the opportunity presented itself, I thought installing a filter upstairs would save me a few extra steps each night. No such luck. I cannot even sneak it past them. They can instantly tell the difference in taste, and will not drink the water from upstairs.
It is not that our water is necessarily bad-tasting; it is just that the water treated with reverse osmosis is that much better. I recall my daughter asking me why our water tastes so much better than the water at her school. They really can taste the difference, as can my wife and I. And, we’ve had guests from out of town comment on how wonderful our coffee tastes. I’m quick to remind them that it is probably not the coffee, but rather the water that went into it.
So apparently we’ve spoiled our children. They’ve come to appreciate and expect really good drinking water. I guess there are much worse things we could have spoiled them with. Interestingly enough though, the quality of the water is not so important to the boys when it is coming out of a drinking fountain. If they spot a drinking fountain, they instantly become thirsty and will drink heartily. Perhaps to save those steps at night I need to install a drinking fountain upstairs. Except that usually after drinking from a fountain they have dripped water all over themselves and the floor and are now soaking wet. Oh well, boys will be boys.
