The Sippy Cup
Dear Doctor,
You won’t believe this, but we have a problem with sippy cups.
Those are the little cups that keep children from spilling things. My mother in law doesn’t like them.
She says we are not teaching our children how to handle a regular glass or cup. We think the spilling is such a problem without them and use them all the time. We thought we would contact you and see what you think.
No Spill Ma
Dear No Spill,
The cups of which you speak came after our tenure as parents of little kids, but I am very familiar with them.
As a grandparent we have our cabinets full of the things, provided by our children, now parents. As you point out, they are miraculous in not allowing juice, milk, and other liquid refreshment to spill.
They also roll under the couch sometimes to be discovered days later. Children are remarkably cavalier about tossing them here and there. So, mother in law is not exactly out of her tree! She does have a point that civilization progressed nicely with the good offices of glassware and the like.
However, I have not seen the race deteriorate into utter slurping and spilling due to the little cups. The cups are a convenience, and it seems to me parenting is tough enough without embracing a Calvinistic approach, i.e., there should be no parenting without suffering. Besides, Waterford is too expensive.
I say praise to the sippy cup, and may it long be manufactured, probably in China!
Tags: glassware, little kids, mother in law, sippy cup, sippy cups
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