This year we indulged in a splurge, a new old fridge. For $100, we got one of those fancy side-by-side fridges that dispenses water and ice.

I was able to retire my position as the icemaker of the family, as for the first time we had a machine to do the job.

While I am no great environmentalist, I do not like to be wasteful. In the past six months since we installed this fridge, I noticed a rather disturbing trend.

We are wasting a TON of water.

The kids used to simply drink tap water that was stored in the fridge. Now they walk by the fridge and first fill their cup with ice and then water. And I mean FILL their cup. You can’t usually control it. Some of the ice spits on to the floor, which then gets chucked into the sink and melts.

Yes, our actual consumption of water into our bodies has gone up, but I’d guess half the time that cup of ice water gets dumped out.

With all the people throughout the world who cannot get clean drinking water, this just seems like an incredible first world extravagance, which could easily be minimized.

Making it so easy to get cold water, means it’s also incredibly simple to waste that water. So, in our effort to be healthy by drinking lots of water, exactly what lesson are we teaching our kids?