H2Oh-NOooooo!! MOMMA LOVES HER SOME NEVERENDING LIQUIDY GOODNESS

It's official -- my mother is a water-waster of the worst variety, and not particularly troubled by her environmental transgression. Considering her ongoing vigilant efforts to return orphaned paper clips and crunched-up fast food wrappers to their rightful owners, her ambivalence toward the preservation of such a particularly precious resource astounds me. “Oh honey, I know-I know…” she’s remarked to me in her serene, happy-go-lucky manner, “but we never had to worry about saving water before…we just turned on the faucet and out it came…an endless supply.” Um, yeahhhh, but things are quite a bit different now -- it turns out that there are actually a finite amount of natural resources available to us. Don’t you read what’s posted all over the internet, lay-deeeee?!?!

Personally, I don’t believe that there is much sacrifice involved in turning on the faucet when you are LITERALLY ready to wash your dishes, as opposed to during the CONTEMPLATION PROCESS – and you certainly don’t need to unleash a kitchen sink geyser to get the job done the right way. However, when your mother is genetically programmed to emulate the pace and productivity level of a methodical yet inexplicably sloshed snail, a lot of perfectly clean water ends up chug-a-lugging down the drain while she mentally prepares herself to scrub-scrub away.

And I’m not talking about a few piddley gallons….oh-hooo-noooooo! I’ve witnessed her water-wasting-ways far too many times (despite interjecting) to know that the volume is significant – in fact, I conservatively estimate that in the time that she performs her warming-up exercises, the clean water that she sacrifices could effectively launder two full loads of filthy clothing while also getting four small Schnauzers squeaky-clean from head-to-tail.

Could it really be generational? I consider her a young 59 years of age – certainly not an old dog who can’t fathom learning new tricks. She knows what’s going on in the environment today and is acutely aware of just how imperative our collective actions are to the restoration process of our planet -- she’s even recycled for decades now and is one of the few OCD-freaks who removes every trace of label and glue residue from each container prior to dropping it into her collection bin!

Further evidence of her practicality and planet-friendly habits – she allows her damp paper towels to drip-dry between uses and also hand washes one pair of stockings at least 247 times before they finally ‘give up’ and vaporize into thin air. So how can she possess such a strong mental block when it comes to reeling in her water usage? It must get annoying to her -- hearing me gasp for the 1,756th time as I taunt her with the words “water-waster, water-waster!” – and still, she absentmindedly bids adieu to a massive volume of liquid for no particular reason while I leap over her breakfast bar to take matters into my own hands.

I’ve coached her on how easy it actually is to soap up the dishes PRIOR to unleashing the monsoonal rains, but clearly, the innumerable lessons I’ve offered have not penetrated her normally lucid noggin. Clearly, I need to adopt a different approach. Which begs the question – is it just too late in the game to reform my mother’s water-wasting-ways?!?

 *************************************************************************

Greenwalas near and far, would you please offer me some feedback regarding how you think I might more effectively send the message home to my mother? Have you experienced a similar situation with your family members? If so, please share it in the comments section below. HELP!!!!! Any ideas and tips that you have would be greatly appreciated!! :)

http://agricultureguide.org/h2oh-noooooo-momma-loves-her-some-neverending-liquidy-goodness/