Litter Bugs

The boys have not been taught to not litter. Even in the house. Apparently, orphanages hire old grandmas to walk around the buildings and premises and pick up garbage and clean up messes. So, it is common place for the kids to drop garbage wherever it is made. Even in the house.

I showed BoyOne where the garbage can was and showed him to throw his garbage away. So far, he's done a pretty good job remembering. BoyTwo, different story. If I see him drop garbage, I help him pick it up and most of the time he is fine to do so.

A couple days ago we were driving in the car. BoyOne unwrapped a granola bar or something that had a wrapper and I saw him prepare to throw it out the window. "No," I said, holding out my hand for the garbage. He almost handed it to me. But then he got that look in his eye that he's been getting, the look of defiance, and chucked it out the window. So, I stopped the car, put it in reverse and backed up down the road. I didn't even have to tell him, he got out of the car and picked up the garbage. Then, he threw it at me. And the rest of the way down the street he pointed out EVERY single piece of garbage we passed. He tried to tell me that it was ok to litter in Ukraine. I felt like telling him that perhaps that is part of the problem with their country... But I didn't. I did tell him that it is against the law to litter and that regardless of what anyone else does, we do what is right. This is a lesson that every parent tries to teach their kids, they usually have longer than two weeks to do it in.