Educate our children about responsible drinking

Educating our children in responsible consumption implies thatthey develop conscious and critical attitudes when buying products, as well as other actions such as waste recycling, energy saving and water care, essential to the preservation of our environment.

The preservation of the environment through our attention is possible if we incorporate sustainable habits and adopt attitudes of respect for the environment.

What is responsible consumption?

Responsible consumption is an attitude of consumers and users that involves conscious and critical consumption. This means that when purchasing a product or contracting a service, we guarantee that they have the least possible impact on the environment.

Therefore, responsible drinking involves a questioning of our needs to satisfy them, thus contributing to a more sustainable and fairer society. And this implies the need to develop practices at the personal, institutional, organizational and commercial level, which contribute to this objective.

It is essential to adopt responsible actions, daily routines and decisions on the type of products to buy. These must be respectful of the environment and it is also necessary to determine which ones are essential or not – because they are not respectful or because we don’t need it.

Responsible consumption also involves knowing and choosing the companies that manufacture the products, and knowing if they respect all rights and principles of social justice. It is therefore necessary to opt for sustainable and fair production-distribution-consumption-waste models.

Educate our children about responsible consumption

If the educational system is also responsible for the education of our children, it is in the habits of life within our homes that responsible consumption must really begin and be practiced. Educating our children in responsible consumption is an essential responsibility, both for the school institution and for the parents.

First, it must be assumed that the first step in educating about responsible consumption is by example. Indeed, we cannot encourage our children to adopt sustainable habits and develop environmentally friendly practices if they do not see it in their own family environment.

To educate our children in responsible consumption, we must take into consideration the following points:

• Develop in them patterns of behavior based on our own exampleby promoting values ​​of respect for our environment.
• Explain and inform them of the environmental implications that may result from the acquisition of certain products.
• Promote fair trade. Let’s explain and inform our children that every product has a culture, a harvest and a manufacture behind it, and that it is the people who make it, people who have the right to good working conditions.
• May they be able to take no for an answer, and the reasons why you can’t buy everything you see and want.
• Constantly respect, in all the daily practices that we develop at home, the three Rs rule, Recycle, Reuse, Reduce “. This translates, first of all, into throwing garbage into the corresponding containers, and into actions such as recycling paper or reusing plastic bottles.

• Teach them the value of work, not to waste and not to spend and buy unnecessarily. Our children should be aware of the effort required to accomplish things.
• Ensure that they develop responsible consumption habits on a daily basissuch as properly recycling waste, not wasting water and save energy.
• Attend with our children to the solidarity marketssecond-hand products, reused or repaired products, where exchanges take place – whether of products or services.

Before buying…

“Do I really need it?” » Here is the question we must ask ourselves before buying or consume a product or service. And, if we need it, we should assess not only its quality and price but also its environmental and social impact.

In other words, if we really need to buy a product, we must take into account the responsibility of the company in charge of its production and its commitment, both in respect for the environment and in respect for human rights. the man.