So first off let me just say that I did NOT expect the explosion that was that thread yesterday.

I tried responding to everyone as I could and then work got busy so I figured this is the best way to just address the group as a whole on the thing. If I didn't reply to you directly it was not anything more than I actually got to work for the day lol

First off - This community is great. It may be my favorite spot on reddit. Thank you all for your insights.

I did feel some of the feedback was kind of harsh towards my wife, but I also take some of that blame because frankly I didn't articulate her side of this thing as well as I could have. I have a tendency to being wordy on here and was already feeling like I was "running long" I guess, so in my abridging of the issue it came off wrong to some of you.

On that line... We don't really have a household where either of us is going to "ban" something from the house. She has justified her reasoning for what's going on, and a lot of it is just a motherly want to provide for out children. I often take things from the "but what are we teaching them" approach, as I think many dads do... and along those lines I have to teach them how to handle these sorts of impasses by addressing things together with my wife gracefully - cause they're watching for sure. We have had similar impasses with snack foods and things like that, it'll iron out eventually but her sole purpose in life is to put smiles on these kids' faces and make sure they're healthy so it can be a razor's edge tightrope sometimes when my rationale comes into play without empathy.

So this something she and I will be working on together but it basically boils down to her having had some issues with nasty/smelly tap water in the past in houses not as old as this one and so she's got this mental block that tap water is fine for cooking/bathing but not drinking. She never had issues with it until we had kids, because she didn't care so much personally as in she's not being "bougie" or uppity - she's not "too good" for tap water she's just really really trying to make sure the kids aren't consuming things that'll make them sick.

Frankly - Until we really run a test, neither one of us is right or wrong on if it's safe or not from the tap so we're going to look into testing our home water the next chance we get.

We actually did sort of gloss over in discussion the excessive consumption and need for cutting back. She's on board as long as we test the water, and then depending on the results we look into some kind of home filter for the water coming into the house - at least to the kitchen sink if not a whole home solution.

Until then, we are united in holding the kids to taking and finishing a bottle at a time and that alone really will stretch the use out quite a bit. That'll probably even cut us down to one case instead of two every week at minimum.

ALSO - I DO have one of those Brita jugs you fill and put in the fridge. Some seemed to miss that detail and suggest them. I agree with those folks, I love it - just can't get anyone else to really use it.

I actually talked with my kids really briefly about it before she got home from work last night and interestingly enough the temperature of the water has a huge impact for both of them. I PREFER the ice cold water from the fridge filter tank, they prefer room temp water from the bottle. We discussed how they could just... fill a water bottle and let it sit out to get room temp. They're preteens though so let's see how much sticks. If I can get them on board to do more of that around the house it'll also help cut back on how MUCH bottled water we go through.

So anyway... by end of the day my curiosity was sated and thank you all for helping me feel a bit less crazy while providing some actionable things we can do going forward.

Currently, my family has some other stuff going on requiring funds being directed towards a new vehicle since the daily driver is finally at that point of no return on the state inspection sheet... but once that crisis is solved, I have plenty of tools in my belt now for how to address our "water problem".

Thanks again!