Oprah has “A-Ha!” moments, I have “Grrrr” moments.  I know I’m not alone because my friend, Jen, sent this to me:

amy, i don’t blog, but if i did it would be on how annoying it is to go to the pantry and pull out a bag of pretzels, only to find 2 sticks and a handful of salt inside. or a box of cereal that has like 2 spoonfuls of chex and it’s so NOT worth pouring! almost as annoying as completely empty containers that haven’t been thrown away. got any of those issues up your sleeve?!?!?!?

Oh Jen…you have opened one big can of worms.  Cereal, snacks, coffee creamer, just the heels of bread all left in their respective boxes, bags and bottles with the illusion of containing at least one actual serving.

My kids are still too young to be really helping themselves to their own food without at least a little supervision, but my husband is not.  He is the guilty party in our house when it comes to this offense.  Sometimes he’ll do it right in front of my face.  Like leaving 3 fries on the baking sheet.  The worst is finding the empty box of waffles taking up space in the freezer.  I always happen to find that empty box when one of the kids is dead set on having a waffle for breakfast.

I tried to think of different ways I could retaliate.  I thought of leaving notes in the empty containers, but I thought those would go unnoticed.  Afterall, Ryan is the only one in the house that knows there isn’t anything left in those packages so why would he go back and look in them?

My husband is fully aware of my irritation with this and claims it isn’t intentional.  If he could say it with a straight face and not a shit eating grin, I may be more likely to believe that he is sincere.  He has told me that he does things at times because he knows I hate it.

I guess it just comes down to not understanding the reason behind not finishing the products and disposing of the empty containers.  I can’t say it’s laziness because it seems much easier to toss the package into the trash or recycling.  I don’t think it’s a psychological thing of finishing a bag of chips and feeling like a glutton.  It’s one of life’s great mysteries.

So I guess I have to apologize to Jen for not being able to come up with a workable solution to this epidemic.  All I can offer is my empathy.  Together, we can get through this.