We’ve been having an issue with potty talk and mean spirited language at our house recently. I remembered an experiment I had read of another family doing, and decided to try it with my own family. I crossed my fingers and hoped it would actually work.
The Rice Experiment
One night when we had rice for dinner, we put the leftovers in two clean jars and then labeled them using masking tape — one with “HATE” and other hateful phrases (some that I had heard my own kids say), and the other with “LOVE” and other kind and loving phrases. We then set them on the counter in the kitchen.
The first few days, we also talked to the jars. But then we kind of forgot about them and they just sat there for over a week. I checked in on them periodically. A few days in, I honestly thought it wasn’t working because I noticed a little bit of mold growing in the “love” jar first. I was disappointed because I was really hoping this would be a good visual lesson for my family on the power of our words.
But since it seemed to have failed, I was going to scrap the whole thing and just clean out the jars. But I kept remembering when I was in the middle of something else, so they continued sitting there for several more days—which ended up being a good thing!
The Results
I noticed that the “hate” jar was definitely growing mold too, but I assumed that they were both rotting at about the same rate. Then one evening when we looked more closely at the jars, I was kind of blown away. There was still a tiny bit of mold in the “love” jar, but the rice in the “hate” jar was covered in thick mold. My kids were pretty shocked when I showed them.
My 10-year-old wonders if the reason the “love” jar grew a little bit of mold is because one time she found our toddler holding the “love” jar, saying “I hate you” to it. Oops! 😂 Or it simply could have been natural decay of a perishable food that was left out at room temperature. Regardless, there was no denying that the “hate” jar was much, much worse off.
In fact, when I did clean out the jars the next day, I was a little horrified by the crazy fumes that escaped out of the “hate” jar when I opened the lid! 😳 I had never seen anything like it before! So a word of caution: if you try this experiment at home, wear a mask when you clean out your jars and do so in a well ventilated area! (Or you could just toss the jar at the end, which was my daughter’s suggestion.) I definitely diffused some Purify essential oil in the kitchen after that.
We haven’t had a formal follow-up lesson since we ended our experiment (I think the visual was a more effective teacher than a formal lesson anyway). But I did remind my son of the jars when he said something careless a couple days later—to which he replied, “Are you going to turn moldy?” 🤦😂 Ahem. Maybe a follow-up lesson wouldn’t be a bad idea after all. 🤷
