We’re all Sippy Cup Babies Now

Sippy Cups, invented for toddlers, have taken over — they’re everywhere…

Photos by Joseph Serwach

Sipping from my fancy stainless steel travel tumbler, I had a flashback: the first time I saw our babies drinking from a Sippy Cup nearly 30 years earlier.

I realized I’m a mature car owner basically now drinking from a cup designed for a little one still struggling to walk.

Invented in the late 1980s by Richard Belanger, our babies were among the first to use Sippy Cups, each with a cute, comforting character and an elaborate lid to keep babies from spilling milk or juice all over.

Designed as “training cups” for toddlers, adults are now using their own bigger versions.

A half century ago, Peanuts character Linus Van Pelt carried his beloved security blanket. We now do the same with our giant Sippy Cups.

The first time I saw a Sippy Cup, it seemed like a bit much: Beauty and the Beast Sippy Cups? So elaborate, all designed to prevent spills and make a generation of Millennials love and need their special cups.

They’re kind of addictive.

Three decades later, we are all drinking from these things.