I sooo agree, I hate parents who try to blame the rest of the world for their kids growng up obese, or bad mannered or just bloody liabilities to society. They act like the world owes them something, and if it they dont get it, its everyone elses fault! Its like how they banned fast food adverts in the UK because kids saw them, wanted a McDonalds, and the parents were too spineless to say no to a CHILD, and so they ended up obese, and somehow its the TV's fault?!
I have just recently started work at a new coffee shop that has been built in a retail park next to a road. There is a grassy patch and then a pathway but right after that, its just our patio area with a few waist-high night time lights to seperate, granted though, theres a good 12 between the road and the tables. I had a customer complain to me recently that we dont have anything more concrete seperating the dining area from the road, just in case her kids are running around playing and one of them runs into the road and gets run over. Well im sorry love, learn to control your children. As a child if I didnt do as I was told, i would be made to sit on the chair, sometimes on my hands so i couldnt touch anything and not move a muscle. If you cant control your kids, what they do, what they eat, how they behave, its not anyone elses fault and frankly, you shouldnt have any.
Now off my high horse
I laughed when I saw this on the news today. It's funny and sad. When that damn truck comes through my neighbourhood, my kids and every other kid...really do loose their little minds...but then again, I remember when I was a kid running the streets...when that truck came by, it was like a break from reality, while I ran down the road to my house screaming on the top of my lungs..."THE ICE CREAM TRUCK! THE ICE CREAM TRUCK! THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!"...really, just let kids be kids...that time of their lives doesn't last forever...
I think they should ban the Ice Cream vendors from the city parks. For years they have been taking up valuable space that could be used by crack and meth dealers!! Replacing ice cream with something wholesome like crack or meth is sure to help the fight angainst child obesity.
"Mommy, can I have some meth?" "OK, as long as you dont have ice cream before dinner"
Relax people, it's not going to happen. Or as they say in Brooklyn, "Yous people are gettin' mentally irregular here, our youts will still have their ice cream!!!"
I think over protective parents are getting out of hand
Oh lord, park slope parents and their first world problems! Maybe they wouldn't object if it were a gelato truck?
i dont let my kids near the ice cream man...his van is all old and jacked up and he looks creepy.
littlemissbitch ~ professional face ripper offer, at your service..
I don't think she was slamming Italians (it's a traditionally Jewish neighborhood, anyway). Sounds more like an upper-class/yuppie dig a la "first world problems". And no, I bet they have no issue whatsoever with the nearest gelato shop or gourmet cupcake bakery.
Many have already answered this thought provocative question LM.
I agree with everyone that says; let the ice cream man make his living.
I mean; it's a free park after all, now they want particular laws in free parks,
I guess that's so the ones trying to enjoy a free park can totally enjoy it's freedoms.
Sounds like double standards to me LM.
Even if this was an april fools joke, I can't even tell, I kinda would want the ice cream man banned too. I know I'm in the minority.
I have had a similar experience with this when I was younger and was seeing a girl that had a four year old daughter. I was pretty much the male role model in this kid's life for a good while so it became like a father/daughter relationship almost. At the time I remember being super annoyed every time one of the cartoons she liked watching had commercials for McDonalds in them every commercial break with toys they make look super awesome to the kids. Sure enough every time that damn commercial came on she would turn her head and ask if we could go to Mcdonalds and then have this huge smile on her face. Of course I would have to turn her down again and again and then try to cheer her up come lunch time with a crappy tuna sandwich I made and cut up into fours to appear more fun... I mean it wasn't a big deal but I could tell sometimes she would give me this look where I just knew she was calling me hitler, but more dickish, in her mind.
It just sucks to have to tell them NO all the time. I remember being pissed at my parents all the time for long whiles when they would tell me no. In my head it just translated to, "Fuck man, I can't do nothin!". It would just piss me off. Now that I am an adult I know they were right to say NO to me for whatever stupid shit I wanted to do.
So at the time I would have loved it if their wasn't any damn fast food commercials geared to kids in cartoons. I know I can just say no, but I didn't want to be forced to more often than I should have.
I think the ice cream truck with the music playing where there are groups of kids is the same thing kinda, but worse. I mean, I'm an adult and I have lost a flip flop chasing the ice cream truck... So I can just imagine how ravenous kids get when they hear it. Then they turn to the parents and mom is forced to say no to fat little Timmy, then Timmy curses his mom out in his head. It's a pain in the ass! If they can sell ice cream like that, why not have motherfuckers walking around with overpriced candy in front of the kids too?
Have you ever got into an ice cream battle, when you and all of your friends shove ice cream down each other's pants?
I just looked at the typical menu on ice-cream trucks and wow, it's changed from when I was a kid.
I was totally ecstatic to get those tri-coloured popsicle spaceship thingies - now I see you can buy like a quart of ice-cream in a tub. The super-size generation needs to be redirected to 'normal kid' portion control.
Ice-cream trucks have always been around - you can still get the "fun" of running up to the truck on a hot summer day and getting a treat, but just be mindful of what your kid gets to choose or don't hand over a $20 and expect that they won't go for the Ben & Jerry Chunky Monkey option.
Look at the menu, then pick three reasonable options for Timmy to choose from on that given day. If you do let him splurge once in a while, then cut back on other snacks or how much he eats at dinner - substitute something healthy instead of doing the usual Friday pizza night. It's not rocket-science.
A rare sight these days.. used to hear them go down my street every weekend when I was a kid. The first time, in a long time I got one was last year, it was a real hot day, heard the music in the distant, holding my breath trying to decipher which way the truck was coming down the street, bolting into the house to grab any loose change, waiting patiently to get served, hoping from one barefoot to another on the hot bitumen, savouring my hedgehog cone, soft-serve dripping down my hand, biggest grin on my face, felt like the biggest kid..
funnily, there wasn't a kid in sight..
Interesting point DD is making. The ice cream truck we are all talking about - reminiscing of our summer childhoods, is dead. I haven't seen an ice cream truck in a long time and I probably would not eat ice cream from a truck on the street today. Having said that, I don´t believe it should be banned.
I don't have kids yet, but from what I have read and gathered from conversations with friends that are parents is rather simple... parenting is learning how to say no to your child. Some even go further and say that the word NO is the one most used the the household.
What I don't get is how not saying no actually makes parenting any easier. It's not like kids ever get to a point where they say "you know, you've let me have my way quite a lot lately, I'm going to stop pushing and be cooperative and agreeable now." I can imagine that appeasement works roughly as well on kids as it did on the Third Reich.
I can only imagine that it's a matter of time before something like this becomes a real story. I'm not totally libertarian about what gets sold where, but it sucks that so many parents would rather the government cover for them, rather than actually parent and manage their own children.
It's also part of another nasty trend: "Everyone else needs to cater to me and my particular challenges."
Good Lord. I remember the Ice Cream Truck would never stop in my neighborhood, lol. I would always run to my grandma's house that was like 4 miles away. At least i worked 4 the ice cream. And for the parents, let your kids have one damn ice cream cone, if you eat 1 ice cream cone you aren't gonna immediately become obese. And anyway, if you dont want your kids having ice cream, make them work it off later if your stupid enough to think that 1 ice cream cone is going to get your kid fat.
Tis true. The ladies at work believe my daughter has me wrapped around her finger. True in some cases, but as noted, boundaries, rules, and expectations need to be set no matter the amount of anguish on their little face. It will help once that face gains a little more maturity, for you and for them on their own.
If there is a good amount of parents that want the kids to eat healthy, why not ask the "ice cream man" to stock fruit bars? Then make damn sure you buy them off of him so he's not stuck with them. 
Thank you Ladies.
