I hate the ice cream truck.
I really do. Since we moved into our house, I’ve spent every spring and summer weekday in an office, so I had no idea that no less than THREE different ice cream trucks troll our neighborhood. Every single afternoon since the beginning of March, those obnoxious trucks have creeped down every street within a three-block radius of my house, blaring their stupid music during naptime!
Are you kidding me?
I understand that afternoons are a great time to find kids with the munchies. I do. But at least one of the trucks crawls by the house well before school lets out. Who is that guy looking for? What kids are neither napping nor in school? It’s sketchy, that’s what it is. And incredibly annoying!
And impossible to control. With FedEx and UPS, I could – if I ever got around to it – put a strongly worded sign on my front door, asking them to not knock, for the love of packages. But it’s not like I can post signs all over my neighborhood, asking the weird guy in the van not to play his ice cream siren song until my daughter has gotten her daily dose of snoozing!
Now, I’m not opposed to ice cream in general or ice cream trucks in theory. That beautiful piece of frozen heaven up there? I bought it from a truck. Granted, it was at a fair, not the end of my street. But still, I don’t hate ALL ice cream trucks. Just the ones who roll down my street at about two miles an hour, doing their very best to wake up my napping child. That’s all.
How do you feel about ice cream trucks? Or ice cream? Or afternoon naps?
For more surprises about becoming a stay-at-home mom, check out 10 Surprises and More Surprises. Image by Ezra Wolfe.
I’ve actually been feeling kind of sad that we don’t have an ice cream truck that comes by our house. But my one-year-old usually naps at school, so we wouldn’t have the issue of being awakened by the music. Have you tried white noise? We run a white noise machine AND a fan, and he usually is not awakened by loud noises as a result.
You know, we haven’t used a white noise machine (although I try to start the dishwasher at bedtime as often as possible – for that very reason!). My theory has been that I didn’t want to create a dependence on it. But I’ll tell you – on a night like tonight, when my child is crying almost an hour after she got to bed (late!) – I’m wishing I’d had a different theory! :)
I love the ice cream and ice cream trucks, but there is a limit. Like, say, when the ice cream truck this year started circling our neighborhood in FEBRUARY. When it was 30 degrees outside and all the kids are still in school. Common sense!!
Now, really. February is ridiculous.
Seriously, I love the ice cream truck! Only one comes to our neighborhood, one time a week: Wednesday from May through August at about 5:30 (that’s my only complaint, suppertime, really?). The pure summer glee of three little ones running barefoot down the block, having saved their ice cream dollars all week for the thrill is just so fun!
http://penn-fam.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-makes-her-smile.html (I blogged about the ice cream truck!)
Wow. I would love to have one truck come by once a week. Sounds like a great system!
We’ve never had one come by in the afternoon. That’s awful! But for years, we did successfully answer, “Hmmm, I don’t know” when our kids would ask what that musical truck was.
Then along came . . . the ability to read. And cartoons with ice cream trucks. And our plan was foiled. We’ve had to set some pretty stiff rules, because our middle kid would spend every last dime buying huge ice creams just before suppertime. Now, the deal is that if he buys any without permission, Daddy gets to eat it.
I LOVE this idea!
That is smart. And good for daddy, I suppose. ;)
Luckily, we don’t have that problem, ours is more from the sirens escorting whatever sports team did well back into town right after the kids go to sleep at night.
Uh-oh. That could make a mom root for the other team, I suspect!
Or call her dad, a city alderman, every single time it happens and tell him that a) it’s a waste of city resources and b) it woke up his grandkids AGAIN!!!
I am so happy you stopped by my blog. Cause now I know about yours and I’m loving it! Your personality really comes through in your writing and your my kinda gal.
I remember when my son was still taking naps and it seemed like every noise in the universe was amplified in order to wake him up from naps. We had a huge parade of ice cream trucks down our street at one time. Also, there would be a guy in the summer that loved to crank up his car stereo as he detailed the inside of it. Agggh.
And I understand the Married Single Parent thing too. My husband used to be in the Navy and was deployed a lot. He’s out now but he works 6 days a week and I sometimes work nights so we are like ships passing in the night. You definitely get used to doing a lot on your own! I’m totally with you on that! :o)
So nice to meet you!
Brandie, thank you for your kind words! We have noisy neighbors, too, so I feel your pain!
Our community experienced an “incident” with the ice cream man a few years ago – I’m way too creeped out to ever buy ice cream from a truck again!
Oh, Mindy. That’s terrible and much more serious than a potentially disturbed nap. I’m so sorry to hear about that!
I loved them growing up in KC when I was little, and begged my parents for their change while running out to meet the truck! Now, I hate them, so it’s a good thing we don’t have them in IA.
You don’t have ANY ice cream trucks in Iowa? Huh.
As a kid I loved them, but that was before ice cream trucks had people driving them that look like creepy perverts. Now that I’m a mom, I’m not a fan of them. Plus it’s cheaper to go buy a box of Good Humor for the family than get it from the ghetto truck.
Agree on both counts!
I love the nostalgia of it. I have the opposite problem. The other day the ice cream truck went by and by the time I got my money and kids out to the front yard they were long gone. I really thought they should drive down the block 3 times or be really slow just to give us a chance, obviously I was not thinking about your situation. HA.
That’s so funny! I’m just surprised by how many people have this issue!
Love the ice cream truck! But just one. Not three. :)
Right? It’s called moderation, people! ;)
At our house that’s the music truck. I had NO idea that it sold icecream! ;)
ooooh, I like that one. I’m definitely using that trick!
Amen sister friend! I can’t stand the ice cream truck, or the ice cream bicycle for that matter. Ring Ring Ahhhhh! Our kids can read now so I think the years of begging have begun!
Ah, yes. You pretty much go from being annoyed by them interrupting naps to being annoyed by them making your kids whine. I’m just not seeing a positive here… ;)
I’ve just started hearing the ice cream truck again this week or maybe last week. And it’s been about 50 this week. Too cold for ice cream!! Thankfully, Libbie doesn’t know what that music means yet. How long do you think I can keep her unaware?
At least another year. Annalyn doesn’t know what it is yet!
I feel your pain! I did not raise my children in the house we live in now but I do babysit on occasion. We live on a main thoroughfare. How can I get the fire engines to cut the sirens as they pass by? Hmmmm
Oh yeah. No way to stop those sirens, is there?!
Why on earth would you post a picture of that in March??!? I can’t get one until August!! (not that I want August to be here anytime soon; probably one of the few good things about it is that peppermint bar;) Just… torture… :P
As for ice cream trucks, did you know Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) bought one when he turned 18? I thought it was brilliant. :)
Ha! That’s funny!
We are past naps in my house so I don’t like the ice cream truck for other reasons. My 3 boys beg for ice cream when they hear the music. It is expensive for 3, ok 4, treats. Last summer I insisted that they spend their own money on the ice cream. It helped teach them the value of money.
Smart thinking!
I think they should be illegal. or at least not cost me a years paycheck for one trip
Haha! No kidding!
Like Mindy above, ice cream trucks creep me out. I always feel like the next America’s Most Wanted criminal is working the truck trolling my neighborhood. That said, we actually have a guy who drives an ice cream truck one street over from our house. He doesn’t troll the neighborhood, but the kids all go to his house and then come home loaded on sugar! (They’ve learned to mine couch cushions for change.) As a kid growing up, I hated them. The only one who came down our street zipped through at about 45 miles an hour and wouldn’t even stop if you were standing on the side of the road waving your money. I’d rather buy my ice cream treats in a box at the grocery store.
It sure is a lot cheaper to buy the treats at the store, isn’t it?!
Our neighborhood has an ice cream truck that speeds through the streets so fast that no one can catch him. Seriously, I’ve gone jogging down the street with my son trying to find it, only to see it zoom past. What’s the point?!?!
It’s a good thing Dairy Queen can’t drive away. ;-)
That is crazy. Clearly that ice cream man could use some lessons on how to get customers!
I live at my church. No really. I live in an apartment DIRECTLY over the church sanctuary. For the past year, the worship pastor has decided that 3 PM is the perfect time to practice his drumming, bass, guitar, whatever. No, I’m not bitter. Who would complain about worship music? Oh, only the SAHM of 4 small children who lives upstairs & is UBER annoyed by her inability to control the noise coming into her home every weekday. Oh, and did I mention the Monday night band practices…and the Thursday night youth group that causes my walls to shake and goes until after 9 PM? Again, not bitter. :)
Did I mention we’re moving? Haha!
Oh my. That’s rough…because like you said, who can complain about worship music? Ugh. Glad to hear you’re moving!!
I have 2 kids, and the oldest one is 2, so he doesn’t know what the ice cream truck is….yet. I don’t keep ice cream in the house, so I suppose during the hot summer months, a treat would be nice for him. And I am in the unfortunate position when it comes to naps….my kids do not take afternoon naps. The 2 year old takes one morning nap, somtimes, and my 8 month old takes very, very short naps. She is a very light sleeper, so the sound of ANYTHING wakes her up. Well, she stirrs, then my son yells “Kaytlin’s awake!”. So, no ice cream truck issues there. But, I will say, I have seen the same truck go around our block….4 times in a row! And this is during the weekday, when all kids preschool age or older are at school.
I am enjoying the back and forth conversation about the pros and cons as me and my wife own a ice cream truck in Boone iowa.We try to go the extra mile and have giving our federal background checks to citys that didnt even require them just to show were safe people to have in their community. I also am learning alot about why people might not like ice cream trucks and why some do, I might not be able to change peoples mind that dont but am always listening to people to see how i can improve. As for my own experience i have put a smile on kids faces (and adults as well )that dairy queen could never match.