Ice Cream Vans

[sbear]

Am I being unreasonable to suggest ice cream vans should be banned from areas near schools (for health reasons) and in built up residential areas so that the tunes do not annoy people?
There is a growing problem with obesity in children in this country and to strive to improve school meals to help kids but then to allow ice cream vans to park near schools seems to defeat the object.

I live near a park, a school and my DD's nursery. Summer is ice cream van hell. I don't like:

1. The noise pollution which is only going to get worse now that the government has decided to relax the laws and they can play for 12 seconds rather than 4 seconds. Also they can now play whilst stationary. They play all day every day from may till october. When my DD was a young baby she couldn't nap in the day as the vans going past blaring out their tunes would wake her up! ( I don't think they were keeping to the 4 second rule either) www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/shortcuts
   

1. giving my children sugar if I can help it so its really annoying when I can't leave the house without an ice cream van being nearby.
   

1. That the ice cream is terrible anyway! Maybe if they sold good ice cream or frozen yogurt or something healthier it would be more acceptable. But the sugary terrible ice cream they sell is awful.
   

The only bright spot is that I told my DD that when the music plays it means they have runout of ice cream so if they are playing for longer... not sure how long she will believe that for though.

I would love to hear what other parents think.

all the best
sbear.

[NormanTheForeman]

The only thing I'm disappointed about is that our ice cream van has changed its tune this year from "Colonel Bogey" to "O Sole Mio". Shame...

[RedToothBrush]

HAahahaha this is funny. I was home early from work this week and was very amused by the local ice cream van. It wasn't parked next to the school.

Nope, it was just down the road - at the point where virtually all the paths from the school converge. The majority of children who walk home have to walk past it. Its also in a pretty discreet spot where all the chelsea tractor drivers parents picking up the kids don't pass.

I thought, smart van driver.

OP, if you are proposing a no-go zone around schools how far do you think it should be from the school, and do you REALLY think this is a solution. The other place I see kids hanging about on their way home from school round here, is the fish and chip shop. Which is a good mile or so from the school.

Perhaps, if you are so obsessed by all the poor little obese children, you'd like to give your masterplan to save them some proper thought. And maybe do something worthwhile like food education in moderation rather than bans which then create the 'forbidden fruit' to children.

And lets face it, what do children and particularly teenagers like to do? Rebel? Or do what they aren't 'allowed' to do.

In the meantime, have a 99 with flake. Oh and don't forget the raspberry sauce and sprinkles.

[orangeandemons]

Oh no, I lurrrve ice cream vans! I like to sing a long to the tune. It makes me remember the unbearable excitement of them coming round when I was little. The mad rush to find money before it went away.

Yum yum, ice cream van ice cream is the best. We don't have enough vans round our end.

[Wbdn28]

[FairyThunderthighs]

YABU and a misery. There is an ice cream outside my son's school, AND one that stops right outside our house.

"When the ice cream van comes around by us the conversation goes like this.
Mum can we have an ice cream please?

and I say 'yeah, go on then. pass my purse. or 'no, not tonight love.'

End of conversation."
^^That, really. Although my boy does like to pull back the curtain and "watch" the one in our road, even if he has already had one from outside school. So people probably think he's awfully deprived and has to get his ice cream goodness from fumes and imagination...

[raisah]

My kids have worked out that as soon as CBeebies bedtime hour starts it it time for the ice cream van! Bloody crafty ice cream van man. Oh well I suppose someone has to eat the ice cream in the freezer while they eat the vile stuff from the van!

[Emilythornesbff]

We don't have one near us

[GameSetAndMatch]

I do agree with the posters saying its up to the parents how much ice-cream to give the kids, plus a rare treat, but ill stand by my hygeine/emissions thing!!

I suppose fish and chip shops, greggs, and sweet shops are also on the list then?

our local ICV comes down road at 10 at night! ? I mean- 10 at night? why?

[RedToothBrush]

gamesetandmatch, you don't live near me do you.

This week is the first time I've seen the van this summer...

...the only other time I ever see it, is when it comes round our estate at 8pm. In October and November!

[NickyNackyNooNoo]

YABU & a grumpy mare to boot

I've never bought my DCs an icecream from van, NO is a complete sentance & I give them a lolly out of my freezer instead [ice cream]

(think we need a new summer emoticon)

[bigbluebus]

The van that comes around here always comes just before Saturday lunchtime. When DS was small he used to ask for one, and occasionally I would let him, other times I would say "No, you won't eat your lunch".

Now he is older, he has realised that better ice creams are available elsewhere, and doesn't bother when he hears the music playing.

I remember the ice cream van always parked right outside my middle school at hometime when I was a child. Don't remember any obese children in my school. It is not the ice cream van that makes children fat.

[DaddyPigsMistress]

Yabu
Best thing from the van is a witches hat, Mr Whippy with a rocket lolly stuck in it.

Yum

[peggyundercrackers]

this has to be a wind up?

you sound like an old stick in the mud - you are unreasonable.

[sbear]

I just want to say in my defence I have NEVER actually bought my daughter an ice cream from a van. I do make that choice and say no. I make my own ice cream which is healthier and yummie and which she loves.
So you all think I am being unreasonable but we have 5 ice cream vans here all competing. how many are outside your house? prob not that many.

OH WELL...

[sbear]

re fish and chip shops etc, our council has a rule about how far fast food shops can be from a school. But not ice cream vans.

[notnowbernard]

I'd love my own ice cream van

I've seriously thought about jacking in my (grown up and stressful responsible job) to spend a bit of inheritance (thanks lovely gt auntie) buying one

Am sure you can make a mint with one

I'm only half joking... DP thinks I'm mental

[PatsyAndEddy]

Cos they'll be selling smack or e's GameSetAndMatch

[WestieMamma]

I would like to see the ice-cream van banned from my street but only because his chime is the most sinister version of Teddy Bear's Picnic I've ever heard. Freaks me out every time.

[FredFredGeorge]

If they're playing the tunes it means they've run out of ice creams anyway right?

[catkind]

SofaKing, we have an extremely regular 8pm winter ice cream van. We thought they might be selling drugs - how does the money laundering thing work? Right pain when we're trying to get kids to sleep anyway. Can only assume it goes off to somewhere else to sell actual ice cream in summer.

[MimsyBorogroves]

YABU.

There aren't enough ice cream vans. Particularly Mr Whippy ones. There were fuckloads of them when I was pregnant and couldn't eat them. Two years later I have seen ONE. And that ONCE I offered the baby ONE lick, and he scarfed the whole bloody thing.

[Lukat]

Get a bleedin grip woman....

[WilsonFrickett]

God I would blardy love an ice cream can to pull up RIGHT NOW and I wouldn't even care if they woke DS up.

Have a OP and just imagine its actually a slider.

[cheeseandchive]

The ice-cream vans round our way sell crack.

If obesity is your biggest worry, count yourself lucky.

[Travelledtheworld]

There is an ice van outside my daughters selective Grammar school every lunchtime, does a roaring trade. Not sure i old expect it. Be banned but would expect a swoop by the drugs squad.