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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to ask the Ice Cream Man not to stop outside our house?!

97 replies

WheresMeBrew · 10/05/2014 08:12

Picture the scene. It's Monday, late afternoon, and you've two hungry kids sat at the table waiting impatiently. You waltz in a la Luminere and present them with their dinner. Slight disappointment etched on their faces as they realise there's broccoli to be eaten but they crack on.

And then it starts. Feint at first, but getting closer. The Match of the Day theme usually. Eyes light up, knives and forks are flung aside, and they both scramble to the window to look at this god amongst men: The Ice
Cream Man. A chorus of "Please, please, please!" and "It's not fair!" fill the air. The eldest one sulks, the youngest downright refuses to return to the table. I am officially the meanest mum in the whole wide world ever.

Can I tell the Ice Cream man to not stop right outside our house? I can't afford it daily, I don't want them to have it daily, and I can't face a summer of this outburst at tea time every bleedin' day ...

OP posts:

MammaTJ · 10/05/2014 08:15

Do your children not understand that when you say no, you mean no then?

I buy cheap packs of lollies from Iceland, so when I decide my DC can have one, they have one of those.

Original poster

WheresMeBrew · 10/05/2014 08:18

DD is 2 so it's still very much a learning curve. DS is 9, understands entirely, still sulks. Eats his dinner, but sulks.

OP posts:

Gennz · 10/05/2014 08:18

My BIL tells his kids when the ice cream truck is playing the music it means they've run out of ice cream. Is it too late to try?

Gennz · 10/05/2014 08:18

MsVestibule · 10/05/2014 08:19

Oh OP, OP, OP. If only you'd done from the start what I did - told them that when the icecream man plays his tunes, it means he's run out of icecream. My DD is 7 and still believes it .

Revengeofthechocolatebunny · 10/05/2014 08:19

The music means that he's actually sold out of ice cream. He just has to finish the round anyway or he'll get in trouble with his boss.

(puts Mean Mum Rulebook back on shelf)

x2boys · 10/05/2014 08:20

Yanbu we have this every sodding evening just as I am putting the little one to bed I can hear Greensleeves blaring out and my seven year old shouting up the stairs muuum can I thus waking up the aforementioned little one equally annoying is the one parked outside school everyday at 3pm!!!

Original poster

WheresMeBrew · 10/05/2014 08:20

Tried it! Worked a great until they saw next door stuffing their chops with 99's ...

OP posts:

MsVestibule · 10/05/2014 08:21

Pleased I'm not the only one! How many other parents do that?

WooWooOwl · 10/05/2014 08:22

YABU, but I think you probably know that already.

I'd tell them they can have an ice cream on Fridays, but only if they sit at the table nicely with no sulking. The little one will be too young to understand, but might take an example set by his big brother.

You need to teach them that it's not acceptable to leave the table half way through a meal.

MsVestibule · 10/05/2014 08:23

It's the icecream can that parks outside the DCs primary school at closing time that pisses me off. But nearly 3 years of not giving in once shows I mean business.

lottiegarbanzo · 10/05/2014 08:23

Daily is annoying but they are quite capable of understanding that it's just not something you do - maybe twice a year on holiday - and that no-one leaves the table during dinner. Why do they think it's relevant to them at all?

snoggle · 10/05/2014 08:24

Get some lolly moulds and make boring healthy lollies from fresh fruit juice and water. From your perspective it's just like giving them a juice drink. From theirs it is as good as a mr whippy it isn't

Original poster

WheresMeBrew · 10/05/2014 08:26

snoggle

OP posts:

MargotLovedTom · 10/05/2014 08:26

I was going to say - how can you tell them the van's run out of ice cream if they can see a queue of people buying the stuff?!

Yes, as pp said tell them they can have one on Fridays.

I haven't seen an ice cream van going round the streets for years.

Sparklingbrook · 10/05/2014 08:27

Serve dinner a bit earlier one day a week and let them have one?

littleducks · 10/05/2014 08:32

The ice cream can stops outside ours. I never ever buy ice cream from vans. I tell the kids they are unhygienic.

My dad told me the man with the music was the maggot man..... As the maggots in his fishing tackle were my last favourite things!

cosikitty · 10/05/2014 08:33

If the ice-cream van comes daily, surely they will be used to it and understand they can't have one every day. One stops on our street every day and dd 8, knows she can't always have one, doesn't stop her asking, but she accepts no and that's the end of it.

Can you have a set day a week when they can have one, say Saturday or something, then they know not to ask on the other days. Surely sometimes the answer has to be yes.

Sparklingbrook · 10/05/2014 08:33

My two are 12 and 14 and go out to the van with their own money.

prisonerofallisurvey · 10/05/2014 08:36

No problem round here - the thrice daily, nerve jangling music marks the arrival of the half price ciggie seller. Kids don't even ask for ice cream.

Bloody annoys me though!

cosikitty · 10/05/2014 08:36

Wow, some kids never get an ice-cream from an ice-cream van? Really! Poor things! Surely it's a right of passage for all children, especially if it's outside your school or house every day and they see others having them.

prisonerofallisurvey · 10/05/2014 08:39

No it is not a "right of passage"! At a tenner a time for a few ice creams it is beyond lots of families.

I buy a box or three from the supermarket and my dcs have them rationed

The most annoying thing about our local one is that her blares past after 8pm when lots of kids are either in bed or on their way.

ProfessorBranestawm · 10/05/2014 08:42

Does the older one have pocket money? You could always tell them they have to pay themselves :o

We have the opposite problem. The ice cream guy drives round so we hear the tune, but he never stops! He just drives into the street and drives out again. Goodness knows how he makes any money and I could really do with the occasional 99 flake even though they are way more than 99p now the bastards

MissDuke · 10/05/2014 08:51

We have one stop right outside our house too. I would never say anything, he is running a business and he always makes a few sales when he sits there. In fact sometimes I arrive home and he is sitting where I park, and I just quietly wait on him moving, I would never beep at him or anything (unlike my neighbour).

I buy the kids one sometimes, it is only a pound per icecream, so doesn't break the bank. The kids know its a rare treat though, so if they do ask and we say no, they really don't mind. Even the 2 year old, she shouts 'pokey' when she hears the music lol. I don't see it as any different to sweets in a shop etc - you just say no!!

Sometimes my older children are out playing when he comes and their friends get one, but if I say no to my kids they really don't mind. They can have an ice pop out of the freezer instead if they haven't had sweets. I really am not convinced by his hygiene and I actually feel really guilty when I DO buy them one :-/

So I think YABU!

AuditAngel · 10/05/2014 08:52

We don't have any neighbours so it isn't worth the van stopping near our house

I buy frubes (fromage frais in tubes) and freeze them. My DD's are lactose intolerant so ice cream is very restricted.

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