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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

healthy eating drive and ice-cream vans in park

130 replies

embeddedclaws · 11/05/2014 11:19

In London they must spend millions on healthy eating classes, leaflets, dieticians in playgroup etc. Quite sensible for our borough looking at statistics for all age groups.

The council then let ice-cream vans have pitches in parks. No other vehicles are allowed to drive in. I don't mind vans on a different gate, I'm aware they can park freely on the street, I can quickly walk past. However I'm fucked off that in all our major parks whichever part youre in you can see the a van. Over and over one of the kids notice it again after being distracted and it hangs over th e whole visit.

It seems crap that in the only place in walking distance where young children exercise easily (mainly flats, no gardens) they make such pressure to indulge in sugar. Obviously I say no, in fact I've stopped indulging them at all otherwise my toddler doesn't understand sometimes she can or can't. However everyone hates it because it so hard to avoid, it puts you off the park altogether. I presume they pay for the right to sell in the park.

Aibu to complain more officially, or a misery? It's ever present April to September about 10ft from the play area and all the parks have little pitches next to play areas for vans. Surely they could off set lost revenue against healthy diet info provision for families, only targeting high nee families?

OP posts:
Nocomet · 11/05/2014 16:37

YABU
Also IME the amount of sweets, ice cream and junkfood teens buy is in inverse proportion to the amount of healthy eating proper gander they get at home and at school.

The more anyone goes in about healthy eating to young children the more unhealthy choices = treat, freedom and rebellion the second they walk past a shop on their own!

WorraLiberty · 11/05/2014 16:38

Treat
noun
1.
an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure.

Ice cream is a food item that is out of the ordinary for me...in other words not part of my every day diet.

Therefore it is very much a treat.

SaucyJack · 11/05/2014 16:45

I agree with you OP. There's nowhere you can go in this bloody country without someone trying to sell you or your children junk food. It does get on my tits after a while.

BlackeyedSusan · 11/05/2014 16:56

the exhaust fumes wouldwant to make me vomit. that sounds unhealthy in itself. you can say no to the ice-cream but not do a lot about thepollution.

Mrsdoasyouwouldbedoneby · 11/05/2014 17:08

Feel kind of sorry for the OP. She hasn't said that ice cream never touches her children's lips... In fact 2 a week over the summer is pretty good going. We have a wonderfully cheap ice cream van outside of school. Very yummy on a hot day... But I do find myself 'forgetting' to take my purse along!

A smoothie van would be great, except they are still terrible for your teeth, contain far too much sugar and 'trick' you into thinking you are making a healthy choice when you are not. Off to google "sugar in mr whippy versus smoothies". Oh I know it is processed/unprocessed. But frankly lots of either isn't great for you.

I can see how annoying it is to be faced with the daily "I want an ice cream" fight, but that will cease as the child gets older (well, maybe...). Out os sight, out if mind, would probably help, but think... On a hot day, when you can say yes... And it's not there! Nooooo!

Also agree, nothing is a treat, but everything in moderation (within reasonable grounds.... So no drugs... ;-) )

hedgetrimmer · 11/05/2014 17:15

Just say no.My kids eat plenty of ice cream in the summer time,i dont see why they shouldnt be able to just because you dont want yours too.

EdithWeston · 11/05/2014 17:33

I agree with the pp who said she doesn't think of ice cream vans as a healthy eating issue.

I don't. Because they were in the park every single day when I was a child in the 1960s too.

So I'd be looking first at what has changed, not what has remained constant.

CheeryName · 11/05/2014 19:15

YANBU - no need for ice cream vans that close to the play areas, especially with fumes running and especially in areas where the communal park is used as a garden for lots of people.

embeddedclaws · 11/05/2014 19:19

Right I'm the op and I'm popping back to say sorry to the post who PMed me, I bit your head off mainly because I was fed up of others and it was out of order what I said.
T
Also rice, thank you for trying to be a voice of reason. Not for agreeing, just for actually reading like a few others bothered.

In the wild scenario that anyone reads this, here's a brief summary.

I have lovely kids, who get a healthy diet and are not treat obsessed. Like the others did my youngest is having a bit of stroppy phase, she's a bit obsessed with wind the bobbin up, ice-cream and kissing. The others are quite understanding about not using the van at all, they are old enough to wait until home for something else or just go without. They see the stress giving the youngest ice cream end up with tantrums that spoil the park, I call billions on you if you claim your kids never had a tantrum phase and sometimes you took the lazy option to avoid one. Like supermarket shopping alone.

For the record I like ice-cream, the occasional one from vans etc. We re all a healthy weight too. I just hate it being parked right by the play park fence.

Genuine question, if it's not focused on children a others suggest why is it there? Not say by the main gate, the busiest path or just central? Why is each purpose built pitch alongside the play park fence even if the park is huge or has busier areas? To me it's clear it's going for pester power.

And also if everyone is so good, apart from me, at saying no why are so many of my children's classmates either overweight or having multiple rotten teeth removed at only three or four under a general Clearly families are vulnerable to this problem here, way above national levels, so why use council land for pester power? There's lots of public land for vans, but his isn't, you. need council permission to park here. I was annoyed for example about lunchbox rules at school, until on a trip I saw one child with a whole cake and nothing else, another with a packet of cookies and plain bread. The teacher said this was common, hence the school having rules and a free breakfast club.

I get the impression most the posters here are from another world judging from talk of miso soup, falafel and smoothes. None of which I think I've ever had! Well an alcoholic smoothes actually.

It's all bit daily mail, I never had x so it's fine or its my right to do anything. I don't give a shot about 1960, I wasn't there but I guess lots was different

OP posts:
Sirzy · 11/05/2014 19:23

Of course they are parked where there is a target audience for them to sell to - that is business sense surely?

And as others have said the issue isn't the ice cream van, the issue is what they are being fed in general and primarily what they are being fed at home.

WorraLiberty · 11/05/2014 19:26

People who have overweight kids with multiple rotten teeth, clearly have not got to grips with saying no.

Removing ice cream vans from parks is just punishing the parents and children who have got to grips with the word no.

You're focusing on the wrong people and anyway, if they let their kids get into that state because they don't say no, they'll just say yes as soon as they pass the sweetshop on the way home.

I like ice cream vans near the play area, it's very handy when you want an ice cold drink on a hot day too.

autumnsmum · 11/05/2014 19:29

The teeth removal is likely to be because of baby bottle mouth . It is the home diet that matters not a ice cream from a van

Gileswithachainsaw · 11/05/2014 19:31

If that's what's going on at your children's school. The ice cream van is the least of their problems. Removing it would make no difference at all I they are eating shit at home and school

autumnsmum · 11/05/2014 19:32

Giles I totally agree

twinklePinkle · 11/05/2014 19:32

Yanbu. Last time I used an ice cream van I got food poisoning. They are annoying.

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 11/05/2014 19:38

I would have thought icecream is less harmful to teeth than eg haribo or raisins because it doesn't "stick"

StandsOnGoldenSands · 11/05/2014 20:02

I think the OP has a point. The council created a space right next to the playground and then licenced it to an ice cream van.
I also think that many people have missed the fact that this is her only or main outside space. It is not a fancy trip place or weekend only place. She has no private garden of her own.

My local park has an ice cream van parked right next to the playground, nobody else is allowed in, it's a trading pitch.

Yes yes everyone's kids are saints who understand that no means no. But really, the van is there, people buy from it. If it wasn't there, would they be saying, oh gosh I wish we had an ice cream van so I could buy one right now?
Maybe once or twice a year.

YANBU OP. Write to the council and also your local councillors individually and ask how they came to the decision given the balance of public health vs commercial considerations. Perhaps ask whether they would consider creating a cafe or asking for other bids for the pitch if they have decided they really need the income.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 11/05/2014 20:06

I took my DC on holiday when they were younger (Berwick upon Tweed caravan park) they played on the beach, said they were cold, ran up the path (hot now) , oh look ice cream van Grin , had a cone then into the shower.

Part of the whole play outside experience .

WorraLiberty · 11/05/2014 21:07

Yes yes everyone's kids are saints who understand that no means no. But really, the van is there, people buy from it. If it wasn't there, would they be saying, oh gosh I wish we had an ice cream van so I could buy one right now?

No-one is saying their kids are saints.

No-one is saying everyone's kids understand the word no

Yes, particularly on a hot day lots of people will think "Oh gosh I wish we had an ice cream van so we can buy one right now".

What people are saying is that kids need to be taught that no means no. It's part of life and having an ice cream van in the park does not change that.

usuallysuspect · 11/05/2014 21:18

It's healthy eating gorn mad.

Leave the bloody ice cream vans alone.

usuallysuspect · 11/05/2014 21:26

I'd be well pissed off if the healthy eating lot got our ice cream van removed from the local park.

WorraLiberty · 11/05/2014 21:31

Poor fuckers Sad

healthy eating drive and ice-cream vans in park
feathermucker · 11/05/2014 21:42

Say no. Simple.

YADBU!

GreeboOgg · 12/05/2014 00:15

Lol Worra that looks delicious! But I'm northern so I would eat anything wrapped in pastry. Put the same veggies on a plate with no filo and I'd make a face worthy of an RSPCA advert.

WorraLiberty · 12/05/2014 00:20

Hahaha! If I knew you were northern I would have chucked some gravy on it!

My apologies Wink Grin