Ice cream van outside school

[MummyJasmin]

It’s nearly November and we still have the ice cream van turning up outside primary school! I appreciate he has to make a living but can he not stick to summer or park up somewhere away from the youngest children?

You could maybe reason with an older child but a recently turned 3yo, is nigh on impossible! My lo finishes school tired and therefore prone to be irritable. I usually give in because I can’t be doing with the drama or attention from other parents - by drama I mean screaming and tantrumming etc! He parks in such a place where he cannot be avoided.

I rang my local council and they weren’t bothered. So long as it wasn’t a public protection matter he wasn’t doing anything wrong. The woman I was speaking to had thr audacity to suggest I needed to reason with my 3 yo…so wtf now it’s a parenting issue?! That’s not how 3yos are!

Ive sent an email to the school but I doubt they will do anything

aibu?

Our local ice cream van - that actually drives onto our road .. sells hot pancakes and waffles in the winter .

The reason I said: ‘Have you spoken to the headteacher?’ is to find out if the headteacher has a view on it.

I am sure that some heads will just shrug their shoulders but others do actually care a bit about public health, including obesity and dental health. Especially if you’re living in an area where childhood obesity or poor dental health is an issue.

I’m not sure what could be done (Licensing? Parking tickets?) but I definitely don’t feel any sympathy whatsoever for an ice-cream man trying to peddle ultra-processed, sugary food to a captive market of young children. Parks or visitor attractions, fine. Parents can make a decision to visit the van or give it a swerve. Outside a school every single day - this should not be permitted.

The law and regulatory environment needs to catch up with what public health experts are telling us.

If anyone doesn’t believe me do follow Fran Bernhardt on LinkedIn - she is an expert in this area and puts it so much better than I can!

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/franbernhardt

Perfectly, thank you. Just had a gorgeous raspberry ripple ice cream, with fuck off flakes and wafers

more like 🍷 🍷 🍷 🥴

I let my two sit on them, then play the associated theme tune on youtube. This keeps them remarkably entertained despite their maturing years and contorting themselves on to them 😂

They've always known better than to actually ask me to pay on them... well since they were 4 anyway. We finally got there on the meaning of "no" after many, many blistering meltdowns, with the added disadvantage of not knowing that DS1 was ND which added a frisson to any outing.

Hahaha - I’d love to think that you’ve busted the OP but actually there are mums on WhatsApp groups up and down the country complaining about everything from the lighting in the school office to the colour of the zebra crossing on the school street…

And this is hilarious that you play the jingle on YouTube - favourite mental image of the day 😂

Good grief, I thought it was only our class that had panicky mothers.

Parents can make a decision to visit the van or give it a swerve. Outside a school every single day - this should not be permitted.

Parents can make a decision outside the school too.🙄
Most of us manage.

I have coffee and WINE in my house. I have managed to say no to all my children who asked to try a bit 😂

Just because it's there doesn't mean children must have it.

There is always a free choice - fine.

But the approach of ‘leaving it to the individual’s free choice’ has been pretty unsuccessful in every single public health campaign to date.

if we worry about kids health, we should start by addressing the abomination that are hot diners.

Once they are fed healthy food at school, we can think about the ice-cream vans and the street dangers.

@Bex5490 😂😂😂

I actually agree its shit they park by the school gate. No wonder half of all 11 year olds in the uk are overweight

Swap those for prosecco and now you're talking. Cheers.

And what do I dare ask is your issue with hot dinners?

The other day a parent came in to complain to ME that their child in year 6 who they have allowed to walk home alone, is running across the road and stopping at the shop with a friend on the way home!!!

Said that we should do more in school about road safety! Some parents are hilarious…

The way I wish I could give my honest reaction at work…😂

have you seen the "menu" offered in most schools these days? They don't even pretend to be healthy.

glad you find it so amusing 🙄.

Just because school meals have generally nothing to do with the school, but are in most cases a council decision, does not make them something to be proud of.

The menu at our school is relatively healthy. All schools are supposed to provide an additional salad bar. Not sure about other areas but in London schools have provided every child with a Free School Meal in 2023. Something I totally agree with but not cheap at all.

Parents also have the option of sending in a packed lunch…🤷🏽‍♀️

I'm sick of this arguement.

All schools offer salad and/or veg, which the kids are allowed to fill up on.

I run a food bank for families that have literally nothing. Be bloody grateful that your kids can eat.

I personally do send a pack lunch, I don't specially want my kids to have an unhealthy lunch 5 times a week, but it doesn't make it right, and it's not an available option for everyone. Pack Lunch are not cheap to make.

So instead of the OP having a tantrum about a random ice-cream van outside, I still think she should spend her energy dealign with food offered to her kid if she is that bothered.

Wow, what a ridiculous post. Why does it have to be a race to the bottom?

Have you even seen what the "salad" actually is? You'd think there would be a happy medium between the MN salad filling an entire family for a week, and what little is offered at school.

My pet rabbits are given a better choice of vegs than the school kids have..

If you cared about the family who have nothing, you would be even more keen on giving the kids the opportunity of a decent meal at school. I can afford to give a healthy and varied pack lunch, it's time consuming and it's costly, but it's pretty obvious it's not something everyone can afford, but who cares, they're kids, anything goes. FFS.

You have to love how quickly a trail derail from an ice-cream van in October to one selling drug and now how grateful anyone should be if their kids are served any food at all at school.

Eh? Every school round here has a nursery/preschool for 3 year olds. And the OP has a 5 year old as well at the school..

I'm with you OP, although if you say no consistently to your toddler they will stop asking fairly quickly, just don't ever say yes or they will be back to moaning about it.

But really I don't think junk food being sold from a van outside a school is a great idea. There are already so many overweight kids. And it is more difficult to say no to a van than actually going into a shop. And the fumes are awful too. They probably should'nt be allowed within 500 m.

I don't think it's too bad at ours... options include roast dinner, spag bol, cottage pie, jacket potato, they do have fish fingers or pizza now and then but mostly it's made to recipes that you could use at home, nothing weird or processed. There's veg and salad available too. The food on offer is probably equivalent to the type of meals dished up by an average middle class working mum, although if you are giving your kids lentils and quinoa then clearly it isn't going to meet your expectations. But for the majority it's probably healthier than a packed lunch which would probably include crisps chocolate and a highly processed white bread/cheap ham sandwich for most kids...