Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#81

Post by tentboy » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 1:34 PM UTC

Ha, I always thought this was a weird fascination only I had

When I was younger my favorite movies were a set of pseudo-documentaries (that my mom would rent from the library for me) made for kids about mining, recycling, trash collection and a few other things.

I would watch them over and over and loved the parts where they dropped whole cars into the crusher.

I also distinctly remember being fascinated by a part where after collecting recycling they melted down the metal and they just showed a big molten pool of aluminum.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#82

Post by jacobush » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 1:45 PM UTC

wisty wrote: post #77

nollbit wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless your daughter never met with other kids or other adults, it's seems hard to say there's been no bias.

I wonder if there's some social constraints that babies naturally seem to rebel against (or at least be less interested in). Cooks used to be mostly women, now they're mostly men. Accountants used to be mostly men, now they're mostly women. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/03/a-visual-history-of-g... Pink was once for boys. On the other hand it seems that infant chimps and rhesus monkeys play with gendered toys -…

Follow the money. Where more money is to made at a given time, find the men.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#83

Post by microcolonel » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 1:47 PM UTC

arunix wrote: post #72

isolli wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a similar theory to explain why boys are more interested in cars than girls (which my kids have proven convincingly, albeit with a low sample size): boys, as future hunters, are attracted to preys that move, hence, in the modern environment, to balls and cars.

I've seen little girls chasing the pigeons on a few occasions, so ... no longer sure about the hunter/gatherer aspect of this.

Yeah, it's likely little to do with hunting, more to do with mechanistic thinking. The same sex bimodality is observed in other primate species, from young ages, and most primates may be omnivores, but they tend to be more interested in seeds and fruit, and they aren't going out hunting the way humans and protohumans had.

Also, not all ancient hunting was dangerous enough that only the disposable sex would engage in it.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#84

Post by jimkri » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 1:48 PM UTC

When I was younger I wanted to be a garbage man too. I always made sure to be outside when they came by and made sure I was wearing my little work boots. My nephew is really into them right now and loves being outside when they come by making sure they know he is there.

>But most of all, she loves waiting for the truck driver to stop and say hi

I think the last sentence of the article really says a lot, this is what stuck with me from my experience. The garbage men/women always waved back and acknowledged that I was there. It's an interaction that kids don't always get to experience while watching something super cool happen right out front of their house.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#85

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

Folks love large machinery. A garbage truck is large machinery that regularly vistits suburban homes. QED

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#86

Post by pbhjpbhj » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 2:00 PM UTC

aklemm wrote: post #56

isolli wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a similar theory to explain why boys are more interested in cars than girls (which my kids have proven convincingly, albeit with a low sample size): boys, as future hunters, are attracted to preys that move, hence, in the modern environment, to balls and cars.

All this back-and-forth about whether and how it's nature or nurture. The point of modern gender freedom is not to deny there is a strong nature influence, it's to nurture kids to go whichever directions they like. All these anecdotes about how this kid and that kid displayed common traditional gender preferences seem to be offered as an argument against trying to upset the traditional nature of these preferences. Su…

That's the correct way to see things but it's contrary to public policies that say things like "there are less girls doing physics, so we're going to make quotas to get more girls doing physics". That's not supporting individual propensities at all.

Overwhelmingly the feminist position that's pushed to the fore is "any lack of equal representation of females in a roles that're desirable is down to patriarchal actions and unrelated to any natural differences between the sexes; which differences are an illusion".

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#87

Post by pbhjpbhj » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 2:03 PM UTC

isolli wrote: post #59

aklemm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this back-and-forth about whether and how it's nature or nurture. The point of modern gender freedom is not to deny there is a strong nature influence, it's to nurture kids to go whichever directions they like. All these anecdotes about how this kid and that kid displayed common traditional gender preferences seem to be offered as an argument against trying to upset the traditional nature of these preferences. Su…

Agreed. You could make a similar point about race when it comes to sport abilities. It would be horrific to offer sports activities to children based on race, even though, in effect, some children will have a much smaller chance of becoming professionals at some sports than others. But let's never discourage a kid who wants to try whatever he or she likes!

>some children will have a much smaller chance of becoming professionals //

But not directly because of their race (except as much as racism applies).

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#88

Post by pbhjpbhj » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 2:12 PM UTC

olau wrote: post #64

heinrichhartman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My girl was 9months when sh started acrively pushing for bracelets, fancy hats, etc. I took her to a bike shop, an she immediately went for the pink Helmet with stars. We dressed her in neutral cloths (second hand), we dont have a TV. Her mother does not wear juwlery or makeup. To us this appears innate.

Pink used to be a boy's color. I don't think your child is interested in jewellery and fancy hats for the same reason as a grown up. My children of both genders enjoy that stuff too, to the point where my none of my wife's jewellery is in one piece. One thing I've noticed is that I can't look at them without a cultural confirmation bias. So I've completely lost faith that anyone can judge these things without a strin…

>Pink used to be a boy's color. //

Which shows nothing. The natural allure might be for girls [in general] to go with pink, and the use of pink for boys (is/was it something to do with hunting?) might have been pure social conditioning.

Aside: Are their examples of paintings showing boys in pink? The only historical "pink" I know of is "hunting pinks" which are bright-red.

I imagine we're only talking "aristocratic boys", as red dyes were expensive and most boys through history will have had natural coloured clothing, I imagine.

My eldest boy used to adore his pink handbag, fwiw. That's a very limited data point, however.

Edit: found https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_sources_f... it does strike me these are selections to prove the point, ie poor statistics. Also there might be errors (blue for a boy, and pink for a boy - sounds most likely to be an error). Also that a lot of the pink for a boy quotes are for babies; seems like what mother's choose for babies is different to what children/juveniles/adults will choose for themselves.

Interesting though.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#89

Post by randomdata » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 2:22 PM UTC

meddlepal wrote: post #12

ajkjk wrote: post #4

This didn't address my favorite theory: that (some) kids are programmed to learn as much as they can about the nearby megafauna, and in this world the closest approximation is these big garbage/fire/construction vehicles.

I still think big construction and demolition equipment is cool as an adult.

I all honesty, I farm so I can play with the heavy equipment.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#90

Post by Pigo » Tue, Dec 10, 2019, 2:22 PM UTC

aklemm wrote: post #56

isolli wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a similar theory to explain why boys are more interested in cars than girls (which my kids have proven convincingly, albeit with a low sample size): boys, as future hunters, are attracted to preys that move, hence, in the modern environment, to balls and cars.

All this back-and-forth about whether and how it's nature or nurture. The point of modern gender freedom is not to deny there is a strong nature influence, it's to nurture kids to go whichever directions they like. All these anecdotes about how this kid and that kid displayed common traditional gender preferences seem to be offered as an argument against trying to upset the traditional nature of these preferences. Su…

Anybody that is not making room for girls to play with race cars, if they want, was is a jerk in the past, present, and future. Unless they are Betty Draper, I can't imagine a parent that would take a toy away from their kid.