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Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#101

Post by Pigo »

dhshahsndeisjwn wrote: post #96
Pigo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except that many girls are made to feel abnormal for expressing an interest in stereotypically male activities (as are boys in reverse). The key is to acknowledge first that our society is incredibly gendered (and racist) in ways we often oblivious to.

I've never studied parenting across the country, and I acknowledge that there are definitely cultures around the world where women are treated like property, but I've never witnessed a parent enforcing some gender stereotype for toys. It's hard to imagine a parent even caring what toy a kid is playing with, unless they are hurting someone.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#102

Post by nix0n »

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.

They get close to that theory, but from a zoo animal angle as opposed to local animals.

"Add that to the fact that children frequently conceive of a vehicle as an enormous living creature—“It has lights and those look like eyes, so suddenly it’s got a face,” Toubes pointed out—and it’s almost no wonder that some kids look at garbage trucks like gigantic zoo animals visiting their home."

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#103

Post by goto11 »

andromeduck wrote: post #75
goto11 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such evolutionary just-so stories can be used to explain anything and there is no way to falsify them. However, just applying common sense: Wouldn't it be more beneficial for their survival if kids were programmed to stay away from megafauna? It might eat them or step on them.

Presumably the parents have that covered.

So why are kids often afraid of big angry dogs? Surely the parents will protect them against any threat from big animals?

Evopsych "just-so" stories are designed to explain a single fact or observation, so they may sound convincing until you look at the bigger picture.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#104

Post by rsdsaf »

salex89 wrote: post #28
neuronic wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit unnerving how much this resembles my own experience. Never got that PhD though, stuck with a Masters :)

Don't worry, I dropped out from it :D . My mom said:"So, you actually might become a garbageman at the end". Slavic parents...

My Latin-American (Italian background) parents told me the same thing growing up.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#105

Post by fenwick67 »

heinrichhartman wrote: post #20
skavi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you perhaps discounting the societal influences pushing your kids towards their respective interests? If they view any amount of advertising or interact with other children who do, for example, they could already have ideas about what is "appropriate" for them to like.

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.

And I love my Lisa Frank calendar despite being a man.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#106

Post by mywittyname »

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 was a color that was selected arbitrarily by some department store in order to sell more baby clothes. And the colors (blue/pink) were switched almost immediately by customers.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#107

Post by mcv »

When I was a kid, the coolest part of being a garbage collector was that you got to ride on the outside of the truck. They don't do that anymore these days, and garbage trucks don't seem to hold the same attraction for my kids as they did for me.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#108

Post by circlefavshape »

Pigo wrote: post #101
dhshahsndeisjwn wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that many girls are made to feel abnormal for expressing an interest in stereotypically male activities (as are boys in reverse). The key is to acknowledge first that our society is incredibly gendered (and racist) in ways we often oblivious to.

I've never studied parenting across the country, and I acknowledge that there are definitely cultures around the world where women are treated like property, but I've never witnessed a parent enforcing some gender stereotype for toys. It's hard to imagine a parent even caring what toy a kid is playing with, unless they are hurting someone.

It's much more subtle than that. A child isn't raised by his/her parents alone. If you have daughters, your family and friends (and their friends) will by default mostly buy them stereotypical girls toys

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#109

Post by mcv »

dhshahsndeisjwn wrote: post #95
smush wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, parent comment and this one summing up what often turn into X000 comment flame wars that dang has to bag up and send out to the flag truck, now that is a feat of summarization. > 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…

I'd have more sympathy for critiques of feminism (and similar policies designed to help minorities) if even basic indices of equality like pay for equal work were fixed, and there wasn't clear evidence of discrimination on grounds of gender in interviewing, police treatment etc.

Exactly. While it's entirely possible and likely that some nature is involved, far too often that's taken as an excuse to actively exclude or discourage women in certain jobs, and that does make it patriarchal action holding women back. IF we can get rid of that and allow people to freely choose without getting judged by their gender (or ethnicity for that matter) on the way, and then it turns out people have different preferences, and that's totally fine. But we're not there yet.

Re: Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks

#110

Post by bitwize »

Scarblac wrote: post #8
Corrado wrote: post #2

I actually wanted to be a garbage truck driver when I was little. I think it was the power to crush stuff that really stirred my imagination. The smell never really bothered me much and I figured that you would get used to it anyway. The dirty never bother me much either; I was constantly playing in our neighbors backyard that we called the dirt-hole. Yup, garbage man was almost the perfect job. Instead, my love for…

I've been thinking about being a garbage man (not the truck driver) for one day a week. Physical work, outside, and it seems your mind could subconsciously work on the big problems in the rest of your life while doing it.

Fuckin' A, man.
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