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Let Kids Be Loud

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Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#41

Post by lapetitejort »

taylorlapeyre wrote: post #16
petercooper wrote: post #10

For years our neighborhood had an ice cream truck or two turn up a few days a week during summer, which we used to enjoy. This year, not a single one. I saw one of the trucks at a school fete and asked about it. The guy said one person had complained about the noise so the local council banned them after 7pm! With most of their sales falling between 6-9pm, they decided it wasn't worth it for one hour and moved on to…

I agree, but with a caveat about ice cream trucks specifically. If they park in one spot and play the same jingle very loudly for hours on end (say, three to four hours in one location outside of your home), it is in fact insanely maddening.

Have you heard the ice cream trucks with a random "Hello?" thrown into songs? I don't understand the purpose. Googling brought up some people saying it goes back to the 90s, or that it's specifically a Southern California thing. Strangely enough the movie A Different Man (2024) played that exact sound during an emotional scene. That movie takes place in NYC.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#42

Post by klank »

Aurornis wrote: post #19

I always have a hard time interpreting these stories. Is this really a trend? Or is it an example of someone collecting anecdotes from all around the world and presenting it as a trend? The internet makes it easier than ever to search for anecdotes around the world that support an idea, but a collection of global anecdotes does not indicate a trend. There are billions of people in the world and some of them are crank…

I'll add to it. My neighbor and I were just recently chitchatting how we love the new family that moved into the neighborhood a few years ago. We love the vibe and color their family adds and it's a large part because they're very visible and audible.

General "kid mayhem" happening all over their yard. It often spills into the street. More than once I have to slow down and wait for the children wailing on their friends with boxing gloves to clear out of the street so I can drive through. It's wonderful. They're close to the entrance of our neighborhood too, which means everybody coming through there is primed to go slow and watch out for kids. It has such a great, calming effect on the overall neighborhood.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#44

Post by loco5niner »

petercooper wrote: post #10

For years our neighborhood had an ice cream truck or two turn up a few days a week during summer, which we used to enjoy. This year, not a single one. I saw one of the trucks at a school fete and asked about it. The guy said one person had complained about the noise so the local council banned them after 7pm! With most of their sales falling between 6-9pm, they decided it wasn't worth it for one hour and moved on to…

Ice cream trucks are specifically obnoxious especially in a neighborhood or a park. I would also complain. They would fit in fine at a carnival or similar.

I've always found it odd that most people would complain if someone sprayed water all over them, but are surprised when people complain the same way about obnoxious noise.

I do live next to an elementary school and enjoy listening to the children playing. Like the article says, that's a natural, even joyful, sound.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#45

Post by petercooper »

gowld wrote: post #33
petercooper wrote: post #10

For years our neighborhood had an ice cream truck or two turn up a few days a week during summer, which we used to enjoy. This year, not a single one. I saw one of the trucks at a school fete and asked about it. The guy said one person had complained about the noise so the local council banned them after 7pm! With most of their sales falling between 6-9pm, they decided it wasn't worth it for one hour and moved on to…

Presumably, the problem was the truck music, not the ice cream sales. There's a market opening for a travelling ice cream seller who doesn't play loud, obloxously noise on loop after 7pm.

Someone else involved in the conversation suggested they could announce their times and locations on Facebook, which I thought was a good idea, but I guess it conflicts with their preference to not have a fixed schedule. They just drive round till they make enough money and then go home when they're bored.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#46

Post by loco5niner »

toast0 wrote: post #30
taylorlapeyre wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but with a caveat about ice cream trucks specifically. If they park in one spot and play the same jingle very loudly for hours on end (say, three to four hours in one location outside of your home), it is in fact insanely maddening.

At my old house, we had the best ice cream truck. Rather than playing music, it just had like a train bell. Sounded like the ice cream engine was rolling through. Ding.... ding .... ding ....

That is a vast improvement.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#47

Post by ysavir »

johnfn wrote: post #3
ysavir wrote: post #2

I live next door to a summer camp. The kind that has kids from the nearby city come for 2 weeks, sleep in bunks, play outside all day, hike, etc. A few months ago we had a carpenter doing some work on the house, and he was asking me about the camp and living so near to it. Eventually he asked "Are they loud when they play? That must be so annoying. I'd hate that." I replied "Nah, it's healthy and fun, and it doesn't…

Maybe because he was trying to make small talk and you insulted his profession?

I've never seen a carpenter use a lawnmower on the job. Seems unwieldy to drag up a ladder.

On a more serious note, most carpentry tools aren't that bad in terms of noise. They can get loud, but they tend to be momentary, getting a cut done, and back to silence. It's the landscaping companies that are running powered tools right up next to people's houses for 30-40 minutes at a time that are the problem. And by the time one company is done, another arrives and revs their own engines.

As for me ruining his attempt at small talk and insulting his profession... Eh. If someone's idea of small talk is trying to make children appear disrupters of the peace for having fun at camp for 6 weeks out of the year, as children ought to do, I'm not too concerned about making a comment expressing a common and often relatable sentiment that makes that person feel bad about their own disruptions of the peace. To the extent that I "insulted his profession", that was him setting himself up. Don't serve a dish you wouldn't want to eat. He could have made small talk in a hundred different ways or found a way to show appreciation instead of annoyance, but he said what he said, and he set the tone.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#48

Post by klank »

didibus wrote: post #40

Kind of interested for someone to look into if hearing children noise is healthy, I could imagine it actually affecting one's hormonal response and such, but also maybe not.

Anecdotally, children making "children noises" is calming for me.

It was not until after I was a parent myself though. Like many things in life, once I had the connection in my own personal life, it is now very easy and automatic for me to empathize and support other children. It feels deep, like more an automatic response.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#49

Post by spjt »

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #4

i think this started happening before the "iPad generation" we all love to bemoan, but it seems like practically overnight, kids were no longer expected to play outside (for all the reasons we've heard ad nauseum, especially those that fly in the face of declining violent crime statistics and increased communication media)... and rather than reflect on that, latently-cranky adults adapted immediately to the disappear…

I wonder how much there is an increased concern about injury, I have three kids and by the time I was their age I had spent more time in the emergency room than all three of them put together. I go to my kids' school from time to time and I don't think I've ever seen a kid in a cast.

Re: Let Kids Be Loud

#50

Post by rock_artist »

As we’re in tech, loud or noise are very implicit and can really range.

Reading this on Amsterdam, I know many others countries where there won’t be such a discussion at all about a soccer field outside a building.

I come from a place where children and the population is noisy due to many factors. every time we went as family on a holiday (With dutch people as an example), I saw my children become less and less vocal only to become loud as they were once we were back home.

Recently, we’ve relocated to Spain. It’s only a few months but still, I thought my children would get become less noisy similar to what we saw on holidays after a while…

But nothing changed, and also hearing other children here, they’re in the same “noisy” levels as my kids.

So there’s also a cultural aspect that needs to be considered about what is loud or how children are expected to behave, add immigration to that and cultural differences and you got so many factors.

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