
Why Kids Love Garbage Trucks - pseudolus
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/12/why-kids-love-garbage-trucks/603193/
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ajkjk
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.

~~~
isolli
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.

~~~
skavi
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.

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heinrichhartman
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.

~~~
olau
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 stringent experimental method.

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pbhjpbhj
>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...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_sources_for_pink_and_blue_as_gender_signifiers)
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.

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magduf
Nope. Historically, pink was considered a masculine color, because it's a
shade of red. It was like this for centuries, until the 20th century in
western nations.

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pbhjpbhj
>because it's a shade of red. //

Not quite sure what your nope refers to, but you release that's not a reason.
All you've done is shift the question from "why is pink for boys" to "why is
red for boys" and still haven't countered any of my observations, particularly
that it might be "pink" was for boys because of social conditioning in the
past.

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magduf
I'm not sure what you're getting at. I'm just pointing out that this whole
thing is entirely cultural, and that it's changed very, very recently (within
the last century or so). There's no underlying biological reason for pink to
appeal to little girls; it's just a cultural artifact. If little girls were
dressed in lime green all the time from birth and the culture militantly
pushed the idea that "lime green is only for girls!", then little girls would
want lime green toys and clothes.

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salex89
This is fun. I grew up on the other side of the world (albeit a "western"
culture), and was also amazed by garbage trucks from the day I remember. The
whole lift/squash mechanism, their bright orange color (in our parts), the
ease by which they lift the containers, the colored control lights/buttons on
the side which the cleaners use to operate the lift, the blinkers. And made
funny noises. It was something straight out of the toy shop, in full size! I
wanted to be a waste collector when I grow up. My parents were keen to make
fun of me because of that once I enrolled in PhD studies.

Same goes for fire trucks, I had multiple fire engine toys. But a fire truck
is a rare thing to see in action in person, so I guess that's why it was
easier to relate to the loud trashcan on wheels :-) .

~~~
krisoft
I'm a full grown adult and I'm working on self-driving cars. For a special
project we had to put amber flashing lights on one. Just like the ones they
had on garbage trucks where I have grown up. Totally unreasonably, but I was
giddy with excitement when I first turned the lights on. That was probably the
closest I will ever get to my childhood dream of becoming a garbage truck
driver.

~~~
edm0nd
I'm just throwing this out there but you can buy a used garbage truck online
right now if you wanted to. Some start at ~40k.

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AndrewOMartin
To add my pet theory, it's a attractive to kids because it's an immediately
understandable job. "Pick up all the rubbish, put it in the truck, press the
button, move on". You can imagine a kid watching the whole routine and feeling
like they understand every part of it, the wider context and the minutiae.

The classic "what do you want to be when you grow up" responses (Firefighter,
Police, Doctor, Chef, etc.) all have that property of being immediately
relatable.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
That theory does a great job explaining why so many kids say "Astronaut" and
so few say "Actuary".

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Corrado
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 computers (ahhh, VIC-20) grew and I went to college to
learn more. I really love what I do but if things went sideways I could see
myself being a garbage man.

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Scarblac
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.

~~~
KC8ZKF
Everybody hates a tourist.

~~~
gadders
I think if you pull your weight, you would earn some measure of respect.

~~~
shantly
Yeah, I'm pretty sure most folks doing "real" work don't care who you are as
long as you show up on time, get shit done, and aren't (the wrong kind of) an
asshole. And the last part's negotiable.

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Waterluvian
In the words of my two year old, "woah! It's so big!"

I've learned not to over-analyze and trust what he says.

~~~
remmargorp64
You'll notice that kids don't get as excited about other things that are just
as big, or bigger, though. For example, my son can barely even be bothered to
look up at 18 wheelers. He sees them as common and boring.

But a garbage truck? It's loud and interesting. It _does_ stuff with its
tusks. Honestly, garbage trucks are still fascinating even to me, as an adult.

~~~
snarf21
There is also the rarity. Garbage comes once a week. He may not even see it
every week. It is true that he gets to see it "in action" so that helps. He
probably sees 100 18 wheelers everyday. They are just different cars and
nothing special.

~~~
remmargorp64
Very true! They are rare, and also loud so they draw attention.

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meigwilym
Time to post one of my favourite internet images:

[https://hips.hearstapps.com/cos.h-cdn.co/assets/15/13/980x11...](https://hips.hearstapps.com/cos.h-cdn.co/assets/15/13/980x1102/gallery-1427213382-garbage-
fb.jpg)

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Pigo
That just made my day.

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wanderr
I thought that getting to ride on the outside of a vehicle was the coolest
thing ever.

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Pigo
I hadn't thought about this since I was a kid, but I loved watching the
garbage truck. Especially when they used the compactor after emptying the
cans. I guess I was lucky that they came to our house during the day because
everywhere I've lived since a kid the trash pickup has been extremely early. I
don't know if my kids have ever seen it.

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jimkri
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.

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MisterTea
When I was a young boy I was obsessed with trucks. My father was friendly with
a local rigger and we visited his yard. It was heaven with trucks, cranes, and
machinery all over. But the centerpiece was his heavy hauler Peterbilt with a
large multi axle lowboy trailer. He put me in the driver's seat and I vividly
remember that arched "corvette" dash covered in shiny polished gauges and
switches and the high up view. Felt like I was sitting atop a building. I
wanted to be a trucker! Well it don't quite work out that way but still to
this day I have a great appreciation for them and went to a few antique truck
shows. I even bought a 1961 MAck B61. It's a slow yet fun resto hobby.
Everything is massive and takes considerable effort to manipulate.

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kettro
Growing up in Toronto, I used to watch the show Mighty Machines[0]. I loved it
- it would show construction vehicles and airplanes, and I ogled at it for
hours. I can still remember the theme song. Makes me so very happy right now
remembering it.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Machines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Machines)

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scarejunba
Loved large wheeled vehicles when I was a child. Made buses out of toothpaste
cartons and toothpicks and buttons with my grandma.

Loved to go by the train station to wave at the train. Pretty sure it's all
just that they move and are big machines. Didn't take much. We lived out in
the country in a different nation where big garbage trucks didn't exist.

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timonoko
I remember the time before Garbage Trucks. Our housing complex had a separate
garbage hut with split door. Every month a lorry or horse-driven cart came and
men shoveled it empty. It was great fun to watch. Sometimes a rat escaped and
there was a competition to kill it. Helsinki City paid good money for rat's
tails.

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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.

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dangerboysteve
I don't think this is garbage truck specific fascination. Many years ago, I
recall reading a story about a father who noticed his kids being glued to the
apartment window watching a construction site next door. They were fascinated
by the large and loud machines. He built a DVD video business from filming
busy construction sites for kids. It was a success. Kids love big loud
colorful things that move.

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arwhatever
I wanted to be a garbage man because the guys ride on the side/outside of the
truck. What other reason can there possibly be? :-)

~~~
thanatropism
The electricity company technical guys sometimes ride on a truck that has (as
best as I can describe it) a snake-like elevating chair. That's so impossibly
cool.

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kristianp
I think part of the excitement is the noise. The screeching of the brakes as
the truck pulls up and the crash of the rubbish out of the bin. It's a whole
performance for the little ones.

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tentboy
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.

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dblohm7
When I was a kid, it was all about catching the truck running a compaction
cycle. As children of a mechanical engineer, my sister and I both found it
fascinating.

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bytematic
I loved street sweepers as a kid and would always rush to the window to watch
them go across our city street. I loved the idea of taking away
trash/dirtyness, something about that simple purpose was cool. It was easy to
understand, unlike business or insurance (what my dad did)

~~~
ryanmercer
Same, I never paid any attention to garbage trucks but I was fascinated with
street sweepers and similarly fascinated with the spinning brushes at car
washes. Still am, and while I don't see street sweepers much anymore I
genuinely enjoy going to the car wash and watching the multi-colored swirls of
goo being slapped around my windshield by hundreds of little strips of fabric.

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

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d0100
Gave it a quick read, and there seemes to be no mention of garbage trucks that
aren't "modern": where there are other men running around carrying heavy trash
bags and single-handedly throwing them into the back of the truck

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ideal_stingray
As a kid I was fascinated by the garbage truck lifting arm, as well as any
other cool mechanism I saw. I’m a robotics engineer now.

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justinmchase
Then I guess I'm a kid because those trucks are friggin sweet. What more of an
explanation do we need?

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Double_a_92
Well they are big and heavy, and they still manage to move...

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chasd00
they're big, loud, and the guys on the back don't have to wear their seatbelt.
A garbage truck is a kid magnet. Don't overthink it.

