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Dippin' Don'ts: Park Slope Parents Want Ice Cream Out Of Prospect Park
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 1, 2012
Modified Apr 1, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Apr 1, 2012
Modified Apr 1, 2012
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Parents in Park Slope are discussing a ban on ice cream carts in a Prospect Park playground because of the choice they have to make between letting their ravenous progeny wail or opening the gate to a lifetime of obesity and hypertension. And there is no middle ground.
The Post found an entry on Park Slope Parents (the posting eludes us) from a mother named Sarah who recalled a recent day at the park spoiled by those sugar-slingers. “Along with the first truly beautiful day of the year, my son and I had our first ruined day at the playground,” she writes. “Two different people came into the actual playground with ice cream/Italian ice push carts. I was able to avoid it for a little while but eventually I left with a crying 4-year-old.” No doubt the boy will recount the injustice on a psychiatrist's couch for years to come.
Not all the parents at the playground fit the stereotype (one noted that “People just need to say no") but those are the type of families who probably buy Israeli products at the co-op.
"Nobody wants to be a crank," Sarah Schenck, co-founder of parentearth.com says, "But one in three kids are going to be obese or diabetic by high school. When my kids see other kids get ice cream, they just start begging me." Perfectly rational. You want to teach your kids about fairness but—wait, what is THIS?
Tagged
co-op
helicopter parenting
ice cream
obesity epidemic
prospect park
simple pleasures
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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