My friend Mike used to take his toddler Miles out for Garbage Truck Friday each week without fail. They did it for years. Their routine included picking up muffins from the local bakery and following the garbage truck all over Oakland for an hour or so. It was something that they both looked forward to.
I like this activity for all rookie parents but its especially fun as a regular father/son outing; it includes so many things that toddlers love:
CarbsYummy breakfast- An easy excuse to spend time together
- Quickie tradition (see Crock Pot Monday or Fearless Friday) to give structure to the week
- Big vehicles (see scope out some big wheels)
- A way to get someone small to willingly go to the car (ok, that one’s more a win for the parents)
No offense to the trash trucks in your town, but the ones in Oakland are sweet. They have long robotic arms that do all the work. If Mike and Miles had invited me, I think I would have happily joined in.
Yes I have two sons and they’re waaaaay into vehicles, but I think this activity could work for most toddlers. Let me know if it works for you!
I’ll admit this seems like a lot of fun, and our toddler son LOVES seeing these trucks in action. Driving around all morning just for the sake of driving seems a little environmentally unfriendly, though. I’m not sure if the fun would overwhelm the guilt.
We like to chase our garbage truck up and down our street on foot. We do it with the street sweeper too, but it’s faster and outruns us.
We used to spend Tuesday and Friday mornings sitting at the window waiting for the garbage truck to arrive. I wish I had thought of this guy’s idea and gotten out of the house!
Sadly, my little one finds the trucks awesome right up until they start collecting garbage. Then they are noisy and scary. Which we discovered when chasing a truck on foot. So… be prepared to retreat if necessary!
We have the robot trucks now, too, and all hell breaks loose when they come by…even my 8-year-old daughter. It never gets old. My son gets full credit for introducing me to the glory of big machinery…This was a regular activity for us before pre-school started…Now it just interrupts the school day breaksfast routine. Which isn’t such a bad thing.
Our trucks in the Seattle area have those arms and my son LOVES them. He would absolutely love this activity. As it is we see lots of garbage trucks on our way to toddler group on Wednesdays and always “keep our eyes out” for them. Whoever spots one first yells, “truck!”
Can the toddler see the truck from the car seat, especially if still rear-facing??
We particularly look forward to Thursday trash pick-up. The two guys actually wave to us as we stand in the kitchen watching them! We love it so much, I actually made them cookies for Christmas to say thanks for making our morning
I think a variation on this for the northeast in winter would be “chase the snow plow/sand truck”. We had a lot of snow this year in MA and my son was obsessed with the plows.
Not to sound too reactionary, but do teach safety when getting all excited about the garbage trucks. Some kids get so excited about them! But they are loud & require being safe around them… watching kids is included in most driver/operator training because kids are so interested in them & they are so personified that kids go right up to them (if unattended.)