Can you dig it?

September 21, 2024 1:33 AM

Excavator operators are bringing joy to the world, one two-year-old at a time.
posted by rory (18 comments total)

(Waits for inevitable headline "Tragedy as small boy buried by TikTok-star digger operator".)
posted by rory at 1:33 AM on September 21 [2 favorites]

They can also be fun for the your inner two-year old.
posted by peeedro at 5:03 AM on September 21 [2 favorites]

I’m always a little amazed at the delicacy these huge machines are capable of. Kind of like the shenanigans that really skilled crane operators can manage.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:27 AM on September 21 [4 favorites]

See, if people ever ask me if I hate humanity or is similarly cynical, I always point to stories like these - because there are actually a ton of them. Real construction workers filling up kids' toy dump trucks, or giving a made-up paycheck to a six-year-old who was "helping" them with the renovation on his family's house. Or the trailers who usually haul trucks great distances, who put a toy dump truck on their flatbed in any empty spot just because kids get a kick out of it. And on and on.

People can be real shits, but people can also be absolutely fantastic.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:36 AM on September 21 [15 favorites]

For me it's of a piece with the local butcher who used to give us a cocktail frank to munch on while he was getting Mum or Dad's order ready. Just... a really nice thing to do for kids. Acknowledging that we were there and that our interests and needs were valid.

I loved the handshake at the end of the first clip I linked here. Same vibe.
posted by rory at 6:04 AM on September 21 [6 favorites]

I love clips like this because - while it never happened to me - as a former kid with some pretty fabulous toy dump trucks and associated large-scale construction projects, if a real life excavator had ever filled up one of mine like that, my brain would have absolutely melted with joy, and I love seeing other kids get that experience.
posted by phong3d at 7:38 AM on September 21 [5 favorites]

The folks who work with big machines who take time to be generous to kids are doing the best work.
posted by EvaDestruction at 8:41 AM on September 21 [3 favorites]

That second-to-last link is clearly a front-end loader and not an excavator! Says the machinery-obsessed 5-year-old in my heart.
posted by agentofselection at 9:10 AM on September 21 [3 favorites]

I can’t find it right now, but I think it was an answer to an AskMe about kids birthday parties where someone had planned a low-key birthday for their young (maybe 5-6 years old) child’s birthday. It just so happened that the neighbors were gettin a new driveway that day, and the kids were all fascinated by the heavy machinery scraping the dirt, laying and rolling the asphalt, etc. The parent’s said it was the pest entertainment they could hope for!
posted by TedW at 9:18 AM on September 21 [4 favorites]

this is exceedingly wholesome. thank you.
posted by supermedusa at 10:35 AM on September 21 [3 favorites]

This is exactly our 21 month old, he's been obsessed with construction equipment since we got a beach rental across the street from a job site... his dad also works in construction (electrician) and operates some of these machines and leaves for work with his hard hat on every morning... truck operators ARE really nice to little kids, this morning at the park we were watching a front-loader and some dump trucks add & smooth dirt on the walking trails, the front-loader operator drove over and used the loader part to lift the front wheels of the truck and pop a wheelie in front of us, which did mess up the grass a bit, but we promised not to tell.
posted by subdee at 12:05 PM on September 21 [2 favorites]

We've been taking construction books out from the library, so far his all-time favorite is this one.

Once you have a truck-obsessed small child, you notice construction work is EVERYWHERE.
posted by subdee at 12:08 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]

I really to take my son to this excavator park in Queensland.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 1:30 PM on September 21

When my firstborn was 2 we lived in a small town. The street we lived on was being re-paved and of course she and I watched obsessively. One day while I was on the phone with her dad who was away on business (on a corded phone - this was a long time ago) I looked up in time to see my daughter run out the door and up to the guy driving the front loader who reached down and pulled her up to give her a ride. I got off in haste and ran out to eventually retrieve her. Such nice construction workers!
posted by leslies at 4:05 PM on September 21

See also: train drivers who make the train make the "wooo! wooo!" sound if you pump your fist when the train is rolling by.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:16 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]

During the pandemic the garbage truck operators were rock stars in our neighborhood as all the kids would come out to their porch to watch. It’s the little things that keep you going.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:21 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]

Last weekend my neighbors had an outdoor birthday party for one of their young kids. A couple of pop-ups in the back yard, etc.

They also had a few neighbors park their big mowers/lawn tractors in the yard for the kids to climb on, and put out toy cars for the kids to drive around. But when my wife spotted the green and yellow balloons, we twigged: a John Deere birthday!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:20 AM on September 22 [2 favorites]

The corpse in the library, I walked to middle school over a bridge that spanned a 6-lane highway, and waving at trucks/getting a HOOOOOOOOOONK was such a delight.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:39 PM on September 25