The World's Biggest Dump Truck

One of my son's favorite toys over the past several years has been something we have (both) taken to referring to as "The World's Biggest Dump Truck." It's a simple and reasonably inexpensive toy (you can find them at Target), but it's enormous ― to a toddler it must seem like the biggest and most fun toy imaginable.

While my son was attending preschool, there was a small park nearby he liked to visit in the afternoon. The World's Biggest Dump Truck was a favorite toy to bring there, though it inevitably attracted the attention of virtually any toddler that came within sight of it, and one of them would usually run off with it if it were left unattended for more than fifteen seconds. (Thus, my son learned difficult and unpleasant lessons about sharing his toys.)

We eventually bought a second World's Biggest Dump Truck and quietly left it in the park for all to play with. It was well and truly enjoyed ― I recall having to bring it home at least once to repair a wheel that had fallen off.

My son still plays with his World's Biggest Dump Truck. Or he did, at least ― before I backed the car over it when it was mistakenly left in the driveway several months ago. I promised him we'd buy another, and I suggested we also buy another for the park — that was what we did this morning. (He was eager to explain to anyone who would listen that this was "The World's Biggest Dump Truck," and why we were buying two of them.)

We dropped it off at the park this afternoon. It was a cloudy, dull day, and unseasonably cool, so there weren't too many kids about ― but the moment we arrived with The World's Biggest Dump Truck, every toddler there wanted to play with it, a fact that did not go unnoticed by my son. ("We should have bought two World's Biggest Dump Trucks!" he said to me.) By the time we left, a two-year-old was happily pushing it all around the park.