I think my three-year-old son would absolutely love to go see the monster trucks this weekend, but he’s pretty sensitive to noise (he gets scared). I went to a show like this once a long time ago, and there were monster trucks and a tractor pull. I remember the tractor pull tractors were incredibly loud (painfully so). But I’m not sure about the monster trucks.
I doubt I could get him to wear earplugs, so if it’s going to be super loud, we just won’t go this time. Maybe in a year or two he won’t be so freaked out about loud noises.
Monster truck shows and tractor pulls are the loudest events on the planet. Do not take a child to one unless the child wears earplugs with over-the-ear muffs. Maybe not even then. Those things are so load that you can feel your insides rattle.
It is not a question of whether he gets freaked out or not. It is a question of permanent hearing loss.
OK, so just to clarify, the monster trucks themselves are loud? As far as I can tell, I don’t think there is a tractor pull event at this one, and if there is, we’d just leave when that starts. I’m sure he’d think a tractor pull is boring (who doesn’t, anyway?), but I know he’d love to see some cars get smashed.
Very loud, even worse if its an indoor event. If you can’t get him to wear the earplugs you squeeze into the ear, I have seen kids at these wearing the retro 70’s headphone style earcovers, as well as some weird stuff that comes in a small tin that looks like some semi-hard gel that you put in the ear- I borrowed some once just to see what it did, and it seemed to work and you really couldn’t feel it was there.
I took my kids when they were 5 and 3 and it was indoors. We borrowed the ear protection from some neighbors who frequent firing ranges (indoor gun ranges).
Many other people had similar equipment, as the engines are open-exhaust and supercharged — similar to those found at tractor pulls and top fuel drag racing.
It is an indoor event (it’s February in Edmonton! Somewhere around -30° C is the forecast for Saturday). I think we’ll just skip it this year. As per UncleRojelio, if there’s any risk to his hearing just to let him see a few cars get smashed, I don’t think it’s worth it. A monster truck DVD would probably make him pretty happy too.
unbelievably loud. back in the 80s i used to run the field camera for the indianapolis hoosier dome when it first got up and running with the colts organization and these occasional truck whatsits were part of life under the dome.
the insurance company proclaimed it was far too dangerous for a cameraperson to be on the field for these events because of limited visibility and all those bad-ass vehicles roaming around. or so they claimed. yeah, whatever… wanna know how many times myself or my camera got whanged by a mis-thrown warmup football on the sidelines during a game?? :rolleyes:
anyway, there were generally a couple of us assigned to be in one or more of the unused national channel skyboxes to shoot footage that would then go up on the big screen just like during regular games. unlike those quiet cozy suites you see howie and the boys broadcasting sports commentary from during your basic football game, these particular suites were not soundproof. in fact, there is no glass between you and the action down on the field, because shooting through glass causes distortion to the final product, which makes for very bad television viewing.
so, those of us lucky enough to draw skybox duty were directly exposed to the sound level. to counteract that, we wore full comm headsets (not that either of us could hear a thing the director was telling us. we just treated each shot like it was going straight-to-screen), and underneath the ear cups we stuffed massive quantities of wax into our ear canals. even with all that protection, it was friggin’ loud. you could feel the vibration in your sternum!
all that aside, it’s quite a show, i must agree. i’d go with philster’s suggestion about borrowing/buying gun range ear protection, but i’d be willing to bet that at age three, **squishy junior ** may be a wee bit too young for all that noise. keep us posted.
i’d go with philster’s suggestion about borrowing/buying gun range ear protection, but i’d be willing to bet that at age three, **squishy junior ** may be a wee bit too young for all that noise. keep us posted.