Summer is the season for ice cream cone meltdowns

There are many skills that parents must teach their children, not the least of which is how to eat an ice cream cone on a blistering hot day.

It’s a technique that requires methodical drip licking to maintain the cone’s viability, coupled with the critical grooming of the upper scoops.

It’s usually necessary for the supervising adult to provide some support licking. Writing about it makes it sound gross but like many other parental functions, it’s only gross if it’s not your kid.

Making your child eat ice cream from a wax-covered paper bowl with a little plastic spoon at the ice cream store is a missed teaching moment. Although, admittedly, a bowl is a good choice when drip bombs might target car upholstery or fancy clothes.

I started my kids off with simple flavours during the teaching stage so that I didn’t have to clean up a cone doused in melted streams of tiger tail, bubble gum or candy floss flavour. I chose vanilla for Sam’s first ice cream experience, which caused his lower jaw to shake up and down uncontrollably. At first I thought he was having an allergic reaction to the ice cream, then as he cuddled into me, I realized my little one-year old was shivering. For years thereafter he needed to cuddle for warmth while eating a cone, unless it was a steaming hot day.

Ice cream and other frozen delights are meant to be enjoyed on hot days.

Brain freeze should only be a symptom of eating frozen stuff too quickly and not the result of an idle summer. How many flavours of ice cream can you count?