The other day I stumbled across some new research about happiness and it made me scream ‘yes’ out loud. Thankfully I wasn’t in a library at the time. The study confirmed a long held belief of mine about ice cream, and suggested that children have an innate ability to know what’s good for them, especially when it comes to ice cream.
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| thanks to huppypie |
Online experience retailer RedBalloon recently surveyed over 2000 Australians and found that 3 in 4 respondents felt happy with their life overall. This included 25% who said they were ‘very happy’. Yes you read right, ‘very’ happy. Clearly they weren’t in the Sydney Swans rooms last weekend.
Meanwhile only 4% claimed to be ‘unhappy’. The interviewers must have run into the two ladies I saw at the free, I repeat free, Telstra Perth Fashion Festival event. Both women almost upstaged the models as they complained long and loud about missing out on the goodie bags that were on the front row. Did I say the event was free?
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TPFF2014 © The Ponder Room
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The research also found that people who have a bucket list are more likely to be happy (89%) than those who don’t.
Maybe that was it, maybe those two ladies had been collecting free goodie bags for years, their respective living rooms piled high with various bulging coloured paper bags. Considering the ferocity of their anger perhaps this years bag was the one they needed to complete their collection and make the pile finally reach the ceiling. Or maybe they relied on ‘re-gifting’ the contents to various cousins on Christmas Day. The logic behind their actions is too much to ponder, especially on a Friday.
Instead I’d rather ponder the other finding in the report … that happy people are more likely to choose chocolate ice cream first from a neopolitan tub, followed by vanilla and then strawberry. I knew it!
All those years of racing to stake my claim in the opened tub and make sure I wasn’t lumbered with strawberry. All those years of taking a scoop of chocolate, a scoop of vanilla and a slither of strawberry, just to appease those watching on. All those years of watching the tub, sans chocolate and vanilla, languishing week after week in the freezer until the strawberry patch finally turned icy and eventually got thrown out.
And so I ponder …
- To all those mothers who’ve spent years imploring their children to ‘finish up the strawberry ice cream’.
- To all those mothers who frequently waged ‘the stubbornness war’ – Who would crack first, the mother who refused to buy another tub of ice cream until the old one was empty, or the child who remained steadfastly repulsed by the very thought of strawberry ice cream?
- To the mothers who caved in and bought a new tub … at least now you can rest happy in the knowledge that, all those years of throwing out strawberry ice cream has meant you’ve likely raised happy young adults.
- To the siblings who got saddled with the strawberry ice cream I am truly sorry. I can only suggest that you quickly create a bucket list … sans strawberry ice cream and free goodie bags hopefully.
For information on Red Balloon go to https://www.redballoon.com.au
3 Comments
Hahaha! I think ice cream is definitely linked to happiness BUT I’m sure they’ve got the flavour order wrong 😉 In my household as a kid (and today, still), it is the strawberry that goes first, followed by vanilla, and nobody wants the chocolate (despite being chocolate lovers)! And the clincher: just before I read this post I got out the tub of ice cream to defrost (pure coincidence!) – and guess what it is: STRAWBERRY! (home made too. YUM!). xx
Ha Amanda, anytime you want to offload your chocolate ice cream you know where to look. More proof that you an exception to the rule and a truly unique individual, albeit a strawberry lover hmmmm
Now I know why as a father I always got the strawberry ice cream and this led me to preferring.it to chocolate. Must admit however that honeycomb was and still is my favourite together with rum & raisin