to really bloody hate Thomas the cocking Tank Engine?

[MadameBoo]

DS loves it. I just had to read 3 of the buggers at bedtime tonight. 'Naughty' engines. 'Boastful' engines. Buses who think they're better than engines. Engines who think they're better than other engines. Cranes who think they're better then engines.

It. Bores. Me. Stupid.

and breathe.

Both reasonable and unreasonable

I think the original stories are quite good and often have an interesting narrative; the trains can't actually do that much on their own - their drivers, firemen and the real world are part of the stories. Like someone else has said, my DS learned his colours and numbers from the engines, and the railway set keeps him entertained for hours and hours. And he has a wider interest in trains, which helps as we have to go everywhere by train.

However the new stories and the TV programmes do my nut in. And they've invented so many characters just to sell more bloody engines. I've had to put my foot down with DH - NO MORE SODDING TRAINS OR TRACK!!!

Surely this programme totally tops Thomas in the irritating stakes;

Chugginton

all together now chuggachuggachuggachuggachuggington

This is hilarious

my sole exposure to TTTE is from when I liked it myself, aged 4.

I love Thomas the Tank and all his little friends. It got my severely disabled ds writing and gave (and still does really at 16) him endless hours of enjoyment.

On a side note: Angelina. Freakin. Ballerina.

YADNBU
have only posted to give news from beyond Thomas
eventually your dcs will grow out of it- and if you ever feel wistful about their early days, memories of Thomas will motivate you to persist with contraception
good news is, no lasting harm has been caused to my dcs, ie they have not grown into grasping, conniving, spiteful misogynist people
(perhaps still slightly bitter, here)

Ds used to adore Thomas. My mumsnet name used to be islandofsodor.

He was totally obsessed but he did learn numbers and handwriting and all sorts from various activity books.

He is now 7 and in Year 3 and finally decided just after Christmas that he is too old for Thomas. He still plays wth his traines but pretends they don't have names. He now loves the Peter's Railway series of books. They are great by the way with drawings of how things work etc.

His new obsession however is Star Wars.

I remember you Islandofsodor! your name always made me smile.

DS was a massive Thomas fan up until 6/7, then he went onto Star Wars (sensing a pattern here?)

Now he is 11 and I got all the trains out and tested him to see if he could remember their names. he had forgotten loads

I, on the other hand, could remember pretty much all of them, including most of the really obscure ones.

Just went to watch a film with DH (no it wasn't Thomas and the magic railroad). I am very proud that nobody has given me a biscuit yet :o

chirpy little blue prick,

...And Percy the shitting small engine, Gordon the bastard big engine, Toby the cunting tram engine, fucking cranky the fucking crane and the pissing fat controller.

Definitely not just me then. Am proud to have provided a safe space in which we can all pour out our vitriol. Thomas lovers - please hide the thread :o

Wow, I live for the day that DS gets obsessed with something worthwhile like Star Wars rather than the bloody Octonauts

Unreasonable that will not be.

I quite like the Octonauts. The books don't make me want to bang my head against a wall repeatedly anyway, which is always a bonus.

I'm sitting here now with most of Sodor staring at me.

We have trains, we have track, we have books and flags and buses and helicoptors and fat controllers in cars all over the place.

A couple of weeks ago we were at the Thomas stage show and there is a drawer stuffed full of DVD's. Thomas and Friends the TV series is filling up most of the V+ allowance.

My friends arived today with a book called Look, It's Thomas that pulls out into a long line like a wall frieze and has the engines drawn with those big baby faces (like when Disney did the Disney Mickey and Donald babies) and they are giving me the creeps.

I hate Thomas. I hate him. He's so smug and I want to punch his smirky, sucky-uppy little face.

You really are not being unreasonable in the slightest.

I quite like Toby though. He looks like Russell Tovey.

Not fond of Thomas, but I can sing the theme tune, which I find myself breaking into quite a lot. DS likes, but not obsessed thank goodness. More of a Fireman Sam afficionado.

According to DS, when he sings the fireman sam song, some of the lyrics contain the phrase "fucker james", perhaps he doesn't like Thomas much either really?!

But I am much more against Angelina Ballerina. Hideous.

I loved The Thomas stories as a child. my sister and I used to quote ever shorter snippets and ask which story is this from?
However, We didn't have to read them, we'd learnt them from some records of them being read by Johnny Morris.
I've never got into the modern stuff and neither have my DDs (although we have lots of Brio - no Thomas stuff). I've read them a few, but they didn't appeal and they don't have the same magic for me either. The trains should have the voices of those childhood recordings and of course they don't

My daughter loves Thomas - we actually had to pluck her off the (ceiling-high) bookshelf halfway up because she wanted to get to her dad's station box.

Luckily for me, they're daddy books (as I will only read to her in German, and we unfortunately only have them in English)

Ooh, I fucking hate Thomas and all his nasty friends and will NOT read bloody twatty "Sticky Toffee Thomas" to DS, because I am mean but also because I don't think that reading to toddlers in a sarcastic tone of voice and flinging their books into the bin is setting a good example.

So no, YANBU at all.

Gah.

I knew things had gone too far when I was on a night out with my mates. I was pissed and in a nightclub toilets singing to myself "hey, hey are you ready to play, let's go and play with the Tweenies".

I came out of the cubicle to women laughing and saying "you have kids don't you?"

Not cool.