Thomas the tank engine obsession in 3.5 year old - is this normal?

[mumto2babes]

My DS is 3.5 and for the past few months has become obsessed with Thomas The Tank Engine. His train tracks and trains are all he wants to play with. He also loves to watch Thomas dvds and read Thomas books and he can now recite chunks of the stories while playing with his trains. He talks about Thomas constantly and says he misses his train track when he goes to pre-school.

Is this normal behaviour for this age? I am trying not to worry too much as other than this obsession, he is a very typical little boy.

Thanks in advance for your advice

My DS (3.10) was and still is to a degree obsessed with the Cars movie. He reads the books (well, I read them then he gives it a rough try) and spends hours renacting the stories, scenes from the film etc. He is similar with Fireman Sam. Seems normal to me

My nephews were exactly the same - they are in their teens now and seem to have turned out alright - I think it's quite natural to be obsessive about favourite things. Unfortunately thanks to dh my ds's particular obsession is Star Wars - I'd rather have Thomas any day, it's much more wholesome.

Yep in a few months he will move onto the Next Big Thing.

At that age ds had a serious Disney Cars obsession,followed by Ben 10 when he was 4/5.Now he is obsessed with Dr Who and his Lego Starwars Wii game...

My boys have been through the Thomas obsession, the Scooby Doo obsession, the Ben 10 obsession, the Gormiti obsession. I could go on. Of course it's normal. Don't worry!

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Ditto Cantuccini.

I just thank my lucky stars it's not Disney Princesses

The current obsession is Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman on the Wii. They want Lego Indiana Jones but I've said no.
Last summer it was Club Penguin but they seem to be growing out of that one.

Thank God I've got boys. No High School Musical or Hannah Montana for me .

God yeah, could've been Hannah Montana.

marion my DD is OBSESSED with disney princesses and dora and peppa pig...everything with a hint of pink and purple goes in our house for her i hate pink

My boys still love Peppa Pig and they're 5 and 7. I love Peppa Pig

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Yep normal.

With DS2 first it was Thomas and all his zillions of tedious friends. Books, toys, two sorts of track, trains without batteries, trains with batteries, ad nauseam.

Then he got very completist about the Mr Men books. Actually this may have gone in parallel with the Thomas phase.

Then Action Man.

Then Dr Who, which involved subscribing to the expensive, flimsy and rather underpowered magazine. And collecting all the figures/sonic screwdrivers. House is still full of tardises (pl?)

Then Match Attax cards.

Then go-gos.

Now it's Lego, which would be fine, except it's so expensive.

I have a mild Pingu obsession.I used to put it on "for ds" when I was bf dd and pmsl.It is the best animation ever.

We've moved on in our house from Thomas and Cars to Star Wars too. Ds is 4.

I live, eat and breathe Star Wars (well until about 8pm!). Padme walks to school with us and apparently Darth Maul is about to open his new Gingerbread Shop near us soon .

I wouldnt worry my ds2 went through this whole thomas thing, from about the age 1.5 till he was about 4.5..he still does like watching it if it on tv..he has a thing for trains..but he has let go of toys and is now much more into scooby doo and ben 10 and of course the simpsons which all my kids love even my 4yo dd2 lol

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And when i used to take him shopping at asda, i used have to buy a thomas book every time we were there ive got about 20/25 thomas books..we also had the firemen sam. and postman pat phase too..they grow out of it when they ready..sounds very normal to me

Yup, v normal. We are in a Star Wars phase atm (please please please let it be a phase). This evening however I persuaded DS1 to have Horrid Henry for his story instead of some Star Wars nonsense yet again (never imagined I would be grateful to read Horrid Henry).

Yes, very normal. Have you thought of taking him to Thomasland ? I used to like the railway stories when I was small but DS has taken it to a new level. We must have had that train track out every day for a year.

I was very anti merchandising and tried to keep it to wooden trains, the original little books and the Ringo Starr animations. Was deluged under a tidal wave of chuffing books, toys, board games, duvet covers, DVDs, jigsaws etc from everyone who knows him!

He has gone to sleep clutching Lightning McQueen in his little fist though so there may be light on the horizon.

my Dad is still obsessed with steam trains and he's 59 ......... he has so far resisted the urge to buy DS his 1st train set but i don't hold out much hope

sounds like its a male thing!! they do say men never ever grow up lol..must be true

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DH is worried that DS's obsession with trains is going to make him a social pariah, so he's encouraging Cars.

DS is 2.8!