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Original poster

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

51 replies

mumto2babes · 02/02/2010 21:06

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

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BITCAT · 02/02/2010 22:06

There acting out what they see..this is all so very normal..i remember my ex dh being very concerned that his son wanted to play with pushchairs and dolls..i told him to shut up and leave him alone..its just role play.

Whippet · 02/02/2010 22:12

Oh yes, completely normal

The sequence of DS2's obsessions has been:

  • Silky labels
  • Matchbox cars
  • Minis
  • Thomas the Tank engine Brio
  • Lego duplo animals
  • Lego duplo castle figures
  • GoGos
  • Lego Star wars
  • Lego Castle
  • penguins
hogshead · 02/02/2010 22:35

CantucciniVS ...... i too have a practised, knowledgable sounding `hmmm' followed by a knowing nod with accompanying wrinkled brow

winterwalks · 02/02/2010 22:38

Here goes
thomas the tank engine till 5
Scooby Doo
dinosaurs
etc etc etc
now Top Gear
Be thankful for Thomas

CantucciniVS · 02/02/2010 22:42

Message withdrawn

Poochierama · 02/02/2010 22:44

Yep normal.

DD is obsessed with Peppa Pig, she's nearly 3.

-She plays with her Peppa Pig toys every day

-she loves her Peppa Pig DVD. She's seen it about 20 times and she only got it at Christmas.

-She recites whole scenes from the DVD whilst playing with her toys

-she will only answer to her name if I put Pig at the end

-she calls me Mummy Pig and DH Daddy Pig. Even in public (old ladies raise their eyebrows )

Tommy · 02/02/2010 22:47

at this age my DS was obsessed with Joseph and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat. He watched the DVD at least once a day for months - I got a bit fed up of Donny Osmond TBH...

SparklyGothKat · 02/02/2010 22:50

Ds2 is 2.4 and LOVES Thomas. My Ds1 is 12 and saved all his thomas toys, books etc, to give to his brother, even though he didn't know we would have another baby, let alone a boy lol 10 years later and I am still haunted by 'The magic railroad' and the crap acting!!

hogshead · 02/02/2010 22:57

CantucciniVS - i still get reprimanded on the not knowing the difference between train sets and model train sets ..... followed by a tsk mutter mutter

coldtits · 02/02/2010 22:58

yes, I think so.

hogshead · 02/02/2010 22:58

appatently there is a difference! but i'm still not quite sure what . . . .

islandofsodor · 02/02/2010 23:05

Unfortunately my ds is 6 next week and as you can probably tell from my username is still very much obsessed with Thomas and all things trains.

All his friends have outgrown it and are now into Ben 10 and suchlike but not ds.

He's moving on from wooden and trackmaster to Hornby though eek!

AvengingGerbil · 02/02/2010 23:07

The worst of the Thomas obsession is that in a few years your DS will have forgotten all about Thomas and Duck and Donald and Edward and James and Lady and all the rest of the interminable crew, but YOU will have it cluttering up your mind for the next forty years.

Wanders off muttering 'I wish I could forget what a Tank Engine is'...

differentID · 02/02/2010 23:11

SGK- at the time "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" was released I was working as a cinema usher.
Cinema policy back then was that the usher on duty had to be in the auditorium for any film with less than a 12 certifictae.
That just happened to be the week that it was half term so 8 showings in one week.

CantucciniVS · 02/02/2010 23:11

Message withdrawn

CantucciniVS · 02/02/2010 23:16

Message withdrawn

differentID · 02/02/2010 23:26

I'm just about recovered

I hate Thomas. My friends DS had an obsession with him when he was a toddler. We moved him onto an interest in cars as soon as we could.

SparklyGothKat · 03/02/2010 00:20

oh you poor thing ID, Ds2 watched it 5 times in one day recently!!! It has suddenly disappeared!!

shockers · 03/02/2010 00:28

Absolutely normal!

I loved TTTE when I was little (only in book form...I'm 43!)
DS1 loved it too ( he is 22)... DD (11) and DS2 (9) also!

MattBellamysMuse · 03/02/2010 00:29

Ooh, a new smiley

shockers · 03/02/2010 00:30

Get him a brio train set for his next birthday...it will afford you hours of perfect peace

SparklyGothKat · 03/02/2010 00:33

oh we have a biro train set (from nearly new sale) but he just breaks it up and puts it away, I have a table for it so am going to glue it all down one day for him lol

cheesesarnie · 03/02/2010 00:34

ds2 is called thomas because of ds1 then obsession with the tank engine(he named him)!he was nearly peter from peter pan.luckily thomas was my grandfathers name so poor ds2 wont have to say hes named after a train when hes older.

i think its not just normal,i think its law .

CantucciniVS · 03/02/2010 00:36

Message withdrawn

Whippet · 03/02/2010 12:05

Poochie - aaaaargh! DH & I still call each other MummyPig and DaddyPig, and the DCs are now 10 & 7 (eek! It's a habit we never kind of got out of...)