Share which life lessons you feel are important to teach your child about with Day Out With Thomas

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Teaching your child positive values is one of the biggest jobs we have as parents - from working as a team to helping others, it’s important that children learn these lessons early on. With this in mind, Day Out With Thomas wants to hear about the values and life lessons that you feel are essential for your child to learn, and how you help them to apply these in real life.

Here’s what Day Out With Thomas has to say:

“Peep Peep! All aboard for a Day Out With Thomas!
Thomas, the Number 1 blue engine, and The Fat Controller have travelled all the way from the Island of Sodor for a day of family fun at a heritage railway near you. Meet Thomas and The Fat Controller, take a train ride and enjoy so much more!
Thomas & Friends episodes teach children about teamwork, friendship, and problem solving, values that we know are really important to you when letting your child watch their favourite programmes.
Day Out With Thomas™ is an annual event brings these values to life, and gives children and their families the unique opportunity to meet the classic storybook character Thomas the Tank Engine at heritage railways across the UK. Families can ride on a real steam engine, pulled by Thomas, and meet The Fat Controller! There’s also lots more to enjoy at each event. Activities may include children’s rides, soft play, toy play area, a live show, miniature railway, storytime, and meeting other engines and characters from Thomas & Friends.”

Which values are most important for your child to learn? Are there particular values your child has already learnt and implemented from their favourite TV characters? Can you think of a time your child exercised positive values and made you proud?

Whichever values you feel are important to teach your children, share them on the thread below for a chance to win. There will be 5x chances to win, with one poster winning a £300 voucher (from a list), and four posters each winning a family ticket (for a family of 4) to a 2019* Day Out With Thomas event of the winner’s choice – locations can be found here.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ
Standard Insight Terms and Conditions apply

*Events from 15 August 2019 onwards

Definitely kindness. And tolerance. I'm not quite sure if I have a TV character I can relate this to but the first time my daughter really made me proud through her kindness and behaviour was when we were on a ferry and a girl about her age went past in a wheelchair my daughter ran up to her and I wondered what on earth she was going to say (she was 5 or 6) but she just beamed at her and said "hi I really like your sparkly wheelchair, the stickers are really cool" and struck up a conversation. I should carry out this with the story the year before we were in a lift and she did the whole "why is that woman so fat" comment. It was a long pause before I knew what to say. The worst thing was the lady turned round and said "it's because I eat too much"

I believe passionately in countering the current vogue for competitiveness in society. I believe that in the right circumstances everyone can do well, that the point of achievement is to open the door to choices that will make you happy (and that what will make you happy is different for everyone), and that very few things in life are 'winner takes all', unless you're an elite sportsperson or chasing a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

I teach my children to enjoy sports and games for pleasure and not for the sake of winning itself, and when we play family games I expect them all to consider everyone's enjoyment (i.e. not to be mean just in order to win by a massive margin). It's not that they aren't allowed to be competitive or to get praise for doing well, just that I want them to keep competitive success in perspective.

They all play chess to a high level and my proudest moment was when one of them deliberately allowed himself to be beaten in a tournament by a very young player who hadn't won any matches all day and was on the verge of tears. He knew he could beat her and didn't have to prove it. I was so proud that he put her feelings ahead of his ego. A 'my work is done' moment.

My main one is to be good and do good things and hopefully you get what you deserve in life

Amongst the many values I try to teach my children, being non-judgemental is an important one for me and goes hand in hand with kindness I think. Being kind is so important.

Persistence and stickability. In short, not giving up at the first hurdle. This is especially important for bright children who are used to coasting and can then be thrown or become anxious and give up when eventually faced with things they can’t do easily or straight away.

Good manners and kindness I feel are some of the most important lessons to learn in life

Empathy is an important one here. I think it’s important for them to understand how other people might be feeling in particular situations.

Also the importance of persistence or practice if things don’t come easily - not I can’t do something but I can’t do something YET. This is a particular thing with DD who is lovely in lots of ways but can have the attention span of a gnat.

Life lesson: that the chug life beats the thug life hands down

There's a lot, and a lot of things children pick up by how you act and learning from your actions.

I try and teach my children to be kind to others and open and non-judgemental to people who are different from them.

I also try to teach them self-confidence and sticking up for your beliefs whilst also listening to those around you.

I also try and teach them to be honest and tell the truth.

We love watching and reading Thomas. I think it has really taught my boys to always keep trying and do your best, what ever your trying to do. This has been particularly useful for my youngest who has no will power and likes to give up very easily!

Kindness and appreciating time with family. It's not about spending loads of money or fancy toys but spending time together 0 we enjoy doing things like walking the dog, playing in the garden, etc so we can be together as family and enjoy each others company without it costing the earth. We use opportunities to teach kindness - sharing toys etc with his cousin when we are out, offering to share snacks etc

being persistant and resilient. In life, things won't always go your way, so you need to be able to pick yourself up and carry on.

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well,you might find you get what you need

I take most of my wisdom from old pop songs

Kindness, perseverance and empathy.

We’ve always taught them to have good manners as everyone deserves to be treated with respect.
I think it is also important to teach them that they will sometimes be disappointed but that the feeling won’t kill them. This starts with not winning at pass the parcel etc. Sadly life is full of disappointment and we feel like we need to build their resilience to it as it is largely unavoidable!

I taught them to treat others the way the want to be treated, so kindness, respect, listening and so on

Kindness. That's huge. Thinking of others.

Kindness and treating all people well. I'd like to add not encouraging gender stereotypes, but that doesn't really fit with Thomas.

Other than being kind & having good manners.
I think it's been important to teach them it's OK to get things wrong/make mistakes. The world isn't going to fall in. We can just try again.

For me it's empathy. Talking about feelings. Model respect towards people who seem different

Be kind all else will fall into place.

For me it’s respect for other’s agency and considering other’s feelings but also assertiveness. Kindness as a value without boundaries can lead to exploitation.
Can’t think of a TV character that exemplifies these values but I’m amazed how much my 2yo learns from TV like thank you and sorry!

Oh gosh - so many! Kindness, compassion and honesty I would say.

God there are so many values for children to learn. I think respect for me is really important, I want my sons to respect other people like I was taught as well as learning to be kind. I also want them both to have confidence in themselves.

Which values are most important for your child to learn?

To be able to talk to me about anything, worries, feelings or bullying.

Are there particular values your child has already learnt and implemented from their favourite TV characters?

Taking turns, being kind forgiveness and sharing, from Thomas and friends, Paw patrol and Twirlywoos

Can you think of a time your child exercised positive values and made you proud?

When he told me about a child who was being nipped and pushed at nursery, I explained to the nursery what my son has seen, and how he was upset by this, and I was reassured that they were aware of this, and a strategy was put in place for this.