Hard not to inhale deeply at today's Mail story about the "little boy trapped in the world of Thomas the Tank Engine". It can't have been only me thinking, 'There but for the grace of God.....' Yet there is one big difference between Louis' Thomas obsession and the boy in the article: I'm trying not to let Louis find out that the Thomas of his many books also moonlights as a television star. Not because I think TV is inherently evil, as the piece goes on to imply, but just because I. Can't. Take. Any. More. Thomas.
Can someone explain what it is about the cheeky tank engine? Personally, I can't imagine a more boring series of books. Especially if you're *lucky* enough to own some of the original stories. Back then, children's authors didn't mince their words so the trains' adventures are described in full technical glory. There are sidings; couplings; buffers; and many, many more trainspotting terms that I don't understand let alone a toddler. Yet he couldn't be more gripped. Night, after night - with plenty of mornings, mid-mornings, pre-lunchtime naps, and mid-afternoons thrown in for good measure - it's Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. Not forgetting the hours spent pushing mini Thomas and pals round his own train tracks.
Bizarrely, I think the obsession was triggered by a cook book. A free one I got sent at work uselessly telling you how to make all sorts of impossibly different character cakes. I brought it home, Louis discovered it, and would spend hours getting me to explain how you make a Thomas cake. But I also blame the person who gave him two Thomas books for his first birthday! (If only the bump in her tummy was male, I could get my own back, but alas!)
(That said, Thomas did - briefly - become cool last night when Louis discovered an interactive Thomas playmat in his friend Yoppy's room that translated every single Thomas train into Japanese. I liked "Hen-ly" and "Haloldy" best. I want it!)
It was interesting, though, that the Mail piece, which was based on a paper published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioural Pediatrics, used evidence of the boy's fixation to rail against television. Louis is (almost) as into Thomas and yet he takes all his stories from an old-fashioned book. I personally think TV can be an excellent teacher - as does Desmond Morris we learnt last week. Plus, I'll never forget one taxi driver crediting the Disney channel for his 12-month-old daughter already being able to count up to ten. And the lessons Louis learns from Charlie and Lola are invaluable. Not to mention the vocab. Perhaps the trick is just not to let him find out that there's such a thing as a Thomas DVD....
7 comments:
I know! My son is also obsessed with Thomas although it's showing very slight signs of waning. Very slight, mind. We also have some of the older books, and I guess not many two year olds who don't read them would use "coupling" in their general conversation, so you can probably spot a Thomas fan a mile off.
We went to a Day Out with Thomas thing at a steam railway in Essex earlier this year and I nearly cried, he was so excited. Imagine having your favourite book come to life! For me the equivalent would have been the Famous Five showing up and taking me along to Kirrin Island or something.
My son loved trains, and spent hours and hours with his train track, but - unusually - only liked modern trains. So almost all our Brio-equivalent stuff is non-steam, eg the Japanese bullet train, various German trains, a Londond tube train, the Eurostar.
But I remember my younger brother being quite obsessed with Henry, Gordon and Thomas, and the stories were very familiar when I dusted them off for my son. I think it's normal... and they grow out of it... eventually...
Yes; there is something addictive about Thomas. My little boys have the full set of Thomas stories, and are also into the DVDs in a big way (although living in America, these are rather surreally narrated by Alec Baldwin). One thing to note is that the TV series seems to include a whole new set of characters who are not in the books - eg. Spencer, the 'fastest engine', who my little boy is obsessed with. This means that you have to start collecting yet more trains. Still, I think I would rather they were into Thomas than Spongebob Squarepants....
That's decided then. i'm buying Louis the DVD for Xmas!..don't worry only kidding:-)
I'm sure when this bump arrives if it does indeed turn out to be a girl, I'll equally be puzzling an obsession with Angelina ballerina or Jade the disco fairy. Although having said that, it could be right up my street. As for the mountains of pink plastic that all little girls seem to love I'm not so sure about that...
@HH - We're definitely steam train bound someday soon...
@Iota - So impressed at the thought of your son and his Shinkansen train. Too cool.
@NPV - MORE characters?? no!!!
@KK - Just you wait.....!!
Thank heavens I have a girl. I cannot stand technical children's book. Who can read all that stuff in pone breath.
Mine are girls and didn't do the Thomas thing. Most kids tv is dreadful. My oldest (8) is now a book worm! There is hope.
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