If Target does not get

Me: "Look at the train Boudreaux, the train says choo choo!"
Boudreaux: "No!!No Daddy!!James goes Buzz Buzz!!"

Ahh yes, the delights (and pitfalls) of Thomas! Have you been to "A day out with Thomas" yet?

Is that where you ride on the train that's dressed up to look like Thomas? We haven't been yet but were thinking about going in December (in Strasbourg, PA)

I am not sure what I think about Thomas. I had not seen much of the shows, so I didn't know what I was letting myself in for when I gave Hambet a Thomas DVD as a reward for something. I was totally unprepared for his response. He liked trains before, but boy did he like that Thomas!

So I have to keep a tight watch on the viewing. If I had known how much name-calling those trains do, I would not have let the DVD into the house. It doesn't seem like a big deal to some grown-ups, but little kids love to imitate charming phrases like "Shut up!" and "You're a muckle nuisance!" And they don't understand that it's a really bad idea to imitate those phrases during heated discussions with Mommy.

So Hambet likes Thomas a lot, but all he has is a book and one video. Oh, and the underwear. And that's enough.

Target did get the underwear back in, so I stocked up yesterday. Meanwhile, Hambet's interest in Thomas and friends has renewed his interest in trains. He has a library book about trains (one of those DK books with the cool illustrations) and has just been poring over it for days. And he loved the "Great Scenic Railways" show that PBS ran the other night.

Yes, please do skip the videos and books re: Thomas. You can do the toys, underwear, etc. But, the books and videos are just awful. I can hardly believe someone who refers to himself as a "Rev." wrote such nasty stories.

Kelly,

Interesting! By the books, do you mean the ones based on the TV show and videos, or the originals by Rev. Awdry (which have fallen out of print, I believe)? My impression was that the videos took great liberties with the original stories.

From what I remember of the original stories, they are not good. I still have the books in a single volume in the basement ready and waiting to go out with the next paper recycle pick-up. I keep forgetting to bring that book and some other like items upstairs with me and stick it with the paper recyclables. I might have a chance later today to bring up the book and glance through the stories. We're going to go bowling soon though; so, no time now.

I meant to add that I know for certain that the modern-day stories that are in print are like the videos. Awful! Nothing like encouraging a child to imitate a train's scowl or poor choice of words.

In reference to the Day out with Thomas;that was an absolute blast.Boudreaux loved it, and actually was interested in the train museum alogether, and not just the Thomas stuff. It was worth it for the price of the ticket ($12.00), as it's pretty much a day long outing if you live far enough away.

In reference to the videos,my oldest son watches Thomas whenever we allow him to, and the harshest thing he's said inreference to what the trains say is, "Daddy, are you cross?" or, "Oh! That naughty Diesel!". It's not like letting them watch SpongeBob SquarePants or anything.
IMNSHO, it's pretty benign as far as kids shows go, and in reference to the book, we've got a couple of different books, and I haven't seen anything bad in them! Maybe Im buying the wrong ones, because ours have stories about Thomas chasing a shooting star and getting sleepy, Thomas sharing coal with a lost train, and a surpsise birthday party being planned for his engineer.I dont see how anyone could construe such stories as malevolent.

One thing we wont let Boudreaux watch is
"Caillou". We let him watch that for a few weeks last spring, and he started whining like the kid in that show.That show makes my skin crawl.

My little boy is also a Thomas junkie and to be honest i think the videos are pretty good. I really hated the Thomas movie that could only be classed as an abomination. My hudband has said that he use t think that our sn was interested in Thomas because it was soley ablut engines but after watching several, he has asiad that he finds them mainly full of fraught relationships and tensions between the different engines.
Anyway I am not going to spoil my son's enjoyment of Thomas anymore than I am going to spoil his enjoyment of Bob the Builder, The Wiggles or Construction site. I personally think that the BBC sshows win hands down over Amercian shows like Bear in the big Blue House, thoe only ne that I will concede is good is Construction site which is also made by the Hansen company

Karnak wrote:"My little boy is also a Thomas junkie and to be honest i think the videos are pretty good."

Yeah see, my son just loves the show, and after reviewing the thread here, I actually sat down and watched a few episodes with him this weekend, and I've got to concur.I really dont see anything damaging about them. Sure, there are conflict issues between the trains on the show, but no harsh language is used, and everything sorts itself out by the end of the episode.The harshness is to a minimum, and to be quite honest, if you shield your children from every shred of conflict or distress, are they really learning anything about humanity and how to cope in the world? I'm not saying let them grow up watching the Sopranos or Oz (BLECH!Nasty show! Nasty show!),but in the realm of things, Thomas is pretty tame I think.