Here is a question for parents. It’s something that’s been troubling me for a while and one that I’d really like to understand. There are so many aspects to parenting that you have to make up as you go along and they are so easy to get wrong. There are websites and leaflets and books that help you out with so many issues, but for some things you have to find your own way. One such problem is starting to occupy my mind now and having surfed the web in vein for an answer I’m now going to ask the question here. What is the right age to start weaning your kids off trains?
All kids love trains and as a father I have spent many an hour exploiting this by standing them in sight of a train and getting them to wave. I’ve been reminded of this today as I’m travelling to Birmingham to work today and this means that we have gone through Coventry. We lived near Coventry for a few years when our youngest boy was born. It was a decent place and we had a good time, but village life was not for me and for career reasons as well as getting closer to my wife’s family we decided to move a couple of years ago.
Coventry station is next to a retail park and so on many occasions Jo would head into the shops while me and the boys stood watching the trains. They loved it and when the kids are happy, the parents are happy so all was well. Add Thomas Tank Engine into the mix, steam days and narrow gauge railways at parks and you wind up with a mild train obsession coming on. This is clearly no issue, there’s absolutely no problem with young kids liking trains. When should it turn though? When does it change from boyhood fun to platform stalking? I’m worried that if I encourage it for too long I could create a flask bearing number taker. I don’t even know where you buy Cagoules so my boys would wind up getting derided by the hard core spotters for not having the right kit on. That’s got to be a real low hasn’t it? Train spotters taking the mick out of your kids for not being trendy.
It’s no good I’m not taking chances. My youngest is now four so I’m going to start weaning him now. I can’t stand the idea of turning my kids into complete geeks. No more real trains. From now on he can stay up in the attic with me and when he’s a bit older I’ll let him actually drive my full scale Hornby classic Brighton to London line instead of just watching.
All kids love trains and as a father I have spent many an hour exploiting this by standing them in sight of a train and getting them to wave. I’ve been reminded of this today as I’m travelling to Birmingham to work today and this means that we have gone through Coventry. We lived near Coventry for a few years when our youngest boy was born. It was a decent place and we had a good time, but village life was not for me and for career reasons as well as getting closer to my wife’s family we decided to move a couple of years ago.
Coventry station is next to a retail park and so on many occasions Jo would head into the shops while me and the boys stood watching the trains. They loved it and when the kids are happy, the parents are happy so all was well. Add Thomas Tank Engine into the mix, steam days and narrow gauge railways at parks and you wind up with a mild train obsession coming on. This is clearly no issue, there’s absolutely no problem with young kids liking trains. When should it turn though? When does it change from boyhood fun to platform stalking? I’m worried that if I encourage it for too long I could create a flask bearing number taker. I don’t even know where you buy Cagoules so my boys would wind up getting derided by the hard core spotters for not having the right kit on. That’s got to be a real low hasn’t it? Train spotters taking the mick out of your kids for not being trendy.
It’s no good I’m not taking chances. My youngest is now four so I’m going to start weaning him now. I can’t stand the idea of turning my kids into complete geeks. No more real trains. From now on he can stay up in the attic with me and when he’s a bit older I’ll let him actually drive my full scale Hornby classic Brighton to London line instead of just watching.
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