The cult of Thomas

Fearing that your child will someday join a cult is a real fear. And, I'm learning, it can happen as early as around two years old. I learned this today.

Let me back up a bit. Way before our son was born (childless days for my husband and me), our Adorable Nephew celebrated a birthday where Thomas and Friends was the theme. His parents and grandparents hinted overtly that a Thomas gift would be de rigeur. My husband and I had to educate ourselves in order to attend this party. Who was Thomas? And those friends? Where did they hang out, so we could buy them?

It turns out they were everywhere. Those trains -- and their tracks, figures, accessories -- had infiltrated not only the toy stores, but craft stores like Rag Shop (RIP). Thomas and his disciples/friends had taken over a whole corner of Barnes and Noble.

It was that corner of the B&N that caught my son's attention today. After he tossed some books around read quietly on the reading platform in the children's section, we wandered over to the Thomas corner. An elaborate shrine had been set up for Thomas. My son approached the altar, made suspiciously to his height and appearing to look like a play table with train tracks all over it. Not just train tracks, but bridges, a water tower, a roundhouse and other things whose use I'm still unsure of.

And do you know my son played with those trains at that table for 20 minutes? That's like an hour in toddler years.

And he's not even two years old.

Oh, it starts young. Very young.

Those Thomas people are goooood.

I'm sure this isn't the last we'll see of Thomas....