What is the deal with....Thomas the Tank Engine?

I used to think of the show as mildly annoying. Now that I have a child, it's downright awful!

The trains are ALWAYS in a bad mood, always complaining about something, always putting eachother down and boasting and being generally horrible. Why do these trains have such bad attitudes?

I am enacting a Thomas ban...though that may be more difficult to do once we're in the UK!

I have to say I'm not a huge fan. My boys both love trains but luckily for me, aren't obsessed with Thomas. I think the point of the stories, though, is that the trains always find out the bad mood, putting someone down, etc. isn't a nice thing to do.

My little boy loves Thomas, too, much to my chagrin. But it's been a good "gateway" drug for his newfound love of trains in general. It's been nice living here in the UK so far. We take trains everywhere. We even took him to the National Rail Museum in York last weekend and he was in absolute bliss.

Thomas on the other hand...uuugh. I think it's just very old school. My husband and I always start singing the song "We all live by rules and regulations..." whenever we run into an amusing U.K. bureaucratic issue.