SCRIPTS!!! AAGGHH!

This morning Bright Eyes woke up with these words on his lips, "Gordon the big engine pushed and pulled Thomas the small blue Tank Engine."

And that was it for the rest of the day. It was Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. Scripting from stories, asking questions about them (rhetorical questions that he knows the answers to), relating everything back to a stupid little blue engine. I wish Rev Awdry had kept his train mania to himself all those years ago!

In between talking about Thomas, he was checking our digital clocks and informing me every few minutes of what the time was. He particularly likes times like 10:10 and 11:11 and I think I heard all of them from 9:09am onwards.

Our consultant's advice for scripts: remove everything that triggers them. That means hiding: the trains, videos, pictures, puzzles and books about Thomas. It also means restricting his computer time for the next little while.

At first, I didn't want to do this. But it has become so bad that it's a necessity. The trains are even taking over Easter. Apparently Jesus didn't die on the cross - he died on the track, and lives in a train. Hmmm....

My first step today was to cover all the digital clocks. It certainly has gotten rid of the persistent time-telling, although he did lie in the bedroom beating his feet against the floor yelling, "Numbers, Numbers! Numbers!" for a few minutes.

Tomorrow I'll have to go out and find a non-ticking clock with hands so I can actually tell the time (or maybe just get my watch fixed...)