Train Table - Flower Mound, TX

Hi Michelle,
I went through the same thing with my boys when they were younger. My sons are 17 months apart. It drove us crazy too, but I finally had some success with setting up the train table for my older son, unglued. Then gave some of the tracks and trains to my younger son who played with his on the floor. Since they were in different stages developmentally they wanted to play differently. The younger one was not allowed to take off any tracks unless the older one agreed. Sometimes my older son enjoyed getting down on the floor with the younger ones permission and playing with his set. They learned how to respect each brother's creations and make their own. I hesitated to glue them down because they enjoyed changing the tracks around and adding pieces. I think ultimately the creativity that sparked from their freedom helped them in long run. The train table was given away last year since we moved to Texas but they still have the tracks and trains. At the ages of 5 and 7 years old, they still take them out and build a big train track in our courtyard.
Good Luck.
T.

Hi Michelle,
I am a grandma of 5. All of these are living with me or have. My daughter's son when he was 2 had this same problem. We bought him everything Thomas and of course tearing them up was a lot of fun for them. Here's what I did to change this behavior for us. First, I allowed him to always play with the trains. I would have the table clear of any tracks. I brought out enough track to make a circle one day and told him we would play with it together. Afterward, I put it away. Later, I brought it out again. same thing. I did this for a couple of days until I saw that he would leave it together while we were playing with it. After this happened I left the circle out for a while. If it became torn up, I'd put it away. When I brought it out the next time I'd tell him to take care so Thomas could have somewhere to ride on and he'd be happy. Then just keep it up for about a week. Next, I made it a big deal to be able for thomas to go on the track for a longer way and we made it bigger together. Took a little while but it worked. He loved trains. Now he's 5 and into Speed Racer and his baby brother that's one has his Thomas Mural bedroom with all the trains.. Kid's are great......R.

My co-worker had the same problem and said her husband ended up nailing down the tracks and it worked...

Is it possible to move it into the older boy's room or even your room until the 2 year old is old enough to stop destroying it? Some place where your oldest son could play and shut the door.

My younger son was like that as a toddler. He'd walk up to a table with something set up on it (my older boy and I liked to set up Little People "scenes") and just run his arm along wiping it all out like a tornado. One thing that helped a bit was having him help us build it and talk about how much work it was and how we didn't want to destroy it. It didn't always work, but it did sometimes.

Thanks for asking this question. Hopefully maybe you will get an answer for both of us. It is my 2 year old who has the train table and we go through the same thing daily. I can tell you that I first hot glued the tracks together not wanting to glue them to the table and within days they were broken apart again and then I broke down and crazyglued them to the table and most of the pieces have still been pulled up (with 1 or 2 broken ones). I don't know what it is with little boys and their desire to be destructive!!!! I have three too, with almost identical ages. I have a 5 year old little girl, 2 year old little boy, and just turned 1 little girl. It's fun, but crazy.

This story sounds familiar. My 18 month old tears up our train tracks, too. For now we have just given up until he understands not to do it. If you have a little extra money, I saw a train table that fits under a bed. You can pull it out to play with or push it back under to store out of sight. You could put it in your older son's room and he could close the door and play without the little one even knowing it is there.