Train Table

I’m just entering my 3rd trimester and the nesting instinct has kicked my lazy butt into high gear. I’m cleaning, rearranging, and in every way trying to clear things out of my house that cause clutter and affect my peace. And this brings me to the train table…

In November the mother of a friend offered us a hand-me-down train table for our boys. At the time, Charlie had a limited number of trains and tracks, but played with them frequently. We jumped at the offer, and gave him the table and some new trains and tracks for Christmas. He initially loved them all, but soon lost interest.

While the table has gotten some very limited use during playdates, overall, it sits idle, taking up precious space in our living room. The trains have been used very rarely, if at all, since January. I had begun to think that Charlie just didn’t care that much about his trains, until this past weekend. At the request of one of our children, Mr. Red put a new battery in one of the engine trains. He then brought all the trains into the kitchen area. All 3 children played happily with the trains for hours! Augustine (18 months) and Charlie (3.5) have returned to the trains as their toy of choice all weekend. On the kitchen floor, the children have built an extensive track. In the past, the train table severely limited their options for using bridges and switch tracks. It was only with our assistance that they could design these sorts of track schemes within the table confines. But on the floor, the sky is the limit.

And so all of this has left me ready to post our train table on freecycle. At present, it’s only justifiable use seems to be the storage bins beneath the table. Am I being hasty here? Besides storage, is there another reason that I should keep the table?