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Reply to "The Big Disappointment- Children"

@Keith k posted:

I have one child, a daughter who has no interest in my trains but I couldn’t be more proud of her. She spent her childhood in the system, became our foster at age eleven and we adopted her at age twelve. She excels in everything she does. Gold award in high school., service superstar award at her first job at Six Flags. She just graduated from college but we were told that she didn’t have the ability to finish high school when we adopted her. She has a full time job and works part time at a stable where she boards her horse.  She has attended many train shows with me but not because she likes trains but because she likes to hang out with me.   She has been nothing but pure joy for my wife and myself so for me to say I am disappointed in her because she doesn’t share an interest in my hobby, l don’t think so.

Thank you for sharing this story, it I think will make my day. I know it is a bit off topic but it shows what love and attention can do for children who others think are incorrigible. I saw that up close and personal at the church I used to belong to, a couple that more than a few people claim shouldn't be allowed to raise kids, adopted a family of 4 kids that the system said were hopeless..and those kids are as beautiful family of kids as you ever would want to see.  And yeah, if the only disappointment we have is them not liking trains, well.....

I think a lot of people's memories of when they were kids is kind of filtered through their own passions and such. Some of you are a bit older than I am, I am 58, so my experiences may be a bit different, but the reality was when growing up few kids relatively were into trains, let alone 3 rail O.

I know in the 1950's lionel trains were something of a big deal but I have older cousins and such who grew up then, and even then it wasn't as big a hobby as we might think if what they tell me is true. A lot of that was trains around the Christmas tree and then away for rest of the year.  Point being for all the kids into them, a lot weren't. And yes, back then there were other temptations too, the idiot box, all the fad toys, etc, too.  The other thing is the standard narrative, you hit your teens, discover cars, adolescence hits and other things become more important.

My son wasn't interested in trains and if he ever gets around to having a family I doubt his kids would be. On the other hand his passion was music and he is a young, world class musician in his mid 20's, how can I be disappointed in that? (if you wonder why I don't buy vision line engines, buy a huge basement with a house attached, etc, well.....music is like that, the amount of support is staggering and the returns take a long time, into adulthood ). I get a little angry when I hear people knocking kids for not being into trains, they are too into their phones and video games, too lazy, as if being into trains is somehow a sign of them being a good person. Our generations were going to be mindless zombies watching tv (my generation was gonna be serial killers because we watched The Roadrunner cartoons and the like).

It is just different times.  The big difference today is that a lot more adults are into O , mostly three rail, it is definitely an adult hobby for the most part, which is very different than it was back then. Again, even back in the day a lot of the activity was holiday trains, how many kids had permanent layouts back then? And most of those adults, if they had exposure as kids, went through a dormant time when they hit their teens and rediscovered them as an adult. I think trains are a wonderful thing but kids have their own things that drive them. I love rock music, my son is a classical musician (violinist in a chamber group), life takes weird turns

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