One of the first places many children share is around a public train table. The tracks are glued down, and all of the cool Thomas the Tank Engine trains are already missing. The amount of cars each child is allowed is three. Many children are used to having exlusive playing rights to all of their toys. Here at the train table they learn that this is not always so. Many become stricken with shock and react with red-faced, screaming tantrums when they are asked to share. At this stage positive parent involvement is crucial.
I was talking to a couple of parents today who related to me a disturbing story. A mom at another museum not only had been spotted not requiring her child to share, but being actively involved in increasing his horde of train cars. The other kids stood around with no trains, or at most, maybe one, while this kid hauled his enormous train around the tracks. The effects of this kind of parenting on a young person could be disasterous.
I got to thinking that maybe George Bush's parents let him horde trains, and their parents before them probably did the same thing. It's a vicious cycle, if not broken by some strong individual. If it is extrapolated out to an international level, it becomes downright scary. The U.S. already has most of the world's supply of trains, but is constantly stealing trains from others. We took all the trains from Central America, and Afghanistan, and it looks like we're about to go back into Iraq to grab their last few trains (The ones that the big Bush left behind last time). I think the big Bush has been letting that one really bother him. He really likes his trains, and his impressionable youngster wants to make daddy happy.

A train in the hand is worth everything to a Bush. Is that how the old saying goes?

And why the hell does the Early Childhood Center at my museum have a children's book written by Dick Cheney's wife? That scares me. I didn't dare actually read it, but I bet it's all about how to take trains from other kids.

written to the tune of : Tiny Tim "Songs of an Impotent Troubadour" Of course.