To worry my DD8 might be too attached to her cuddly toys??

When I was sent away to school at the age of 10, my mother threw out my cuddly toys and I never forgot it. There was one in particular, a rabbit, that I adored. To me it had a personality and it looked after me so losing it was a real wrench. Only in my 60s did I set out to find a replacement and I did find one, which now sits next to my side of the bed with some of its new rabbit siblings.

The poet John Betjeman was so attached to his bear, Archibald Ormsby-Gore, that he loved all its fur off and he held it in his arms as he died at the age of 77.

Two late elderly friends were buried with their teddies, just sayin'...

But it sounds like it’s just her lovely, gentle nature and great imagination at play. - exactly - and to be encouraged as an antidote to fronted adverbials and the like!!

Gosh - my 13 year old GS loves cuddly toys - he has lots of them and still unashamedly asks for one for birthday and Christmas!

I am widowed and, thinking about it, I wouldn't mind one! 😀

OP, your DD sounds as if she's got a rich inner life and her teddies are included in it. Her anxieties and yours, that her favourites might get lost on the school trip aren't unreasonable and the suggestion that you get her an Outward Bound Bear, dedicated to travel is a good one. In the unfortunate event that OBB is lost enroute, you (or your DD) can have a scenario that he or she was tempted away by independent travel, hit the hippy trail etc. It would be a natural part of the character arc for OBB, whereas Top Tier Bear would be a distressing loss.

for very good reason as those of us who’ve had lost favourite disasters or near misses have explained. The child is in agreement with her favourite staying safely at home. It’s just a question of whether the attachment is normal (to which obviously, yes) and how to navigate it. The OPs solution of top Ted having a sleepover with her rather than languishing on the floor is good.

I'm 47 audhd, and still attached to my teddies! If there were a house fire, I'd try to save them!

My DC goes to scouts and at the sleepovers a teddy is mandatory on the kit list.

This is to stop embarrassment for the ones that still need a teddy.

8 is still so young - I wouldn’t give it another thought. Dd was still taking Little Ted everywhere even as a student - inc. the months she spent in Russia, which included a very hairy horseback trip in the wilds of Siberia! She still has Little Ted decades later.

I was away with work for a night this week and took a teddy. I did worry a bit that the one I left behind would feel left out but he had DH there to look after him 😂

Never mind other people's teenagers. My mum's well into her seventies and her favourite teddy still lives by her bed! An eight year old is still young. My daughter's nine and has a school residential trip coming up. She's torn between which of three favourite toys she should take, but there's no question of her going without.

No but she's trying to stop her taking the ones she's most attached to that will give her most comfort?

I don't get it why would you not let her take them? I can assure you when kids go on residential in year 6 and 7 they all take a favourite cuddly or two?!

Shes only 8?

Why do you need this much control that seems more unhealthy that the toys

That's completely normal.
Year 6 camp list had a Teddy on it for ours. At around 10 I remember one friend bringing a huge backpack full of cuddlys and a giant unicorn nearly a meter long to a sleepover too. At 8 I'd definitely expect it still.

She isn't likely to lose them on a trip - they'll stay on or near her bed, surely. It's perfectly normal for children to take cuddly toys on an overnight trip - especially at 8.

Just to add my DS13 takes his special three usually with him. We did lose the most precious one tragically at Glastonbury festival when he was about two. He was in a cart letting ‘white Elly’ look out and I’d warned him several times that if she fell we’d never find her again. It was one of the very muddy years. Sure enough she fell, and we looked but obviously she’d have been tramped and the same colour as the mud. He didn’t cry but was very sad indeed. But announced Elly was dancing with Dolly. Dolly Parton played that year and he loved her. He used to mention it periodically but it wasn’t as traumatic as I thought it would be. Definitely very sad and misses her but noticed he was a lot more careful about them since, however he also has no problem with any of the hundreds of soft toys being on the floor/inside the duvet cover, wedged down the side of the bed, but the main three (we had a not the same back up Elly) are usually with him.

Bless her, she sounds really sweet. Let her have them, she obviously needs them. And I'd also be reassuring her that most other children will take a special teddy on the school trip. My son definitely took one at that age (and it was on the school's kit list!) and his friends did, too. I'd just talk to her about putting it somewhere safe and that she doesn't have to get it out until she feels comfortable to do so, at bedtime.

Fwiw my dd is also 8 and she would absolutely be taking her Raffi with her! It's their connection to home, love, comfort and safety. Perfectly normal.

Read the OPs posts, folks! She’s not trying to stop her child having her teddies in bed or taking one on holiday.

She’s 8. I’m a Brownie leader and it’s a rare Brownie that doesn’t bring a teddy. They’re a link to home and comfort.

My DC9’s school residential did a teddy bears tea party for lunch one of the days.

I still sleep with a cuddly toy and I’m a proper adult. And I have to say good night to her or she’ll be upset

She is still very young, why not just let her sleep with her favourite comforters and let her take one on the school trip. She probably won't be the only one to take a soft toy.
My daughter took her favourite teddy with her when she went to university.

My 12 year old boy still sleeps with his ‘Pandy’ and won’t hide it from friends when they visit. And no he doesn’t get bullied over it either. Let her be a child, she’s 8 🙄

We do that for Scouts and cubs at our group. We put Mascot/teddy (vital) in the kit list. Adults bring one too as it makes the kids feel less embarrassed and is comforting for kids especially those who’ve maybe not been away before.

Apologies op I misread your post. I thought you are trying to stop her from sleeping with any teddies in her bed or taking any teddies on the trip or become too attached to teddies in general. If I understand correctly you are worried about her being attached to two particular teddies. Is that right?

Anyway, either way I don't know a single child of any age who doesn't have a favourite teddy. I think it's pretty normal to be attached to a particular one. As I said ij my previous post they are designed to be anthropomorphic and for humans to bond with them so it makes sense to have favourites.

However it is a good idea to not take her favourites on the trip in case she loses them.