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

So many students take their cuddly toys to uni ... leave your DD to enjoy them .... she is only 8. I bet others on her trip will a cuddly toy in their luggage.

She sounds lovely. I'm 50 years older and still sleep with my teddies, so don't take my advice. 🤣

Love the written Rota!! My dd does the same on trips. She never takes her current favourite either but a second tier one.

This reminds me of when my brother was about 16 or so. He didn't play with teddies anymore but indulged me when I went to him with my teddies. I usually kept a few of my teddies in his room. None of his friends ever mentioned anything except for one guy who kept making fun of him for having teddies in his room. My brother didn't seem too bothered. He said something to the guy about using them as punching bags. I felt bad and guilty but he told me later not to worry and that the guy was just an idiot. And to his credit he didn't ask me to stop bringing them to his room.

My 15 yr old DS took one of his favourite cuddly toys on his most recent trip away 🤣 I don't think you have anything to worry about!

DSs school encourages the children to take soft toys to school residental in year 5.

All his friends took one.

He's 10.

You are trying to make her grow up before she is ready. She is displaying age appropriate behaviour.

Don't be that parent.

My son took one of his soft toys on a school trip when that age. They lost his bag so never got it back. Luckily it wasn't one he was attached to. But it will be fine to take something.

Just give them to her. At 8 lots of kids will still sleep with teddies. When my dd went on an overnight school trip at age 8 all the girls in her room had brought a soft toy.

Cuddly toys can be a source of great comfort to kids and help them learn how to self soothe. Especially when they are away from home for the first time having a soft toy with them will help.

i also don't think she is weird for feeling bad for them. I still feel bad if my dc kick or throw their soft toys. They are designed to be anthromorphised and to evoke nurturing feelings in people I suppose.

Totally normal, I had a written rota for my teddies sleeping in my bed so nobody got left out!

Also sensible to not send the very special ones on a trip. My most favourite bear (I’m 32, still love him) has never been on a trip or holiday, that is a job for a second tier teddy

My DD goes on Cub camps and the “kit list”
issued includes cuddly toy, she always takes one. We usually have to make it’s only one 😂
Nothing wrong with cuddly toys! I’m not saying I don’t sleep with a Winnie the Pooh every night, I’m also not saying I don’t…

My 11 yr old neice still loves a cuddly toy. It's fine

Because if she loses it while she’s away it’s a tragedy! My dd had a couple of near misses when she used to take her favourite dog everywhere - disaster averted by an observant and kind member of housekeeping at a Novotel when he ended up caught in the sheets for instance, who contacted guests with small children to figure out who he belonged to. DD decided that this dog should stay safely home in her bed guarding her room while another came on holidays with us.

I sleep with a little cuddly toy called George. I am 40. You're welcome 😊

My DCs primary school was brilliant. Not only were favourite cuddlies encouraged, they were photographed, recorded and had a daily check to make sure they hadn't got lost. It was lovely to see the supposedly grown up and sometimes tough Y6s getting on the coach with a battered old toy clutched in their hands.

DS took his favourite bear to university, keeping him hidden away. He then discovered that everyone else on his landing had done the same. They had a little party for them one afternoon.

My DD is 11 and has a favourite cuddly. She tells him her anxieties, and when she’s REALLY worried, she chews his ear. Literally.
She obviously knows he’s not real, but still says that he’d feel sad if she left him behind etc. I think it sounds completely normal, especially at 8.
If you’re worried about the school trip, both of my DC took teddies on residentials, as did 90% of their class mates. Like a PP, a teddy was always on schools list.
Although my DD probably wouldn’t take her favourite as she’s terrified of losing him

Don't worry about this at all. My son was very attached at this age and would take them everywhere, we had to have rules on now many. Then it just stopped overnight and totally lost interest. It's just a phase and she's only 8.

Quite right - we have bears whose main job in life is to go on holiday. The consequences of losing the main bears is just too awful. The kids - even when small - managed just fine. DD is 15 and off on a residential today. I expect Florence will be going.

This has given me horrible flashbacks to when I was 18 (yes, 18) and took my childhood Teddy on holiday with my so called friends.

I came back from the shower to find poor Teddy hung by the neck dangling from the light fitting. 😩😱🧸

DD is quite right to take different toys. Just support her in managing this as she sees fit.

I am nearly sixty and still sleep with a bear.

My DS is 8, he would take an entire suitcase of soft toys on holiday if he could. He doesn't have a favourite and often cries on the way to the airport because he feels sad about the many that he left behind. Last night he asked me to pass him the few that had fallen out of his bed onto the floor because he felt sad for them. Some kids have big feelings, it's fine, it's who they are. I am helping him navigate the extremes he feels but it's just the way he is.

I’m 40 and sleep with a cuddly…

Having seen your update I think I misunderstood your post. Apologies. So while in a way yes it’s reassuring that other children still sleep with their teddies, both mine have lost special teddies on trips abroad while in senior school and it was pretty traumatic. One, Bunny, lost forever in a hotel in Austria. And two others, Raffy and Little Bear, recovered after two months and more emails than I care to remember, from a campervan in France.
She’s obviously very caring and it’s lovely that she doesn’t want to make them sad. But she would be even sadder if she didn’t have them to come home to. Taking a photo of them on the trip is a great idea.

Ah sorry didn’t see your updates re them getting lost. That’s fair enough. I totally understand, I speak from experience of having to buy a replacement favourite teddy and throw it around the garden to make it look as loved as the original. I wonder what my neighbours thought

Dd is in secondary school and all the girls still take their teddies on school trips. My dd and her friends have sleepovers and always bring their teddy. They are 12 and 13. It’s quite a normal thing and no one even mentions it.
Im in my 30s and still have my two teddies I got when I was born on my bed. I don’t take them on holiday because they are too precious but I would if I wasn’t worried about losing them. As I say dd still sleeps with hers every night. It’s ok to have a favourite teddy all through life. As long as they are not so attached they need to carry it around every minute and that’s only because it would be distracting and get lost. Many dc in my children’s primary school bring teddies to cuddle in class.

What you should have done was buy at least 5 of each (ever so slightly different features) and have entire back stories and family trees created. So Ted’s great aunt Hilda is going with her rather than Ted. They are much easier to replace if they go missing than the hallowed Ted.

Do we have the OG bear and a plethora of his family in our house? Damn right. 😅

Ah that’s very sweet. My youngest is 11 and is very attached still to the 15 teddies on his bed. When he was younger and only had a few he would bring them all on holiday or to his friends for a sleepover. Eventually he had so many I would say you can only bring a couple and he then wouldn’t bring any as the other teddies would be sad. 😢
Now at nearly 12 the teddies are all still on the bed. I have a feeling he’s going to demote them to the top of the wardrobe soon. Will make bed making easier for me!

I'm 41, and a (reasonably) sensible, well-adjusted adult.
Pinky (a now verrrry flat, un-fluffy rabbit), has been with me since 1983. He has survived almost 20 house moves, I cuddle him in bed every night and he'd honestly be the first thing I'd think to save in a fire.
And... my mum adores him. He holds such memories for her of childhood and innocence and honestly, it's so sweet. There's enough badness in this world and your daughter won't always want to be so publicly demonstrative of her love for these special toys... She sounds a sweet, lovely child, let her do what makes her happy 🩷