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Original poster

Liking children’s things as an adult

123 replies

DuvetCovers · 13/12/2023 17:13

As a child I loved things like Flower Fairies and Brambly Hedge, but was never allowed them as my mum didn’t approve (very much not her aesthetic).

The problem is that I still love them, despite being a lawyer in my 40s with kids and a large mortgage.

Very tempted to buy some books. Does anyone else do things like this? Don’t want to end up a mad old lady in a house full of dolls and doilies 😂

OP posts:
baileybrosbuildingandloan · 13/12/2023 22:36

TM1979 · 13/12/2023 17:15

One day I will buy myself a sylvanian families house and lots of figures!

I've told my family that this is what I want when my mind has gone with dementia! 😊

LauderSyme · 14/12/2023 01:00

GenerousGardener · 13/12/2023 18:55

As a child I loved my Sindy doll. As an adult I still love Sindy dolls. I have a collection and have just bought a 60th anniversary Sindy doll. Yes, she really is 60 years old.

Edited

I loved my Sindys too from the late seventies to mid eighties 🤗

I still have a Sindy sofa and chair and their look and plasticky smell are so very particular and evocative. Possessing them lights a daft little flame of joy and pride in me.

Of my two or three dolls, one survives, battered and bravely punk-haired.

Caswallonthefox · 14/12/2023 01:10

I got my youngest ds into sylvanian families because I wanted them as a child. I also have a large collection of soft toys, mostly cats but also including the tiny blue bird from angry birds.
My soft toys are because I can. My mother was tight with money, even though we were well off and my sister being the bitch she is, decided to take back all the soft toys I'd inherited from her.

theduchessofspork · 14/12/2023 01:21

The flower fairy illustrations are just beautiful (the poems are shite mind you)

They’d look very nice as a framed set on the wall, like people often do with botanical prints.

Lots of children’s books - Alice, Hans Ch Anderson, Paddington, Dr z etc have fantastic illustrations.

shearwater2 · 14/12/2023 01:21

DuvetCovers · 13/12/2023 17:13

As a child I loved things like Flower Fairies and Brambly Hedge, but was never allowed them as my mum didn’t approve (very much not her aesthetic).

The problem is that I still love them, despite being a lawyer in my 40s with kids and a large mortgage.

Very tempted to buy some books. Does anyone else do things like this? Don’t want to end up a mad old lady in a house full of dolls and doilies 😂

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a woman man, I put away childish things.

The King James missed the rest of his quote ..."in the loft for a few years until the kids move out and the dining room becomes Sylvanian World".

oobedobe · 14/12/2023 01:25

I loved barbie as a child and my inner 8 year loves to look whimsically at the newer barbies they have now, I love the 'extra' ones with crazy hair and fab outfits. I have resisted buying one as it would just sit in a box gathering dust.

Also a life long lover of miniature or cute things, Maileg Mice are right up my street, I only have one Christmas one that lives in a matchbox as they are $$$.

HoHoHoliday · 14/12/2023 01:51

You should treat yourself to those flower fairy books and whatever else you want! Life is too short to care what anyone else thinks.

I am mid 40s and have just brought myself the Mr Frosty that I first asked Father Christmas for 40 years ago and never got year after year. It's wrapped up and is under my tree labelled to me from me. I can't wait to open it!

AnotherCrazyCatLady · 14/12/2023 02:04

I have my entire herd of My Little Ponies (acquired in the 1980s) on a shelf in my living room.

Years ago there was a decluttering programme where some of the 'hoarders' were in fact obsessed collectors who had transformed their houses into floor-to-ceiling museums. The collections were insane in terms of size, but always presented beautifully. I found the collectors to be quite inspiring as their professed love for their possessions actually translated to how they cared for them in practice. How many of us don't want to part with our so-called "treasured" possessions, but keep said possessions in cardboard boxes stored in the loft? My ponies lived in a box for many years, but not anymore! They were a great joy for me, and I like having them out where I can see them.

WolfAndBadger · 14/12/2023 02:30

I didn't know proper my little pony was back 🥰

Wantingtomove123 · 14/12/2023 03:01

I used to buy everything saying it’s for my dd but now I’m buying myself Brambley hedge books for the second time (long story.. we moved countries and everything I put in to storage disappeared and I was devastated) I love sylvanians (which rubbed off on my dd) and bought myself lil woodzees as she is loyal to Sylvanians 😆. I have soft toys, pretty books like flower fairies and a few ornaments like Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse etc(again, some I’m buying for the second time as I lost them all). I figured, if it makes me happy and I’m not harming anyone, why should I care about how I should be and what other people may think?

SkankingWombat · 14/12/2023 03:04

This is one of the biggest joys of parenthood IMO: sharing your most favourite childhood things.

Buy the books OP. They take up next to no room, and Brambly Hedge books can be picked up second hand on Ebay for £3-4 each inc postage (scroll past the crazies wanting £20...). My DM clearly loved BH. We spent hours looking at all the beautiful details within the illustrations. It rubbed off onto me, and in turn I have shared it with my DCs. Ditto the Happy Families series, The Hobbit, Watership Down, Bill's New Frock, The Animals of Farthing Wood etc etc etc... And I have many more to go as they grow further.

Sylvanian's too if you really want to. DM kept all mine, so I have passed those on (and added some more). I've found this bit harder, as although they love them, they are not as careful as I was. It's hard not to feel sad when something that survived many years of happy play and numerous house moves gets broken so quickly after being handed over. It also makes me neurotic when hoovering, and I always thoroughly check the fluff as I empty the chamber. It is bulky too.
However, I have bought DCs a tonne of Gravitrax so I can build epic-sized marble runs. I would love to get a Scalextric at some point - I never had one and was always envious of my best friends' - but neither DC is interested in cars, so there is no way to get it into the house under the guise of a gift for them!

Ger1atricMillennial · 14/12/2023 03:05

Do it, its your money you earned it you can do what you like with it! Heal that inner child 👧

PralinaChocs · 14/12/2023 03:18

I've started buying a Playmobil advent calendar every year. It is supposedly for 'the children', who do the door openings every day, but really it's for me. It's one of my favourite parts of Christmas.

coldcallerbaiter · 14/12/2023 03:31

Loved flower fairies as a child and adult, I would sit and draw them, copying. I loved that they were children but also fairies.

Still like anything miniature. I was a dollshouse fanatic.

Love Percy pigs! Rhubarb and custards, liquorice allsorts.

Love a pop of neon still, in nail varnish or clothes especially when somewhere sunny.

gerispringer · 14/12/2023 03:44

With 6 grandchildren I have a perfect excuse to have a dolls house, a Sylvanian bus, a box of playmobil and a Sasha doll collection . We’ve also kept my youngest DCs Thunderbirds models and Tracey Island which my youngest DGS loves.

CaraMiaMonCher · 14/12/2023 03:50

I have a glass display cabinet in my “office” (at home) which contains vintage Polly Pockets, My Little Ponies, Sylvanian Families, Care Bears, etc.

I wasn’t, in any way, deprived of toys as child, but I was always told how destructive I was, how I didn’t look after my things properly, that they were chewed or their hair was badly chopped and coloured in, etc and I think this all got ingrained into me somewhere as being a character flaw - so having this cabinet of pristine things now heals a little bit of that, and it just makes me happy to look at it.

You are absolutely not being unreasonable. Buy the things!

FaiIureToLunch · 14/12/2023 03:54

In tough times I head to a Judy Blume/Nancy Drew for a comfort read and am also highly partial to a SpongeBob binge. I quite often sit and watch a SpongeBob while my kids are at school 😂😂😂

MooseBeTimeForSnow · 14/12/2023 04:14

@SpacePotato <coughs>

Liking children’s things as an adult
garlictwist · 14/12/2023 05:22

Home Bargains sell these simply enormous teddy bears. I am always eyeing them up. I live alone and just think it would be great to share the sofa with a big bear of an evening but I think it would be incredibly weird so haven't bought one.

Piemam · 14/12/2023 06:53

@DuvetCovers , don't know if anyone has mentioned it, not read all replies- sorry. Was in Waterstone's and there was a display of books including a 40th (I think) year collection of Brambly Hedge stories, and the cover was just lovely! Reminded me instantly of the old notebook I had as a child and in fact, I recommended the book to a young girl, looking for "old books"! Buy it!

Violinist64 · 14/12/2023 07:32

I have a lot of Ladybird books from the sixties and seventies when they were at their peak. Several of them are from my childhood collection. The illustrations are exquisite. I am in a facebook group for Vintage Ladybird books. Many people of my generation are equally interested in them and feel the same nostalgia.

herbygarden · 14/12/2023 07:39

Me and my best friend (both 40s) were drooling over Bramley Hedge stuff in a shop last week! Go for it!!

blackfluffycat · 14/12/2023 07:41

Large mortgage 🤔

ChristmasTreeMagic · 14/12/2023 07:42

When dd was little we bought her lots of sylvanian stuff. She was only sort of interested & I realised I was actually buying it for me! Dh became weirdly invested in putting all the pieces back on place too which was funny. I think we found it therapeutic rearranging tiny furniture & animals
They're just such cute toys
We had the hotel & the house & the ice cream van & the camper van & the car & pretty much all the animal families at one point.
Some days I wish we still had them out & I could 'tidy' them up for a couple of hours .

Schoolrunmumbun · 14/12/2023 07:52

Things I've bought pretending they are for DC but really they are for me:

1980s style my little pony
Ramona books collection, some secondhand with 90s cover art
Care bear
Mog books
Kickers school shoes for dc, for my own nostalgia

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