I'm an adult ... but I own a teddy bear! (Light-hearted (ish!))

[Goneforaride]

I'm an adult, fully functioning female. Retired from a professional job, but with a good social life, active hobbies, a dog, an unwell DH to care for (vascular dementia plus other health issues), a home to look after and all the usual life admin and other stuff going on.

So, I have come on an anonymous on-line forum to confess that I own several stuffed toys - teddy bears, a fluffy sheep, a fluffy unicorn and other kids toys which I am very fond of and which I have no intention of parting with any time soon. Some of them live in our spare room - the space where I keep my clothes etc, and some of them live in my little home office - the place I used to use to wfh before I retired, and which remains my little retreat from the rest of the house.

I know I really need to grow up and consign them all to the local charity shop, but can anyone make me feel a bit better about this awful confession, and tell me they too have a fluffy little pal that just won't part with?

Me too, they kind of feel alive. My youngest DC especially has a giant collection of soft toys, but they all have a lot. I'm picturing inheriting the vast majority of them when they one day leave home. Not sure I could send them to a charity shop.

Your dh sounds lovely!

I've got loads, and a collection of cabbage patch kids. Don't sell your OP, why should you!

I still have Teds in the bed - I tell my husband they are to guard the bed while we’re out. They listen to everything I say, agree with everything and never answer back. I also have a small mascot I take to football. I felt sorry for him in his football kit in the middle of winter, so I’ve knitted him a duffle coat and trousers ( as well as the obligatory bobble hat ).

My sister has a huge Jelly cat collection. I'm not jealous, really I'm not..

Why do you need to 'grow up' about this? Keep them.

Secretly, I still believe at some level that my furry friends are somehow alive and have feelings. This is one reason why I could never take them to the charity shop... the guilt would be too much!!

Phew. Glad I'm not the only one.

Love this!

I’m 32 and Wuzzles- who I have had since I was 3 is never leaving me!
Neither is foxy who I’ve had since I was born!

I'm loving all these replies. I'm so happy to know I'm not the only one.

My little collective are definitely not going to the charity shop any time soon - they are sitting looking at me with their beady eyes as I type this, and I'm sure they're smiling to know they have a home for life. 😀

I also have several cuddly toys at home...

A couple were given to me by friends when I was in my early teens and they have stayed with me through life.

I bought a fluffy toy cat in a charity shop a few months ago. Technically it was something for my rescue cat to help her feel secure in her new home. She had no interest in it so it is now on my bed :).

I also found a toy dog in a field when I was in Scotland a couple of years ago and brought it back as a souvenir.

I also have a couple of vintage toys on display: a 1950 clown in a box from Germany and a victorian doll. They are interesting objects.

Frankly if anyone has an issue with it, that's not my problem.

There is a bit of history/a real Storie attached to all these toys which is one of the reasons I like them.

@Goneforaride

Dont feel embarrassed or ashamed i used to be one of those types of people who would have thought years ago,

Why on 🌎 earth would a grown up female need a 🧸 Teddy bear?,

After going through some seriously shit life experiences such as mix of seriously dysfunctional childhood / teen years and some good experiences too thankfully, but not quite enough to counteract the shitty aspects

then ending up in domestic abuse relationships,

I changed my mind about the idea of why grownups have soft toys,

It's nostalgia escapism thing for me, and something cuddly i can cuddle up to on my own whenever i feel like it if i want to.

I think it's quite common to turn to comforting reasuring things, whatever that may be,
especially at times of great stress and emotionally turbulent times..

I'm 43 and I have both my dc's first cuddly toys (bowwoow and ted bear) and two sloths, one my dp bought me and one my eldest bought me all sat on bed and a small sloth dp bought me that sits on my desk under my monitor. ☺️

My DP is a highly successful, professional man in his 30s. He has a very responsible job, on top on which he's a co-founder and director of a multi-million pound company, and he regularly gets flown all over the world to do consultancy for which he charges £3,000 per day.

And he is obsessed with Pokemon. Obsessed. He plays Pokemon on his DS or Switch every evening for a couple of hours. He has thousands of cards which he treasures and looks at regularly. He loves anything Pokemon themed - clothes, trinkets, sweets, stationary. He follows loads of Pokemon accounts on social media and spends time every night just before lights-out watching Pokemon unboxing videos.

You're not alone in your inner child, OP.

I recently bought myself one of those very squishy big cuddlies. It comes on holiday with me.

So it's a thumbs 👍 up from me.

DH and I both still have our childhood bears. DHs bear had a milestone birthday a while ago, I baked a cake.

I used to know an elderly woman who had never had a bear, due to poverty etc. Her family gave her a gorgeous soft cuddly teddy for her 90th birthday. She absolutely adored it and rarely put him down.

I know I really need to grow up and consign them all to the local charity shop, but can anyone make me feel a bit better about this awful confession, and tell me they too have a fluffy little pal that just won't part with?

Why? How are your teddies (and mine, for that matter!) any different to anybody else's hobby or collection?

I have kept my teddies since childhood. Some have been passed down to my dc. The oldest ones, the ones I felt too precious about to easily share, are in a box in my wardrobe. They are not on our bed because I didn't want to feel I couldn't say No to my dc. The teddies on our bed are the ones dh gave me in the early years of our relationship. And the ones the dc have given us over the years.

Gosh, dh and I have somehow managed to make it to adulthood, and have adult children, and still have teddies in our bed! 😄

I don’t see the issue with it . My adult son got me a Lucifer ( Disney cat) as part of my Mother’s Day gift and I have a fluffy bison , neither will be going anywhere .

I work with the elderly and have a gentleman in his 70s who loves his teddy bear (just at night when he sleeps) it had worn away to nothing, so I treated him to a new one for christmas and he was delighted. He lives alone and is very isolated due to poor health. If it makes him happy, then its all good in my book.

I was most annoyed at the end of Toy Story 3, when Andy boxes up his toys and gives them all to Bonnie. No! He's supposed to put them in the loft so that he can give them to his children , just as his mum gave Woody and Slink to him.

I wouldn’t have been able to split them up 😢

I have a couple of the Jellycat plants. They are my desk pets. They are cute and, unlike real plants, won’t die on me.

The Aloe is called Vera and the Snake plant is called Sid. I also purchased the baby Aloe at the weekend. Still thinking of a name for that one.

I have a teddy that I got for my birthday 59 years ago, a panda and a marmot! Ted sits at the end of my bed, the other two on the bookcase. Can't see anything wrong with that!

My son buys me stuffed animals for birthdays, Christmas, and Mother's days. He'd be devastated if I sent them off to the charity shop. He'll even ask and make sure I've packed the one I sleep with when we go away on holiday!

My 50yr old Bear that my grandma gave me for my 2nd birthday had a bit of a revamp a few months ago. He'd got a bit flat & battered along the years so I took him to a lady who has been on The Repair Shop.
She re-stuffed his body & head which was horrific to watch... the original stuffing was wood wool which I understand is quite old-fashioned but it's now been replaced by more modern alternative. I chose a new growl.
The joints on his arms, legs & head were sturdy so the limbs were good. There were a few little bits on his nose to be stitched up, a bit of a wash & brush up & he looks brilliant now.
There are several other childhood bears from grandparents, the Greats & school friends that live in the spare room along with a large collection of Enid Blyton's that belonged to my mother.
There are too many memories to get rid of any of them. Obviously once I go, nobody's going to think 'oh I'll keep them' but for now, they're still with me.