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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be absolutely speechless...

61 replies

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 31/03/2011 18:55

This is written on a friends facebook...

wtf, there is a breastfeeding doll out for kids. that is just sooo wrong!!
followed by many comments in agreement, and lots of let kids be kids

Said friends daughter is bridesmaid at a wedding I am attending this weekend. I've never felt uncomfortable feeding DS before, but this comment is now making me feel very awkward.
Plus I'm just in complete shock that I have a friend who thinks like this.

OP posts:
Lookandlearn · 31/03/2011 19:41

Actually, read fb comments and it seems she does have prob with children pretending to bf. Still wouldn't read that as having a prob with bf. But people are a bit squeamish about children and birth/bf etc. Someone was a bit upset that my dd is aware about how babies get out. She asked, I told. And when she asked if she had the same hole I also told. Dd is five.

Lookandlearn · 31/03/2011 19:43

Btw I mean both mine have pretended to bf dolls, not that we own the doll under discussion!!

ragged · 31/03/2011 19:44

Um, we own a doll that can give birth & breastfeed.
This one.
It's not yucky in the least.
I find dolls that poo quite disgusting, though.
I agree that the FB comment is about dolls, though, not real life.

Lookandlearn · 31/03/2011 19:49

No that doll is lovely. But she doesn't have flowers where the nipples should be!

Lookandlearn · 31/03/2011 19:51

And she's not helping a small child bizarrely dress up as an adult, but not quite (because otherwise it would be inappropriate) when the lovely role play it is designed to facilitate needs no pretend equipment at all!

Original poster
allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 31/03/2011 19:56

Would the doll be better accepted if it came with plastic comedy breasts do you think? [joking] As a lot of the people who dislike it, actually dislike the flowery vest? (me included there)

OP posts:
grovel · 31/03/2011 20:01

I think Action Man should shoot out sperm if you rub him in the right place. Got to get our kids "real" as soon as possible.

FreudianSlippery · 31/03/2011 20:12

I don't really get why a BFing doll is weird and yet a doll with a bottle isn't seen as weird.

Original poster
allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 31/03/2011 20:14

Perhaps I should suggest to her that I dont want my DS seeing a doll bottlefed if her DD takes her dolly...? Wink

OP posts:
Original poster
allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 31/03/2011 20:14

[joking!!]

OP posts:
spiderslegs · 31/03/2011 20:57

grovel - thank you, just snorted wine out my nose

mmmerangue · 31/03/2011 21:01

My immediate reaction was "eww a breastfeeding doll!" too.

But wait... I'm breastfeeding my son. My mum breastfed me. I would hope, if i have a daughter, and if she had a child, that she would also.

So, for her to mother a dolly as naturally as possible? I think my immediate shock is a bit unfounded really. The doll could actually help undo the damage of generations being taught that a bottle was best... to ingrain in her from a young age that that is how babies are fed!

(although one of my favourite toys was the bottle for dolly that 'emptied' when you tipped it up. I swear it was magic. If I saw it in a shop now I would be buying it pre-emptively for future DD.)

Pregnant Barbie was a bit creepy though wasn't she?

spiderslegs · 31/03/2011 21:02

Have to say though, the DM article is typical in its hysterical assumptions, it's not premature sexualisation - just twee, overpriced shite.

grovel · 31/03/2011 21:22

Excellent, spiderslegs. Spot on.

PrettyCandles · 01/04/2011 00:19

Tidying away the dcs' toys this evening, I came across a doll dd had modified when ds2 was a baby. She had drawn nipples on it, and at the time it was usually the mother doll in her games. I had completely forgotten about this doll, but finding it reminded me of dd's annoyance that none of the dolls or bears had breasts, and her confusion that the action men did!

Lookandlearn · 01/04/2011 00:20

Mmmerangue, we got ours in mothercare - emptying bottles I mean, not breast feeding doll. Isn't the whole concept of breastfeeding doll a bit silly- the beauty of bf is you don't need additional "equipment". Likewise, dd has never needed a flowery vest to role-play breast feeding- rather like real life she just pops whatever doll she's playing with up get t shirt!

Fernie3 · 01/04/2011 00:32

I don't see the problem with the doll but I probably wouldn't buy it myself. My son (4) feeds dolls when he sees me feeding but gets confused and feeds it from his belly button!. My two year old has a doll and bottle she had In a set and seems to alternate between pretend breastfeeding and pretend bottle-feeding.

MintyMoo · 01/04/2011 10:17

'Why would a little girl need to learn how to breast-feed before she has breasts? Before she goes through puberty?
'This is another disgusting example of forcing adulthood on our children decades before they're ready to absorb it.'

(from the DM link)

LOL. Why would a little girl need to play with a pretend baby before she goes through puberty?

What a plonker.

OTheHugeManatee · 01/04/2011 11:00

I used to play at breastfeeding my dolls when I was 5 and had a baby brother. What's so weird about that?

wannaBe · 01/04/2011 11:13

the doll is weird.

nothing wrong with breastfeeding. nothing wrong with pretending to breast (or bottle) feed a conventional doll or teddybear or whatever else.

But this toy is marketed as an educational toy. Seriously - children do not need to be educated about breastfeeding when they are still babies themselves - no child is going to grow up and think "oh, yes, I had a doll that was breastfed - that must be the way it's done." by the time they get to an age where they consider having babies one would hope they'd moved past the "educational" Hmm value of toys.

NoWayNoHow · 01/04/2011 11:17

YABU, there is not need at all for you to feel awkward feeding in front of her ffs.

Her status wasn't anti BF - it was anti the doll.

Quenelle · 01/04/2011 11:21

What's a breastfeeding doll? Does it come with a breast instead of a bottle?

WinterOfOurDiscountTents · 01/04/2011 11:33

How is any more yuk than a baby with a bottle stuck in its face?

God the things people find time to dredge up disgust for. Hmm

WinterOfOurDiscountTents · 01/04/2011 11:34

*baby doll, I mean there.

ashamedandconfused · 01/04/2011 11:42

breastfeeding doll with bib thing that makes sucking noises is very wierd, and I would not buy it - but the one thats a mummy doll feeding its baby doll is lovely! perfectly natuaral for a child to see/do that IMO

Mine (including DS) have all pretended to BF dollies/teddies etc anyway by shoving them up their tops - and my 5 yr old used to regularly give birth to octuplets who (looking at the huge range of colours and shapes) must have had several different fathers - and all with no pain relief Shock

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