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Original poster

I am awful - I know

48 replies

LatteLady · 31/07/2011 14:17

Yesterday I was helping a friend out in her shop, when a couple appeared with a pink pram and what looked like a new-born snoozing. They were looking for a crocheted matinee set for the baby as she said she wanted something girly. My chum went to look at the baby, and said, "ooh she is lovely, just like a little doll!" To which they replied, "She is a doll!" We both got to have a hold and it was quite freaky, especially as the head needed supporting...

Apparently, they are trying to have a baby together (she has children from a previous relationship) and this doll was based on pics of her kids when they were babies. Her partner will not let her push the pram and they take this "baby" everywhere including putting her in the baby carrier on a supermarket trolley. They are about to have a breathing and heartbeat mechanism inserted and are saving up for a voice box.

They have another doll who is about to be rebirthed (which is apparently the technical term for an upgrade) but she is a tomboy!

In some ways I feel very sympathetic but I really cannot get my head around why you would want to go Saturday shopping with a doll - go on tell me I am a rotten old baggage cos in the back of my mind I can see Chucky sitting in the pram....

OP posts:
LineRunner · 31/07/2011 15:30

There's the sensible version of this, which is 'Baby Think It Over' for teens, which aims to cut teenage pregnancy rates by getting youngsters to look after a crying microchipped baby-doll all weekend;

And then there are the 'horrifc monstrositites' [thanks, thursday!] for the mentally fragile.

Bloodymary · 31/07/2011 15:32

BradfordMum She was pretending to breastfeed a doll in a public place Shock

Oh dear that is beyond sad, that is mental health issues!

Empusa · 31/07/2011 15:37

Oh dear god... she was pretending to breastfeed it?!

Empusa · 31/07/2011 15:39

Just looked at the website for these dolls, some of them wouldn't look out of place in a horror film Confused

superjobee · 31/07/2011 15:46

i feel really sorry for the ppl who have these dolls they just dont realise their money would be better spent on therapy as most of them cant have kids/ have empty nest syndrome/ have lost a child and instead of coming to terms with it they buy these little fake babies and live lives as their 'mummys' instead of moving on :( shocked at the lady breastfeeding a dolly that is extreme!

FreudianSlipper · 31/07/2011 15:49

i feel very sorry for them to want a child that much you baby a doll, its very sad

cookielove · 31/07/2011 15:53

The show was called 'my fake baby'.

The grandmother spent most of the show talking about her grandson, and really implied that he had died and it was grief, and yes she had been his primary care giver while his mother was sick, she had in fact married and moved. The grandmother asked her daughter to leave him behind Shock she spoke to him on skype and when she showed him the doll he thought it was silly. She also said she wouldn't be one of those people who had a push chair and a car seat, she wasn't crazy like that e.t.c but in the end turns out she was, i think the show ended with her taking him out of the car seat, and putting him a push chair. Her husband wanted nothing to do with it.

There was another lady who couldn't conceive, and decided that shouldn't couldn't handle the mess a baby made, she had two prams and indoor and an out door one, she washed the pram wheels regularly. She put fabric conditioner in bottles as it a) lasted longer b) looked most like formula c) had the best consistency. She bought her babies designer outfits, accessories e.t.c she posed with the baby at the aquarium and other such places, she was obsessed, and her husband went along with it.

It may have been the same lady, who went to pick up her new baby and it was damaged, and she was a complete emotional wreck because of it, literally couldn't look at the doll as it was 'broken' and she had built up an image of what it would be like and it all came crashing down when she saw the damage.

Its scary stuff, and probably an addiction for these people Sad

storytopper · 31/07/2011 16:56

A neighbour of a friend has several dolls like this. She spends a lot on the clothes for them, takes them out in the car in a car seat, etc. She is a not a childless lonely person - she lives with her husband and is a mother and grandmother. She also breeds and sells pedigree dogs. Plenty of people/animals to look after but she somehow still feels a need to lavish affection on these dolls. Can't understand it.

HPonEverything · 31/07/2011 17:04

I saw a magazine article about a couple who had one of these. They had a full nursery set up for it, a proper bedtime routine, and would run up and down stairs to check on it. They said they'd accepted that it would never grow up and they were happy that way. It just made me :(

MeconiumHappens · 31/07/2011 21:41

I saw 'My fake Baby' and I think its really sad :(
IF it brings them some happiness then i wish them well, but i worry about the long term effects on their emotional wellbeing.

WhoseGotMyEyebrows · 31/07/2011 21:49

Oh. My. God.

oldraver · 31/07/2011 22:00

I saw My Fake Baby and it was unnerving. The woman who went to the US to get her new 'baby' went to Harrods first (I think) to buy it a whole set of Robert Cavelli stuff. She also took her Mum with her and her PRAM

MissMap · 01/08/2011 23:08

I saw My Fake Baby too, I do not think that the Grandma who's beloved grandson went to live abroad was unhinged, just very sad. The replacement 'baby' doll was not helping her to come to terms with her loss, just prolonging her agony.

I hope that she has made progress since, she did seem a very likable person and her grief was hard to watch.

D0G · 01/08/2011 23:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

spiderlight · 01/08/2011 23:21

I remember that programme - very, very disturbing and upsetting.

saladsandwich · 01/08/2011 23:24

oh those reborn dolls are freaky, when i was prgenant with ds i use to go to a car boot/market and a lady sold them on there, but she had various body arts to pick from and im guessing you choose your head, hair and eyes and collect in a few weeks time.

iscream · 02/08/2011 00:04

I just saw a breast milk doll on the news tonight.
abcnews.go.com/Health/w_ParentingResource/breast-milk-baby-coming-us-market/story?id=14097038

TotemPole · 02/08/2011 04:22

The dolls are bad enough but why would anyone buy this? Warning: some may find these photos disturbing.

reborn

nojustificationneeded · 02/08/2011 04:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CheerfulYank · 02/08/2011 04:58

The artwork on this one is extraordinary but...deeply creepy IMO.

nojustificationneeded · 02/08/2011 05:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WhoseGotMyEyebrows · 02/08/2011 06:53

It has little boobs!

HPonEverything · 02/08/2011 07:59

Totem Oh my God!! I believe that one was meant to be a human baby but she left it in front of the fire and decided to try and sell it anyway!

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