to find 'reborn' dolls seriously creepy

[DontWorryBeHappy1994]

sorry but IMO, they are. Just saying.

Another of the women in that documentary had never had children, she and her husband had never tried. She was in love with her reborns though, wheeled them out in a pristine white pram, had two sets of wheels for it ('indoor' and 'outdoor', which were bleached regularly), went on a special shopping trip to Harrods to get the latest arrival a coming home outfit, then went to America to collect it. After, erm, 'playing' with it for a few hours, she noticed it had a big crack in the back of it's head and immediately sent it back. The switch from her gazing at it lovingly as if it was a real baby to packing it back up and saying "I'm not interested if they're not perfect" was astonishing. Might account for why she stuck to the dolls.

YANBU. I went shopping into Altrincham yesterday and there was one in the window of one of the charity shops! It had a £40 price tag on it - I would think that they would have to pay someone at least £40 to take it off their hands!! Awful.

The orangutan toddler. What sort of a diseased imagination could come up with such a thing - and who the fuck would buy one for £129??????

YANBU. It seems a very odd 'hobby' to me.

Watched the whole documentary about the "real dolls" and the men who buy them - thought it actually very very sad.
I did wonder (being the parent of an autistic child) nif one or two of them might not have undiagnosed ASD or Aspergers. It would fit with the lack of social skills, the fear of letting people in and the security of having something to cuddle who wouldn't reject them but wouldn't threaten their world either.

Last year there was a photographic display at the National Theatre, and one of the photos was of a 'reborn' doll that someone had had done of their living child (about three years old), and the doll was sitting next to the living child, who looked like it's twin - they were the same size and dressed the same. The parents had the doll made as a way of remembering their child at that age, kind of like a 3D photo. What was interesting to me is that in the context of the photo the reborn doll did not look life like at all. It is only when there was a picture of the reborn dolls on their own that they looked startlingly life-like.

I remember watching the documentary and thinking that there were some interesting themes. The two women featured came across as decent people. The younger woman had rejected real children as there was concern that they would not be "perfect", some back story there I think. Whilst the older lady had experienced great loss. As I remember her DD had been through the hell of cancer and having focused her love on the grandchild, presumably thinking her DD may die, had then had him taken away. I found it thought provoking. Would love them to do a follow-up to see where these women's lives had taken them.