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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be unable to part with my childhood (and later...) soft toys?

36 replies

SargeantAngua · 13/01/2019 22:41

My name in Angua and I have a soft toy problem. I'm in the process of moving the last of my stuff into my fiance's flat, and I've just unpacked this menagerie. They used to live in a bag under my bed, and probably will go into a similar home here. A small number have lived on the end of my bed here for years - we have separate rooms- and this is deemed acceptable, with affectionate rolled eyes occasionally... there are also a few still at my parent's house.

I'm 35. I don't sleep cuddling them, most of them don't have names, most are from my childhood. All of these i would happily store in a box and rarely look at them. I don't want/need to keep them all out like this on a shelf. The thought of disposing of any of them (except perhaps 1 or 2 particular ones if I was feeling particularly strong) brings me out in a cold sweat though.

Am I very unusual? If it helps, autism runs in the family and I have some traits - I'm obsessive, have a real thing for soft textures, a tenancy to hoard. I also have a long history of anxiety, OCD, teenage anorexia and now CFS/ME, all of which quite possibly adds to my need for comfort items. I also grew up on a farm with with lots of animals and cant have pets now. I cant be alone in having such a collection though??

To be unable to part with my childhood (and later...) soft toys?
OP posts:
TheSilveryPussycat · 13/01/2019 22:52

I have an old panda glove puppet (Old Man Nelson Pandy), my old hairless teddy (as a child I pulled his fur out, but was convinced it would grow back again), a platypus acquired as an adult, my adult son's mouse hand puppet (which I am keeping for him at his request), Foxy Lady (who is technically a pyjama case), a pink rabbit given to my son when he was little, a small crocheted eagle made for me by a MNer, a little friendship donkey from a long term friend, and a small teddy my mum gave me recently when I was poorly.

I luffs them all.

sayanythingelse · 13/01/2019 23:22

I'm 31 and I still have a baby blanket that my dad's auntie knitted for me when I was born (called Squoffie), a cuddly lamb and a teddy from my childhood (that sleeps in my bed). DD sleeps with the baby blanket now.

It's not weird to have things from your childhood at all. It's nice that you've kept them.

ralphfromlordoftheflies · 13/01/2019 23:25

I'm the opposite. Soft toys staring at you from across the room with their glassy eyes give me the creeps.

agnurse · 13/01/2019 23:26

I am a big stuffy collector and have many, including a few from my childhood. One of them is one of the first teddies I was ever given as a baby.

You can buy beanbag covers that are designed to hold stuffies. Some parents do this for their children if the children have a lot of stuffies and they're taking up space. This way you end up with a nice beanbag chair, filled with stuffies.

Whatsnewpussyhat · 13/01/2019 23:28

It's hard to get rid of things that you have an emotional attachment too.

BananasAreTheSourceOfEvil · 13/01/2019 23:30

I have bags of them too and can’t bear to part with them. Don’t know why.

PomBearWithoutHerOFRS · 13/01/2019 23:32

My childhood teddy Sid (short for Sidney Gordon Eustace Wofflebear) still lives in my bedroom and I am rapidly approaching 50...

BrylcreamBeret · 13/01/2019 23:37

Not unusual Op I have some fr my childhood and lots from adulthood. You don't necessarily need to get rid of any if they aren't causing a serious problem for you but I would be very cautious about not buying any new ones so you can't go into hoarding mode if that makes sense. I have a much beloved bunny and I know roughly how you feel.

To be unable to part with my childhood (and later...) soft toys?
AnotherPidgey · 13/01/2019 23:39

Many of my loved cuddly toys made the move in with DH. Some are avaliable to the DCs. The treasured few reside in our bed. DH accepted me and my cuddly baggage easily enough.

I just try hard not to add to my menagerie!

It's common through my family to continue a rapport with the special comforting cuddly/ blanket into adulthood, and several of my friends admit to it too.

If I am bonkers, at least I'm in good company Wink Grin

BrylcreamBeret · 13/01/2019 23:40

... And now I feel a need to explain the outfit. I'm disabled, I don't get out and I crochet clothes for her :/

AnotherPidgey · 13/01/2019 23:47

Nowt wrong with a well dressed cuddly toy Smile

DS2 adopted one of my old teddies (found her at DM's house). She has a wonderfully old-fashioned name that's completely odd for a child of his age group, and best of all she was bought by my dad while travelling abroard when I was little. He died while I was a child, so it means so much that my child loves something bought by my dad nearly 30 years before he was born, and my dad died over 20 years before he was born. It's a wonderful unplanned connection.

SheldonTheWonderShlong · 13/01/2019 23:49

LOVE the outfit!

BeanTownNancy · 13/01/2019 23:51

I've only kept one or two toys from my childhood. Only the ones I have strong memories of.

That said I sleep hugging a big stuffed doggo and genuinely can't sleep without it; it even came on my honeymoon halfway around the world. It's not an emotional attachment though, just that I can't get physically comfortable without his nose wedged under my chin. I fear the day he becomes too tatty and I have to try to source a replacement!

BrylcreamBeret · 14/01/2019 00:08

op I've just spotted the rat in your picture, he's lovely!
anotherpidgey it's lovely that despite your loss you can still have a connection to your dad.

PomBearWithoutHerOFRS · 14/01/2019 02:08

Brylcream she looks lovely! My Sid wears the jumper, hat and scarf that were the first things I ever knitted when my Nanna taught me how when I was about 7.

agnurse · 14/01/2019 02:36

My kid has a great-great-grandmother on her mother's side. (I am quite serious. This lady is her grandfather's grandmother.) She is over 100 years old. She has a teddy bear collection.

Bunbunbunny · 14/01/2019 02:59

If you have the space keep them, not like you have 100s if them. I would suggest if there is one or two that you love keep them out on show get some joy from them! I’ve got a big bag of soft toys in our garage I need to sort through & im not looking forward to it! But I’m not going to get rid of stuff just for the sake of it

ninalovesdragons · 14/01/2019 03:16

I'm mid twenties and all toys are at home. Every single soft toy probably ever. Neither me nor my parents can bear to part with them. Everything else cleared out, clothes are cleared out every 6 months etc, nothing else really kept from our childhood except the soft toys. We really aren't hoarders but I feel weirdly guilty clearing them out.

BovrilOverkillOhMyInsides · 14/01/2019 05:50

This is Aubrey. My partner bought him for me for my birthday last October. He feels amazing and I'd like a bigger, sloth version of my DDs monkey. Which is starting to go bald. I sleep with Aubrey every night. I knew I had to start attempting some transference from my 'binky' because it was getting a bit stinky, and no t in the usual way it did (I have a huge thing about smells, binky smelt so comforting). I threw binky out just before Xmas. Admittedly I'm finding it hard without it. It was an old folded up piece of the top of my childhood feather duvet, sewn up and inserted into an old pillow case. I'm 36, going on 2.......

To be unable to part with my childhood (and later...) soft toys?
MigGril · 14/01/2019 06:05

Oh wow I'm so glad I found this tread may have to show DH he is convinced I must be the only adult who still sleeps with a teddy.

I've kept a lot of mine to DD has claimed a few now thought but not my special ones.

Candymay · 14/01/2019 06:06

I’ve got hundreds. Long story but they are staying.

CollyWombles · 14/01/2019 06:16

I don't have any from my childhood, however I got a soft toy from my DH a couple of years ago and I love him (the Teddy, DH is alright I suppose!) and do sleep with him every night! I feel no shame and I've already told DH that if I die, my Teddy is to be put in the coffin!

BrylcreamBeret · 14/01/2019 07:45

I hadn't thought about what would happen to mine when I snuff it, food for thought.
Aubrey is lovely :)

MissWilmottsGhost · 14/01/2019 08:02

I had loads as a child, but DM is a hoarder and left them all in the shed and attic where they mostly went mouldy. I managed to get about 3 bin bags full when DD was born, saying I would pass them all on to her. It was quite traumatic going though them, and all the childhood memories associated with them.

The worst ones had to be binned. The good condition but less sentimental value ones went to the charity shop. The not too tatty and still fond of ones went to DD. A couple of favourites that are quite fragile from age are kept on a high shelf in my bedroom.

Whenever we clear out DD's stuff to give some to the charity shop we lose another one in order of least emotional attachment. I don't want to end up a hoarder like DM so stuff needs to go, but I don't see anything wrong with keeping a few.

Do you have children or planning to have some, OP? Or have family or friends with children? It's quite nice to pass some on Smile

It not then I think the soft toy stuffed bean bag idea is great for keeping them and making use of them.

Fisharesexy · 14/01/2019 08:56

My absolute number one teddy, Squidgey Bear, is upstairs in the loft. I would never get rid of him. I bought him from Woolworths when I was 8, with my birthday money. He had a bent nose and his stuffing was coming out.
My dad found an identical one in a charity shop years later, he's up the loft as well.