Playing with dolls in Year 8

[lpsandmore]

My DD is 12- 13 in April and currently in Y8. She has always loved role play and little toys. She's very creative and excels at art, not so much academics. One of the toys she was absolutely obsessed with when she was younger was LPS. The littlest pet shop toys. She would spend all her money on it etc. Around Y6 she stopped playing with them as the girls all got very grown up and it wasn't very cool. She sold a lot of her LPS and we never really looked back.
She's never really got 'stuck' into all the secondary school pressures and drama as 1st lockdown happened March of y7 when they were just settling down. This has meant she has gradually got back into playing with LPS. By play, I mean completely engrossed in it. They have got very expensive now and she has just spent £100 of her own money on a massive bundle of them, plays role play with them, makes role play videos etc etc. There are tons of youtubers (fully grown adults) who make role play videos etc and she watches them in between zoom lessons. She has some friends who know about this but is generally very very secretive and embarrassed. I regularly check her phone and can see the types of convos her friends are having, none are toy related obv. My question is, is this strange? Does anyone else have a not so little toy obsessed child? Should I be worried?

My son - Yr 9 - still plays with his cars and playmobil/lego etc. He plays in his imagination and gives them voices etc.

He would never want his friends to know and has done it much more in lockdown. I can see that it's a coping mechanism. It's so much more relaxing than computer games. I don't think you should be worried at all OP.

Read the "play mobile people" thread. That's an adult who is amazingly creative with so call kids toys! Keeps me amused by her threads!

I write novels, as a child I made up stories with dolls, horses and other small world toys. I was still doing so at that age.

My Y7 dd still plays with her briar horse collection and her big sister played with similar toys at that age. They suddenly change out of this stage around 13/14.

Hey I'm 28 and my partner is 30 and during the pandemic we've reverted back to Pokémon, Harry Potter (although that never really left me 🤪😂) and building Lego ourselves.

I think it's natural and normal for during these very weird times to get back into something you loved. Nothing wrong with it at all!

Nothing wrong with it at all. Quite lovely actually for her to have a creative hobby that isn't the usual video games that most teenagers love.

There are so many adults who 'play' with things that could be seen as childish: Animal Crossing, Sims, World of Warcraft, Harry Potter, Hello Kitty, the list goes on. Your DD should embrace her hobby. I suspect if she was confident about her hobby and talked about it at school, she might actually been seen as quirky rather than weird. She should in no way be embarrassed for having an interest.

@crackopenthegin ha! Was about to say something very similar. But for me it was my little ponies. Total switcheroo from them to boys when I hit 14

I secretly played with my littlest pet shop toys til I was 14.

Get her a decent camera and teach her how to do proper videos and video editing. Start up a YouTube channel and start her making money from the adverts. You might have a little creative director on your hands. I work in a very similar capacity. It’s honestly the best job

Honestly this is lovely. Don't worry. Loads of adults are openly really into role play with toys now, it's probably considered a bit geeky, but totally fine. Screw the popular kids and what they think, they never grow up to be happy anyway.

DD is 14 and still has teddies they can't sleep without. If anyone found out at school they'd probably die of cringe.
I think a little comfort regression is fine in the circumstances. Apparently, a lot of old fashioned trends from our and other eras youth are gaining in popularity again, like sales of old foods, have gone through the roof (angel delight was one mentioned on TV).
When life is weird like now it's nice to grab at anything that makes us happy or distracts from bad stuff.
I wouldn't worry.

It sounds more like a hobby , i the way some people collect things etc, I think it’s good when kids have an interest/hobby etc. I wouldn’t be worried, it will probably pass like it has done before when she gets bored of it. It sounds fine to me especially as you said she is artistic/creative etc

I would still play with my barbies sometimes at that age but kept it quiet! I still grew out of it eventually. It sounds harmless!

My 11-year-old has been (until a few weeks ago) absolutely OBSESSED with Schleich horse toys. She was spending all her (and my) money on them. We must have all the Schleich pony sets. Like your daughter, she has been making videos, watching YouTube Schleich role-play channels etc. She had one other friend who was doing the same, but kept it more secret from her other (cooler) friends. Now suddenly a few weeks ago she stopped playing with it COMPLETELY and now we have a whole room full of Schleich sets and it will be such a pain to sell them/give them away. Also, I'm a bit sad, as that was such innocent play and now she's all about more teenagey stuff

I had dolls well into my teens...my dad made me get rid of my dolls and dolls houses when I went to secondary school but I kept back some dolls and contents, made mini replacement houses from cardboard and decorated them etc. I eventually got rid even of those at 14/15 because I felt I 'had' to, but I really didn't want to.

It certainly didn't harm me academically, I've always been quite creative, have been writing short stories since I was very young, and I thought of it as just another aspect of that. Plus I always loved houses and interior design...nowadays I spend a lot of time on Rightmove theoretically redecorating and renovating houses
Apart from that I'd say I'm fairly normal, and I'd try not to worry, she sounds happy and comfortable in herself and that's the most important thing.

Nobody bats an eyelid if boys carry on playing with trains, Lego, model aircraft etc right through till adulthood, so why can't girls carry on playing with their collectable stuff?

Completely normal I’d say! My DD is the same age,she loves make up and watching shite on Uou Tube but still loves her dolls house and Barbies.
I remember being the same and feeling like I was too old but also that I still liked playing with them.

I always loved to dress baby dolls in nice clothes and pose them. I put all my dolls away in boxes when I got to secondary school, but I would secretly get them out and play with them until I was 13. I was so ashamed and embarrassed that I still wanted to ‘play’.

10 years on and I look back and feel so sad that I was made to feel that way by social pressure to grow up. It wasn’t uncommon for teen girls to play with dolls in the last century. It’s just that our expectations of teen girls have changed. If anything, tween/teens are expected to grow up, ditch toys and games and become obsessed with making themselves attractive to boys as soon as they leave primary. I know which one I consider to be more healthy now.

@XelaM

My 11-year-old has been (until a few weeks ago) absolutely OBSESSED with Schleich horse toys. She was spending all her (and my) money on them. We must have all the Schleich pony sets. Like your daughter, she has been making videos, watching YouTube Schleich role-play channels etc. She had one other friend who was doing the same, but kept it more secret from her other (cooler) friends. Now suddenly a few weeks ago she stopped playing with it COMPLETELY and now we have a whole room full of Schleich sets and it will be such a pain to sell them/give them away. Also, I'm a bit sad, as that was such innocent play and now she's all about more teenagey stuff

Oh it is sad she has stopped playing with them. The good news is though that I was looking at those sets for my dd yesterday and they sell really well second hand so you and your dd could make some money towards something new on Ebay! I was surprised how much it would cost me to get even a second hand set. It would be a shame to get rid of them all though, my dcs now play with my farm animals and a few other bits from when I was little. I was delighted to see mum had kept them and she loves seeing them being played with again.

My sisters and I still played with dolls and Julip horses at this age, and my brother played with Lego.

I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. Teenagers often role play with toys. I remember playing with my friend’s Barbie house and accessories in year 8.

And I still play with my DD’s playmobil when I’m ‘tidying up’! 😂 I love arranging them all and giving them characters. Obviously we play together too but I do enjoy playing without having to do the voices too!

It sounds very normal and nice to me that she has a hobby and an escape.

I know boys that age who still play with Lego and make Lego videos, I can't really see how this is different
This is a very good point. I'm going to mention it to her. I'm sure Lego is sadly seen very differently

The reason Lego is seen differently now is around 15 years ago, Lego realised there was an adult market for Lego. They started producing sets that were targeted at adults both men and women.

If she can escape into her toys so be it. It's a rotten time for everyone and you'd be moaning if she was glued to a screen all day.

Year 8 is still really quite young. They are children even though they're young teens. She's having a bit of escapism. It sounds fun.

I remember buying some playmobil sets at age 12 because I just loved that collection so much. I played with it for a few months and then just treasured it and kept it safe. Now my 7 year old DD is playing with those sets.
I think it's lovely that your DD still has those interests and it's nice that she expanded it by taking videos.

One of my DDs slept with her baby Annabelle until she was 14/15. Don’t worry about it OP, they’re all different.

My 13yo daughter has DLD and plays at about the same level as my 8yo DD. She’s horse obsessed and they spend a lot of time in role play, led by my 8yo.

There’s SO much language development in play like this, I actively encourage it. They’ve just started making Lego movies on DH’s iPad too which is brilliant.

It sounds like your DD is playing at a level appropriate for her chronological age, and what a lovely play it is too.

I played with Sylvanian families at this age (and I think older) with my younger sister. I gradually stopped as going out, friends & boys became more interesting and have grown up to be a completely normal adult. Like your daughter I definitely didn’t broadcast it to my friends.