To buy my white daughter a brown doll - thats OK right?

[Capaldifan94]

Just that really..

Can you elaborate, please?

You sound great OP. Your DD chose the doll and you're happy to buy her a doll so buy that one. Simple. Anything else would be strange.

My daughter had all black/brown dolls, because that's what she always chose. Ruben's Barn has lots of choices and I think they're available in the UK.

I had a brown doll in the 70s. My daughter had several brown baby dolls. One of them I think it’s called Lisse Poupé is so beautiful. I cannot bring myself to be without it. As she’s got older she plays with the American Girl ones more now and they come in different shades. Same with the Barbies there are black and brown ones now

As long as the doll is not a caricature, and sensitively modelled then it is not an issue. The doll represents a baby human, that is all.

The intention is the important thing - and by giving your child such a doll you are positively educating him/her about the variety of all people in the world.

I have seen excellent dolls of various heritages, with Down syndrome, even hearing aids, glasses, stomas! Check out Miniland's dolly range, they are so cute https://minilandgroup.com/educational/en/dolls-accesories/

I am married to someone from Asia and have a family of various shades, creeds and abilities. The more little children are taught that we all look or sound different the better.

Its cool to buy your daughter a "brown" doll. My daughter has a few Barbie dolls and Our Generation dolls that's brown. A new Barbie with Downs Syndrome is coming out and I think companies should be promoting different races, disabilities etc!

Which culture are brown-skinned dolls specific to since you are suggesting they aren’t representative of modern British culture?

seems pretty narrow minded that you wouldn’t expose your child to dolls that represent the society in which she lives.

I won a black doll when I was a child. She was called Mary Lou and I loved her. I still have her and a couple of other favourites in the attic. I never thought of her as any different to my other dolls and she was/is beautiful.

😳

Thats what I thinking. You need to sort your child out

Sorry. Meant

That's what I was thinking. You need to sort your child out

Also that's learned behaviour. But from who🤔

I was gifted a black doll when I was a child, an old lady gave her too me (she was mixed race herself), I remember someone knitting me a lovely yellow outfit for her 🙂.

I saw that comment last night before bed and came on expecting it to be deleted today, it’s still there, imagine finding that funny I would be horrified if my child said that!

Wtf. This can't be serious.

It really isn't, no one in the family does stuff like this but I don't think you'll believe me anyway. And she doesn't do this to people only food and toys.

You said she would never touch a brown doll, she learnt something from somewhere. I never said you or your family

It does really concern me and I've had several chats with her about it and she still does it. She plays with her Mulan doll happily but not any of her brown dolls. When I buy a cake that has a chocolate layer and a plain sponge layer she won't touch the chocolate cake layer and I know she loves cake and sweet food!

You wrote haha in response to her not wanting to touch "brown" things.

I would be absolute appalled if my child did this it wouldn't be funny

But you find it funny?

I weirdly had comments about a much loved doll in our house that happens to have brown skin whereas we are white many years ago now that momentarily made me question myself too! - I can't remember the exact wording but it was it was a veiled "Oh aren't you so good at being politically correct" a barb implying that it was somehow contrived by us to have a doll with a different skin tone and we had brought it to be sort of statement or virtue signal to show how inclusive we were. (Person in question was very hard work generally and met through baby groups but we have since thankfully drifted into different circles and based on their questionable fb activity - not a great loss!) The reality is that my eldest at the time was about 2 picked this doll out of a basket in Toys R Us which happened to have dolls with a variety of skin tones - that was the one she selected and therefore that is who came home with us, no deeper meaning than that.

It was the "haha" that had me🤔

When i was a childminder i was told that i needed to supply toys from diverse cultures / race it was not seen as cultural appropriation.

Vaguely interesting story alert....
I was in The Entertainer toy shop recently and a mum (I assume) was showing all the different Barbie Dolls to her daughter who looked about 6. She was (loudly - possibly a bit 'performance parenting') pointing out all the differences between the dolls. She showed her daughter a Ken Doll - "Look at this one. Isn't it fantastic?".
She child seemed confused.
Mum : "Look at it.... can't you see is special. What makes it special?"
Child : "It's a boy doll..... it's blond....." (child seeming baffled to what her mum was going on about)
Mum: "Can't you see..... it's in a WHEELCHAIR"
Child : "Oh yeah....and.....?"
Anyway.....to the child someone using a wheelchair isn't anything unusual. She probably sees several people using wheelchairs daily.
What I'm saying (I think 🙂) is children don't see the 'differences' that adults often do.
A doll is a doll - whatever colour it is.
A person is a person - whatever their colour is.
Unfortunately once adults start saying things like "why is a white child playing with a black doll?" the idea of differences starts getting into their heads.

This with bells on. I think it's important for kids to grow up seeing lots of different people represented in their toys/ books/ movies so they don't form an impression that white is the norm when it isn't.