barbie doll at age 3;6?

[NancysGarden]

LO and DP just arrived home, LO grinning like a cheshire cat, munching jelly tots (deep breath but no comment) clutching a "barbie doll" (well not a real one but all the same features with a change of slutty clothes.

How would you react?

I am firstly gobsmacked that he would ever think I would approve and also, DP's defence was pathetic too: before we got in she kept saying "she's a fairy princess" and my reaction has "corrupted" the doll and made it something else.

It has boobs, wears heels and make-up.

I am planning to "lose" this doll in a couple of days, but I am so bloody angry that he would buy in the first place. Lo would never ask or show any interest in such things with me, so I am wondering what father in his right mind, would influence his 3 and a half year old daughter to buy this pariah doll?

My sister and I both played with Sindys and Barbies almost obsessively for years. We usually re-styled them a bit - bought or made them new clothes, and we played out family relationships, schooling and careers like a mini soap opera.

My sister's dolls were all extraordinary over-achievers and sort of self-created role models. One was an Olympic swimmer, one an Olympic gymnast, one the CEO of a massive business who constantly went away on business trips, one was the first female bishop(!).

Adair we always made the barbies into the (either eccentric or in some way difficult) older female roles: great aunts, grannies, etc. One of them was just called "Mother" and didn't even have another name!

Don't get the anti Barbie campaign. It is a doll.

Children see it as a doll, not a baby day granted, but a grown up doll - so they can make it do grown up activities rather than feed it and cuddle it.

the whole sexuality thing and the anti-woman thing is what adults see. We portray an adult's view on children this way.

I have known loads of children have Barbie dolls. Don't know any who grew up thinking barbie was the norm for a woman.

"she's a fairy princess"

Says it all doesn't it? Feel sad for your little girl.

gingernutlover lol @ the naked car trips!

I'm pleased to say none of my dolls would have dreamt of leaving the Sindy house improperly attired!

Adair our Gotz doll is a Sarah(now Hannah) and she's beautiful not creepy or huge.

My point is she's got a little girls figure and wears little girl clothes.Carolle do lovely little girl dolls too.

It annoys me that you have to pay a premium for dolls like this and shops just do not sell little girl dolls like we had as children. We had to pool Xmas and bday money and send away for said doll.

Instead of seeing rack upon rack of tarty teenage dolls(Barbie,Bratz,Polly Pocket etc) it would be nice if shops stocked dolls with a 5 year old figure and clothes to match.

I think the hideous,huge lifesize Robbie (which are well creepy) dolls are the only ones you ever see. When I was little you could get hoards of little girl dolls in all shapes and sizes and prices-where have they gone and why?

Incidently if your dd is in to fashion dolls Carolle also do the Les Cheries range which have non tarty fashion clothes and more proportionate bodies.They are about £28 so cost more but personally I'd rather my dd had just 1 or 2 that she loved and were dressed in nicer clothes and didn't just end up in landfill.

I find the Barbie etc dolls just add to this easily disposable thing. Girls seem to have hoards of clothes for them then just toss them aside for the next model.

The Gotz doll is lovely, MilaMae, but it's for a completely different role play game: it's for pretending that you are the mother of a child who's a similar age to your real life self.

And the Les Cheries dolls are also children, not adults, or teenagers. If my sister and I had had a Les Cheries doll, we's have allocated it a very minor role in our games; it would have just been the younger sibling of one of the stars.

My dd's Sarah doll is her twin sister,she can be what she wants it to be,it varies sometimes she's a very bossy teacher to all her teddies. My dd regards her Les Cheries doll as a teenager. I don't want my dd to be copying adult behaviour all the time-she's 5.

I just think there is a real gap in the market now for little girl dolls and the Barbie/Bratz thing has got out of hand. I saw an aisle of Bratz dolls just lounging on a gold/purple beds doing buggar all-that was the play value,lounging on a gold bed with pumped up lips.

To be honest I think a lot of girls just play with these dolls because that is all there is,if they had better bodies, were less tarty and given more play opportunities they'd still play with them and maybe aspire to more than being a tv celebrity and owning a huge wardrobe groaning with pink tacky clothes and make up.

lily93 is right, it's when they start turning in to a real life barbie that the problems start
nancysgarden, at least your DD's barbie doesn't wear your clothes, your make-up or use up all of your toiletries like my real life 13 year old barbie doll does
if only I could turn back time

my 13 month old dd tried to steal a naked barbie doll with matted hair from the hospital last month

its just a dolly, i can understand about the slutty clothes tho

I think it's a bit different these days, because kids are exposed to such a range of adult behaviour, whereas when we were young, the adult behaviour we copied in our games was what we saw our mum doing and our teachers doing. And we tended to dress the dolls like them as well, so any trashy outfits they came with got shoved to the bottom of the toy box.

Do you think you can have any influence on how your DD interacts with the toy and how she perceives it? I have no idea whether my mum guided our play. I do know she made a lot of the alternative outfits, and my dad made and decorated a big wooden house, which suggested a domestic family setting.

They can be used just like other dolls, having a few Barbies in the house needn't be the start of a slippery slope. I had Sindies as a (not very girly) child, we used to make them camping kit and send them out on hikes. And my dds have never played with their barbies that much, but you occasionally find a Barbie abseiling down from the banister.

They don't all spend their life dressing up in tarty clothes and dreaming of Ken, there are Barbies/Sindies who live quite independent lives unfettered by the advertising norms.

You must ditch your dp immediately. Absolutely unnacceptable behaviour

utterly tiresome and unhelpful zk. Try reading a thread before you post.

Keep my Sindy went camping,I had the orange tent which came in the box from my mum's attic in mint condition.To say I was excited to see it again would be putting it mildly,dp was very .DD loves it (it even has a sleeping bag, camp stove and picnic basket).You could get a blue Sindy tent and a proper jeep thing too.

You just don't get this stuff with Barbie and Bratz and this is my concern.I saw a Barbie with a pink pooper scooper thing-why oh why oh why??????

When she wasn't camping my Sindy went on secret missions a la Charlie's Angels and used to sit in my basket on my bike. My mum also made the bakery on Blue Peter with all the cakes made out of washing up sponges. Dsis and I only had one each as they were soooo expensive and we cherished them.

I have to say though I always longed for Sindy sized boobs and legs so dolls can influence body image .It concerns me that girls have so many more body image pressures these days.This is why I'm not encouraging dd,she's kept the 1 she got given but I'm not buying any and they're kept under my bed with Sindy.

I agree with Amanda though op you could try and steer the play and be strict with the clothes.

Hope this works.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkmKT2VrHE

A trip down memory lane Check out those rollers!!!!

Now that's what I call an action girl,check out that buggy!!!!

www.sindy-collectables.com/index.ctm?articleid=1976

Good times

Ooops will try again later, chaos is reigning!!!!!

www.sindy-collectables.com/index.cfm?articleid=1976

Ta da!!!!

Scroll down,I'm loving those flairs. Barbie just doesn't cut it in the fashion stakes imho

I was never allowed barbies as a child. I just played with my friends' barbies instead. Was it a Bratz Doll? They are particularly distasteful I think its the inappropriate clothing coupled with more 'childish dimensions' I can understand your dismay. I'd just 'lose' it too.

Lots of children have them and its only natural to want to try out toys that you have seen that your friends have. My DH was always a little over-indulgent in a kind of careless way too; but I honestly feel he didn't mean any harm - he was more affected by the advertising than they were and he thought it was what they wanted.

Nancy, if your DD would want to play with In The Night garden dolls, would you worry about her wanting to have a blue head when she grows up??? And to save up for a weird Zeppelin (think of the energy wasting style of transport!)

Nancy, I answered your original post which is after all in the AIBU thread...it's not obligatory to read the whole thread and nor , frankly, would I want read the reactions to such a ridiculous post

FFS its a doll, a DOLL. not the annual playboy manual

we did not have this fuss when I was a kid....

There are so many more important issues that I just cant get her up about Barbie