my dd was 4 last summer, for her birthday one of her gifts was a...

[MascaraOHara]

barbie style doll wearing a bikini, sarong with pvc mac. She had heeled shoes on, heavy make up (of course) and a tattoo around her belly button.

right or wrong message to give to a 4yo?

(I have a personal hate of all things barbie so I am probably biased)

Certainly I think she is too young to be interested in Barbie dolls anyway. But the outfit is questionable, who wears a bikini with a mac?

And anyway, who is 7ft tall with a 6" neck?

Oh yuck. Can you lose it?

Dd was given one of these for her fifth birthday - I'd managed to avoid Barbie up until then, but she was given several on her birthday, including this one.

I hate them, but I let her keep them anyway because children this young neither know nor care that real women don't look like this, or that their vital statistics are unreal, or that her feet are so small that she could never stand up in real life. They just like playing with dolls. Dd walks around in my shoes all the time with pretend make-up plastered on her face, playing at being a grown-up, and she seems to think that the dolls are also playing, wearing someone else's high heels. She hasn't even commented on the tattoo; she's seen so many on real people that she didn't bat an eyelid.

I'm not exactly over-keen on them, but little girls don't look at their toys the same way that adults do. We know that they're selling an unattainable image, but 4 year olds don't - and by the time they work it out, they're too old for Barbies anyway.

Yes WWB that's the reason I let her keep it.. because it means nothing to her.

Worryingly though I caught the tail end of an adevert this morning that I think might have been advertising 'Barbie Tanner' surely I can't have heard it right!!

that barbie now comes with a tattoo!!!

Barbie Tanner

Blechh!

Oh thank god it's a dog..

I thought it might have been 'tanning salon barbie'

dd1 who is also 4 got a Bratz doll from SIL for her birthday

dd1 had never even heard of Bratz, misheard SIL who told her it was a "Bratz doll" and calls it "rats"

i havent corrected her, it seems to appropriate

wwb is that the dog who does poos? the dog comes with poo? dd1 saw that on telly

Yep, the dog who poos.

"When Tanner has to go to the bathroom ..." ! "To the bathroom", fgs.

I thought it was going to be a tanning salon as well ... although I'm not sure the pooing dog is any more tasteful!

dogs do not go to the bathroom

the dog poo's??????? wtf?!

Isn't the sadest thing that neither you nor I put it past Matel to produce a Tanning Salon Barbie.

Having seen some of the other crap they aim at little girls, I wouldn't put a tanning salon past them, sadly.

How the hell do you get the dog to sit on the toilet when it's in the bathroom?? [puzzled]

exaclt, I think it's a disgrace that we wouldn't put it past them

May I just link to my other thread regarding Barbie? Thankyou.