"Collectors item" doll for 11-month-old??!!

[jojoba]

My poor old grandma doesn't exactly have money to burn and has paid in instalments for this enormous "Jasmine Goes to Grandma's" doll for DD (11 months). Thing is, the leaflet in the box says it's a collector's item and not intended for children. What do I do with it? Keep it on a shelf till she's old enough to play with it carefully? When will that be?! I'll need to at least show it to her on Xmas Day, so that I can tell her great-grandma how she reacted. I'm just hoping she doesn't freak - it's almost as big as her!

?

stick it in the attic then when she's 18 she can sell it to go to college! certainly a better antique possibility than the 30 year old knickers our dd's great gran gave her for her 1s birthday! (oh someone gave me these in the 70's thought they might be useful, argh )

! DD should count herself lucky then!!

I just feel a bit bad because I know Grandma can't really afford it - she wanted to give DD something really special

Have you got a dresser/ glass display case that you can display it in? Then you can show it to dd regularly

i think maybe you should buy a display case for it. its amazing..

that doll looks so real its scary but i think its a nice gesture, people always buy loadsa toys and i think its sweet that she has bought something to "keep" to remember her 1st christmas by, and because her great grandma bought it

It IS sweet - also Grandma is a 90-yr-old white northerner and DD is mixed-race, so I'm doubly touched by the gesture IYSWIM. I'll see if I can find somewhere to display it.

Perhaps you could give it pride of place for a while- and make sure your grandma comes round to see it

Sadly she lives too far away and doesn't really get out any more, but I could take a photo!

Do you think I'll ever be able to let her play with it? Grandma has visions of her pushing it around in a pram

Maybe when she is older. My neice is 4 and se really looks after her baby Annabel.

I think that it's a lovely gift. Not particularly appropriate for a baby, but I imagine grandma did it for all the right reasons. I'd put it away until your DD is much older. I think it will make a lovely family heirloom. I would let her play with it when she is old enough to look after it.

It doesn't look like it's made out of porcelain, you might be able to let her play with it a bit, supervised?

I wouldn't get too worked up about the whole "collectable" thing, most of the things that are sold as collectable, too many people collect for them to be worth anything later on, IYSWIM.

It is a very sweet gesture, given the racial thing. I was very touched when my parents bought DS1 a book with only Black people in it, knowing I'd done the same for one of my nieces. (We're white, but that doesn't mean all our books should be.) It was his favourite for quite a while.

That's nice, NQC. I agree about things being sold as collectable - doesnt mean it's going to be worth anything just because they've slapped that label on it! Think I'll wait till she's a bit older but will def not keep it on a shelf indefinitely.