Mumsnet users share their memories of playing with dolls with Baby Annabell

[LucyBMumsnet]

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Most people have some fond memories of playing with dolls in their childhood, from sweetly changing their nappy and rocking them to sleep, to taking them everywhere or ‘customising’ what they look like. Baby Annabell would like to find out more about your memories of playing with dolls, as well as how your children play with their dolls.

What was your doll’s name, and do you still like it now? Did your doll cry real tears, drink real water, burp after feeding, or need its nappy changing? Or did you have to make pretend because the technology wasn’t available yet? What were your favourite games to play with your doll? How does your child play with dolls now? How does it differ from how you played with dolls?

Share your memories on this thread and you will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £300 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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I remember the joy of being allowed to take my doll out with us in a pushchair and in a dolly car seat when I was about 7. I felt so grown up and so lucky. It was the sort of thing we weren’t normally allowed to do and I can still remember the feeling.

My tiny tears doll, was my best friend. I loved her so much that she went lovely and soft.
I still have her🥰

I was a young child in the early 70’s. My sister was only 16 months older than me and had no interest in dolls but I loved them. We were only bought very modest gifts as a rule so I remember being incredibly excited to be bought a ‘Baby Alive’. She came with little sachets of food but once these were gone they were never replaced so I would make my own recipes. I learned to knit and made her a cardigan when I was about 8.

I also had a treasured Hollie Hobby rag doll my much older cousin made me.

My mum died suddenly when I was 3 and I found playing with dolls hugely comforting. I spent hours in my own little world.

My absolute favourites were my Pippa dolls. I had a Pippa ‘Apartment’ and I loved it. I played with them until I was about 14 ☺️

My eldest daughter, now 22, shared my love for small dolls. Her favourites were the first evolution of Polly Pockets - they were absolutely tiny but she never lost any.

I have b/g twins, now 19. When they were little they had a Baby Born and a Baby Annabel and two little stroller buggies. The twins used to swap their own clothes or dress up and play with their ’babies’.

My youngest dd is nearly 13. I kept all her older siblings dolls for her, her favourite being a Baby Born she named Delilah. All my dcs are sentimental with toys and find it very difficult to part with them. DD has outgrown her dolls now and it took a good year to agree to part with some 😆 but much loved Delilah and her favourite clothes remain.

My first doll was a Tiny Tears, loved her to bits. She has a pink romper suite.

Her name was Sarah and her eye broke. I pushed her everywhere in a silver cross pram that Santa gave me and when my little sister was born I pushed her around instead . I like brushing her hair but it was a bit short and when she got in the bath with me her legs filled up with water
But I loved her anyway despite her dodgy eye, mouldy legs and frustrating hair!

When I was nine I had to take a long train ride across country with my nan to visit my aunt who was ill. After a couple of hours I'd read my book and was beginning to feel bored when my nan suddenly produced a parcel from her Mary Poppins type bag, and gave it to me. Inside was the most ravishing doll I'd ever seen, not very big but with arms and legs that moved, blue eyes with long eyelashes and masses of long blonde hair. She came with three outfits, a hairbrush and a mirror.

I can still remember how I felt that this was all mine and not the usual hand me down from two years older DS, it was - and still is - a special memory. I called her Josephine and treasured her until in my fifties when I gave her to a charity auction as despite all the times I'd played with her, she was still in very good condition with all her original accessories and a few more.

Dear Josephine! Happy days!

I had two favourite dolls named after my aunt an gran, one was given to me as a baby, so have a couple's of photos with me in with this huge doll, they are both quite big dolls. One doll is the same size as Three year old. I still have them both now, unfortunately they creep my ds out, so really hoping my DD is happy to inherit these. I was a only child so I used to pretend that they were my sister the big doll especially. I still like dolls now but I am saddened by the fact that they now creep people out thanks to the horrid horror movies. My two dolls played a huge part of my childhood so I am extremely fond of them.

I still have several sindys and her boyfriend Paul who was not popular I believe with parents at the time, I still have the sindy wardrobe dresser and a sindy horse somewhere in the loft. I loved those sindys, I never really liked Barbie, although I don't think I was ever bought one either, but saw them at friends houses, I can remember not being very impressed with Barbie apart from her pink car, which I would of loved for sindy.

Remember giving my Tiny Tears a haircut and being devastated when it didn’t grow back

I had little twin dolls and my Nan used to knit cardigans for them. I also had one of those giant dolls that was as big as me one Christmas, and I’m sure one that ‘ate’ the food off the spoon.

My youngest who is 2 adores dolls and loves to feed them, rock them and put them to bed. She has about 6 dolls on the go at the moment!

I had baby Jessie, just a simple doll with pigtails and I took her everywhere. I once tripped over fetching her to bring her to the dinner table and knocked myself out!

My favourite doll was a tiny tears and went everywhere with me. I loved taking her out in a pram and in the car and feeding her, I had a new born sister at the time and loved copying my mum and looking after the baby.

I used to take my doll everywhere and he had one eye aha

Not my first memory but a clear one. My sister was given a pair of Tiny Tears twins and she let me play with them when we were on a bus one day. We got off the bus and I left the carrier bag they were in on the bus . I must have been about 6/7 and I remember her being upset and angry with me and my mam was annoyed. I don't remember if we every got them back - they were an expensive doll at the time.

I also had a lovely doll with black skin which must have been unusual in the 1970s. I don't remember who gave her to me but she had lovely soft black hair and a navy and white dress with white lace edging. I kept her for a long time with my other favourites, well past my other dolls.

I had a huge toddler doll called Clara.

I liked to pretend she was a trucker. I used cardboard boxes to make her trucks.

Even though I was an 80s tom-boy, I loved my dolls. I had a baby doll, a doll called Suzie, a bridal doll called Marian and my pride and joy, was Crystal Barbie. At school, I was persuaded to trade Barbie for a Peaches n Cream but I never loved her as much.

My favourite doll was called Katie. She was soft bodied and didn't 'do' anything. I was convinced she looked just like a real baby (she didn't ) and would carry her round the garden and show her off to the boys next door. It was infuriating that they didn't believe me when I said she was a real baby!!

I had lots of Dolls some are big and some are small but in all of them I liked the BARBIE most she was like my Sister or Best Friend.i shared my bed with her ,I took her every where I go even inside the Washroom for bath.i washed her hairs and cleans her soft and flexible body,i combed her hairs and made braids i washed her clothes I also tried to sew a dress for her although I was young but managed to sew as I saw my mom sewing many times so I feel it was not difficult (not perfect but also not difficult) I do remember one day I got cold ND fever and doc injected me so I bough a empty syringe for her too and injected water in her body once I felt fun in doing this so I started injecting her...some times on her arm some times on her slim but...
Oh it reminds me some of beautiful memories I hv.

I remember having a Tiny Tears doll - this was unusual for me as I was more into reading books than playing with dolls, to be honest.

I used to go to my friends house and we would mash up Nice biscuits with water and 'feed' them to the dolls. I think I called her Tina, but only because it began with 'T'!

The only other doll I had was a brunette ballerina Sindy doll that my brother broke the first day I had it! He wanted to see if her legs would bend in a different direction - they didn't! Doll was broken. I got in trouble (!) and I never bothered with dolls again after that!

I never really liked proper dolls as a child or an adult. I remember having a flower fairy doll as a very little girl and i much preferred playing adventures in the garden with her than changing a nappy or feeding my doll.

I used to have this make-believe world with smaller handsize dolls who lived in the folds of my bedspread and I played it for many years and recall suddenly one day it becoming very boring and never played it again ... but my daughter did something similar with her ornaments.

I used to love my doll, Lois, I remember I used to like getting her to help me make ‘mud pies’ in the garden & then having to give her a bath in the sink. I used to take her to see our chickens as well . One of my favourite things to do was to take her for a walk down the road in the coach built Silver Cross dolls I had.

Dc5(2) has started taking an interest in ‘Bebe’ in the last 6 or so months. He likes pretending to change her nappy (he always makes sure he wipes her & applies cream) & then gives her a nice cuddle afterwards before carrying her by the head/neck, obviously to bed. When he first came home from hospital ‘Bebe’ (which is a baby Annabel) was both bigger & heavier than him!

I had a lovely doll who I named Jenny. My Godmother knitted clothes for her (vest, pants, nightie, dress, cardigan, booties), did people have more time then? I cut all her hair off and my mother was so upset with me - I thought she looked cool! I also had a Sindy doll - think it was before Barbie was invented but I may be wrong. It was so exciting to go to the toy shop and choose a new outfit for her, they were so invitingly packaged, I can see it now! And then there was my dog (a very patient dachshund, who I would lay in my dolls pram, cover with a blanket and walk 'round the block'.

My first memory of my doll was from the old lady who lived 2 doors up from my parents house. Her name is Grace and she brought me my doll down and she had knitted all her lovely clothes - they were pink and white knitted pants and cardigan with a matching bonnet as well as the matching socks. She had knitted me other clothes for her as well. Although she didn't cry real tears I loved her with all my heart. She came everywhere with me. She came on holiday, day trips, meal times, bed time! And I called her ... Grace after the lady who made her for me!💗