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

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

For my 1st birthday I was given a doll which was named Rapunzel, despite the fact she was bald. She was soft bodied and had hard head, arms and legs. Over the years the stitching round her neck loosened so occasionally her head would drop off. I'm 32 now and still have her. I would dress her in old baby clothes and my grandmas would knit for her too for me. I also had an old style silver cross pram that I would push her round in.

I used to get other dolls such as tiny tears, and tiny timmy who you could bottle feed and they would go to the potty but none of them were as important to me as Rapunzel was.

I had a doll called Samantha! She had long blond hair which I brushed and tried to style. I remember my Granny being amazed that her eyes closed when she was laid down.
Sadly Samantha suffered from badly painted nails and a poorly executed attempt at giving her a fringe.

I had a doll called Jennifer. I loved her until I was about 7. I always wanted my mum to have another but she didn't as I was no 4 so I had to make do with a doll instead.

I had three dolls and two teddies..
The biggest doll was a hard plastic one , she was Bronia
There was one with tufted hair..she was Myfanwy ( I’m not welsh)
The other was along the lines of a barbie type doll... only wasn’t... she was Gloria Angelina
I had a very vivid imagination for names..I think bronia was from the silver sword
My teddy I called Suzanne. I loved that teddy and still have it it’s over 60 years old..it came from my great aunts motel in Florida after a little girl left it there
When it’s head felt off, dad sewed a knotted tie around it’s neck.
It’s still got it on. Mum made a pink velvet dress for it... I think it’s still wearing it.

Before our at smokey got neutered, she was wild and ran up the lace curtains cutting them to shreds with her claws.
I thought it was hilarious.. and kept chasing her so she’d do it again, till mam threatened to smack my bum.
After smokey got neutered and mum made new curtains, she gave me some Of the net with elastic Threaded through the heading tape.
This slipped over suzannes head and became her hair..I used to cut it into 6 strips and made two plaited pigtails.

Then I got another bear, and called it andrew..you’re not going to believe this..but it was named after baby Prince Andrew . Honest
Id sit them all down . We’d have tea parties and played cards games.
You can tell I was a bit of a lonely only child.

I think I turned out alright in the end though

I didn't have one, but my daughter loves them.

I loved dolls and was pretty much obsessed with dressing them
Up in different outfits. Anytime anybody asked me what I wanted for Christmas or for my birthday the answer was always the same, a doll. I spent hours staring longingly at the latest ballerina sindy in the local toy shop.

Dolls who wore nappies and could wee and poo however I thought were disgusting and had no idea why my peers liked them so much

With my own child I was into dressing her up and the nappies not so much 😉

I don’t really remember playing with baby dolls. Was obsessed with Sindy though and had the massive Sunday house and lots of furniture

I had a doll which I loved. She had medium length hair and when you pressed the bracelet on her wrist, she would say the most positive messages and had a calm voice. Honestly, she was my favourite and I didn't have any other doll. We had a few a handful of toys but well-loved and well-cherished. If I needed a pick me up, I would listen to her encouraging words.

I had older siblings who liked to pick on me and my doll, as they do! They would use water and pour it over the bracelet as water would affect the speech and her messages would become robotic and all over the place. Like a horror movie. They would continuously tease me over this. I wouldn't get angry (my doll encouraged me to be good) but I couldn't get why they wanted to annoy me like that and just leave my doll be.

I wonder what ever happened to her. She was a good doll to have.

I remember loving playing with paper dolls the best...
But I got for christmas in 1970 a baby doll with matching babydoll highchair, babydoll bed, playpen an stroller... I absolutely was adored it an spent many many hours with it, an I passed it on to some friends of my parents all I can remember was her moms name was HOPE. I remember how good it felt to give it to this little girl an remembered how many memories I had an was sure she would have just as many....

My sister had lots of Sindy’s and a giant cardboard Sindy house that doesn’t really compare to today’s dolls houses! I was never in to dolls, it was cuddly animals for me all the way!

DD loves her baby annabelle - she is very motherly towards her and tells me to sssshhh when she is rocking her to sleep in her cot laid on top of my dining table runner for comfort..!

I craved a Tiny Tears and was thrilled to bits when my dream came true the Christmas I was 7. My Gran had made a bed fully lined and frilled with matching bedding from a wooden orange crate as she was the product of wartime frugality. I was just as delighted with it as I would have been with the much cheaper looking (But not price,) official "Tiny Tears" product.
A little later I had Sindy and her little sister Patch, then Pippa dolls and we spent hours making them extra outfits. I can't see our grandchildren being allowed free access to needles nowadays!

I used to love my cabbage patch kids and polly pockets!

I got a baby doll for my 4th birthday and baked her Victoria. I absolutely loved her and took her everywhere. I loved feeding her with one of those bottles where the milk looks like it disappears and dressing her in my little brother's old baby clothes .

My daughter now plays with Victoria in pretty much the same way I did. It is lovely to see Victoria being loved and played with again

We had Sindy dolls and my Dad made a 4 floored wooden house for them, it was epic. We had a kitchen, living room, bedroom and garage, with furniture. The stove made noises and we would make tiny thumbnail-sized lemon curd and white bread sandwiches and serve them with tiny cups of milk - we weren't old enough to make tea. What I also liked was the yellow car with a trailer and a blow up blue plastic tent, so they could go on holiday around our bedroom.

I wasn't that much into dolls as a child, but I did have a little rag doll named Priscilla and a baby doll named Susie that I loved, and I enjoyed going to my friends house to play with her big Barbie collection with lots of clothes and a house and car.
My sister really loved dolls though. She had a cabbage patch kid and a number of baby dolls. She had a lovely double pram for them, and even persuaded our Mum to buy her baby clothes from Mothercare for them!
My DD preferred Disney Princess and Barbie princess dolls when she was little, but she also liked her Princess Alexa baby doll.

I remember having a large Baby Doll. I really loved her

My favourite doll was called baby Jane. She had her own pram and came everywhere with me. I absolutely adored her .

I had two favourites...a very old, second hand tiny tears doll that I cut the hair off...and drew in blue biro all over her tummy! My mum knitted her a bonnet to try to redeem her tuftiness 😂. And also a doll called Tressy...who nobody seems to ever have heard of! I loved her sooooo much. She was like Sindy, which all my friends had, but in my opinion WAY cooler! Her very long hair came out of a kind of hole at the top of her head, and you pressed a button on her tummy to make it different lengths. She also had great outfits and I thought she was much prettier than Sindy 🤷‍♀️💓 She had a horse that I called Cloppy 😆

I remember having a Cabbage Patch doll, she was the best doll ever but my little brother was scared of her, he was only a toddler and every time he saw her he cried so I was only allowed to play with her when he wasn't there or I was in my room.

Years ago my dolls were brides I made my sisters pretend to come to
Church to see her get married, at night the doll was stuffed in a box
Under the bed.

I had a few dolls that I pretend fed and dressed and pushed around in a pram. I played schools and lots of different games with them. My favourite dolls were those, which did stuff. I had two, one which was a little girl, maybe 5, who could walk and talk. She was one of the first walking dolls and a real treasure. My other talking doll was a lot younger but was a bit odd looking. You lifted her legs and arms and if you pushed her tummy, she said “I love you mummy”. No one ever told me they loved me so it was really special and still brings tears to my eyes now. I also had a teeny tiny tears that cried and we’ed maybe? But I preferred my talking dolls by far. They had little records inside them. I never named my dolls but loved pushing them round in my second hand coach built pram. The last doll I got was one I bought myself at about 7. She was a beautiful, soft tummied, delicate baby doll, which when wound up would move her head in a circle to Brahms lullaby.

As for my dd, she had lots of dolls. She loved her Annabelle and her Molly and friends toddler dolls. She has Evie, molly and Ollie. I bought her clothes and nappies for all of her dolls. They all came with names so she didn’t have to name them herself. She loved taking as many dolls as possible so a side by side double pushchair with storage took 4 dolls and was perfect. She also had a twin one in front of the other pushchair, which she loved too. She had a baby born with bath but that was never such a big hit as Anabelle, I expect that is because she is less delicate and dd was never heavy handed.

Annabelle needs more investment and siblings imo.

I remember playing my with my Sindy doll i I took it everywhere then when I was too old to play with dolls I gave them to charity and regretted giving Sindy.

I had a doll which we named Bonnie, she was bought for me the day I was born.

She didn't do much, had a full head of hair oddly enough, with a spongy body but hard arms and legs. I remember I thought she was the bees knees because her eyes blinked. Not particularly special in comparison with today's dolls, but she was mine and I loved her

I still have her now and she looks the same as she always did except her fingers are chewed (a weird habit of mine when bored as I child I suppose).

She was very special to me, Dh thinks it's weird that I've kept her all these years (35)

I didn't have a doll as I was a bit of a tomboy!

I don't remember playing with dolls - I think I had My Little Pony toys instead.