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

Action Men were cool with various outfits and accessories.

One had a voice cord.

Cindy and a doll with extended hair were great too.

I loved my baby dolls and played with them right up until about the age 10-11. I still remember all their names. I used to cut out pictures of all the accessories from the argos catalogue that I wanted. My daughter has always had dolls but never been as into them as I was.I don't know if that's because there wasn't so many distractions in the early 80s as there are now!

My doll was called Lena, my daughter plays with her today!

I remember lining up all the dolls and teddies and then trying to get my cat to lie down in formation with a blanket all over them all! the cat didn't stay put for long!!

I used to love my doll when I was a child, it used to come everywhere with me. I even spent my pocket money on real baby food and nappies for it 🤦‍♀️

I remember a doll with a pink dress and a pink hat, it's eyes closed when you tilted it

I remember me and my step sister playing with dolls! We loved going to the poundshop every month and picking doll clothes with our pocket money!

I never really had the Tiny Tears type dolls, I was more into the Sindy and Barbie range. I can remember going to the local toy shop and being so excited to see all the accessories in the range for both dolls and being able to buy some with my pocket money and so looking forward to getting home and dressing them in the latest outfits I had bought them.

My favourite doll was called Penny and you put coloured little records in her back and pressed a button on her tummy and she 'sang' nursery rhymes, this was back in the 70s and I thought she was amazing. I've had sons so the nearest things we got to dolls were action men and stretch armstrongs! Although my youngest had a "Woody" doll (from toy story ) and he said phrases. One day I was in the house alone whilst the boys were at school and was making the beds and Woody must have got caught up in the bedsheets and as I turned them back this voice suddenly said "reach for the sky!" Took about half an hour for me to get over the shock!!

I remember the doll crib more than the doll. It had a wind up mechanism in it that played a tune and rocked back and forth. I loved it.

my tiny tears came everywhere with me ,she was the original with dark curly hair (and quiet ugly) but I loved her more than any other doll , she was donated to a jumble sale when I got older .

My brother beheaded one of my Barbie dolls. Dad revived her with a bolt through her neck, at which point she was (obviously) renamed Barbiestein.

A doll I bought on holiday in Spain and I called him Steffen. The only one I really played with as I got to choose him. I distinctly remember the toy shop even 35+ years later, even the smell of the shop! I must have been about 3 or 4. In later years I played with Sindy and Barbie but Steffen was always a constant. I found photos at my mum's house a few months back of the holiday and I'm holding him in the majority of the pictures!!

My first doll was a rag doll with a soft body, plastic face and rainbow coloured hair, I loved that doll and she went everywhere with me. My next dolls were Barbie dolls and baby dolls, I had all the cute accessories and clothes, I had a dolls house for my Barbie and a little pram for my baby dolls, I had hours of fun with these when I was little

My first doll was handmade out of material, I took it everywhere and still have it to this day!

My first doll was a rag doll called Lucy l loved her so much took her everywhere with me. But l remember leaving her in the indoor slide at playgroup. I must have been about 3. Father Christmas came to see us l was so excited l forgot her. When it came to leave she was gone. Funny how l still remember this at 52.

I had quite a few dolls (in the 60s/70s); a tiny tears, a teeny tiny tears, a ragdoll my grandma's friend made for me, a doll that used to be my mum's that wore a wig because it had no hair left, called Rosebud, a Sindy, a Barbie, 2 Pippa dolls and, my favourites, 2 Amanda Jane dolls. I used to buy clothes for the Amanda Jane dolls with my pocket money. I played schools with them all. Or Barbie and Sindy would swim in the swimming pool that was actually my mum's washing up bowl. I had my mum's old dolls bed and a high chair too. Tiny tears and teeny tiny tears wee'd in their nappies. I always wanted a doll that you could feed, but never got one. I also wanted one with hair that grew so I could cut it.

I really really wanted a Sasha doll, because you could get babygros and tights for them, but they were too expensive.

I loved the"magic" milk bottles where the milk disappeared.

My first doll was a tiny tears doll and I took her everywhere with me. I tried to get sweets by telling people they could only hold her if they gave me some lol.

My doll was hand made by my Great Grandmother, who lovingly knitted the most delightful little doll. I took this doll everywhere and looked after it so much, it lasted through the years. It's currently tucked away in the Children's room - they even love and look after it!

I LOVED my dolls.

My Tiny Tears (named Joanne) was my favourite. I even took her to school with me regularly. She was a present from my little brother when he was born. I still have her to this day (40 years on!) She used to cry and wet her nappy like a real baby.

I also longed for a First Love doll and I finally got her the Christmas after I turned 9. I have a picture of pure joy on my face as I unwrapped her on Christmas Day. I'd longed for her for a few years. I named her Katie. Still got her!

I also had a boy doll named Jack who used to cry until you put his dummy in. I was gutted when I found out that my Mum had given him away.

Then I had a Baby Alive doll called Nicola (still got her but sadly she doesn't work anymore). You could feed her "real" food and she'd poo it out into her nappy. Her mouth used to move up and down as you fed her. I was thrilled to bits when I got her. She seemed like a real baby.

Then I had two life-like 6 month old baby dolls called Clare and Ian. They were "the" dolls to have in the mid-late 1980's. They were the same size as a real baby with large, floppy heads and you could dress them in real baby clothes. (Still got both of them!)

I also had Sarah who would kiss your cheek and blow you a kiss when you squeezed her leg. She was also a favourite. I still have her but her arm doesn't work to blow a kiss any more.

I also had a "walking/talking" doll. She would sort of walk but it required alot of effort to get her to. I loved it when you pressed the button on her tummy and she said "I love you very much!" and a few other phrases. I used to pretend that she was the big sister as she was taller than my other dolls so I imagined that she was about 3.

As you can see, I really treasured my dolls and I'd never get rid of them. I played with them until I was 14 (a late developer!)

I used to play schools with them all. I'd bath Tiny Tears and First Love. My little brother coloured in Tiny Tears' eyes with yellow crayon and I cut some of the back of her hair off thinking that it would grow back - I'm still waiting! I had a twin pushchair, a buggy, a swing, a playpen, 2 high chairs and a baby changing table as I played with my dolls so much.

I knew from a very young age that I wanted babies of my own and eventually had two called Katie and Jack! Plus I became a childminder!

They are primary school age. They don't play with my dolls but they have a twin boy/girl doll each and they play "mums and dads" together with them. Katie also has a Baby Annabelle doll that cries. My daughter is nowhere near as into dolls as I was but will get Cleo (her new born baby doll out regularly and push her around in the pram, feed her etc)

I was desperate for a Cabbage Patch Kid and never got one. I think my parents were quite astute as, with hindsight, I don't think that they were all that they were cracked up to be.

I also had a baby doll that crawled which I loved. Anything that did things like a 'real' baby was my thing.

I had a doll years ago, it was quite a chunky one, and made of celluloid. It was a Christmas present from my Grandmother in 1946,when I was four years old. It was quite a rigid doll, but the arms and legs could move, and the head could turn a little. I don't remember the doll having any hair at all. It had a mouth and lips that were slightly open,but not suitable for a dummy,or bottle etc.

My Mum knitted a few woollen hats for the bald doll, and my Grandmother.taught me how to make a few nice frocks for the doll,with bits of spare material that she had. It wasn't the prettiest of dolls,and was usually stuck on the end of my bed at nights,or on the floor.

I grew up, and got married,in 1967,left home.The doll was still alive, and stayed with my Mother over the years, always sat on her sofa, until the day my Mum died in 2005.

I had to sort my Mums flat out when she died, and there was the celluloid doll of my 1940 childhood,staring at me from Mums sofa. I had quite forgotten that I had named this doll Susan in the oldie days. but never really liked her to be honest.

I then decided to pack her up in a box in my car,and drove 15O miles back home,with my son driving. We went to his house first, and for some reasons my son said, what are you going to do with the old doll now,,lets have a look at it . So my son took the doll out of the cardboard box, and sat it on the floor. And one of his dogs ran in the room,and attacked the doll, and started to drag it around the room,despite us trying to release the doll,and calm the dog down.

The dog was a smallish breed,and usually well behaved,but he went frantic seeing this doll. and he ran off into the garden with the doll,and bit it,and wrecked it to pieces.

My Mother was a great knitter, and was always knitting things for other people,and also knitting hats and coats for the premature baby unit at a hospital,, and she also periodically knitted things for my oldie doll on her sofa,for 4o years or more. The doll was wearing a pink hat and dress,when my Mother died,,and then when the doll died her horrible shredded up end.

My first doll was my mum’s old doll. She was called Greta which was my granny’s name although I didn’t know that at the time. She had a china head and soft body. She would probably have been made in the 1930’s. Unfortunately she didn’t stand up to 1960 toddlers and was eventually broken. I regret that she wasn’t “kept for best” as I would love to have her now.

My sister and I played with dolls all the time. We had Tiny Tears and big dolls with blonde curly hair that my uncle bought us. Mine were always girls. I had a Juliette and a Susan which are not names I would choose now. My sister’s were always boys called Tim although I don’t think you actually got “boy dolls” in those days.

I only have boys and they fast outgrew any interest in dolls. I would have loved one of those realistic baby dolls as a child and secretly would still like one now ....... but that stays a secret!

my mum used to make loads of outfits for my dolls. She loved dressing them up as much as I did.

Some days I came home from school to find them all bathed & dressed!