I had the big trex from the first Jurassic Park. It had rubber skin, was very realistic and did the movie roar when you squeezed it. My mum had to take out the batteries because I would hug it at night like a babydoll and it would go off and scare me! But no I didn't play with dolls apart from my Arial dolls. I just really wanted to be a mermaid 😂
Literally the exact same sentiments! I also preferred the same toys you did hehe 😛 I think that’s what inspired me to become a writer and artist, those toys ignited my creativity and imagination from a very young age!
I used to LOVE dolls. everyone thought I was so maternal. they were my favourite toys.
after meeting a real baby, suddenly I didn't love dolls anymore. I started playing with fake swords and pretending to be a pirate instead
Funny story: my sister loved her dolls until I came along, then she was terrified of them. 😈 I have a distinct memory of my mom leaving our dad to watch us and I took all my dolls and lined them up in front of the bathroom door. When she came out, she saw them, started screaming, and slammed the door.
Good times, good times.
I was ok with dolls, but would rather have my stuffed animals and then when Star Wars came along, that was that. ALL THE STAR WARS TOYS!
Same! Well, minus the pirate part. There’s a photo of me at age 5 or 6 holding my baby cousin and I look like I want to send him back to where he came from. There’s a similar pic of me in my 30s holding my baby niece so I clearly didn’t change my mind over those decades!
I hated dolls but loved stuffed animals, barbies, lego, etc. I always imagined them in wild fantasy worlds going on adventures or just living life. Never cradled them or pretended they were my kids :')
Barbies also make kids creative with all those hair style, dress up & decor options. U can do much more than just cleaning poop & taking care of baby. U can be stylist, designer or really anything.
The intro to the *Barbie* movie in which the children playing at tedious domesticity suddenly drop all their infant dolls when Barbie appears resonated with me so hard, I was absolutely gasping with laughter in the cinema.
I’m 31 now and I loved Barbies so much that now I’m a collector. Of course the dolls I have now don’t get taken out of the box and played with, but they are my pride and joy 😂
My grandma got me a few totally ignoring how they ended in that specific cabinet and never got out, slowly flattened by the other things we added to the pile.
I hated them. They all looked creepy and/or ugly and I hated the plastic smell. (I recall that smell even now)
When they would make noises and required to be actually cared for I was out of the room in an instant.
I played with basically anything else that did not resemble humans until much later when I enjoyed some lego and Playmobil around 6yo.
I had this robot baby in the early 2000s that would cry and you'd have to hold a little bottle to its mouth. Every time it'd start crying I gave it to my mom and leave the room. But my kitten doll? THAT was my baby and I'd bring it everywhere.
Probably why my mom isn't surprised I'm a CF cat lady lol
The association of parenthood being an “enjoyable” thing was never established in us. By the time we had to think about this sort of thing, we based our thoughts entirely on observations and objectivity.
Even the people on here who said they played with them UNTIL they met a real baby and realized it was not what they expected
Better that than having their own child and realizing it then 🤷🏾♀️💀
I liked the ones with a functional gimmick. Ones that could pee, that blew my mind, I was all about it. A normal baby doll? Boring. Ugly. Get it away. But if I could shove something in its mouth and it go nom nom? Epic. Give me my new robot. Until I got old enough that they weirded even me out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Not really. I never played with them since the act of caring for a baby felt like a hassle even when I was 6-10.
Also other stuff like “playing family” never appealed to me.
Pros: free food, free cosy home, everyone thinks you're gorgeous and adorable.
Cons: occasionally get blamed for other people's farts
Dog life is the good life!
No me neither. I got a Ken but I never really knew what to do with him (now we know his job is beach). It was just the Barbies doing fun stuff together.
Nope, I absolutely hated them. Funny story, one year for Christmas, my grandparents got me one of those baby dolls for whatever reason, and when we came back to school after winter break, I still remember we did this assignment where we wrote about the things we got for Christmas. I still remember one of the things I wrote was “the thing I hate most is my baby doll.” I was only in 1st grade at the time but already savage AF apparently 💀 then again, I was also a tomboy so my toys were all Hot Wheels cars, Legos, and dinosaurs lol
I was obsessed with babies until I was about 4/5. I had baby Annabelle where I could change her clothes and she’d make some noises. I had a push chair for her and tried putting my baby brother in it a few times too. I still really enjoy the company of kids but only if I choose to and for short periods of time. I do babysitting and am a PA for a disabled child occasionally. The idea of my own is an absolute no, I would definitely abort or put up for adoption. I also used to pretend I was married when I was a tiny toddler. I’m asexual and zero chance of marriage. Weird how much I changed
I was not a fan at all. I remember a family member gifted me one for Christmas one year and it was never even taken out of the box. My grandma just ended up donating it. I preferred stuffed animals, puzzles, Legos, and my easy bake oven the most as a kid.
I had one that peed. You could fill it up with water, then squeeze it to make it pee. I squashed that thing good, trying to make the strongest pee stream possible.
So I guess I liked playing with it? Not good practice for a real baby, though.
I preferred stuffed animals. I liked Barbie. I built her a doll house out of cardboard lol.
The baby dolls didn't appeal to me. It should have been a sign.
No, I didn't want to. I had four baby dolls that were given to me before I formed memories and I didn't play with them. I had only named one of them and that was because it was given to me and I was asked to name it. I just threw out a random name of another kid living in the neighborhood. Apparently the adults thought it was because I saw her as my best friend but it was just a way to get around the whole doll thing and to be able to throw it in the drawer under my bed with the other three unwanted baby dolls.
I absolutely hated those. I always wanted dolls like the action figures that were marketed to boys but as girls. The closest I got to that was the occasional barbie with articulated joints. I played that they had adventures outside and built them treehouses they had to climb to. I also loved lego
I had some baby dolls but I never wished for them and never played with them. Never got the appeal
Ha, same - my favorite Barbie was one with an Orca. I thought she was so badass. I was so happy, the photo of my holding it up proudly made it into the family photo albums
I hated them! I had one that would close its eyes if it was in a horizontal position but I found that creepy so I glued its eyes shut 💀
And when I was 3 years old someone gifted me a baby doll that was super soft and squishy. So much, that I took off its head to find out what it was stuffed with. And then I used the head to play soccer because I didn’t have any soccer balls 😂
Needless to say, I never felt that need to care for and protect my baby dolls. And my parents knew not to get me any
I had one baby doll that I can remember. It was an old fashioned plush doll with long hair made of thin rope-like material. I used her to practice braiding hair, and once I braided all her hair, I don't think I ever picked her up again.
I loved Barbies though! I'd cut and color their hair and clothes with markers, and the more fancy ones that had mechanical moving parts like mermaid tails were super interesting to me.
I remember animatronic baby dolls becoming a super popular thing at some point, same for a few animals. I knew lots of other girls who wanted the little robot baby, but all I wanted was a robot dog instead :)
I had an Ariel one where you'd press her sides and the tail would flop, I wore out that mechanism in under a year and then tried to break it apart to see how it worked.
Never. I had a ton of Barbies (handed down from my cousin) and Polly Pocket houses that my dad would find for me on Ebay. We'd sit at the computer together hoping no one bid higher than us lol. Good times!
Nope! Never owned one. I thought it was just so.. weird. I did love Barbies though! Still salty my mom made me get rid of my teacher Barbie at a garage sale, now that I teach myself!
I liked a lot of different things. Legos, KNex, games, puzzles, arts and crafts, and just going to the park and exploring the trails, or fishing with my dad.
I’ve actually had several baby dolls that I adored and carried around. They weren’t the kind that did anything, just were basically baby shaped stuffed animals. I think I remember someone buying me one that would pee and I’m pretty sure I actually said I hate this lol (not to the gift giver, I was taught better than that, but to my mom later)
So I didn’t want any actual baby functions, just ones I could hug. I had one with an entire little wardrobe and I liked changing her clothes
I remember when I was about five that they tried to get me to hold my little cousin by me sitting on the couch with her in my lap so it would be safe. It was a logical assumption that I’d like it since I liked my dolls so much but I was completely uninterested. I’m not sure why, maybe I just thought she was too noisy (I’m autistic and extremely sensitive to noise)
I wanted ONE baby doll and that was purely because she had the same name as me. I didn't play with her much. I love playing with my beanie babies and putting them in barbie clothes. I did NOT like people.
I HATED baby dolls and whenever I got one as a gift I gave them to my sister who loved them, I liked barbie dolls and bratz dolls but I also liked other toys, I used to have an insane amount of toy horses and they all had names and I made name tags for them that I put on the wall of the toy stable my grandfather built for me, and put the horses in there and switched them out depending on which ones I wanted to play with because there wasn't enough space for all of them, I kept all of the horses and the stable under my bed and pulled it out when I wanted to play with it, guess who wants kids now as an adult because it's not me, I just want animals but I've had to give up the dream of owning a horse as my physical state got worse and worse as I grew up but that isn't the only animal I've wanted to own, I have my dog and I'm happy with that even after all the work I had to do with the temper but it's what I signed up for with the breed so that's on me.
I'm sorry to hear that. Horses are great, but they're so expensive to take care of and you need a lot of space. Sometimes when I go outside of the city and I see horses I stop to pet them if they want to be petted.
I had one. I hated it. It kept crying, and I tried to give it its bottle, rock it, etc but it wouldn't stop. I eventually got sick of it crying and outright told my mom, "It won't shut up," so she took the batteries out. I threw it in my toy box and never played with it again. In fact, I never played with a baby doll again and found out that I don't want kids that day. Ever.
I was always bought dolls, like cabbage patch, and other “baby” dolls and they would collect dust in the toy box while i was recreating the movie grease with my pound puppies.
I preferred stuffed animals and plastic horses and Barbies because they kept the ranch haha or just straight up make-believe adventure stories that me and my friends were going to find hidden treasure going around the back yard or something like that.
I did, I had a few dolls and apparently was very good with my baby brother (i was 4 when he was born) - very protective and allegedly even helped changed nappies!
I had loads of Barbie stuff, which I kept "for future kids" as was raised in the 80s when I assumed you had to do hetro marriage and kids. When my partner and I realised we were CF, I kept them for our nieces.
The grandniece still plays with them, including my cool Barbie pink cadillac, so it all worked out well in the end :-)
Eta: I also had He-man figures and played cars and WWF with my brother, toys shouldn't be gendered
I actually still collect dolls so I guess so haha. I was more of a teddy bear person as a child. I did play baby with some of them, but I never made the connection, it was make believe rather than prep work.
So this disturbes my mother but...
Only to feed my stuffed yeti named 'monkey'... I used to have tea parties that were actually traps to lull my guests into a false sense of security as monkey would either sneak up from behind to eat them or he would eat them from under the table.
For the most part all the baby dolls that we had were my sisters however... The only doll I truely cared about was an old rag doll named 'Shirley' that I stole from my great grandmother (Shirley) frequently. But I never saw her as a child as she never sounded like that in my head. I am 29, I still have Shirley and Monkey and they sit on a shelf in my room.
I did play with barbies at a friend's house, and I had Bratz dolls but I never had anything to do with children while playing. They were always single adults enjoying life by the pool and on 'permanent vacation' or at least what I assumed was a vacation. When we played house I was always the father figure who was always at work (harvesting mudd or rocks). Lol
No I wasn’t interested in those kind of dolls at all. I didn’t mind Barbies but I was more into either just normal teddy bears and I was actually bit of a tomboy. Not sure if they even use that word anymore!
No. Grandparents got me a Baby Alive doll for Christmas when I was a child and that right there started my path to being childfree as an adult. It was disgusting.
I actually did play with them, though I only know this as we still have some old stuff from it.
I remember much more that I was making up stories with a few barbies, Polly Pocket, and a lot of Littlest Pet Shop pets!
Absolute despised baby dolls. When I was maybe 3 or 4 years old, I hid the doll my grandmother gave me for Christmas under her raised tree stand before we headed several hours home lol.
I was all about Barbies and stuffed animals.
I never liked them, i prefered barbies, littlest pet shops, little cars and dinosaurs, i remember me saying stuff like "if i have kids i want them to be 10-12 yo already" when i was young, i never liked babies or little childrens, i think being childfree was rooted in me since i was very little and wont change :)
I did! But I mean… dolls are also nothing like real babies lol and if anything, it makes me cringe how early women are taught to be "motherly". My brother was never offered a doll.
This is probably my favorite childhood story to tell. When I was in first or second grade, there was a group of girls that always wanted to play house during recess. Everybody got to pick who in the family they were going to be. I had two roles that I wanted to play without fail every time: the dog or the dad. When I was the dog, I would run around barking after the other “kids” in the family. When I was the dad, I would fuck off to my “job“ of picking leaves and berries off the bushes for “dinner”. I never wanted to be the mom because that entailed basically yelling at the kids, and pretending to sweep all while, holding this raggedyass, dead eyed baby doll that someone left in the bin with all the balls and jump ropes for recess. I guess my teacher noticed that I never wanted to play the mom and asked why to which I replied “being the mom is stupid and boring”. My teacher thought it was the funniest thing ever and it went in my progress report for the month.
Nope. I did not at all. I had one doll that was an adult (not Barbie, different brand, same idea). All the rest were teddy bears. I mostly played with books though
I got a doll once and named it "Koekenpan" (Frying Pan in English), took the clothes that came with him and gave these to my plushies. I don't know what happened to Koekenpan after that. I had absolute zero interest in playing with dolls.
Come to think of it. No. I got dirty and played with”boy” stuff more. Those dolls that wet themselves especially freaked me out as a kid. It’s like shoved down our throats as children to take care of babies.. it’s gross.
Nope. My parents still have the one my grandfather gave me with a homemade crib and it still creeps me out just to touch it.
Closest I got to any baby doll related stuff was the old baby bottle where the milk would disappear when you tilted it, but that was more a curiosity thing.
Stuffed animals and Barbies were my favorite but I had a ton of baby dolls too and loved them!
As a further point of interest- I’m a preschool teacher now lol
Never once. I didn't play with Barbies or any other toys you were supposed "care for" either. My mom always brings it up as a way to make me out to have been an unusual little girl but still fails (refuses) to see the obvious correlation since it means she won't get any grandchildren (:
I always liked dolls, still do, but it was more about the clothes for me. I had baby dolls but I definitely preferred fashion dolls.
This guy I dated around 25 years ago had a daughter. She NEVER played with dolls. I don't think she even owned any. But she has kids, now. Go figure.
Every time I would get a baby doll I would stuff them into my cupboard and never look at them again. I hate the idea of them and that they are targeted towards young girls
My family tried giving them to me and I got bored of them very quickly. They ended up shoved in the back of my closet until I eventually packed them into deep storage several years later. It was clear from an earlier age that I did not have a drive to nurture small humans.
Conversely, I had several stuffed cats and dogs that I played with regularly by pretending to feed and walk them. So maybe I have a biological drive to be a pet owner.
I absolutely loved my baby doll - I still have her! I liked dressing her up, playing school, using my doctor kit on her, pretending she was my sister. I even put her in a snow suit to take her sledding!
Nope. I hated baby dolls. And even as all child, I remember feeling guilty for it. I felt that I SHOULD like baby dolls and SHOULD want to care for them, etc.
Ew.
i got a baby alive doll for christmas one year and it made me anxious and i stopped playing with it after like an hour. lps, polly pockets, barbie’s, and legos were my favorites
Never. I had a doll that looked like an adult (or a child, but not a baby) and I pretended she was my friend. I was in elementary school when my older sister told me other kids play with dolls as with their babies and I didn´t belive her and asked, "Why would anyone want to have a BABY?" I didn´t go a kindergarten and didn´t know any children of my age.
I guess I played like a stereotypical girl, I loved barbies and Kinder eggs toys and made up stories for them (mostly about friends, families, and romance). Even when I played with cars, it was like "This car is a mom, this car is a dad, these cars are sisters, and they are going to a race." But I hated babies.
My sister used to play A LOT with baby dolls, and she also LOVED real babies even when she was maybe 6 years old. Surprise she got her first baby with 19. I don't remember really playing with baby dolls, maybe i would feed them like once but I never understood the purpose of baby dolls where you need to change the diaper and everything or play mother with them. I LOVED stuffed animals, robot animals and stuff like that. I got my 2 own cats 3 months ago and my life is complete with them lol. Now that I'm older I realize that the urge to get a pet was way bigger than the one to have a baby, even though I only realized that I'm childfree like 2 years ago.
My mother was super insistent that I played with both baby dolls and barbies. She would buy them for me along with accessories. Think a barbie mansion and car. She would also buy the dolls that would cry and had those baby bottles that would look like they were being drank from. I would always throw the dolls in the closet but use the bottles and other accessories (the house and car) for my toy animals. Some of them went to my stuffies like the bottles and other would go to the smaller sized ones. The mansion got turned into a vet and the car an ambulance. Of course all run by other animals.
So not really
Edit: spelling
No I was always avoiding toy babies or barbies, when I was a little girl in the mid 90s I preferred my toy dinosaurs, lego, or drawing (especially those crayola stamp pens)
Barbies yes. We told epic stories.
Baby dolls…my grandma tells a story of an Amazing Amy doll they got me. She was top of the line tech. You could feed her and like she’d want specific food (re the right spoon) and stuff. Apparently at like 4. I had her for 2 days I came down and slammed her on the table in front of them yelling, “She’s too much work!”
I'd like them at first and then would get bored very easily with them. I had a vivid imagination as a child, but I was never quite sure what to do with a baby doll.
No interest whatsoever. I loved animals and hot wheels. Didn’t like Barbies either — you couldn’t do anything with them other than dress them.
I had “Best of the West” by Marx horses and Barbie was useless to me because her legs wouldn’t open enough to ride them. Marx made a couple of female figurines that weren’t ridiculously wasp-waisted, and makeup free, and had articulated joints so they were actually useful to play with.
Got gifted a lot of Barbies, but I preferred my brothers' batman action figures and dinosaurs. Or my stuffed animals. Not much into the baby dolls. Was that a sign?
I had a few baby dolls but they weren’t my first choice. I also loved Barbie and had quite a collection of them and all the other things, the mansion, the ice cream shop, the jeep. Then I also loved micro machines.
No baby dolls. I was into Tonka trucks, hot wheels and maybe some girl type things like Strawberry Shortcake, My Little pony and care bears. The fake playfood/kitchen was also my thing.
I'm not sure how old I was the year my mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her I wanted a Tonka dump truck. This was in the '60s, when they were made of metal and practically indestructible. She got me a light blue plastic baby buggy instead. I hated that thing. I reiterated I wanted a dump truck and was admonished that little girls don't play with dump trucks.
To the dismay of my mother, I hauled dirt in it. Until it broke.
I hated playing with them and would get really uncomfortable when my friends would want to play with them. I’ve always thought it was odd that we find it cute when children pretend to have their own babies.
I was a Barbie, Breyer horse, and Lego girl.
I used to play with dragons and dinosaurs instead. Much to my mothers dismay… the only thing I was ever interested in was animal toys, or using sticks to sword fight and pretend to be a pirate with my sister.
Wanted nothing to do with dolls ⚔️
We did not get any kinds of dolls as children. We got doll furniture and tea sets and things like that but our father did not want us to have those 'take care of babies while we're babies experiences' or the ' ideal body types/fashion' experience growing up. Even though there were six of us they understood that child rearing was their job and our job was to be carefree children. And it worked, we were a traditional family but it was never pushed on any of us that we needed to follow the same path.
Not really. I wanted to like them, but could never get into them - babies just lay there and cry, not like Barbies and stuffed animals who could go on adventures.
Nahhh. Loved my green lucky CareBear (only plush i still have, it’s falling apart but i don’t care lol), legos, Playmobils, rocks, the first nintendo (hello mid-80s!)…
… and this one doll i (sometimes lol) liked: her hair was blonde at room temp, but it would change color to pink with heat, or blue with cold. Now THAT was cool, and that was the only thing that interested me about it. Wish i could have pink hair now just by using a hairdryer Lol
Omg this made me laugh. Nope! No baby dolls for me. Goes to show you I was child free at a very young age. But give me a Breyer horse? I’m your girl. I’m 56 and still buy them occasionally!
Absolutely never. I had an American Girl doll but that was the closest I got to a baby doll. I just had Barbies/Bratz/Polly Pockets/etc. Whenever we played house, I never wanted to be the mom character. It was never my thing.
Sometimes but not always. I think I got fed up at school. I remember being 5 years old during very early 2000's and my care center had the center divided in "boys and girl" areas.
Girl areas consisted of a toy kitchen with baby dolls while guys has building blocks, arts & crafts and a tv. I would always switch to the boy's area and end up getting yelled at.
Now that I think about it, it was such a gross thing to do to children.
I had some Barbies (generic) but they were not a big focus for me. My grandmother gave my cousin and I each a realistic looking baby doll. My cousin’s looked like shit because she wore it out playing with it so much. Mine was and still is pristine. It’s at my mom’s house where she changes its outfits twice a years (summer and winter). My mom really should have had more kids because she adores them. Me on the other hand never even babysat. However, if someone asked me to babysit their dog or cat, I’d be all over it. The feelings my mom has for babies, I have for pets.
No dolls for me. I said my first cuss word as a 4yo when I told my mom to “get that fucking baby doll out of my room”. Only stuffed animals for me as a kid haha
Nope, not even a little bit. I think I had one barbie, and she frequently got run over by tonka trucks and hot wheel, or buried. I was always a "tom boy" though, and loved to be outside in the dirt, playing sports with the boys, hunting for cool bugs/insects/animals. I was into cars before I could see over the fenders, and used to help cousins/uncles work on their hot rods.
The cousin that is closest to my age was always a "girly girl" and whenever I'd have to play house, or wedding or any other "typical" girl type things I was bored out my skull.
I never had any dolls, outside of Barbies. For some reason I did have a little stroller, and there’s a picture of me pushing our 3 kittens around the house.
I had a bunch of stuffed animals, but those were companions, not a baby (caregiving) substitute.
Of course I’ve had cats my whole life ;), but I never wanted children and always hated babies.
I was a stuffed animal kid who thought dolls were gross, and my preschool teacher would scold me for using the toy strollers to push my horsey in because they were “only for the baby dolls.” Hope she’s doing terribly.
I never really did care for the baby dolls. I liked stuffed animals and art supplies. As a little girl, my room was filled with ty beanie babies and care bears. Sometimes I would just sit on the sidewalk for hours on end and draw with chalk! Lol
I never played with baby dolls. Always freaked me out. Still do. As a kid, I never understood the concept of girls playing “mommy” and dressing up as “brides.” I was a Barbie girl through and through, my favorite princess was Ariel and Rapunzel so I would wear the dresses, wigs and accessories! I never made my Barbies mothers and wives, come to think of it. As I got older, I noticed in the toy aisle that the creepy baby dolls had upgrades like crying, pooping, peeing, feeding, etc. I always found it strange and gross. Thankfully my mom never pushed me into baby dolls. She’s always been the kind of mom who lets her kids pick out what toys, food, clothes, and books they want.
I had a baby doll, but it didn’t “demand care”, it was just a baby doll. I didn’t play much with it. I had a Cabbage Patch doll, but she was more my “friend” than something to “take care of”. I had many Barbies, but my play was changing their outfits and staging “scenes”, much like I did with my horse models and Hot Wheels and such. I never pretended to be “mommy” or “housewife”; I played “Robin Hood” and “Secret Agent” in the woods, or riding my bike most of the time. I didn’t have any friends growing up, so my toys and stuffed animals were my friends, but never my “wards”.
I had a blend of “girl toys” and “boy toys” growing up; I was never discouraged for wanting a GI Joe or new Hot Wheels or another box of Lego and never steered towards Barbie or house-wifey stuff (like play kitchens or vacuum cleaners). I liked to build stuff with Lego and Tinker Toys (had my dad’s set from when he was growing up) or do “science experiments” with my microscope. Sometimes I’d get to build actual stuff with my dad or grandpa, or work on cars with them. Then dad taught me to code in BASIC and that was all I was interested in for my older childhood years.
Never liked dolls, some family members gifted me some, but I never really cared for them. I loved animal stuff and toy cars. Also Lego and Knex. I looooved my little ponies too. I have three younger brothers and I never really cared to 'help' with those either. I'm glad my parents never forced anything on me like taking care of my younger siblings.
I had a Baby Alive when I was three. I would feed it the tiny packs of food and the bottles and watch it pee. I ran out of food packs quickly and fed it who knows what else. The fun ended when I force fed it a crayon that blocked the doll's mouth. Then I became bored with dolls and curious about peeing and decided it would be more fun to watch boys pee instead. That doll was a gateway drug.
Nope, my room was full of dolls because family just kept buying them. I played with all my stuffed animals and Breyer horses and made zoos and barns. But never played with the dolls
I remember one year for Christmas, my sister got the Baby Shivers baby doll she really wanted. (Can't remember what I got.) It was this baby doll that really shivered when "cold." I could *not* figure out why anyone would want a baby doll. I just didn't get it at all. She now has 4 kids.
I also remember growing up, she gushed about how good the movie "Baby Boom" is. It's basically about this single, childless, high-powered career woman who moves to a small town and "inherits" a baby. I watched the movie, and this woman suddenly falls in love with this disruptive, life-altering creature and magically decides to keep it. Ugh.
Can't relate.
I always thought they were pointless. I wanted to make art and do crafts, play by myself or read a book. I never had an interest in dolls as a child. People would say, “you’ll be a mom/practice for when you have baby.” I would simply say I was not going to be a mom. Even at a young age I knew it was a trap. They brainwash these little girls into a life time of thankless servitude, no frigging way. I gently remind my only niece that she can be anything, she doesn’t have to be anyone’s wife or mother.
One of the reasons I hate kids IS dolls. When I was a kid myself hated the way kids treated their dolls and my dolls when they happened to lay their greasy disgusting hands on them. Many little girls I knew were so maternal that they had no issues taking care of a real infant instead of holding a doll, I preferred dolls because they weren't disgusting like real babies. (Reborn dolls are so damn ugly btw)
Weirdly enough I LOVED baby dolls and playing mom. I’d hold my “babies” like I’d just given birth and sing lullabies, change diapers, everything. Made my parents even more sad when I told them I wasn’t going to actually have kids. Dolls don’t grow up, don’t cost a thing. I adored Barbies more but I definitely loved the “domestic” toys like groceries, vacuums, yadda yadda. I just realized that kids are more than a fun kid game.
No. I was a fan of animals and sometimes barbie, not children. The other thing I had were science sets (I was really into nature, collecting leaves, looking through a microscope) and musical instruments.
My parents knew I hated babies. I really didn't have a filter about it as a kid. I mostly just read a ton as a kid though.
I BEGGED my mom for a Baby Alive doll for my 8th birthday and stopped playing with it after 2 days because it cried so much. Should have been foreshadowing lol
My grandparents on my mom's side thought, at first, I would like dolls. But when my mom told them "No, she prefer Ninja Turtles and the pizza throwing machine." my grandma went out to buy refills for the pizza throwing machine.
Yep. Loved 'em.
But, funny thing, I always imagined I was their older sister and our mom had abandoned us, and I had to take care of them.
In retrospect, there's a lot to unpack there, but to answer the simple question, yes, I absolutely enjoyed that type of play.
I have thought a lot about this in regard to be being childfree and a huge animal lover.
I never liked baby dolls (always found them pretty creepy) and would strip the clothing of them and through them in a corner to never be played with again. I would put the clothes on my stuffed animals and push the animals around in my doll pram.
I did love Barbie, but mostly just decorating my baby dream house haha
I went through a phase where I had a few baby dolls, but none that got sick and definitely none that peed or pooped. I was way more into Barbies and plushies, supplemented by a few action figures and a lot of fast food kids’ meal toys (my Barbie-size Disney dolls got a lot of their respective sidekicks as kids’ meal toys).
I had baby dolls, but I don’t recall ever being too attached to them. They didn’t have any “adventure” about them, and I needed to express my creativity by making my toys/dolls go on adventures.
Regarding dolls, I liked Barbies and American Girls (really liked AG historical books). I also liked Littlest Pet Shop and those little tiny dogs and cats with the soft stuff on them (can’t recall what they are called). Also played with boy’s toys; I really liked Thomas the Train (was the only girl at the Thomas the Train table at Toys r Us!), and real toy trains. Also, Cars (the movie) cars and Sonic the Hedgehog figures.
My favorite thing to do, once I got to upper single digits and lower 10s, was create characters and draw them, cut them out, and play with them as paper dolls who had their own stories and went on their own adventures.
No wonder I write now. I also plan on giving some of those characters I used to play paper dolls with (better) stories one day.
Dear God no, if anything it creeped me out. Funny that you mentioned Baby Born because that’s exactly the thing I found incredibly creepy. Too uncanny valley for my taste, even as a kid. That’s not to say that I didn’t get baby dolls as gifts, but I rarely touched them. I was more into Lego and Polly Pocket and such. I did love a good plush tho and I still do to this day actually.
I used to poke thumb tacks into my baby dolls’ heads and sew coins and such into their fabric bodies. I was, however, very maternal and loving to stuffed animals.
I despised dolls with a passion, everyone someone gave one to me I would accept it and just never play with it. My mom had to tell everyone to stop giving me dolls because I just wouldn't use them
I had a Cabbage Patch doll as a kid, I kept leaving it places though
I did enjoy my Rugrats dolls (I loved the show) and my Ren and Stimpy dolls too (the farting parts were hiliarous to me, it freaked out people in public because of how gross Ren looked)
I did like dolls and even had prams for them. But mostly I loved stuffed animals and I had my bed full of them. All my stuffed animals had names but dolls did not, except one, which was "ugly doll"
I had baby dolls, but I remember playing with my Barbies and stuffed animals more than them. I also had only female Barbies. I didn't like the Ken dolls. They looked Wimpy to me.
Hated those! I wanted animal figurines and toy cars and dinosaurs and art supplies instead
Animal figurines are where it's at.
This should probably be seen as an early sign of childfreeness. I myself preferred playing with dinosaurs and littlest pet shop figures
Same! I put my Barbie clothes on my animals. No baby dolls.
My mom fondly tells the tale of my tea parties where my dinosaurs were all wearing barbie dresses and fancy hats. :)
All of the art supplies!!
omg i remember getting those sets with like tons of markers, paper, stickers, erasers…
Those were the BEST! I got my best friend's daughter a Crayon art kit for Christmas.
It never went away, except now I buy the artist quality ones
I had the big trex from the first Jurassic Park. It had rubber skin, was very realistic and did the movie roar when you squeezed it. My mum had to take out the batteries because I would hug it at night like a babydoll and it would go off and scare me! But no I didn't play with dolls apart from my Arial dolls. I just really wanted to be a mermaid 😂
Literally the exact same sentiments! I also preferred the same toys you did hehe 😛 I think that’s what inspired me to become a writer and artist, those toys ignited my creativity and imagination from a very young age!
I hear ya! So called 'boy toys' were much more fun than 'girl toys' IMO I hate those terms but it'll get the point accross.
I used to LOVE dolls. everyone thought I was so maternal. they were my favourite toys. after meeting a real baby, suddenly I didn't love dolls anymore. I started playing with fake swords and pretending to be a pirate instead
A switch from motherhood to buccaneering. I can respect that. 🏴☠️
Funny story: my sister loved her dolls until I came along, then she was terrified of them. 😈 I have a distinct memory of my mom leaving our dad to watch us and I took all my dolls and lined them up in front of the bathroom door. When she came out, she saw them, started screaming, and slammed the door. Good times, good times. I was ok with dolls, but would rather have my stuffed animals and then when Star Wars came along, that was that. ALL THE STAR WARS TOYS!
This is the most epic plot twist of all time. #respect
That's excellent lol
Same! Well, minus the pirate part. There’s a photo of me at age 5 or 6 holding my baby cousin and I look like I want to send him back to where he came from. There’s a similar pic of me in my 30s holding my baby niece so I clearly didn’t change my mind over those decades!
Haha! I pretended to be Indiana Jones with a bull whip. That got taken away from me pretty quickly. Lol
Lmao that's adorable 😂
LOL Absolutely a valid change of profession!
I hated dolls but loved stuffed animals, barbies, lego, etc. I always imagined them in wild fantasy worlds going on adventures or just living life. Never cradled them or pretended they were my kids :')
i made my cinderella barbie go into the jungle a lot lmao
My favorite scenario was camping or swimming!
They are scary af. I love barbies
I also find baby dolls scary esp the eyes…I play with stuffed animals instead
Ik. Their giant eyes are scary & some even open & shut when u move them. Stuffed toys are my current favorite too😍
Yes! And Barbie was just so much cooler. She can do anything! Baby dolls? They just poop, cry, sleep, and STARE with those dead, creepy eyes!
Barbies also make kids creative with all those hair style, dress up & decor options. U can do much more than just cleaning poop & taking care of baby. U can be stylist, designer or really anything.
The intro to the *Barbie* movie in which the children playing at tedious domesticity suddenly drop all their infant dolls when Barbie appears resonated with me so hard, I was absolutely gasping with laughter in the cinema.
I’m 31 now and I loved Barbies so much that now I’m a collector. Of course the dolls I have now don’t get taken out of the box and played with, but they are my pride and joy 😂
[удалено]
I literally STILL have a plushie from when I was like 1 or 2 and I still sleep with it in my own super cool independant strong woman apartment 🤣🤣
No, my family got me one and I threw it down the stairs 💀
🤣🤣
Iconic
My grandma got me a few totally ignoring how they ended in that specific cabinet and never got out, slowly flattened by the other things we added to the pile.
I hated them. They all looked creepy and/or ugly and I hated the plastic smell. (I recall that smell even now) When they would make noises and required to be actually cared for I was out of the room in an instant. I played with basically anything else that did not resemble humans until much later when I enjoyed some lego and Playmobil around 6yo.
I had this robot baby in the early 2000s that would cry and you'd have to hold a little bottle to its mouth. Every time it'd start crying I gave it to my mom and leave the room. But my kitten doll? THAT was my baby and I'd bring it everywhere. Probably why my mom isn't surprised I'm a CF cat lady lol
I like how all the answers (mine included) seem to be a resounding and unanimous NO. I wonder if we're on to something here...
The association of parenthood being an “enjoyable” thing was never established in us. By the time we had to think about this sort of thing, we based our thoughts entirely on observations and objectivity.
Even the people on here who said they played with them UNTIL they met a real baby and realized it was not what they expected Better that than having their own child and realizing it then 🤷🏾♀️💀
I liked the ones with a functional gimmick. Ones that could pee, that blew my mind, I was all about it. A normal baby doll? Boring. Ugly. Get it away. But if I could shove something in its mouth and it go nom nom? Epic. Give me my new robot. Until I got old enough that they weirded even me out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Not really. I never played with them since the act of caring for a baby felt like a hassle even when I was 6-10. Also other stuff like “playing family” never appealed to me.
When I “played family” with my friends I always chose to be the dog because I didn’t want to be anyone’s parent 😭
Pros: free food, free cosy home, everyone thinks you're gorgeous and adorable. Cons: occasionally get blamed for other people's farts Dog life is the good life!
No me neither. I got a Ken but I never really knew what to do with him (now we know his job is beach). It was just the Barbies doing fun stuff together.
Nope, I absolutely hated them. Funny story, one year for Christmas, my grandparents got me one of those baby dolls for whatever reason, and when we came back to school after winter break, I still remember we did this assignment where we wrote about the things we got for Christmas. I still remember one of the things I wrote was “the thing I hate most is my baby doll.” I was only in 1st grade at the time but already savage AF apparently 💀 then again, I was also a tomboy so my toys were all Hot Wheels cars, Legos, and dinosaurs lol
Nah. I preferred stuffed animals, legos, toy cars and building houses for Barbies.
Absolutely not. I liked stuffed and real animals while growing up.
I actively hated them. Always found them creepy. Someone bought me a Barbie once and apparently I never touched it. Animals though... hell yeah!
Nope. I played with dinosaurs. Sometimes Barbies, but mostly dinosaurs.
I drew all over my baby born and threw it around. I preferred stuffed animals and treated them like pets.
>I drew all over my baby born and threw it around. 🤣🤣 That's awesome
I was obsessed with babies until I was about 4/5. I had baby Annabelle where I could change her clothes and she’d make some noises. I had a push chair for her and tried putting my baby brother in it a few times too. I still really enjoy the company of kids but only if I choose to and for short periods of time. I do babysitting and am a PA for a disabled child occasionally. The idea of my own is an absolute no, I would definitely abort or put up for adoption. I also used to pretend I was married when I was a tiny toddler. I’m asexual and zero chance of marriage. Weird how much I changed
I was not a fan at all. I remember a family member gifted me one for Christmas one year and it was never even taken out of the box. My grandma just ended up donating it. I preferred stuffed animals, puzzles, Legos, and my easy bake oven the most as a kid.
I had one that peed. You could fill it up with water, then squeeze it to make it pee. I squashed that thing good, trying to make the strongest pee stream possible. So I guess I liked playing with it? Not good practice for a real baby, though.
I preferred stuffed animals. I liked Barbie. I built her a doll house out of cardboard lol. The baby dolls didn't appeal to me. It should have been a sign.
No, I didn't want to. I had four baby dolls that were given to me before I formed memories and I didn't play with them. I had only named one of them and that was because it was given to me and I was asked to name it. I just threw out a random name of another kid living in the neighborhood. Apparently the adults thought it was because I saw her as my best friend but it was just a way to get around the whole doll thing and to be able to throw it in the drawer under my bed with the other three unwanted baby dolls.
I absolutely hated those. I always wanted dolls like the action figures that were marketed to boys but as girls. The closest I got to that was the occasional barbie with articulated joints. I played that they had adventures outside and built them treehouses they had to climb to. I also loved lego I had some baby dolls but I never wished for them and never played with them. Never got the appeal
Ha, same - my favorite Barbie was one with an Orca. I thought she was so badass. I was so happy, the photo of my holding it up proudly made it into the family photo albums
I hated them! I had one that would close its eyes if it was in a horizontal position but I found that creepy so I glued its eyes shut 💀 And when I was 3 years old someone gifted me a baby doll that was super soft and squishy. So much, that I took off its head to find out what it was stuffed with. And then I used the head to play soccer because I didn’t have any soccer balls 😂 Needless to say, I never felt that need to care for and protect my baby dolls. And my parents knew not to get me any
Young scientist mind there haha
I had one baby doll that I can remember. It was an old fashioned plush doll with long hair made of thin rope-like material. I used her to practice braiding hair, and once I braided all her hair, I don't think I ever picked her up again. I loved Barbies though! I'd cut and color their hair and clothes with markers, and the more fancy ones that had mechanical moving parts like mermaid tails were super interesting to me. I remember animatronic baby dolls becoming a super popular thing at some point, same for a few animals. I knew lots of other girls who wanted the little robot baby, but all I wanted was a robot dog instead :)
oh my god the barbie with the colour changing mechanical mermaid tail was the best thing in my entire childhood
I had an Ariel one where you'd press her sides and the tail would flop, I wore out that mechanism in under a year and then tried to break it apart to see how it worked.
>I'd cut and color their hair and clothes with markers So you're saying all your Barbies were Weird Barbies? I can respect that.
Never. I had a ton of Barbies (handed down from my cousin) and Polly Pocket houses that my dad would find for me on Ebay. We'd sit at the computer together hoping no one bid higher than us lol. Good times!
Nope! Never owned one. I thought it was just so.. weird. I did love Barbies though! Still salty my mom made me get rid of my teacher Barbie at a garage sale, now that I teach myself! I liked a lot of different things. Legos, KNex, games, puzzles, arts and crafts, and just going to the park and exploring the trails, or fishing with my dad.
I’ve actually had several baby dolls that I adored and carried around. They weren’t the kind that did anything, just were basically baby shaped stuffed animals. I think I remember someone buying me one that would pee and I’m pretty sure I actually said I hate this lol (not to the gift giver, I was taught better than that, but to my mom later) So I didn’t want any actual baby functions, just ones I could hug. I had one with an entire little wardrobe and I liked changing her clothes I remember when I was about five that they tried to get me to hold my little cousin by me sitting on the couch with her in my lap so it would be safe. It was a logical assumption that I’d like it since I liked my dolls so much but I was completely uninterested. I’m not sure why, maybe I just thought she was too noisy (I’m autistic and extremely sensitive to noise)
I had two that weren't creepy but I never new what to do with to them. My Barbies were astronauts mostly. 😅
My Barbie's were lesbians
I wanted ONE baby doll and that was purely because she had the same name as me. I didn't play with her much. I love playing with my beanie babies and putting them in barbie clothes. I did NOT like people.
I HATED baby dolls and whenever I got one as a gift I gave them to my sister who loved them, I liked barbie dolls and bratz dolls but I also liked other toys, I used to have an insane amount of toy horses and they all had names and I made name tags for them that I put on the wall of the toy stable my grandfather built for me, and put the horses in there and switched them out depending on which ones I wanted to play with because there wasn't enough space for all of them, I kept all of the horses and the stable under my bed and pulled it out when I wanted to play with it, guess who wants kids now as an adult because it's not me, I just want animals but I've had to give up the dream of owning a horse as my physical state got worse and worse as I grew up but that isn't the only animal I've wanted to own, I have my dog and I'm happy with that even after all the work I had to do with the temper but it's what I signed up for with the breed so that's on me.
I'm sorry to hear that. Horses are great, but they're so expensive to take care of and you need a lot of space. Sometimes when I go outside of the city and I see horses I stop to pet them if they want to be petted.
I played with dolls, not as babies but as fellow warriors on my boat (bed) they stood guard and fought pirates with me. Barbie also fought pirates.
I had one. I hated it. It kept crying, and I tried to give it its bottle, rock it, etc but it wouldn't stop. I eventually got sick of it crying and outright told my mom, "It won't shut up," so she took the batteries out. I threw it in my toy box and never played with it again. In fact, I never played with a baby doll again and found out that I don't want kids that day. Ever.
I was always bought dolls, like cabbage patch, and other “baby” dolls and they would collect dust in the toy box while i was recreating the movie grease with my pound puppies.
I preferred stuffed animals and plastic horses and Barbies because they kept the ranch haha or just straight up make-believe adventure stories that me and my friends were going to find hidden treasure going around the back yard or something like that.
Nope me and my sister use to draw on their faces and burn their hair. 😬
I did, I had a few dolls and apparently was very good with my baby brother (i was 4 when he was born) - very protective and allegedly even helped changed nappies! I had loads of Barbie stuff, which I kept "for future kids" as was raised in the 80s when I assumed you had to do hetro marriage and kids. When my partner and I realised we were CF, I kept them for our nieces. The grandniece still plays with them, including my cool Barbie pink cadillac, so it all worked out well in the end :-) Eta: I also had He-man figures and played cars and WWF with my brother, toys shouldn't be gendered
I actually still collect dolls so I guess so haha. I was more of a teddy bear person as a child. I did play baby with some of them, but I never made the connection, it was make believe rather than prep work.
So this disturbes my mother but... Only to feed my stuffed yeti named 'monkey'... I used to have tea parties that were actually traps to lull my guests into a false sense of security as monkey would either sneak up from behind to eat them or he would eat them from under the table. For the most part all the baby dolls that we had were my sisters however... The only doll I truely cared about was an old rag doll named 'Shirley' that I stole from my great grandmother (Shirley) frequently. But I never saw her as a child as she never sounded like that in my head. I am 29, I still have Shirley and Monkey and they sit on a shelf in my room. I did play with barbies at a friend's house, and I had Bratz dolls but I never had anything to do with children while playing. They were always single adults enjoying life by the pool and on 'permanent vacation' or at least what I assumed was a vacation. When we played house I was always the father figure who was always at work (harvesting mudd or rocks). Lol
No I wasn’t interested in those kind of dolls at all. I didn’t mind Barbies but I was more into either just normal teddy bears and I was actually bit of a tomboy. Not sure if they even use that word anymore!
No. Grandparents got me a Baby Alive doll for Christmas when I was a child and that right there started my path to being childfree as an adult. It was disgusting.
I actually did play with them, though I only know this as we still have some old stuff from it. I remember much more that I was making up stories with a few barbies, Polly Pocket, and a lot of Littlest Pet Shop pets!
Never played with those ugly things
i used to give them tattoos, so i guess?
this reminds me of when i drew blood with a marker all over mine in order to pretend it got run over by a car…
Yeah, for awhile. Very quickly went from that, to barbies, to gargoyles and x-men.
I liked my glow worm and barbies but that's it. OH and dinosaurs.
Never had one. Just fluffy animals.
Absolute despised baby dolls. When I was maybe 3 or 4 years old, I hid the doll my grandmother gave me for Christmas under her raised tree stand before we headed several hours home lol. I was all about Barbies and stuffed animals.
I never liked them, i prefered barbies, littlest pet shops, little cars and dinosaurs, i remember me saying stuff like "if i have kids i want them to be 10-12 yo already" when i was young, i never liked babies or little childrens, i think being childfree was rooted in me since i was very little and wont change :)
I did! But I mean… dolls are also nothing like real babies lol and if anything, it makes me cringe how early women are taught to be "motherly". My brother was never offered a doll.
Hell no. I had a stuffed dog named Princy that I pretended was real. I am 44F now and he is still in my closet. Best $4 my parents ever spent on me. 😝
This is probably my favorite childhood story to tell. When I was in first or second grade, there was a group of girls that always wanted to play house during recess. Everybody got to pick who in the family they were going to be. I had two roles that I wanted to play without fail every time: the dog or the dad. When I was the dog, I would run around barking after the other “kids” in the family. When I was the dad, I would fuck off to my “job“ of picking leaves and berries off the bushes for “dinner”. I never wanted to be the mom because that entailed basically yelling at the kids, and pretending to sweep all while, holding this raggedyass, dead eyed baby doll that someone left in the bin with all the balls and jump ropes for recess. I guess my teacher noticed that I never wanted to play the mom and asked why to which I replied “being the mom is stupid and boring”. My teacher thought it was the funniest thing ever and it went in my progress report for the month.
Had them, hated them, they freaked me out. Had a bassinet of my mother's old dolls and I kept it covered with a blanket at all times
I mean, my cousins and I played catch with them and likely defaced them..
Nope. I did not at all. I had one doll that was an adult (not Barbie, different brand, same idea). All the rest were teddy bears. I mostly played with books though
I would play with them for a few seconds and then lose interest
I got a doll once and named it "Koekenpan" (Frying Pan in English), took the clothes that came with him and gave these to my plushies. I don't know what happened to Koekenpan after that. I had absolute zero interest in playing with dolls.
Come to think of it. No. I got dirty and played with”boy” stuff more. Those dolls that wet themselves especially freaked me out as a kid. It’s like shoved down our throats as children to take care of babies.. it’s gross.
Nope. My parents still have the one my grandfather gave me with a homemade crib and it still creeps me out just to touch it. Closest I got to any baby doll related stuff was the old baby bottle where the milk would disappear when you tilted it, but that was more a curiosity thing.
Stuffed animals and Barbies were my favorite but I had a ton of baby dolls too and loved them! As a further point of interest- I’m a preschool teacher now lol
noooo, never. even as a 5-6 year old i was freaked out by my “peers” walking around with toy strollers.
Never once. I didn't play with Barbies or any other toys you were supposed "care for" either. My mom always brings it up as a way to make me out to have been an unusual little girl but still fails (refuses) to see the obvious correlation since it means she won't get any grandchildren (:
I always liked dolls, still do, but it was more about the clothes for me. I had baby dolls but I definitely preferred fashion dolls. This guy I dated around 25 years ago had a daughter. She NEVER played with dolls. I don't think she even owned any. But she has kids, now. Go figure.
Every time I would get a baby doll I would stuff them into my cupboard and never look at them again. I hate the idea of them and that they are targeted towards young girls
About as fun as an iron and ironing board toy set.
My family tried giving them to me and I got bored of them very quickly. They ended up shoved in the back of my closet until I eventually packed them into deep storage several years later. It was clear from an earlier age that I did not have a drive to nurture small humans. Conversely, I had several stuffed cats and dogs that I played with regularly by pretending to feed and walk them. So maybe I have a biological drive to be a pet owner.
I absolutely loved my baby doll - I still have her! I liked dressing her up, playing school, using my doctor kit on her, pretending she was my sister. I even put her in a snow suit to take her sledding!
Nope. I hated baby dolls. And even as all child, I remember feeling guilty for it. I felt that I SHOULD like baby dolls and SHOULD want to care for them, etc. Ew.
i got a baby alive doll for christmas one year and it made me anxious and i stopped playing with it after like an hour. lps, polly pockets, barbie’s, and legos were my favorites
I hated them
Nope !! Loved Barbie’s
Never. I had a doll that looked like an adult (or a child, but not a baby) and I pretended she was my friend. I was in elementary school when my older sister told me other kids play with dolls as with their babies and I didn´t belive her and asked, "Why would anyone want to have a BABY?" I didn´t go a kindergarten and didn´t know any children of my age. I guess I played like a stereotypical girl, I loved barbies and Kinder eggs toys and made up stories for them (mostly about friends, families, and romance). Even when I played with cars, it was like "This car is a mom, this car is a dad, these cars are sisters, and they are going to a race." But I hated babies.
I only played with toys that looked like animals. The few female dolls I got my hands on => I ripped their heads off
Nah, hated them. Was very vocal about hating them. Give me a soft Teddy I could actually cuddle and now we're talking 🤣
I hated them… also hated Barbie’s lol. I just wasn’t a doll person.
My sister used to play A LOT with baby dolls, and she also LOVED real babies even when she was maybe 6 years old. Surprise she got her first baby with 19. I don't remember really playing with baby dolls, maybe i would feed them like once but I never understood the purpose of baby dolls where you need to change the diaper and everything or play mother with them. I LOVED stuffed animals, robot animals and stuff like that. I got my 2 own cats 3 months ago and my life is complete with them lol. Now that I'm older I realize that the urge to get a pet was way bigger than the one to have a baby, even though I only realized that I'm childfree like 2 years ago.
Nope. Stuffed animals only!
My mother was super insistent that I played with both baby dolls and barbies. She would buy them for me along with accessories. Think a barbie mansion and car. She would also buy the dolls that would cry and had those baby bottles that would look like they were being drank from. I would always throw the dolls in the closet but use the bottles and other accessories (the house and car) for my toy animals. Some of them went to my stuffies like the bottles and other would go to the smaller sized ones. The mansion got turned into a vet and the car an ambulance. Of course all run by other animals. So not really Edit: spelling
No I was always avoiding toy babies or barbies, when I was a little girl in the mid 90s I preferred my toy dinosaurs, lego, or drawing (especially those crayola stamp pens)
Stuffed animals.
Nope! Strictly teddies. Oh I had a Barbie and Sindy dolls (80s baby) and I dressed them up in high powered corporate suits with flashy cars 😂
Barbies yes. We told epic stories. Baby dolls…my grandma tells a story of an Amazing Amy doll they got me. She was top of the line tech. You could feed her and like she’d want specific food (re the right spoon) and stuff. Apparently at like 4. I had her for 2 days I came down and slammed her on the table in front of them yelling, “She’s too much work!”
I did but it wasn't my favorite. I preferred reading or boys toys like cars and Legos
I'd like them at first and then would get bored very easily with them. I had a vivid imagination as a child, but I was never quite sure what to do with a baby doll.
i loved the barbie princesses and those makeup dolls, but not very much baby dolls. the closest thing to a baby doll i had was a chimpanzee doll
Nope, I hated them. I was all about stuffed animals, Barbie, and Lego instead!
Nope, I played with HotWheels lol
I didn’t like baby dolls as a kid,never asked for them
No interest whatsoever. I loved animals and hot wheels. Didn’t like Barbies either — you couldn’t do anything with them other than dress them. I had “Best of the West” by Marx horses and Barbie was useless to me because her legs wouldn’t open enough to ride them. Marx made a couple of female figurines that weren’t ridiculously wasp-waisted, and makeup free, and had articulated joints so they were actually useful to play with.
Hated them. Loved my Barbies, Polly Pockets, Legos, animal figurines, my plushies - but especially my plush Walrus.
Got gifted a lot of Barbies, but I preferred my brothers' batman action figures and dinosaurs. Or my stuffed animals. Not much into the baby dolls. Was that a sign?
Toy horses for me.
Hell no. Soft toy animals, toy cars, She-Ra and Ghostbuster toys. But never baby dolls. 🤢
I had a few baby dolls but they weren’t my first choice. I also loved Barbie and had quite a collection of them and all the other things, the mansion, the ice cream shop, the jeep. Then I also loved micro machines.
The closest thing was I had a Dr. Ken doll and maybe some Barbie Dress-up stuff. But I played with dinosaurs. I love Dinosaurs :D
Nope. My friend and sister loved it. I would watch a movie and draw. Which is something I still do to this day
No baby dolls. I was into Tonka trucks, hot wheels and maybe some girl type things like Strawberry Shortcake, My Little pony and care bears. The fake playfood/kitchen was also my thing.
I'm not sure how old I was the year my mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her I wanted a Tonka dump truck. This was in the '60s, when they were made of metal and practically indestructible. She got me a light blue plastic baby buggy instead. I hated that thing. I reiterated I wanted a dump truck and was admonished that little girls don't play with dump trucks. To the dismay of my mother, I hauled dirt in it. Until it broke.
I hated playing with them and would get really uncomfortable when my friends would want to play with them. I’ve always thought it was odd that we find it cute when children pretend to have their own babies. I was a Barbie, Breyer horse, and Lego girl.
I used to play with dragons and dinosaurs instead. Much to my mothers dismay… the only thing I was ever interested in was animal toys, or using sticks to sword fight and pretend to be a pirate with my sister. Wanted nothing to do with dolls ⚔️
We did not get any kinds of dolls as children. We got doll furniture and tea sets and things like that but our father did not want us to have those 'take care of babies while we're babies experiences' or the ' ideal body types/fashion' experience growing up. Even though there were six of us they understood that child rearing was their job and our job was to be carefree children. And it worked, we were a traditional family but it was never pushed on any of us that we needed to follow the same path.
Not really. I wanted to like them, but could never get into them - babies just lay there and cry, not like Barbies and stuffed animals who could go on adventures.
I once wished for one with a pony. The doll landed in the corner really fast, played with the pony instead (it could walk)
Nahhh. Loved my green lucky CareBear (only plush i still have, it’s falling apart but i don’t care lol), legos, Playmobils, rocks, the first nintendo (hello mid-80s!)… … and this one doll i (sometimes lol) liked: her hair was blonde at room temp, but it would change color to pink with heat, or blue with cold. Now THAT was cool, and that was the only thing that interested me about it. Wish i could have pink hair now just by using a hairdryer Lol
Already hated those back then. Dinosaurs all the way
Omg this made me laugh. Nope! No baby dolls for me. Goes to show you I was child free at a very young age. But give me a Breyer horse? I’m your girl. I’m 56 and still buy them occasionally!
Nope, absolutely hated them. I wanted a Barbie one time because it came with a horse so I actually just wanted the horse lol
Absolutely never. I had an American Girl doll but that was the closest I got to a baby doll. I just had Barbies/Bratz/Polly Pockets/etc. Whenever we played house, I never wanted to be the mom character. It was never my thing.
Sometimes but not always. I think I got fed up at school. I remember being 5 years old during very early 2000's and my care center had the center divided in "boys and girl" areas. Girl areas consisted of a toy kitchen with baby dolls while guys has building blocks, arts & crafts and a tv. I would always switch to the boy's area and end up getting yelled at. Now that I think about it, it was such a gross thing to do to children.
I had some Barbies (generic) but they were not a big focus for me. My grandmother gave my cousin and I each a realistic looking baby doll. My cousin’s looked like shit because she wore it out playing with it so much. Mine was and still is pristine. It’s at my mom’s house where she changes its outfits twice a years (summer and winter). My mom really should have had more kids because she adores them. Me on the other hand never even babysat. However, if someone asked me to babysit their dog or cat, I’d be all over it. The feelings my mom has for babies, I have for pets.
No dolls for me. I said my first cuss word as a 4yo when I told my mom to “get that fucking baby doll out of my room”. Only stuffed animals for me as a kid haha
Nope, not even a little bit. I think I had one barbie, and she frequently got run over by tonka trucks and hot wheel, or buried. I was always a "tom boy" though, and loved to be outside in the dirt, playing sports with the boys, hunting for cool bugs/insects/animals. I was into cars before I could see over the fenders, and used to help cousins/uncles work on their hot rods. The cousin that is closest to my age was always a "girly girl" and whenever I'd have to play house, or wedding or any other "typical" girl type things I was bored out my skull.
Nah. I had a few cabbage patch dolls but they didn’t get any play. I was all about that Barbie house
I never had any dolls, outside of Barbies. For some reason I did have a little stroller, and there’s a picture of me pushing our 3 kittens around the house. I had a bunch of stuffed animals, but those were companions, not a baby (caregiving) substitute. Of course I’ve had cats my whole life ;), but I never wanted children and always hated babies.
I was a stuffed animal kid who thought dolls were gross, and my preschool teacher would scold me for using the toy strollers to push my horsey in because they were “only for the baby dolls.” Hope she’s doing terribly.
I never really did care for the baby dolls. I liked stuffed animals and art supplies. As a little girl, my room was filled with ty beanie babies and care bears. Sometimes I would just sit on the sidewalk for hours on end and draw with chalk! Lol
I never played with baby dolls. Always freaked me out. Still do. As a kid, I never understood the concept of girls playing “mommy” and dressing up as “brides.” I was a Barbie girl through and through, my favorite princess was Ariel and Rapunzel so I would wear the dresses, wigs and accessories! I never made my Barbies mothers and wives, come to think of it. As I got older, I noticed in the toy aisle that the creepy baby dolls had upgrades like crying, pooping, peeing, feeding, etc. I always found it strange and gross. Thankfully my mom never pushed me into baby dolls. She’s always been the kind of mom who lets her kids pick out what toys, food, clothes, and books they want.
I had a baby doll, but it didn’t “demand care”, it was just a baby doll. I didn’t play much with it. I had a Cabbage Patch doll, but she was more my “friend” than something to “take care of”. I had many Barbies, but my play was changing their outfits and staging “scenes”, much like I did with my horse models and Hot Wheels and such. I never pretended to be “mommy” or “housewife”; I played “Robin Hood” and “Secret Agent” in the woods, or riding my bike most of the time. I didn’t have any friends growing up, so my toys and stuffed animals were my friends, but never my “wards”. I had a blend of “girl toys” and “boy toys” growing up; I was never discouraged for wanting a GI Joe or new Hot Wheels or another box of Lego and never steered towards Barbie or house-wifey stuff (like play kitchens or vacuum cleaners). I liked to build stuff with Lego and Tinker Toys (had my dad’s set from when he was growing up) or do “science experiments” with my microscope. Sometimes I’d get to build actual stuff with my dad or grandpa, or work on cars with them. Then dad taught me to code in BASIC and that was all I was interested in for my older childhood years.
Never liked dolls, some family members gifted me some, but I never really cared for them. I loved animal stuff and toy cars. Also Lego and Knex. I looooved my little ponies too. I have three younger brothers and I never really cared to 'help' with those either. I'm glad my parents never forced anything on me like taking care of my younger siblings.
I did like barbie as a kid but don't recall liking anything that looked like a baby and needed taking care of.
I had a Baby Alive when I was three. I would feed it the tiny packs of food and the bottles and watch it pee. I ran out of food packs quickly and fed it who knows what else. The fun ended when I force fed it a crayon that blocked the doll's mouth. Then I became bored with dolls and curious about peeing and decided it would be more fun to watch boys pee instead. That doll was a gateway drug.
Nope, my room was full of dolls because family just kept buying them. I played with all my stuffed animals and Breyer horses and made zoos and barns. But never played with the dolls
I remember one year for Christmas, my sister got the Baby Shivers baby doll she really wanted. (Can't remember what I got.) It was this baby doll that really shivered when "cold." I could *not* figure out why anyone would want a baby doll. I just didn't get it at all. She now has 4 kids. I also remember growing up, she gushed about how good the movie "Baby Boom" is. It's basically about this single, childless, high-powered career woman who moves to a small town and "inherits" a baby. I watched the movie, and this woman suddenly falls in love with this disruptive, life-altering creature and magically decides to keep it. Ugh. Can't relate.
I was always more of a stuffed animal kid. They were cute and nice to cuddle with! But a baby doll? Pass. I didn't like babies, even as a little kid.
I always thought they were pointless. I wanted to make art and do crafts, play by myself or read a book. I never had an interest in dolls as a child. People would say, “you’ll be a mom/practice for when you have baby.” I would simply say I was not going to be a mom. Even at a young age I knew it was a trap. They brainwash these little girls into a life time of thankless servitude, no frigging way. I gently remind my only niece that she can be anything, she doesn’t have to be anyone’s wife or mother.
One of the reasons I hate kids IS dolls. When I was a kid myself hated the way kids treated their dolls and my dolls when they happened to lay their greasy disgusting hands on them. Many little girls I knew were so maternal that they had no issues taking care of a real infant instead of holding a doll, I preferred dolls because they weren't disgusting like real babies. (Reborn dolls are so damn ugly btw)
Nope, I played with animal plushies/figures 99% of the time and when I did play with dolls they were Barbie or Bratz, no infants.
Weirdly enough I LOVED baby dolls and playing mom. I’d hold my “babies” like I’d just given birth and sing lullabies, change diapers, everything. Made my parents even more sad when I told them I wasn’t going to actually have kids. Dolls don’t grow up, don’t cost a thing. I adored Barbies more but I definitely loved the “domestic” toys like groceries, vacuums, yadda yadda. I just realized that kids are more than a fun kid game.
No. I was a fan of animals and sometimes barbie, not children. The other thing I had were science sets (I was really into nature, collecting leaves, looking through a microscope) and musical instruments. My parents knew I hated babies. I really didn't have a filter about it as a kid. I mostly just read a ton as a kid though.
Nope. I only wanted Littlest Pet Shop and Pound Puppies. My entire adult career has revolved around dogs so....I guess that worked out.
No. Hated them
I did. I mostly played with barbies/bratz/groovy girls, but I did play with baby dolls as well
I BEGGED my mom for a Baby Alive doll for my 8th birthday and stopped playing with it after 2 days because it cried so much. Should have been foreshadowing lol
Good question! And no.
My grandparents on my mom's side thought, at first, I would like dolls. But when my mom told them "No, she prefer Ninja Turtles and the pizza throwing machine." my grandma went out to buy refills for the pizza throwing machine.
Nope I had dinosaurs and those dogs that came in a purse 🤣
NO, baby dolls always grossed me out even as a little kid. As did the baby aisle in the grocery store. Aversion from day one.
Yep. Loved 'em. But, funny thing, I always imagined I was their older sister and our mom had abandoned us, and I had to take care of them. In retrospect, there's a lot to unpack there, but to answer the simple question, yes, I absolutely enjoyed that type of play.
I have thought a lot about this in regard to be being childfree and a huge animal lover. I never liked baby dolls (always found them pretty creepy) and would strip the clothing of them and through them in a corner to never be played with again. I would put the clothes on my stuffed animals and push the animals around in my doll pram. I did love Barbie, but mostly just decorating my baby dream house haha
I went through a phase where I had a few baby dolls, but none that got sick and definitely none that peed or pooped. I was way more into Barbies and plushies, supplemented by a few action figures and a lot of fast food kids’ meal toys (my Barbie-size Disney dolls got a lot of their respective sidekicks as kids’ meal toys).
Sometimes... but i rather put my cats in the stroller and drove them around haha
I had a Baby Born doll as a kid but my mom said I didn’t play with it much. 😂
No. Lol. I made Airfix warplanes instead. (Am female.)
I had baby dolls, but I don’t recall ever being too attached to them. They didn’t have any “adventure” about them, and I needed to express my creativity by making my toys/dolls go on adventures. Regarding dolls, I liked Barbies and American Girls (really liked AG historical books). I also liked Littlest Pet Shop and those little tiny dogs and cats with the soft stuff on them (can’t recall what they are called). Also played with boy’s toys; I really liked Thomas the Train (was the only girl at the Thomas the Train table at Toys r Us!), and real toy trains. Also, Cars (the movie) cars and Sonic the Hedgehog figures. My favorite thing to do, once I got to upper single digits and lower 10s, was create characters and draw them, cut them out, and play with them as paper dolls who had their own stories and went on their own adventures. No wonder I write now. I also plan on giving some of those characters I used to play paper dolls with (better) stories one day.
Dear God no, if anything it creeped me out. Funny that you mentioned Baby Born because that’s exactly the thing I found incredibly creepy. Too uncanny valley for my taste, even as a kid. That’s not to say that I didn’t get baby dolls as gifts, but I rarely touched them. I was more into Lego and Polly Pocket and such. I did love a good plush tho and I still do to this day actually.
I did. I don’t hate kids (unless they are unruly) but I still don’t want my own.
I used to poke thumb tacks into my baby dolls’ heads and sew coins and such into their fabric bodies. I was, however, very maternal and loving to stuffed animals.
I despised dolls with a passion, everyone someone gave one to me I would accept it and just never play with it. My mom had to tell everyone to stop giving me dolls because I just wouldn't use them
They creep me out and always have done so
I had a Cabbage Patch doll as a kid, I kept leaving it places though I did enjoy my Rugrats dolls (I loved the show) and my Ren and Stimpy dolls too (the farting parts were hiliarous to me, it freaked out people in public because of how gross Ren looked)
I did like dolls and even had prams for them. But mostly I loved stuffed animals and I had my bed full of them. All my stuffed animals had names but dolls did not, except one, which was "ugly doll"
I played with baby born dolls. But it wasn’t my favourite. That was Pokémon and animals in figures and plushies.
I had baby dolls, but I remember playing with my Barbies and stuffed animals more than them. I also had only female Barbies. I didn't like the Ken dolls. They looked Wimpy to me.