Are dolls like family or like toys?

Personally my BJDs are not family but special to me as they give me great joy and because of them have made friends and ventured into photography and tying to make things for them. It would be hard for me to sell them if I had to I would sell some of my other collections first
I feel for you that your mum is trying to make you sell your doll that sucks

 

They're toys. I love them dearly (I wouldn't spend that kind of money on them if I didn't) but they're toys nonetheless.

Other people (whether family or not) have the right to hate them, should tey so choose, but it's not really any of their business, since it's my hobby, not theirs, so I get to ignore their opinion.

The exception being if I were dependent on them for money to live on, in which case, they would kind of have a right to object to my spending a lot on a hobby when it needed to go on life expenses.

Teddy

 

Neither, as other have said; more than toys, not really family. More like... guests? Something to pay attention to and dedicate time and energy to when they're "here" (eg, in the case of dolls, when I'm in the mood for them). Quiet companions or artworks when not.

 

I really like to look at them and playing with them, but if one of them would be stolen, or destroyed, after being completely angry and sad, I could replace them or realize that "okay, I had that one, I loved it, but I had enough time with it, I don't want to spend so many money and time to replace it, let's just have the memories and the photos"'.

They are no near at the level of my family or my pets, they are priced and loved possessions

 

I think they are like my friends, like friends that can not speak, I guess because they are so much like human so it is really hard to only consider them as a toy, I even consider my teddy bear as friends too.

 

I like to cuddle my doll, when I feel to, and like to play with him. So he is like a mix of a friend and a toy.

 

I don't exactly consider my dolls family, but I am very attached to them.

 

I've been thinking about this lately, because sometimes I feel bad about how important my dolls are to me. To me, though, they are neither family nor toys. The closest comparison would be like an emotional support animal/pet. Although dolls are not alive, mine are enormously important to me, and help me stave off my depression and anxiety, like a support dog.

 

They are toys. Just like my Pokemon plushie, but more playable, since you can do more with bjds than plushies.

Since I live on my own, I haven't told my mum about the new doll I got. She always knew I collect plushies, never said much about it. I feel like she'd not be happy if she knew I spent this much on a toy...Although I have a full time job, paying my own bills and I bought her with my own money, it still won't stop her from saying "a grown up woman playing with toys.."

Nevertheless, they are toys, and yes I'm still playing with toys, and I don't think it's going to change even if my family doesn't like it. Can't please everyone. lol

 

They're definitely not family and I find it a bit hard to consider them toys given the connotations I associate with that word. I view my dolls as art instead. I collect them to customize and appreciate, rather than actively play with them.

 

To me they're art collectibles. They're soul- and liveless so I definitely wouldn't consider them family and they're not playthings like toys are.

 

I feel tremendous affection for them, but that doesn't make them "family"...I felt the same for my stuffed elephant, whom I took everywhere when I was a child. So yeah, toys. Grownup toys, but toys nonetheless.

 

Not family, but not toys so much as very expensive, customizable works of art.

 

To me? YEAH!
I am so sorry that your family is trying to get rid if your dolls my dolls bring me so much happiness and comfort just like family! I hope you stay in the hobby even though your family is against it!

 

Toys for me, I've sold them over the years when needing money and didn't feel anything.

 

For me, they are art collectibles but with lots of cool customization options. While I adore the craftsmanship of the original doll, I can also add my own ideas to create something more unique.

 

I have my dolls openly on display, and my relatives have been over, but never commented on them. I'm a collector of quite a few things (elephant shaped items, Pokemon) so I think they're just used to it. I don't know how they'd feel if they knew the price though! My dolls all feel like their own people to me. I have a special connection with one of them and often call him 'my boy' and although the other doll doesn't feel like 'my girl' she is certainly not just a toy and none of them will ever be! Even the boy I've packed away for selling, I feel bad about him being there because of the 'living quality' dolls have to me.

 

My doll is a toy, but he's a toy I really like and have a fair amount of emotional attachment to. I think of him as analogous to an instrument or an antique car, something you can use but also need to take good care of and into which you can sink a lot of enjoyable time.

 

I hope that almost 8 years on the original poster did manage to finish college.
It's funny how this thread gets resurrected every two years or so.

For me dolls are objects, not family. Given the choice between my pets and my dolls, I would chose the pets every time. If circumstances make it necessary to rehome them, I think I would. (Both the pets and the dolls - but I would be *way* more careful about who I hand my pets to!)
Anyway, they're definitely not family. And I hesitate to call them 'toys', but of course they are essentially playthings.

Craft items, maybe. Not art - I'm not that good.

 

Mine represent characters from shows/anime that I love so they're ''re like, very limited collector's pieces, so more important than just a ''toy" but still never be as important as my animals, absolutely never I love them, but qt the end of the day, they are replaceable (at q huge cost sure, but still replaceable) my animals aren't.