Are dolls seen as children?

I have had kids, they do not live with me anymore, I have no plans at this point for more, I am intensely practical and I will not let my kids miss out on anything, so until we can live and support three people with only one income well...no kids see?

I love my dolls, they are NOT a nurturing point, more like an ongoing creative project.

Think about the way we run our dolls lives folks? can you imagine doing that to a child? Children do NOT live the life you want for them, they are not your creative outlet, they are their own person to create and the best you can do is influence them. I don't influence my dolls, I created their characters, I determine how they grow. Sometimes I talk about realising something about my dolls, or the dolls telling me something about themselves, but honestly what I mean is it is a simple realisation of a point about them I had not considered before. If I realise a character has a child then it is partly that I saw a sculpt that would be a perfect child for that character, that it suits the personality and story I have for them, and that i am now creating a new facet that I had previously left unexplored. ME, not some other living entity informing me of its choices. Children are not like that, you can't change them just because something is not working the way you want it, you cannot designate they will have a new look, choose a partner for them, dictate when they have shildren and who those children would be.

On top of that.....look at my dolls! If my kids did ANYTHING my dolls do I would throttle them! My dolls are drug addicts, rockstars, sluts and bastards! Seriously...not a nurturing issue

My dolls are parts of my own personality that I explore, mostly the bad parts that I would not live out, or the fantasy parts that I cannot live out. Nothing to do with children

 

Well, i treat my boy with care as i would if i had a real kid, but other than that...>_>
I don't want kids....T^T

 

I don't see her as my child.
Actually there are so many differences between a doll and a child, I can't see why anyone would seriously make a connection between them

taking care of a doll and playing with it doesn't translate into an unconscient desire of having babies! that just makes no sense.

 

I don't view my doll as a child, and I certainly would never treat a child like a doll!

The two are on different ends of the spectrum as far as I'm concerned.

 

This ^^ . And just to reiterate, inanimate resin objects and live human beings are nothing alike.

 

Wow....I may joke with my best friend (also a doll hobbyist) about taking the 'kids' places, but certainly neither of us mean it in the literal sense. =P I fail to see how dolls, especially ADULT-looking dolls, could be seen as substitutes for children. It's like saying those 'take-care-of-an-egg' sessions in health class actually prepare you for the real thing. Now there's a scary thought for you.

Personally I've never encountered anyone who accused me of using the dolls as surrogate children. But my loathing of kids might explain that. ^_^;

 

This started as a random OT shoot of the BBB Discussion thread. The mod that pulled it out just made a new thread instead of putting it at the end of another one. I think it would be best if it was moved to another thread instead of becoming a bit of clutter.



Anyway, I have no desire to have and raise children, I can't see my dolls as kids. At all. They are characters, not surrogates. A hobby, not a living breathing thing. I actually refer to my current dolls as kids mostly becuase they are tinies intended and styled to be children. My next dolls are all adults. Adults, unless ill, aren't supposed to need care like a child.

 

dolls and kids have a ig difference. THATS FOOD AND GROWING UP. dolls dont need to eat, while kids get cranky and pouty when they dont eat. dolls dont grow until they're 5'7" tall. THEY STAY THE SAME HEIGHT! and whatever your freinds say. you should just tell them,"im sorry i dn't feel the same way about you." THATLL SHOW EM!

 

Reiterating- This was actually started in the Bobobie discussion thread and moved here by a mod.

Ellanie: Thanks!

karla-chan: That's a tricky example. As adults, we will tend to sexualize everything. I know it sounds like a massive oversimplification (it is) but just about everyone could tell you their dolls' sexuality. They have "Boyfriends" "Girlfriends"- is a good example of it in its mildest form. It's not always fetish- the picture that was shown could easily be a tongue in cheek or just an obvious use of a rather questionable faceplate.
Actually having a FETISH for dolls doesn't generally involve them having imaginary relationships, kinks, orientations, or even the use of Buff's optional Boy part etc. It's seeing the doll, as it is, as some kind of sexual object. The doll its self is the fetish, not what it does.
But I'm certain there are people out there that DO have doll fetishes. There is a fetish for just about EVERYTHING.
But even this is getting off topic

effigy- You've hit the often non-believed nail on the head with the point about expressiing parts of yourself through a doll, especially bad parts. I'm BIIIIG into character design and the psychology behind it. (I rarely talk about it, people don't seem to believe the thinking behind it, even if its bleedingly obvious...) 99.9% of characters are offshoots and expressions of your own personality. The stronger that part of you is, the more you will connect with the character. Characters you dislike or even dolls you don't "Bond" with are almost always because the character you were trying to enforce simply doesn't reflect you in a personal enough way to make a connection.
Bad sides are the most common reflections, its a healthy way of expressing them too. Why do you think villians are so popular? Its fun and totally non self destructive. And it makes for an interesting character.

That being said you DO NOT DO THIS WITH A CHILD! I don't have children, but I do teach them and I do have a very often over for a visit nephew and neice. Dolls... children. There seemed to be three fullstops between those words but I assure you it really was a world.

 

Kids and dolls are nothing alike (coming from someone who has had many bad babysitting experiences). I would rather have dolls.

 

Alternately, my kid is the whole reason I have a doll to begin with! She has 3 BJDs, and we look at this as a hobby we can do together.

Nope, they are not replacements for kids! Besides, no one ever gained 35 lbs waiting for their doll to show up. =)

 

Yeaaaaaah... I don't ever have my dolls calling me mom.... Liina tends to call me 'human' and Tanso just says 'hey you' all the time. XD I'm the human, not the mom. They're the 'resin folk' not my kids. Yeegh.

 

I don't view any of mine as my dolls as "kids" to me that's a little freaky

My Brother did say to me the other month that I must be broody because if I wasn't I wouldn't have dolls, I admit I want kids...in the future.
I couldn't have a kid now, it wouldn't be fair on him/her for a start.

I think it's because of their lack of understanding and that they see a hobby like this as weird to them so dismiss it and give a different meaning/reson for it

 

I think animals are very much like children, but dolls no. However dolls seem the IDEAL children not at all the reality of a child!

 

They are very similar to children in that you have to take care of them and make sure the don't get hurt, but as is the same with most any other collecting/hobbies. Customizing and caring for a child are two very different things, though they involve some of the same concepts.

 

While there are certainly some people who fullfill their desire for children with dolls, (look at the re-borners) I'm definitely not one of them. I never wanted children & never had them. All my maternal instincts go into my cats.

Not only are my dolls not substitutes for children, I don't even collect child dolls. With the exception of my few Pukis & Brownies (which seem more like little magical beings than children) the only actual child BJD I have is Not Doll Lab Lucy. The rest of my dolls are either mature tinies or SDs. Even in my doll collection at large, the only child dolls I have are Kish & Zwergnase & those mainly because of their very expressive faces.

My dolls are more an outlet for my creativity. They can be or look however I want, certainly something not possably (or at least healthy) with children. Their characters are extentions of various parts of myself, my hopes & dreams as well as my pain. I love collecting dolls & raising animals, but kids, no way.

 

I suppose babies and children are both something you can take care of...but in completely different ways! And having dolls has in no way negated my need to have children let me tell you! Dolls fufill for me needs for creativity and needs to arrange and manipulate and make pretty. I don't think a baby would be very happy if you tried to put a fer on them!

 

Well, dolls aren't independent and you have to dress them, move them and all, so it's obvious that some people misundersteands the thing. Personally, i have dolls because i can do what i want with them, and i do not wish to have children. But people tends to generalize, i got that "she's playing the mommy" thing more than once.