Children handling your dolls?

When I was a kid (4 to about 7) I had a collection of porcelain dolls and a friend of mine and my brothers had a little sister, 2 years younger than I was, who my mum babysat. We weren't particularly careful children or nervous about handling them or anything -indeed! We could be fairly rough, carrying them about by one arm and what not- but the two of us used to sit on the floor and play with them in a similar way that you would barbies. When they were done we'd leave them on my bed and my mum would put them back on their shelf later on. The only one of my porcelain dolls that was ever broken was down to my dad dropping her when trying to put her back on the shelf.

Because of this, I am fairly happy in the idea that not all children are destructive little monsters, and even if they aren't that careful, sit them on a carpeted floor, make sure they're not covered in chocolate, what real damage can they do?

Furthermore, I have a friend who is 13 who, although suitably immature in some areas, in empathy and caring is far being even my 24 year old doll friend. My 13 year old adores the character of Salem so when I decided to shell him and he became my grail doll she was the first person I told, and when I finally got him gory birthday she was in glee along with me and a few days later I visited her with Salem and although she took delight in playing with his fair wig, she held him absolutely perfectly, and even piggy backed him around town holding onto his arms- he was fine and I'd trust him with her any day (I was actually honking of loaning him to her for a month because she wants to make some clothes for him for my Xmas pressie.

 

A long time ago (like, back when I only had Max and he was a 1/3 Obitsu) a small cousin (about five years old) of mine came over and somehow ended up in my room. I found her in there pretending that Max was a gun, and she was yelling "Look, look, I have a dolly bazooka!" All my smaller obitsu were on the floor in various states of undress, the one girl with her wig missing. I immediately gave her a talking to about touching other people's things and shooed her out.

Needless to say, this has never happened again. If children want to see my BJDs, they can look but not touch.

 

I never let children to touch my toys and dolls.Because I think most kids can't control themselves,
so they can't control dolls XD

 

i havent let anyone hold or touch my dolls because the adults like my family think im too old and they are creepy and my little sister tends to be rough with them.

 

I would only let children who are related to me hold my dolls. I would only let them hold the tinies though since they are easy for a child to hold. They may look at my 1/4 and 1/3 dolls or play with them when under my supervision (on carpet of course). They've got to follow my rules of how to care for my dolls though.

 

It definitely depends on the kid. My family is close to a family with three little girls ages six, three and 18months, who are the sweetest, most well-behaved kids I've ever known. Generally I don't consider myself very good with children, but I would trust these girls with my dolls. The older two only gave my dolls a glance, and lost interest, but the 18-month girl is fascinated by them.

The first time I let her near my 70cm guy, she gingerly touched his hands, his hair, his chest, and then put out her arms to hold him. (She was only two inches taller than him!) I kind of laughed to myself as I stood him on the floor next to her. She carefully wrapped her arms around him in a hug and then tried to waddle away with him... stopped and turned back almost instantly with this look of horror on her face, saying, "Heavy!"

Then, one time she crawled into my lap while I was holding my 60cm boy, Lysander. I was feeling nice so I showed her how his hair came off and how his arms and legs moved. She gently plucked his wig off and I made a little screaming sound. I imitated his voice so he could introduce himself. She sat there with him in her lap facing her, and held his hands, and peered at his face. Then she suddenly hugged him and tried to haul him away, crowing, "I LIKE Wuh'san-ter!"

In that case the only bad part was having to take him away from her.

 

I thought I'd replied to this, but apparently not....

As a general rule, I woldn't let a kid handle my dolls. However, that being said, it really would depend on the child. I mean, there are some adults I consider irresponsible and would not allow them to handle my dolls, either.

 

Child, adult, alien... I don't let anyone touch my dolls. I don't trust people at all, they pretty much ruin everything I've ever lent.

The boyfriend was crazy though, he let his nieces hold his doll. The younger of them was nice to it, the other wanted to tear it apart and pry its eyes out... yeah he took it back pretty fast.

 

My 4 year old daughter drags her barbies by the hair. Kicks her "baby" (baby born) around and EVERY doll she owns will be naked. I hope she will change this habbit before long so its actually usefull to make clothes for them (which I am eager to do! :P)

My 4 year old with my BJD's (especially my BC roko) is so VERY carefull and responsible. She wont do anything shes has not had an "ok" from me for. She will pet them on the head very carefull but wont ever pick them up. Will very gently hold their hands and change their pose a bit. But thats it!
She is however VERY interested when I am doing things with them. She referes to them by their names and she has whole conversations with them (which is very cute to watch).
She knows my dolls are something completely different then her dolls. And their not to be played with like her dolls.

My 2 teenage boys on the other hand are NOT allowed to tough them EVER!! (by punishment of death!! So I tell them. I may change my mind tho if they did :P)
They are much to rugh with everything. They wont damage them on purpose cause they know how much they meen to me but I don't want any accidents.
(btw my biggest kid aka husband is not allowed to tough them either. Hes the prototype of rughness and I am much to small to kill him if he ever damages them! )

I'm not sure what I would do with other kids. I think it depends on how well I know them and what type of kids they are.
Anyway, this is what I mean when I say my daughter is very carefull with them. She wanted her and Molly's picture taken when we were on vacation. And when I said she had to be carefull or else Molly would maybe fall off the bench. She placed her hand around Molly to keep her safe
(sadly I couldn't take a good pic as I couldn't get furter away because of the bushes behind me)

 

Aww that is the sweetest photo!

 

I would never let children handel my doll (at least not the children that live in my area), they're so irresponsible!!
I might let the neighbor's daughter touch her with supervision but not pick her up

 

I think an age of 6 and up is great to allow to play with your dolls..supervised. My daughter has learned a great respect already. She is on her way to being a collector herself! I also think it helps if you actually "use" your doll as a model for clothing or accessories. My favorite dolls tend to get quite grubby before cleaning. Fun!

 

Noooo! Let no child with destructive grubby hands be within ten feet of my dolls. Look but don't touch anything that i have on my shelves or thereabouts in my house.

 

Nooooooo kids can put their devastating fingers on my dolls except BJD owners. I got some PVC figures crushed by those irresponsible kids and I am 100% sure that will happen on my dolls again. But dolls owners are fine coz they know how important dolls are.

P.S, the photo is aaaaaaaaaaawesome!

 

I honestly wouldn't let kids handle my dolls, because even some adults don't know how to be careful with them. Some people are gentle, but not all of them are.

 

I thought I'd replied to this thread - looks like I didn't!

It would depend heavily on the child, but in general I wouldn't let a child touch any of my dolls.

A friend of mine who collects high-value make-up had her entire collection destroyed by her 3 year old niece, who sneaked upstairs and gouged powder and eyeshadows out of pots, poured nail varnish over my friend's good make-up brushes and bent the wands for each of her mascaras. She emptied several bottles of perfume as well. My friend was really upset that her collection was ruined (it'll take $$$ that she doesn't have to replace it,) her bedroom furniture and carpet has ground in make-up and splashes of nail polish that will never come out and probably the worst of it is that the little girl's mother went upstairs to find her and didn't tell my friend a thing about the mess and just shuffled her child out the door, covered in pigment and reeking of spilt perfume.

I know that this is an extreme example, but this little girl knew that my friend (her aunt) loved her make-up and she had been told several times never to touch it. She knew it was naughty. Now there's a family feud between my friend and her sister over the little girl wrecking her make-up, and my friend's partner wants them banned from the house. My friend's mother is caught in the middle between her two daughters and her grand-daughter being a known livewire, and the situation is just awful and could easily have been avoided by keeping the child away from the make-up, or at least calmed down by the mother apologising, which so far she is refusing to do.

I love my friends and their children, and I love my little cousins. Because I love them, I couldn't let them near my dolls. I would hate for there to be an accident or deliberate breaking of one of my dolls and for there to be a feud between me and my friends or family because of it. It's safer all round to keep dolls and kids at a safe distance from each other, IMO.

Older children would probably be fine, teens would probably be fine, but anyone under 7, no.

 

I couldn't even trust many adults to hold my doll, so definitely not children. Honestly, I don't really like children. And if one appeared and grabbed my doll I'd be pretty irritated.

 

I would never let small children handle my dolls or even get near them without supervision!
Maybe I'm overprotective, but just thinking about it makes me feel worried.
I have a little sister, she's 3 years old now, and I always made very clear to her that she should keep to her (numerous) toys and leave my stuff alone.
I grew up with a younger brother who had the awful habit of breaking or ruining everything I valued, toys or not, cheap and expensive. I would never risk repeating that experience, and I'm certainly not brave enough to use my dolls to test and see if my sister is different.

 

I think I would let children hold my dolls, but only with supervision. I wouldn't leave my doll with them and just let them run off to smear bubblegum all over the hair. But I think if a child is responsible enough, i would let them hold her.

 

Have you mended the sword yet? I like to cover repairs with gold leafing rubbed over the sanded mend point. You can get the 'rubs' in metal colors and they take being handled pretty good too. If you really want a project do a casting of the sword after mending and poor the replacement of a metallic colored acrylic/polymer (like the types used to make body casts for monster high remodels : examples on youtube of different polymers).
I have a third grader that loves his 60 cm jointed male dolls, yes I got them for play and modeling the designs he wants to make. I am dealing with a dyslexic issue so his minor attention flaws make it fun to play Asian sword-man and pirates. The one is an elf eared that came in a Demon Garden box. We pull them out play model the newer clothing and back he puts them until next time.
As for kids touching... I say you have to judge their actions, I have one teen niece that pulls arms off of barbie dolls as I have older collections and very expensive "non-DOA" types this makes me worried when she is near the collections. Kids are like adults, I've heard 'it looks' comments from adults that see me sewing the patterns for the new designs (poor dolls are bald and undressed most of the style time). My ball jointed seem to take handling better than the cheapy types that are socket and twist only. I like your stop the yelling and hug idea, I try to never walk away mad because so much crazy is in this world our dolls should be good things not more nasty mood makers.