How does your partner feel about your bjds?

I've collected and repainted various off topic dolls (mostly fashion dolls) since highschool, so dolls were already an established Thing for me by the time I got into romance. So my sweethearts pretty much knew what they were getting into, lol. BJDs aren't that big of a leap from art dolls. So, there haven't been any negative reactions. (Though so far, my first BJD isn't home yet.)

S is super supportive. She really appreciates the artistry, and likes that dolls give me an outlet that doesn't involve chasing her around with makeup and making her pose for pictures (which I have done several times). She doesn't really have any opinions on styling, or want to play with my dolls at all, but she does like to see when I paint something new. I'm super excited to see her reaction to the larger and more detailed sculpts that BJDs have in comparison to off topic dolls. As for the cost, it doesn't bother her. She was pretty shocked when I first started talking about getting into BJDs and mentioned the price factor, but tbh I think most people are shocked at first. Once I explained why they're so expensive, she was fine with it.

V is very neutral about the doll thing. To him, it just gets lumped in with all the rest of my Weird Art ThingsTM. He's completely uninterested, but in that general way that guys tend to be uninterested in fashion magazines. He doesn't think it's a strange hobby to have, or that it's childish or creepy or anything. Lol, and his thing is guns and competitive shooting, so he really doesn't have any room to talk about expensive hobbies.
(V did have a pretty hilarious reaction when I was looking at body sculpts and he discovered the anatomical accuracy, though. He was so embarrassed, but couldn't come up with a legitimate reason for why there was anything wrong with it, so he just wound up turning really red, spluttering about how "strange" my hobbies are, and wandering off kindof aimlessly.)

 

My boyfriend has been really supportive. When I was just showing him pictures and telling I always wanted one, he encouraged me to get my first BJD. Now that I'm out of town he sends me pictures of them. We actually refer to my dolls as "the girls" (not "your dolls" or "your girls") and he always says cute things about the stuff I craft for them, and gives some good advice about the projects I have.
I'm really happy to have such a supportive and interested partner, because although he doesn't collect it makes me feel like it is something we can share - like we share some other things he likes too.
He did say a couple of times that "he might like to have a BJD like that one" referring to dragons and other fantastic creatures. I hope he gets one! And I'll be able to paint or customize it, since I'm the crafty one hahaha

 

My partner is fine with my hobby and encourages me to pursue all my creative hobbies in general. He really likes my first doll especially and he takes interest in what I do with them, and how they change over time. He is not particularly interested in owning dolls himself but he is happy to talk about them with me or wait for me when I take pictures of them when we are out on hikes/holidays.

 

I am getting increasingly larger dolls and normalizing them one at a time.

It's working.

 

It shouldnt be a problem at all...a couple would make a neat group to use the dolls for either collection or animation! My Mom collected dolls before (not BJDs though sadly...T_T) and it wasnt a problem.
.....unless something like the guy locking you out just because he wanted to be alone with a doll.........that would be awkward.......
(like in Chobits when the guy locks his wife out just to be with their persacom.....-n-)

 

In my multi-year relationships, dolls have merely been one of a number of hobbies that my partner and I do not share. As such, it generally does not come up in conversation -- we have many other common interests to talk about.

In this hobby, you often hear cost justification along the lines of "at least I don't spend money on X" or "someone critical of the cost of my hobby wastes money on their hobby." In this thread for example, Prada was already snubbed as far worse than dolls. This kind of reasoning doesn't seem helpful or logical -- what about someone who owns both BJDs and Prada, are they somehow beyond the pale? I assume we all have hobbies outside of BJDs, and I don't think we need to resort to judging other hobbies to rationalize our own decisions. After my income has covered my cost of living and retirement contributions, how I spend the remainder is my business. No justification necessary. On this, my partner and I have always seen eye to eye.

 

Story time! This is a love story about the best fiance I could ask for for the first few months of dating Christopher I am ashamed to say that I hid poor Lucy in my closet. Every time that he came to visit me I would have him wait in the living room and I would run to the bedroom and quick move her to the closet whispering "I'm sorry babygirl." not my proudest moments I know... When I moved in with him I wasn't really worried about it anymore. He loved me and I knew it wasn't a big deal since at the time I only had one BJD. At first he was a little thrown off by her, he thought her eyes were "creepy" but he never complained. Flash forward to now, two years later. We're getting married, we have an apartment to ourselves with no roommates, and I now have 7 (soon to be 8) dolls. He fully supports, embraces, and loves all of them. His favorite is actually Lucy, he's super attached to her and tells her all the time that she's beautiful, but he's invested in each one of my dolls and their backstories. He named my two Minifee Risse girls (Rowan and Meara) He helps me pick out clothes and wigs for all them, and he and I just got out first shared doll together! He really wanted an elf since we didn't have one yet, so we got a Minifee Elf Siean. We just finished filling out and sending in the commission form to Angeltoast for her faceup the other day and it was super fun sitting down and figuring out what we wanted, her name, and how we wanted her personality to be. He says he enjoys listening to me gush about my girls, and he helps me plan what I want for future dolls. I feel really lucky to have a fiance who is secure enough in his masculinity that he not only tolerates my doll obsessions, but fully embraces it and encourages me (and he's pretty hot too )
Go ahead and tell me about your significant other and how they feel about your dollies I'd love to hear your stories

 

Hello, I too have a completely supportive husband, although we have been married for 36 years now. I have always been into dolls, collecting them, making them, entering them into county fairs etc... I just started the BJD hobby a little over 3 years ago now after stalking them for about a year. He's even purchased dolls for me. He likes that I'm creative and have hobbies and is always checking out what I'm making and giving me pointers and opinions. He has a good eye for 3 dimensional design and helps me out quite often. He sent me a sweet text yesterday about how amazingly talented he thought I was and wanted me to know how much he appreciates me and all that I do. Definitely a keeper, I hope to have him around for as long as the good Lord's willing.

 

My fiance is absolutely amazing about my dolls, but I'm fortunate enough that when I chose him and he chose me, we fully supported one another's quirks and interests
He's an avid gamer, and at first I was reluctant to even TRY his hobby but then he roped me in and now I play more often than he does! Especially in regards to MMORPGs (Guild Wars 2, anyone?) he's even convinced me to try Warhammer 40k with him and his friends.
He always knew I loved dolls, and a lot of other hobbies that are considered childish and other artistic hobbies. I'm an amateur writer who LOVES stuffed animals.
I have a wide range of interests but the fun fact is that my fiance was the one who's funded my hobbies! The only time he ever hesitated with my BJDs was when he saw the price but then he splurged after he realised he spends 100s of Euros on his own hobbies like Warhammer figures, DnD, board games and so forth.

He then tried out the doll hobby. He first bought me a Sakura Miku Hatsune Pullip, then he bought himself a Tengkou The Gap Year doll.

He bought me my first BJD, a DollZone Carter, as a Christmas present in 2015, my Carter whom I've named Morose, arrived in 2016 in July or August period. Fastforward to 2017, I now own 8 BJDs, half of them gifts from my amazing fiance. He recently bought me my Doll Chateau Stacy, DollZone The Moon and Hermit and a DollStories tan Sylk Elf Vampire head.
The best part? He's even after his OWN BJD now, a fullset Doll Chateau Jason. We've even planned a pair of twins, two Doll Chateau Austins who we have named Abe (my twin) and Jermery (his twin).

He's a keeper, we're likely to marry come May of 2017.

 

Aww, congratulations on your upcoming marriage, @A_Grand_Leaf!

Okay, settle in now because it's time for me to gush about my amazing wife

@Mimiko and I collect together, which is awesome enough as it is because it's so fun planning out our dolls and bouncing ideas off each other. Not only that, but she's an amazing and creative artist who paints my dolls for me (and tolerates me bossing her around about how everything should look)! She's always 100% supportive of the things I want to do, whether it's an artistic idea or an impulse buy. We share a lot of hobbies and some of our talents are complementary, so I feel like we make a great team. We even have a jointly-shared doll (our Soom Sard, Faust).

Basically she's the most incredible person I know, and without her encouragement and support I might never have gotten even my first doll - let alone all the ones that followed it!

 

With as many as i have, my husband looks at it like extra retirement money.......haha

 

Oh man, it's so nice to read about people with supportive partners! I'm really pleased for all of you.

My boyfriend loves all my dolls. I initially worried that they might not be into dolls - they're a bit "out of character" with the rest of their interests, but I've found them numerous times shifting favourite boys of theirs into their room to sit with them while they work. "They're delightful," they said, "and are a soothing presence". They're also a massive massive enabler, so. that might be part of the reason why my collection's more than doubled since I started dating them.

 

It has been so uplifting reading all of these! It's really positive and brightening my day, keep em coming

 

Thanks so much, redfeathers! i'm still unsure how to tag people without quoting, sorry.

 

FlyingCodeMonkey (that's Mr. Brightfires-) doesn't really *get* the whole doll-thing, but is still supportive of the fun I get out of it... It's very much one of those "I'm happy with it because you're happy with it" sort of things.

 

Since I've been in the hobby, I've experienced a couple of different reactions from my SO's. My most recent ex was into tabletop gaming and miniatures, and said he "didn't really mind" my dolls because they were "art projects," just like his Warhammer figurines. He wasn't wrong in saying that, but I don't think he really understood that their significance to me was a lot greater than that. We'd talk about painting techniques and supplies, and occasionally he'd tease me over my attention to detail when doing blushing/faceups, but that was really it.

My current partner loves my girls. When he met my first one (his favorite, he's admitted), I remember being a little nervous-- I had meant to put her away because I was very self-conscious about being in the hobby. She was sitting right out on my desk in plain sight, and being a DD she's kind of hard to miss . Totally unprompted, he leaned down and said hi to her-- used her name and everything (he had heard me mention her in conversation before). It was a very small gesture but I was kind of floored by it. Ever since then, he's surprised me with gifts for them on holidays and on their birthdays, encourages me in my work when I do faceups/attempt to make clothes for them, and greets them all when he visits. He's helped me develop their characters a lot too and lets me bounce character ideas off of him. He's also enabled me a few times when I've wanted to add to my (still growing) family .

I love him very, very much and hope to be moving in with him this year

 

My girlfriend absolutely adores my dolls. I got her into the hobby and she's getting her first doll soon! She helps me make clothes and is really excited to learn how to do faceups. I threw her head first in and she loved it. We plan dolls together and last night we were working on my big MSD project at the moment. It's nice to have a partner who loves my precious friends just as much as I do.

 

I was already married when I joined the hobby. He was a little surprised i was interested in something so expensive but I'm a penny pincher. He knew I was serious tho because he saw I was always doing research and watching YouTube videos about them. He's happy I have a hobby that I enjoy so much.

 

I never kept my hobby a secret because I knew if someone put me down for it, we'd never last more than a date or two. I've collected dolls all my life, and my husband is totally cool with it. I got my first BJD right before our wedding, and his only request was that I not bring Amir on the honeymoon!

While he doesn't regularly buy me dolls or doll stuff, he is fine with gifting me doll stuff for Christmas and my birthday. He's a gamer and biker, so he understands expensive hobbies.

 

My husband's comment as he saw me browsing here was "if I had unlimited money I'd have a huge collection of creepy dolls" so I took that as a good sign, hehe