Mothering instinct?

I'm mostly interested in adult form SD's but babies kind of hit a nerve. I do have a desire to be a mum and I hope my wish comes true someday.
Sometimes catch myself cradling one of my SD's, LOL
One of my LARP characters recently had a baby, after a magically induced labour of 45 seconds, LOL! I'm looking forward to the next live, being all focused on the little one, throwing a baby party, stuff like that . I'm using an old plastic/stuffed fabric baby doll as a physrep, but when dressed properly, he's adorable .

 

Yes and no? It's so fun to pose my littlefee guy with his toys and I cuddle him all the time. My husband and I don't have children, but we do want them. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult on my end.

 

I'm a woman, in my early twenties, getting married and my doll is a well developed, adult female. So no, not really :P

But then again, I don't really want kids...

 

I am in a committed marriage and for some people i think it kinda is the whole "empty nest" thing for some. For me i think it may be, due to the fact of issues starting a family of my own with my husband. I have two dogs that I consider my children but thats the kind of person i am. I know a lot of people who look down on that kind of thinking.

I like the dressing up and making things and such for the dolls, because it keeps me busy, i dont consider them my children but i do take care of them on a regular basis so it fulfills that basic need to nurture. My mother even brought up that maybe I had "empty nest syndrome" which is probably true, but i really dont see dolls as objects since i am a visual artist and writer that they are more "imaginary friends" or "silent companions" that get most of us socially awkward people through some times

 

Personally, I have to say that this is simply not at all the case. I like to look at lovely things. I have a folder on my computer labeled "Eye Candy" and inside of it are pictures of dresses, dolls, candies, wallpaper, patterns, babies, flowers, yarns, people....pretty much anything I saw that I found pretty while milling about on the internet rounds. My doll is like that computer folder come to life. Her clothes hang nicely, her little shoes are so precious, even her hipbones are so starkly beautiful. Any way, she does not bring out any sort of nurturing nature.

 

While it's different for everyone & some collectors do have a mother/child relationship with their dolls, personally I don't think of my dolls as children at all. Never having or wanting children & now too old to do so, all my maternal instincts have gone into raising cats. My dolls are almost all more mature sculpts & even the ones that aren't, like my Pukis, are faeries or sprites thereby being ageless.

 

Hehehehe. It is DEFINITELY NOT a mothering instinct for my collecting sensibilities. And I am a mother and know the difference.

With some of the dolls - it's more of a desire to find that secret wee door set into the bottom of a giant conifer deep in the forest....and peek through it....

With the big male dolls - it's about perfection and shelling fantasy.

 

I think its eye candy for me too. I also love textures and beauty, colors and art. I love the clothes too, its all art for me. But I think there is also an innocent going back in time to my childhood, the quiet moments of playing with my dolls. It's a kind of meditation on beauty for me.

It's a kind of Wonka world all of my own making!

I have animals that I mother.

 

Personally, as a twenty-something single female, I adore children but I get plenty of chances to let my mothering instinct go wild because I babysit ALL THE TIME. not because I need to per se but because itgives me a chance to work with kids and takes up a lot of the free time I have just laying around.

Now you may be saying "that's not the same thing as having someone of your own" but believe me, you babysit a kid from diapers on up and you'll cry just as much at his/her kindergarden graduation as the real parents.

plus I have two cats who get a good share of mothering from me as well and I plan on having kids at some point just not now.

so in my case it's not looking for a mothering outlet.

 

Mm.... Welllll~ I like to refer to my dolls as my babies even though I don't like going smaller than an MSD size. I'm just a strange girl though. I like to treat everything of mine as special... like my guitars for instance, I named them both and I love them like I would anything else. I don't think it's because I'm filling a motherly gap... it's because I've had no experience being very caring for people since I used to be a very terrible, hateful girl growing up and I was very mean. D8 It seems more like seeing things in a new light to me, and appreciating things more--even people. I cherish almost anything that's special to me, because that's how I show I care about it.

 

I think it is partially motherly instinct for me. I've had the need to take care of someone or something since I was a small child. (can't call that a 'biological' clock. maybe 'bioillogical' clock. haha?) I even went so far to 'adopt' a few boys during high school. They even called me mother and tried to take me to their parent-teacher conferences.
Most of my love for bjds, though, comes from my love of sewing and making things in general. An expensive doll can save me SO much more money on fabric.

 

I have a daughter in kindergarten for all my mothering instincts. While I admit I fell hard for one of the baby dolls, the rest of the dolls on my list are fashioned as adults. I used to make paper dolls, and draw up all sorts of elaborate outfits for them. I suspect this is just that urge going three-dimensional and poseable.

 

I believe that, while not for everyone, for some people dolls can be a sort of substitute for children. It doesn't necessarily have to be bjd, though.

I totally fit the same conditions as you, and I buy bjd because I like dolls, as simply as that. I used to collect Barbie dolls (and other kinds) when I was a child, later porcelain dolls (which I still do, by the way), and now I've added bjd to my list of obses... I mean, coollectibles. I've never seen them as a substitute for children, and I don't currently own any child-like sculpts, though I have my eyes on a FL Puki Lily caramel mushroom and I'm looking for a Luts Bory LE to complete the armoured trio... I select the sculpts I buy mainly because they fit the characters I'm constructing, or because I like the fullsets.

But I know of people who treat their dolls as if they are really alive. And I don't mean playing, I mean real obsessions. I usually call the dolls "babies" as a joke (has some odd explanation...), but some people out there treats them as real babies. Either that, or a doll is physically capable of getting an insolation, an indigestion or in need of a scarf because temperature dropped two degrees, and I hadn't noticed. Which, given my choice of job, would be quite a surprise

Now, I'm not saying that it's not okay to see them as a sort of substitute (dolls have helped people to overcome grave sicknesses or situations), or believe them to be real, that depends on the person. And, as long as the person's happy and doesn't hurt anyone, I think it's okay.

 

Maybe you just like them cause they are cute, in the same way I like kittens. I am really maternal to kittens and fluffy things yet I really don't want kids and feel nothing for human babies at all, don't know why, just never have (And I'm in my late 20s, with a long term partner).

Follow your gut instict and you'll do fine

 

I only like dolls that look like little girls, but not because I want to mother something. I'm recently married, and not at a point in my life where I want or feel pressured to have children. I've never been very interested in babies or young children. (I tend to be the one person in the room who doesn't want to hold so-and-so's newborn.) I don't completely disregard that I might want children a bit later in life, but I'm certainly not planning for it.

I don't refer to my dolls as children or imply that they call me "mommy." I'm not a mother-figure for my dolls--I'm their owner. They're not my offspring; they're my dolls. I don't worry about their needs; they are tools of my own personal entertainment and amusement. My pets get treated much more like children: coddled or reprimanded, tended to, fussed over, and their future planned for.

I can understand how some might use dolls to express a mothering instinct, but it's not the case for me.

 

I find this thread interesting because my mother treats the dolls like grandchildren (specifically my two little Customhouse Ange Ai dolls. She never acted like that until I got Tinies.) My other two dolls, a Volks Dollfie Dream and a Volks SDGr Boy weren't really treated like kids by her.

I've caught myself talking to the Ange dolls with terms I usually use when talking to small children like "kiddo," "munchkin," "little one" and such, but usually just when trying to get them to pose (CH dolls are notoriously difficult to pose, it seems--but I think it's kinda cute on the tiny size dolls.)

I agree with MilkyTea and can totally see how some people could use the dolls to express a mothering instinct. I don't think that's where I am in my life right now, though. (Though my mom...ehhh...)

I do often wonder what I'm going to do if/when I have kids and they want to play with my dolls. Yikes.

 

I think that some people do get dolls due to some maternal instinct, but this is not the case for me. I hate children. I don't like being around them. I've been in the same relationship for a good 6 years now and haven't wanted children for a second. I totally lack maternal instinct and always have. I just have no gap to fill.

This is reflected in my dolls. I don't like dolls that look like children. I don't even like teenage looking dolls. I do like MSD size (it's just the right size for me SD are too big!), unfortunately, so I have a harder time finding mature molds.

I like dolls because I like making clothing for them and I just like how they look... and creeping my boyfriend out with them, but that's another story entirely.

 

i love kids, i have one and i am a vey happy mom, and love kiddy dolls, all mine are kids, but they are a different world away from real children.
But the real answer to all this can be as different as we people are. For some it may be a way to soothe a mothering instinct, maybe, but for me it´s just different. All the way.
But since i love kids and looking at them, their cuteness and innocence, i do love my dolls to be kids

 

I never wanted children and have never had any. I do not like the child like sculps because they do remind me of children and as I don't want them, I don't want that type of BJD. I always stick to the more mature looking ones

 

No, not for me, although I could see it as a way for some to be nurturing. For myself, like I always say "I am not that dog's mother" nor am I the dolls. I see them as other types of beings.
I have children IRL, and I had dolls before, and after them.
The dolls are not really better behaved BTW.