Treat dolls like children, friend, or simply just as an inanimate object?

I'm more on the inanimate object side of the fence.

I will sometimes fuss over them... but then they sit for a while once fussed to my satisfaction.

I will sometimes say something to them -- for instance, if they're flopping all over the place I might mutter, "Stay still!" but I don't expect compliance or a reasponse, and I tend to talk to (read: yell at/mutter at/plead with) things that frustrate me. I yell at software all the time, but I don't consider it animate or childlike -- if it were, my copy of Photoshop would be in such dire need of therapy I'd never be able to afford it. It's the same with the dolls. My poor cats are the unfortunate recipients of any 'baby talk' urges I get, though they're pretty rare. They, unlike the dolls*, are alive.

I don't care how other people treat their dolls, to be perfectly honest. There are a great many definitions of how to love something, and that depends on what it is and how it is perceived. If you perceive a doll as a living being or as a child, how to love it is going to be vastly different from someone who prefers to keep it on a shelf as an art object or creative project. Judging one group by the other's standards can lead to some serious hilarity. No matter how good the modder, for instance, I could easily see someone viewing a doll as a child being horrified by mods, as in: "Oh no! She was perfectly good as she was! You're going to make her feel bad about herself now!" "How could you mutilate your child that way!" Let's face it, the idea of taking a dremel to a living being is pretty high on the horror scale. To a person who views their dolls as a creative project, however, doing this and taking their time to do it right is the ideal expression of how to love or care for their project doll.

*Yes, I realize that thoughts an opinions on this vary. I'm just stating my position here.

 

Hrm, a combination of things, probably. I can easily have affection for inanimate objects to begin with, but I no longer feel the slightest qualms about taking them apart, wiping faceups, or things like that. I don't talk to them very often, but I talk about them like they do have the personalities they represent. Mine are all based on original characters, and those characters are fully alive to me although they don't actually exist . I often feel like my relationship with my resin union is more like a pet-pet owner relationship, like they're an especially convenient but far less furry and snuggly type of pet. I sometimes sit them on my lap and stroke their wigs, something I wouldn't do to a friend OR a child . . .

 

Maybe because I'm way too childish and/or sensitive, and live in my own little world, I tend to treat them as they are living creatures sometimes. I do not regard them as my children though. Its more like I apologize to them if I hit their head in the desk accidentally while putting them back in their place. Or they often sit in my lap in the evening while I'm lurking on the internet I talk to them during photoshoots as well, tellint them to stand still, or "Oh come on, you can do it" and such.
Then again, I talk to my laptop as well, encouraging it if its all fast and does things the way I want, and shouting at it if it freezes or something XD

So yeah, dolls are mere objects, but still, they represent a character for me, and oh well, I DO like interacting with that character, if I have the oppurtinity

 

I don't have any children of my own as of yet, but I like referring to my dolls as my babies just as a guy might refer to his car as his babe. It still isnt to the extent that I think of it as my child or anything, but its just a figure of speech seeing how much money, time and care I put into this hobby.

I still treat them as inanimate objects even though I like to pose my dolls as though they were "doing something" I don't really speak to my dolls IRL but I like to write figments of speech of what I think my dolls may say ie.:
Solaris(my doll): I had a new face up todayy yeys!
Me: I hope you like your new face!

 

Maybe not /children/, but I do talk to them and fuss over them quite a bit. I chatter at inanimate objects all the time--and hold full conversations with my pets.

 

My dolls are like pet rocks? 8'D Inanimate objects treated like pets. I like cuddling them and petting them sometimes, but when I don't feel like dealing with them, they go back into their bags. They're not decorations, because I don't have a big enough display space in my room, and I would worry about the hot tropical sun.

 

I treat them like what they are. Expensive inanimate objects. Really expensive inanimate objects. I treat them like little pieces of art with much care as I do not want to ruin their face-ups or scratch their resin or anythink like that, but I certainly do not treat them as if they were sentinent beings.
So no, I don't cuddle them nor do I talk to them.

 

Well considering I have full blown conversations with my laptop I think I get emotionally attached to things rather easily, but saying that the exact same laptop is coming to the end of his life and I have no issues replacing him. (with probs the same model (macbook) as I seem to get on well with the mac OST)

Same goes for my dolls but, strangely, on a lesser scale. I'm on my laptop EVERY DAY. My dolls characters are the most important thing to me so I do see the dolls more as shells of that. They DO keep me company to an extent but I wont ever get a reply from them. Sadly.
Dolls make me happy. C= That's enough for me!

 

Fun question!

I am more on the inanimate object side of thing, as well. My dolls are things to me, although I treat them with due respect and I don't like to leave them with hair in their face and half-dressed. My dolls spend their lives in boxes, and is only taken out when I photograph them, sew for them or when going to a doll meet. My dolls personalities is shown in my pictures, I don't think of them that way in RL.

Occasionally I talk to them, especially if I dropped one or I think they look at me badly. This is probably not a sign that I think of them as friends or anything. I used to be terrified by dolls when I was a kid and even though I have gotten over it by now, they sometimes scare me a little. And then it helps to talk a little. Yup, I am a little nutty

 

^Lol, this. That's actually the only time when I'm talking to my dolls, when they don't want to do what I want them to do. And I appologies to them when I do something stupid, but then again... I appologize to my TABLE as well when I bump into it. Heh.

Any other time I'm just treating them like inanimate objects. They spend months on a shelve and though I'm looking at them and I'm happy with them I don't feel the need to do anything with them.

But I don't care how others play or don't play with their dolls. It's their live, they're their posessions and I guess that we all do something differently. That's what makes this hobby so interesting, I guess.

 

I feel like I should mention this here, I once allowed a close friend of mine to borrow one of my dolls for a few weeks so that she could practice sewing before her doll arrived. She then messaged me at one point saying " I'm sure Alaire is missing his mommy right now."
My response? "I'm not his mommy, I'm more like his landlord..."

I think that pretty much sum it up right there.

 

I treat them more like a friend/inanimate object, I guess? They represent me and my friends' characters so, sometimes, I find myself talking randomly at them. But I did that before I got dolls. Characters become like actual people sometimes and it's like I can't help it. Now that there are visable representations of them, sometimes I find myself saying things to them without even thinking about it. But, then again, I just DO that with inanimate objects. I talk to my computer a lot when it's acting up, I got a sewing machine this weekend and kept yelling at it (because my bad sewing was completely its fault, right? ), etc. I don't find it weird anymore.

And it's not like I think they'll talk back. When I get to that phase, maybe I might question myself a little. XD I also don't view them as my "children" even though I may dote over them sometimes (and my incoming girl had better watch out now that I found some dress patterns). So, yeah.

 

I don't think of them as real people, except in my imagination. I occasionally make remarks to them, but they don't answer back. Yet.

 

For me, how I treat them depends on the doll's personality. I don't really treat them as inanimate objects, and I must say I feel guilty if I leave them just sitting there for a while (not saying this is a bad thing to do, it's just how I personally feel). But how I interact on them depends, as I said, on their characters. I have some dolls that love to be cuddled and I'll constantly feel the need to be cuddling them- and again, guilty if they're just stuck on a shelf! Likewise, I have dolls who hate to be cuddled. Sometimes I'll cuddle them just because I like them- and like annoying them- but I do that against their wishes, if that makes sense, because they would prefer to be on their own.
The same goes for posing, dressing, hair-brushing, and talking to. Some dolls love to be preened, others love to be chatted too, another may like to be petted. Some of them don't, so I don't do it so much to them. It's not that I love them any less- it's just a matter of taking their personality into account.
After all, if you had a friend who didn't like to be touched, you wouldn't bound over and give him a massive hug every time you saw him, would you? And if you had a friend who was very tactile and touchy-feely, you'd hug him and touch him without thinking about it. For me, it's the same with dolls.
So in short, I treat them as I would treat anyone else! Oh dear, that sounds a bit odd...

 

Inanimate objects. I'm more connected to the characters they represent than the actual doll 'form'. I do 'talk' to them as one would talk to a computer or other inanimate object, but I don't imagine having conversations. They sit on my shelf, get 'played' with daily and tweaked every few weeks.

 

I talk to my dolls just about as much as I would talk to a toaster, if such toaster needed talking to. That being said, I do think of them as more than just another object to put on my shelf, but that is because they represent characters of mine that have the ability to come to live on their own. Because of this I will say something to them now and again, especially if they're falling over or being difficult (I've been known to shout "ATRUS!" on a regular basis, as my DOI likes to fall over at the worst times) I treat them exactly as they are: expensive dolls that house characters of mine. They're special, and have more meaning to me than say, my Playstation, but even then I don't think of them as my children. I draw the line at having conversations as if the dolls themselves are alive, such as that they don't like their wig, or they're unhappy with a new doll that I've bought.

 

I treat mine like special possessions, like any doll that I've ever owned and loved as a special character... I don't make any sort of imaginary relationship with them, like "mum" or "babysitter" or even "home owner"- They are just my dolls, their characters have a completely separate sort of make believe dichotomy to play around in, that's what it's there for. No need to put myself into the the story at all. That said, I hug them, or cuddle 'em, and occasionally kiss them, but its like that with my favourite teddies too. I'm a snuggler personality-wise, I like to cuddle my special dollies/bears etc.

Funny enough though, I do talk to them- sometimes, the same way I talk to myself, the TV, my laptop, any pets that are around, and just about anything else XD I know they don't answer, it's just something I do- and like doing- frankly. The other thing is, I do sometimes see a doll on the MP for example and think "I wish I could give you good home!" I.e a better face-up, a wig that flatters, nice new clothes, and a pretty shelf to sit on XD

 

As for me I treat my boy as a person who has his own soul, character, wishes, dreams, dislikes. Well I believe it's rather easy to imagine I cannot be with him together all the time, he stays at home when I work, but I let him go visiting our mutual friends and friends' dolls as well for a day or two when I feel like he's bored, that's usually the people I fully trust. Very often I make him read or sit still close to me when I am working at home or show him anime or different kinds of movies. We try to go out every weekend, to take pictures, to laugh together, to feel the time going on being together. Well I know he understands everything, he knows I cannot stay with him forever, I need to be there and to go here... He wishes to be always with me, but that's impossible and he feels sorry about it. I call him my family, that's it. He's my little friend who feels, cares, sympathizes, loves and stays always himself whatever we cosplay, do, pretend, play and look like.
And when we are apart for a long time he comes up my mind and I feel him and see as a teenage boy at the staions, on the bus, in the streets, in a cafe... He reminds me I it's time to come back home. I see him in my dreams and he ever saves my life in my nightmares, staying with me till the end, holding my hand in his.
He's a simple ordinary boy doll and he's always more than that.