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

I kind of consider my doll to be my child in a strange way. Just like I consider my dog to be my child. It may seem weird to some, but I've decided to not have a kids in a long good while because of personal reasons, yet I love cute kid things. 1/6 BJDs are just a lot more manageable than the children I wouldn't be able to take care of. Then again, I don't like to mess too much with her hair and clothes and stuff. I find it looks more natural when it's a bit untidy. ^^

They're not like reborns or such though, I don't really know how to explain it. It's like a half way between being baby dolls, fashion dolls, and a creative outlet.

This is just me though, I don't know how others feel. It's probably different.

 

I'd say a combination of children and inanimate objects is most accurate for me. They're my inanimate children!
I love buying toys and creating bedrooms for my tinies. I make most of their clothes and wigs, and I change their poses in their room diorama on a regular basis. I don't exactly talk to them, but sometimes I'll say, 'oh, you're so cute!' or something along those lines, or I'll scold them if they won't stand. I do a lot of doting on them, and I call them 'my girls' but at the end of the day, they're not my children. They're mostly a creative outlet and something for me to direct my love at. I love my girls the same way an artist is passionate about their paintings. I've neglected them for weeks because of school. If they were my children, I'd be an awful parent!

 

I'm mostly on the inanimate side. My dolls spent the most time on the shelf, just looking pretty, though I do take them out to redress them once in a while.
But I'm also the kind of person, who'll say "Gerda likes Yellow", and I know my doll doesn't like anything, it's a doll, but her character likes stuff, and her character is alive in my mind and the story I'm writing, so it feels naturally to say that Gerda likes stuff.

 

Treat them as precious dolls, really, dunno. Something with a lot of hopes and dreams but not a real person???

 

I treat my dolls as inanimate fashion dolls, and I'll project personalities onto them. It is something I do for photostories, but I also just like to do it in general because I like to have a little bit more of an emotional attachment to them when I do play with them. They usually don't have substantial relationships with me, but they may acknowledge me as the guy who keeps them. They do have substantial relationships with each other that I explore through photostories. However, that's as far as "being alive" as they get. I don't like to seriously pretend they're thinking or doing things outside of the realm of my mind when I'm spending time with them. I may portray thoughts that are their own in photostories, but they think them up because I think them up based on what I think they should be like. They don't have thoughts because they're autonomous beings. And that's the end of it for most of them. They're only "alive" as long as they need to be, and I have no problem turning it off when I'm done. I may playfully say "such-and-such wants a pretty dress" in a discussion post on a message board, but I'm only being playful with my words because I think it's cute. The thought process that the dolls are "alive" is very much off.

I have many dolls, on and off topic, so, naturally I'd be inclined to spend more time with some and less time with others. Some of them have more developed personalities as a result, and that also means their personalities may acknowledge me as more than just the guy who keeps them. This mostly manifests itself with two dolls of mine. I do consider them my "children". Most of what FacelessPuppets said describes how I view those special dolls of mine.

Like FP, I don't want children. I also don't fall into the reborn end of the behavior spectrum. Still, I sometimes feel the desire to do some fatherly things. This usually comes about via photostories that are role-playing between me and my younger dolls. As such, two of my dolls are my "daughters". However, like all of the other dolls, I turn that off when I've satisfied the desire, and I can leave it off for an extended period of time.

This does have its side effects and benefits, though. When I play with my dolls, I project a lot of love onto them. Since I feel so close to my "daughters", I project extra amounts of love onto them. That means they might get preferential treatment when it comes to play time and clothes. This also means that, even when I have the playing "alive" process turned off, I still care for them that extra amount. As a result, when I'm not playing, and when I'm feeling down, I may decide to play with them without photos in mind or even cuddle with them on a more regular basis. Also, when discussing them with people, even though the "alive" thought process is very much off, I do affectionately refer to them as my "daughters" because I do consider them extra special, and I love them very much

Among my other dolls, which I just call "my girls" or "my dolls", I have varying levels of affinity for them. However, I don't exactly consider them my friends. At least, they're not friends on such a significant level as my "daughters". I may portray them as my friends in photostories, but that's mostly just because I have more affinity for them. There's no desire to be filled on that front, and they're not a convenient solution to a problem of unfulfilled desire like my "daughters".

One thing to mention that might help to put things in perspective a little bit is that I don't consider my ABJDs to be different from my off-topic dolls beyond the size difference (1/3 scale as opposed to 1/6 scale) and the way their bodies and joints work. One of my "daughters" is an ABJD, and my other one is off-topic. I never got into the types of deeper relationships that some ABJD owners have with their dolls. Not that I think there's anything wrong with it. There isn't anything wrong with it, and I actually think it's quite beautiful, but it's not for me.

 

I treat my dolls like children... It just feels easier to do so when I call them "son" or "daughter" XD. I like to buy them gifts and spoil them a little every now and then and I like to take them to meetups to "get to know" other dolls. It's a little childish, but I've always been a kid at heart.

 

I have children, & can tell the difference.
I treat my dolls as dolls shelling important characters for me. I have this thing about so-called 'inanimate' objects w/faces - I can't treat them like the dishes or even like other precious objets d'art. If something looks like a person (or an animal, or like it could talk even) I treat it a bit more respectfully. It's strange but there you go. I feel bad somehow if I toss around something like that (even, yes, my troll doll from 1968). If I forced myself to overcome this feeling, it might start dehumanizing me (ok, in my mind anyway). I don't see this as a problem - but I will not treat or talk about my dolls the same way as the lovely vases I have scattered about the house. Period.

 

I treat my doll like my dear friend, or child.

 

Haha I didn't start treating my dolls like children until I got married. It's a fun way to get my husband somewhat involved. Other than that object. But I've always been an imaginative person. Thus I swear my stuffed animals co,me to life at night etc. Toy Story all the way.

 

There are sacred things in my life. My guitar, my Divine Comedia, my class ring, my first pipe, and my dolls. These are different then my favorite things like my computer or stuffed animals or favorite books. My guitar has been in the family since my grandmother, and my class ring stands for more than just my graduations but expresses a mission that I have been put on this earth to fulfill. My first pipe - I felt it breathing in my hand and saw a universe inside its colors and found God when hope was lost. And my dolls, my first purchases as a committed adult. They were a childhood dream I have achieved.

 

My dolls are people. Miniature living people with their own tiny souls, dreams, fears and worries who I happened to shelter. I don't make up stories for them, they can "tell" me if they want. As such, I'm more of a guardian than an owner. I help them, keep them happy and in return I get the same treatment from them. I trust them completly and that also goes both ways.
That's part of the reason, why I don't just drag anyone into my house. I only invite dolls who really mean something and so far I could only afford two out of the lot who got my heart.

 

I treat them as an inanimate object--- but a very treasured object. I'll change clothes and hair and pose them and straighten their hair and clothes for photos, etc. I think that's pretty average for dolls...

Heh... I do get other dolls or pets to keep them company! But I know they aren't real people... I just like the IDEA of treating them as if they were alive sometimes. Truly alive things wouldn't be sitting there for weeks on end doing nothing, after all...!

 

I'm definitely closer to inanimate objects. I'll talk to them on occasion but for the most part my dolls will sit on a shelf and look pretty.

 

They're inanimate objects to me. I like them, but that's pretty much all they are. Teddy bears, on the other hand.........

 

Um ... inanimate children, really. Like, I know that they're dolls, technically not really living things(though they do seem to have their own personalities), but I'm the type who gets emotionally attached to her things and find myself talking to my dolls characters a lot. I also cuddle and play with them on a regular basis.

 

inanimate children ~ at times maybe as someone to keep me company lonely begin the only child in the family

 

I treat them like they have a personality, but maybe more like a dog than a person. I don't have conversations with them, but I'll say something like, "Alright, hold still while I brush your hair, 'cause I know you like to flop about while I try to make you presentable!" I talk about them like they have a personality and I talk about bringing them around with me. We had a bunch of friends over today to play a game and I joked that I was going to let my dolls help me play (I didn't, they stayed safely in the display cabinet).

I love my dolls, I really do. I became attached to them immediately. Sometimes when I talk about them my husband will say, "That's the reason people think doll collectors are creepy." LOL! I don't think of them as people and I don't treat them as if they're people, but I do treat them as if they have personalities.

 

Yurusumaji, I know exactly what you mean. Only I don't talk about them all that much because my surroundings just don't care enough for me to want to share that kind of stuff.

I talk to my doll like I'd talk to ... I dunno ... a doll Useless reply is useless. Really though, the only thing I can remember talking to in the same way I talk to them now is the dolls I had as a kid ... I neither see them as children, nor as inanimate objects, maybe somewhere in-between as little resin people. I do talk to them, addressing the character they represent, but still in a "doll" way. ("What have you done with your wig?!" / "Oh come on, let me engage that joint already!" / "Honey, I know you don't like people seeing you with your wig off, but just hold that pose for me for a second please so I can take a WIP photo of those clothes" ...)

 

I treat all my girls like they were my real-life daughters, just smaller in size. I do talk to them sometimes, if I accidentally knock one off I'd say sorry I hug them and pat on their heads a lot too!

 

Definately Children.. Unless someone else is around