Would you let your kids play with your dolls?

if i have kid,i wont let them to touch my doll
because i think they don't know how to take care of my doll
they will break my doll i think

 

I have little brothers and I would not let them play with them because I`d be so scared they would break them!

 

I don't have any children. If all goes well, I will never have any children. However, I'm the eldest child of a large extended family, with one little sister of my own. So, I've been around a lot of kids, is what I'm saying.

Would I let a child play with my dolls? It would absolutely depend on the individual child. I can't make a blanket statement one way or another. Myself as a nine year old would have been fine with them. I was an extremely careful child. My little sister I'd have waited until she was a young teenager, simply because she was a very clumsy kid. One of my cousins is 17 and I still wouldn't trust her with something as expensive as a BJD, because she's very careless (but she wouldn't have any interest in them, anyway). Another of my cousins is only six right now, but I suspect she'll be able to be trusted to play with them under supervision by the time she's eight or so. I want her to get out of the "dropping things" stage, but she's very careful and gentle with everything she plays with.

Hell, there are plenty of adults I wouldn't trust to be careful with a doll. It's all about the individual.

 

My son was eight years old when I got the doll. Now this doll is as old as once he was. In all that time he never touched her. And always worried that I didn't break it. I recently changed the rubber band and notice how the son, watching me through the slightly open door. Called him and asked him to help me assemble the doll. It was very touching.

 

My boy Sam just turned six and is very respectful of my dolls. This may be due to living in a household of collectables (thousands of comics, action figures, Breyer horses, and a few motley dolls) as well as artwork and "dangerous" tools which are off limits. He knows to ask before he touches, and so far so good! This might of course change as he ages, as I fear he has inherited his father's rebellious nature.
Sadly, I don't have a ton of time for my dolls right now beyond admiring them, as Sam and my studio practice come first. However, Sam helps me name new doll arrivals, and we are planning to modify a Yukinojo/mirodoll hybrid into one of his favorite video game characters this year. Mommy/son project.

 

My daughter was 2 years when I got my first BJD. I always was adamant that she has not to touch them, and kept him away in a cabinet. Today she is allowed carrying them, touching them, but not to play with my dolls.

She wants one of her own, but I think it is too early. Right now, she has some kind of substitute doll made of vinyl. If she keeps her interest, she may get one in 2-3 years.

 

My nephew loves my dollfie dreams! I always make him wash his hands and I change them to cheap clothes and wigs before I let him touch them, but he's always been enchanted. He's interested in my resin boy too, but since resin is less durable than vinyl when it comes to falls and whatnot I don't let him play with him. Besides, my resin boy is as tall as he is since he's only 3!

 

I was 14 when I got my first BJD, so I basically did grow up with them. When I started in the hobby I was TERRIFIED to restring and take the heads off; I would go through ridiculous lengths to not do either. It cracks me up now because I'm obviously aware of how simple it is, but I was definitely overly gentle with them.

 

My kids have grown up with my dolls. (BJD's, fashion dolls, 1/6 scale figures). They are almost 7 now and I have promised I'll buy them their own BJD's when they turn 8. Plastic ones like Hujoo. They have left my dolls alone and have never broken any of their own dolls (Barbie and Monster High).
They are interested in photographing and I hope they will be interested in making their own dollstuff with me in the near future.
I hope they will enjoy dolls all their lives. I feel sad when I see kids as young as 8 selling their toys away because they don't play anymore. It is age when you are beginning to be old, patient and handy enought to start to do your own dollclothes, dollhouses and so on. I remember when I was a kid playing with my friends with our Barbie, Daisy and Sindy dolls. One really important part was making things for them. Sewing, knitting and crotching clothes, building houses out of cardboardboxes, making furniture and other stuff.

 

I started collecting dolls when my eldest was a couple of years old, it snowballed from there. So all three have never known a life without dolls and toys. They mostly ignore the bigger dolls, they're too large and weird for them to want to play with I think. However eldest did LOVE my Monster High and I used to let him play with them supervised (they are quite fragile and he was like 3) and I have some lovely photos of him with them.
Middle son has a couple of dolls of his own because he claimed them, youngest stole one of the mlps lol. I don't mind so much, I enjoy sharing my toys and seeing the delight on a kid's face is so worth it.

Now with the BJDs, they aren't really allowed to touch because you know, expensive, but they show no real interest in doing so.
They like the wigs, but the dolls themselves? Not so much.
The LOVE their accessories too, small doll accessories seem to really entertain them.
I lost several doll vehicles, an entire fridge and a bed to the kids lol. They take them and then I haven't the heart to take them off them.

My husband also collects dolls so the kids are sort of just used to them. Eldest seems to find them slightly annoying now because theyr'e "in the way". Earlier he looked at me and told me "mum, move your dolls, they're on the shelf I want to put my laptop!"
and I looked and told him "those aren't my dolls, those are dad's, talk to him." so he marched over "DAD! move your dolls!"
He won't touch them himself, he's too scared to and the bjds are quite heavy, so we just get yelled at to move them.

I think they'll probably grow up slightly annoyed by dolls hahaha.

 

Hey, sorry if a post like this already exists. I found a couple in search, but they were locked. Hopefully this is ok
So when people talk about having kids and collecting BJDs, it seems like they're mostly focused on the bad, or on worries. Either collecting makes them feel guilty for not spending every spare dime on their kids, or having kids makes them nervous that their dolls will be neglected or broken. So I'm curious, does anyone else think there are benefits to having kids and dolls?
For example, I have 2 girls, 2 years and 7 months old. Of course my 7 month old doesn't really know what's up, but my 2 year old loves dolls and I think my hobby benefits her because I know how to sew clothes for her dolls, fix them when they get broken or dirty, and I'm always eager to get her cute new dolls. Having her is great for me because I don't have to feel self-conscious about scouring the toy aisle anymore haha. Also sometimes I steal her doll clothes, which is how I now know that some Lammily clothes fit ResinSoul single-jointed msd. (And wellie wishers/glitter girls shoes fit, and Calico Critters clothes are a reasonably good fit on Pukipukis) Basically, I love having a little buddy who enjoys dolls as much as I do.
Anybody else feel the same?

 

I do feel the same. I started collecting BJD's when my daughter was 10, and she was always a gentle and conscientious girl so I easily could have had her around them earlier. I took her to meetups with me, we surfed the websites together, and when she started to want one of her own she started saving up her own allowance to buy it herself. She would do extra chores and squirrel away birthday money from Grandpa, it took a whole year but she did it. I think it's a great lesson in saving up, and a great lesson in treating things with respect. If you have to work THAT hard for something you're going to treat it well

 

I started in hobby 12 almost 13 years ago and my daughter not a kid anymore joined for a couple of years. But then daughter in law joined and has been a great friend too to share hobby with. Now granddaughter is slowly joining. She's now five and I have high hopes she will join us on trips to meet ups in a couple of years.

 

Aw, this is a sweet thread. And yes! There are certainly pros to having children in this hobby. My child loves to stroke my dolls' hair and touch their hands. Just a simple thing, but it can be very cute to watch the careful attention.

 

Yes, I have come across some not so nice things towards people who have kids and dolls. So this is a refreshing take on the subject. My eldest doesn't seem to like the dolls, he finds them weird, but he likes his dolls (a.k.a. action figures). But he enjoys miniatures, and wants his own dollhouse for them. So we get to share that aspect of the hobby.

My youngest is 11 months and he LOVES my dolls. I was showing him my 60cm Obitsu girl, which he loved and held her hand! Her wig was being finicky (it's a size too large) and during the course of trying to fix it, her head popped off, and he stopped and frowned. He wasn't happy until I put her head back on. XD The Little Fox also likes other off-topic dolls that I have.

 

That is such a good point! I hadn't even thought of that but it is a great lesson.

Wow, three generations! That is so cool. Life goals, right there.

Oh my gosh, kids loving on dolls is the cutest thing! I love seeing that affectionate, nurturing side in my toddler.

 

Two of the people in my local doll group are a grown mother daughter pair. It warms my heart that they have a hobby they can share, especially as two grown ups!

 

I have no children myself but from the other view side of coin I followed my mum into doll collecting granted mum didn't have BJD's but it taught me to respect the doll and was a great hobby to be both involved in and she it was an ideal way to start to learn about price of things and to be patience saving up to buy a doll of your dreams. I still have some of my mum dolls

 

I am the daughter of a doll collector. While my mother does not collect bjds specifically (currently only has one), she did help me know that liking dolls when all other girls started saying "barbies are dumb" was okay. She showed me that there is more than just the toy isle in Target and the beauty of artist-made dolls, but also that play dolls like Barbies and American Girls were fine too. I love that my mom is a doll collector and raised me in a way that helped me grow into the hobby. She has always been supportive and never looked at me weird when I sat one of my dolls with me during a family movie night (because sometimes she would do it to). I think this also helped with my dad. Since my dad was already used to my mom being a doll collector, he has never bat an eye at me playing with my dolls or whatever (of course, he does not know how much some of my dolls cost either, lol).
I am so happy I am the child of a doll collector, because when I felt I had to hide my love of dolls from my peers, I could always gush about them to my mom, and she could do the same with me!

 

I wouldn't even have my bjd hobby if I hadn't had my daughter. I started out by sewing clothes for her American Girl doll when she was little, just because the official AG clothes were so expensive. Then I discovered I was pretty decent at making doll clothes and that I really enjoyed doing miniature fashion design. From there I went to selling AG clothes on Etsy, and that was fun for me and my daughter too...she liked to help me dress up the dolls and set up for listing photo shoots and so on. Eventually I came across bjd on Flickr when me and the child were looking at AG and Pullip pictures, and I was drawn to the idea of sewing for such big, realistic dolls. I ended up buying my first bjd with money I made from my American Girl Etsy, and when my second one came with a free event yo-sd size doll, I gave the tiny one to my daughter. So we've pretty much always had this hobby together. When we started and she was still a kid, I painted all of our dolls...years later, she's become a ridiculously good faceup artist. All of my dolls are painted by her; I still make her dolls all their clothes. So yeah....dolls are kind of our thing together.