Would you let your kids play with your dolls?

I'm not even close to being a parent yet (way too young for that!), but I might let kids play with my dolls depending on their maturity.

At the moment, though... I'd let my sister play with them (not that she'd want to ^^; ) if she asked, because she knows how important my BJDs are to me and would take good care of them. She's not really very little either, so she has her own expensive toys and knows how to treat them with respect. I also babysit this one little girl who is the most gentle person I have probably ever met, so I let her play with my BJD the one time I brought it over. (She was absolutely amazed by it- kept making me have her stand and sit and stand and sit, because her Barbies didn't do it like my girl could! )

I have let kids play with my BJDs before, only when I was sure that they would be careful, but I'd never leave the kids alone with them.

 

My little cousin is three years old and he asked me to hold Sibble for a moment. I gave her to him and said to him he had to be really careful with it. He didn't want to touch her anymore, scared he would do something wrong xD

 

I'm never having children, but I wouldn't let my nieces/nephews play with them. The dolls are so heavy that even if small children were trying to be careful, they could still drop them by accident. Especially if they pick the doll up and then get pinched by a joint-I've almost dropped one myself because of this.

 

I don't have kids but no, I wouldn't. I won't let any of my friends' children either.

My friend and I both have OT dolls though (Blythe and Dal if you're curious) and she has a 2 year old. She has explained to her daughter that those are mommy's dolls and she has her own dolls she can play with. It works. I suggested she get one of the weird Blythe knock-offs that are about $20 and give it to her daughter. She did and her daughter was over the moon happy.

I think doing that is a good idea. I realize with a BJD it might be a problem to find a similar looking doll but I definitely think it's a good idea to get a "special" doll for your child. My friend is the kindest, gentlest, most wonderful mom and her daughter totally respects that those are mommy's dolls and not to touch.

I'm not even comfortable with the idea of a really small child holding one of my dolls though if it were an older child I'd be ok with it as long as I was there watching.

 

Interesting question!
I have 2 children and I am paranoïd about my dolls.
My son is 7 year old and my daughter is 4 year old. They love the dolls and would like to play with. But both of them are really like a storm with their toys, and so my dolls are totally forbidden for them.
I hope my daughter will be more cautious with her toys when she will grow up, and so she could have her own BJD... and play with me

 

I don't want my own children yet, but for the rest of them.. I would never let any kids play with it. maybe only hold it a bit, if I'm sure this certain kid won't do anything unexpected. just hold and look, that will be okay. it all depends on kid's personality I think.

actually bjds are not suitable for children under 13. it was written on the box.

 

I think this has already been addressed earlier in the thread. Not all BJD boxes even say this actually but this is more of a CYA thing for the companies than a suggested age for consumers. It helps protect them from liability if a younger child is injured handling a doll or if a younger person breaks their doll. Even more than that I believe it was added after countries like the US instituted laws governing safety regulations and testing for products designed for use by children under the age of 12. The cost of this testing is enough to drive most small companies right out of business. I don't know that a BJD could even pass this sort of testing to be honest considering the toxicity of resin dusts. However if you label your product as being designed for ages 13 and up it no longer matters because it isn't for use by children, it is a collectors object.

 

Regardless of what doll it is, I cannot bring myself to allow children to touch my dolls. I hardly let me close friend touch them. He will go to pick one up and grab it wrong so it flops over, and I just about have a heart attack. My 3 year old niece visited and wanted to play with them, and I quickly gave her a playline doll and told her it was just as special as mine. She was content with that. I think I would have the same hesitation if it were a newborn infant, only worse with my dolls. Just can't do it

 

I don't HAVE kids but for the last four years I have worked with kids of all ages. I... could not ever imagine even letting ANY of those children near my dolls x.x Even telling them that you have to be careful with something, they forget, they get distracted, they want it all to themselves and things get jostled around in their attempt to keep it away from other children, things get dropped and busted. Even if it wasn't on purpose, I just haven't met one child that has ever handled anything carefully. To them, toys are easily replaced and they don't understand the consequences of breaking something.
I had a pair of little boys decide that they wanted to get into the music tapes and tear out the insides. We sat them both down and had to throw the tapes out, explaining that they were broken now, and they both went 'You can just buy more'. They just don't get it, just because you CAN buy another something, doesn't mean you SHOULD break the first one. Trying to explain to them that NO, it CAN'T be replaced at the store... they wouldn't understand.

So yeah, the answer is a resounding 'Never'. If I ever have kids they won't be allowed near my dolls. Just thinking about it makes me shudder xD

 

For me it all comes down to the maturity of the child. I have met some very adult-like children who would probably take better care of BJDs than some adults I have seen in videos! And then there are those children, like me when I was younger, who simply don't understand (yet) the value of something or how to handle things with care. I'm always surprised my mom bought me a baby diamond ring! HUH!? And she still sometimes brings it up how I lost it. Well d'uh! I was a silly and wild child! I wouldn't have given me that ring! hahaha

 

No way I'll let kids near my BJDs. I'm worrying too much and I don't like kids.

Actually, I won't let older people touch my dolls too, except I'm close with them and I'm sure they will handle my BJDs carefully. I don't care what others will think about my hyper reaction. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

I have a 5 year old daughter. I have been in the doll hobby since she was almost 3. I didn't allow her to "play" with my dolls until recently as she has shown she is capable. But she only really sets them up and will dress them at my doll table and I don't allow her to take them in her room. That's why I buy her Lalaloopsies.

As far as other children.. I hide my dolls when my nieces and nephews visit and they are older than her.

 

My 14 yo daughter can touch mine carefully as long as she has clean hands first but then she has two of her own with another 2 to come in the future.

 

My children touching my dolls gives me less anxiety than my husband. They handle them properly while dh treats them like they are dollar store items.

 

I had the same problem with adults! One of them picked up one of my rarer Blythes and thought it a hoot that you could change the colour of her eyes with a pull of the string, and he was yanking it back and forth like no-one's business. I was in my horrors! Luckily no harm done, but I think I'd be even warier with a child. All of my friends children seem to be boys so it's not been a problem as yet as they are all more fascinated by my DH's guitar collection.

 

It definitely depends on the kids personalities. I don't have any children of my own yet, but my best friend has some children, who have come over on occasion (and I once brought them over to their house when I had come back from a meet). Their oldest, 4 year old Isabelle, is very gentle, shy and quiet. She likes looking at them, and I've let her hold them. She's not one to move around a lot, but she would look at her and smile, and talk to her. Though I wouldn't quite care to test my theory, she seems like the type who if I let her, she would just have the doll sitting down for a "tea party" or some sort, and no harm would be done.
Their youngest, however, 2 year old Mikey, is a terror. His mission in life is to destroy everything (including himself at times). I highly doubt he will grow out of his destructiveness when he is Isabelle's age, so I wouldn't let him touch. Not that he'd hold still long enough to want to anyway :P

When it comes to my own, however, I think it will just amount to if mine find any interest in them. If I see them wanting to participate in what mommy's doing with her dolls, then I will allow them to see, feel, and at some point hold, but also showing them that you have to be gentle. I'll probably test this out with any dolls (like non-collectors barbies) I get them, by saying to be gentle.

Though you never know. When I was young I used to cut all my barbies hair, open their mouths (like cut out the teeth) and draw on them. Now, I have a small collection up on the shelves that get a lot of respect from me :P

 

I dont have kids(<--13), but it depends on their age and maturity. For the sake of argument, my older cousin(16), his younger brother(10, i think) and my brother (12) will be my children.
I do not trust my younger cousin with my dollies. at all. he's overactive and jumps and runs and drops stuff and is highly immature... one time i left my dollies alone for 1 minute to relieve myself, and when i come back, Ciel is crosseyed and feliciana has one eye almost all the way to the white, and the other one is at the very corner of her eye. i have a feeling my other cousin had to do with it. not too dependable.
My brother is another story. you'd really think, him being my brother and all, he'd be bent on destrying them or drawing on her or dropping her, but in fact, he's a real sweetheart to them. He helps me with all my photostories, and understands(and is really intrested) in the bjd hobby.

So i guess in all, they need to at least be mature for me to leave my dolls alone with them, but they really need to be reliable as well.

 

There is no way that I'd let my daughter play with my dolls currently, but she just turned one year old and as such hasn't yet figured out concepts such as fragility or value (monetary or otherwise!). When she's older, it's more likely I will, but as many have said before, it will depend on her maturity level. I can see that by letting her see and touch them it would be a good way to teach her to be careful and that some things can't be handled roughly, but until I feel she's responsible enough to handle them with the care and respect they need, she definitely won't be holding or playing with them unsupervised for sure!

 

I let my kids play with my dolls. . .

 

In my case, I have no actual children, never will. The dolls ARE the kids! lol (Yes, I know the difference in living children and resin...)

But as far as kids coming in contact with my dolls, I do my best to avoid it. I'm not good with children in general and the only ones I am around often are my niece (5) and nephew (10). I do NOT bring my dolls to family events for that reason. My nephew's idea of "playing" is slamming action figures into the ground or each other til they break. My niece is more gentle, but I have seen her "choke" a plushie to death and carry a barbie by her hair. So...do my best to avoid that. However, last summer our family took a vacation that involved a doll meet, so the kids DID meet Amir, my AoD Chen. I was actually surprised at how well the kids treated him. They had questions, but neither attempted to touch. They were even at the meet for a few minutes and asked my friend questions about her dolls as well, but didn't bother them. My nephew thought Amir was creepy and didn't want to get too close, and my niece was content with "I won't touch Amir if you don't touch MY baby". She did want to look, but agreed to let me hold him while she gave him a good head to toe look.

On the rare occasion that I'm out in public and a child wants to hold my doll, I say no, since I don't know the child or what she might do. And I explain to the parent that they aren't toys, but very expensive collectables and I am not out "playing" with him, I'm doing artistic photo shoots. This is usually a good enough explanation. If the child seems mature enough and has questions, I'm usually okay with holding the doll on their level so they can look, but I still don't hand him over. At conventions, I'll sometimes hand him over to strangers to look at, but so far its only been teenagers and older and they are usually really careful. Most have either been doll owners or are planning to be. So they know what they are dealing with.