new!!

[dolldreamer]

hey! My daughter just got josefina for her 4th birthday. We have been gazing longingly at the catalogs for a year now and my SIL got her favorite doll.
My problem is that I am having a hard time letting her play with her!!! I hug and hold her more then she does and I won't let her take her to bed. Am I a mean mommy?
We have a jar collecting money for felicity and elizabeth. They are for me. My husband watches me staring at the catalog and carrying josefina around. He rolls his eyes and thinks I'm crazy.
Thaqnkfully I found this place and I feel rather normal!!
Looking forward to no more lurking.
Question. Would YOU let your 4 year old dd sleep with josefina?

[MaryCarly]

Welcome to the board!!! [img]smile.gif[/img]
In answer to your question: Absolutely! That is what dolls are for. [img]smile.gif[/img]
I am sure that Josefina will not stay as nice and pristine looking as she is right now, but she will be loved and will love your daughter back. My own now almost 18 year old daughter got her first AG doll (Samantha) when she was four. The doll's hair is a bit rough now, but she is loved a hundred times more than the dolls my daughter got later and did not sleep with. Samantha was there to listen to secrets and to comfort her during the night. My daughter's other AG dolls may be treasured toys, but Samantha is real!

[StarTrekCaptain]

As long as she's not being rough with her, let her play however she wants. It's her doll and that's what dolls are for!

When you get Felcity for yourself, you could let it be known that it's YOUR doll, which means she can only play with that one if she asks you first. But I think her own doll should be hers to play with however she wants.

Josefina is not going to stay as nice as she was when she was new, but that's just part of what happens...the best-loved dolls are always a little worse for wear, it shows they've been played with..

Just make sure she's not being too rough with the doll like climbing up trees with ehr where she could fall and ruin, or getting stuff on her "skin" like paint or dirt, etc.
And that she's not being too rough with the hair- oh that is a big one. Let her do the hair but teach her how to do it the right way (a tag attached to the doll's wrist tells how to do it correctly) and encourage her not too be rough with the hair or even to do the hair too often- because you cannot get just a wig replacement from AG- you have to replace the whole head. And when she is older she won't like the messy fuzzy hair but she will not want to replace her doll's head either. So the hair is really the only thing I would be worrying about too much.

Remember in one of Samantha's books, when Sam sees Lydia, her new doll that she had given away to Nellie?
She sees that Lydia's dress is wrinkled, her buttons are loose, her face is smudged, etc. (I'm not sure if those are the exact things wrong but anyway in the book they list several things that look bad on the doll)
And then after listing all these things wrong with the doll, it says: Samantha smiled, she knew Lydia had been loved.

[Jane Hart]

I know why you would have problems letting her. The question is, is Josefina for you or your daughter (DD)? If she was for your DD, than by all means, let her sleep with the doll. The dolls you are saving up for, establish that they are for you and will be kept in as nice of a condition you can keep them, that means no sleeping with them.

[dolldreamer]

well, she slept with her at nap and we had a discussion about how we respectfully treat her. It was hard for me letting her go! lol! But you are all right, she is her doll. Why can't someone get me a doll for my birthday?!
And the hair is the biggest concern I have. She had a very cheap nock-off because we couldn't afford a doll and in about 2 weeks the hair was so horrable that she didn't like her anymore. So, now I am all about hair maintance.

[JuliaAM]

Welcome to the board! [img]graemlins/rose.gif[/img]

When I was young, mine and my sisters' doll hair usually got really wild. But I never once noticed. Funny how little kids overlook things like that. Mine got nearly as wild so my mom would braid my long hair and I wore the braids all night to help keep it neater. I wore night time braids many years. Perhaps if Josefina's hair was tightly braided, it would stay neater during the night.

I agree that you should definitely have a doll of your own. My dolls have various degrees of independence when it comes to hair. Kit likes to run and play the most and I find myself not as vigilant with her hair as I am with the others. Josefina's hair is usually kept extremely neat and tidy. I don't think Kit's hair will ever be wild but it's fun seeing my doll's personality in their looks, including how they wear their hair.

Julia