How do you view your dolls?

[angelnise]

My dolls are my imaginary "me". They can do all the things I can't do as an adult that are fun. They are an excuse to escape to childhood and pretend that the world doesn't exist in the state it's in. They will eventually become the characters in my stories!

[Kenshinchan]

Things do have great sentimental value to me, because, as Deborah and Girls said, they hold memories. I'm sort of scatterbrained so when I see something that was dear to me, or even something as simple as, say, a ring I got on a trip, it evokes all sorts of memories. That's why I have such a difficult time cleaning! So the only way I can actually get rid of something that still has memories is if the memories are very faint, or if they're going to a good home. When you add in the fact that my parents spent quite a bit of money on that doll for me, I would doubly want to make sure she goes to someone who would appreciate her. I have a much easier time getting rid of stuff I bought for myself.

(I gave personalities to some of my toys, but not so much Kirsten, maybe because she has the books so she has a personality built in. I agree that real people and animals are much more valuable and important than dolls, but I think I've always gravitated towards the ideal rather than the real, whether it's a good thing or not. [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

[JenniferRobin]

Originally posted by Deborah and Girls:
I just had to add this from <u>Kirsten's Surprise</u> page 7: "Our things can have special meanings for us. They help us remember."

I believe this with all my heart.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This pretty much says it for me. Every one of my dolls, each in her own way, is a rememberance of someone special.

[Ashley1972]

If I were to sell one of my dolls, I would be thinking about how I feel about them, not what feelings they may have. I like to think they have feelings but I know that they don't. I would think about how much I cherish my doll and I would want her to go to someone that appreciates her and takes very good care of her.

[MissCurlyCat]

I really do think of my dolls as children! As a result of this I just had a dream the other night about this too.

I was dreaming that my dolls really were my children and they really were alive!
My 'kids' were as old as my doll is now!
Jess was 2 months old
Sadie was 6
Kirsten was 10(But she was away at camp- probably because in real life she is a travel doll and isn't home at the moment!!)
Samantha was 12
And my fake AG, Sybil didn't have a specific age because she was abandon, mute (She couldn't speak), and I adopted her!!!!!


Then I was talking to the baby sitter for Jess, Sadie, and Sybil because it was take your son/ daughter to work day and I was taking Samantha because she was the oldest. I had to explain to the baby sitter that Sam wouldn't be there today. The strange part was that the baby sitter for my girls was the old baby sitter I had when I was little!!! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Then I woke up. I hate weekdays!


Maybe dreams do tell us more than we think.....

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ March 21, 2006 09:48 PM: Message edited by: MissCurlyCat ]</font>

[wiccacat]

I keep reading posts about people wanting to sell but worrying that their dolls wouldn't go to good homes. It makes me wonder how many people have this sort of concern. I confess that although i love my dolls and don't plan to sell any i don't have these feelings for them.
I really wouldn't care how the new owner treated a doll if i sold her. I can understand these feelings but i just don't have them toward my dolls. I have a huge flock of finches and people keep telling me to sell them. They're getting very expensive to feed but i really can't part with them since i would be too worried about how they fared in a new home. They're living things with feelings but my dolls are just pretty, comforting items. It would be way too stressful for me to have all these personalities in my house. Life is hard enough for me without having to worry about Kaya's feelings. How do you feel about this?

[jessicasturm]

I admit, I believe my dolls have feelings... [img]redface.gif[/img]

I don't worry about their feelings too much, because they each know they are loved, however I do remind them of it every once in awhile.

I could never sell my dolls unless I knew they were getting a good home. And when I see abused dolls on ebay my heart aches for how much they want to be pretty and loved again. [img]confused.gif[/img]

I know, I'm crazy! I feel this way about animals too!

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ March 21, 2006 01:28 PM: Message edited by: FarmhouseGirl ]</font>

[joelanddeborah]

Oh, I just had to laugh--not at you, but at the thought! I just love pets, and have been very attached to certain pets from the time I was a little girl until now. We have two Siamese cats and a Black Lab dog, and even though they are a handful, we feel a real responsibility to them, as members of our family. You are so right--dolls are not members of the family, just material things--but oh, we do love them, too.

There is a different kind of love reserved for dolls, based on the sentimental feelings they might remind you of. For some people, their AG dolls remind them of their childhood. (Or the childhood we wished for.) For others, maybe they remind them of their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, etc. There are different reasons to love them, of course.

I love these dolls I've collected, and they make me happy, but they are just possessions. I think when the women on this board "talk" about their dolls, they pretty much keep them in perspective. You are very practical minded, and that really shouldn't worry you!! I love the practical people in the world, and I am actually one of those people, too!

Sorry to belabor the point--I just felt to give my penny's worth of opinion here! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Deborah

[joelanddeborah]

I just had to add this from <u>Kirsten's Surprise</u> page 7: "Our things can have special meanings for us. They help us remember."

I believe this with all my heart.

[robin0850]

I'm not sure if I believe my dolls each have an actual soul, but I do assign them each a personality, so they do become distinctive individuals to me. (So did my stuffed animals when I was a child--some things never change!)
I would like to know that any doll I sold would go to a good home; I have an emotional investment in each, as well as the financial one.
I like getting abused dolls and making them beautiful again; it's a "happy ending" when the doll is sold,(hopefully for a little girl who will love her) and I always hope that the buyer appreciates my work, and preserves my efforts. [img]smile.gif[/img]