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Dolls

Rellie's picture

My dad likes to tell me the story of my first baby doll whenever we're talking about my childhood. He was in college taking a child development course and they were discussing how by giving girl's dolls we were forcibly shaping them into motherhood. So at my first my dad worried that he was negatively effecting my development, but he would contest that when I was first given a doll I latched onto her. That was my baby and no one could take her away from me. I liked teddy bears and stuffed animals but dolls were my favorite toys especially baby dolls. My favorite games were mommy and school where I would pretend that I was either the mom of my twenty or so dolls and stuffed animals or I was the teacher. The scenarios were always pretty similar and someone would always get in trouble so I would have to get after them so that they would learn how to behave. I worked out anger through my dolls and if I ever got in trouble with my parents I would always go to my dolls to calm down. They made me compassionate and showed me how to care for others, but funny enough I don't know if I want kids. My dolls never had a dad and rarely would I make up a story in which they had a dad that just happened to not be present. So my dolls didn't really make me into a homemaker but helped e grow in different ways.