Inspire Nostalgia: Remembering Baby Dolls

For the past three weeks, I have been featuring a series of nostalgic memories on dolls. First, I reflected on the pop culture phenomenon of the Barbie dolls. Last week, I featured the historical influence of the American Girl dolls and books. I hope you have enjoyed the series, but the time has come for my final feature: Baby dolls.

Long before I owned Barbie dolls or the American Girl dolls, I played with baby dolls. After all, they're intended for babies. From Cabbage Patch dolls to dolls you could "feed" and "change diapers," baby dolls were some of the earliest memories from my childhood. I remember opening a present at Christmas and it would be a new baby doll. I would run over to the window and exclaim, "Thank you, Santa!" 

Now that I'm an adult, I have a new exclamation: Thank you, Mom and Dad. 

Various baby dolls.

Baby dolls have a bad reputation in 2019. If you give a baby doll to a young girl, you're training her to become a mother. You're teaching her at a young age the responsibilities associated with motherhood: feeding and changing a baby, rocking her to sleep, and caring for her. Playing with a baby doll teaches little girls that their only goal or requirement in life is to be a mother. 

I wholeheartedly disagree with this. Yes, I might have learned how to care for a baby by playing with my baby dolls, but the dolls taught me how to love, care, and nurture. They taught me how to have fun and be creative--imagining different scenarios and acting them out with the dolls. 

A baby doll bed.

I had fun. Sometimes, I think people forget toys are just supposed to be fun. They don't always have hidden meanings and motives. They're fun toys intended to provide young girls (or boys) with fun adventures. And I certainly had fun with these baby dolls. They provided me with an endless amount of imagination and creativity. As a creative individual today, I'll always be thankful for the toys that first started my passion for stories and imagination. 

Baby doll clothes, hairbrushes, and hair clips.

Baby dolls have a handprint on my heart. They did when I was two years old, and they still do--20 years later. I imagine they always will. After all, they're my babies. You never stop loving your babies. 

-KJL-

Opening a doll on Christmas.