WDYT--Reborn Dolls

lsgarver

So I have heard of these before and think it's weird to have them but on the radio this morning they were talking about it as a growing trend.

Fine.  Weird, but if a super lifelike baby doll that you strap in a stoller and walk around with makes you happy, fine.

Except then I learned some of these babies come preemie-sized with incubators and IVs as accessories.  Is this really offensive to mothers who have to deal with heartache and worry of having a living preemie or is just another part of the realism the makers of these dolls are trying to acheive?  Would you be more concerned about a woman who chose to buy a preemie doll to "care" for versus an average-weight doll?

KathrynMD

ewww - this sounds disgusting.

its like a fetish or something.

mrsbecky07

I can see the reborn dolls that are preemies being useful as a teaching/learning tool - like if you already have a small child, and you have another child who is premature, a doll like that could be helpful so the older child sees what their sibling is dealing with and things like that.

madladybride

mrsbecky07:

I can see the reborn dolls that are preemies being useful as a teaching/learning tool - like if you already have a small child, and you have another child who is premature, a doll like that could be helpful so the older child sees what their sibling is dealing with and things like that.

This, otherwise, they are just weird.

As an aside, I was walking around the convention center with L this weekend at my conference. She had fallen asleep on my arm and was kind of drooped over it. A few people thought I was carrying a doll around at first.

lsgarver

mrsbecky07:

I can see the reborn dolls that are preemies being useful as a teaching/learning tool - like if you already have a small child, and you have another child who is premature, a doll like that could be helpful so the older child sees what their sibling is dealing with and things like that.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that use.  The piece on the radio and a few articles about it have focused on adult women using the dolls to quell needs for children when their jobs are too demanding for live children or their own live children grow up and leave the nest.  I was thinking it's kind of offensive for women like that to chose a preemie since they could care for it when they wanted but not have to actually worry over the baby's health/life.

mrsbecky07

lsgarver:

mrsbecky07:

I can see the reborn dolls that are preemies being useful as a teaching/learning tool - like if you already have a small child, and you have another child who is premature, a doll like that could be helpful so the older child sees what their sibling is dealing with and things like that.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that use.  The piece on the radio and a few articles about it have focused on adult women using the dolls to quell needs for children when their jobs are too demanding for live children or their own live children grow up and leave the nest.  I was thinking it's kind of offensive for women like that to chose a preemie since they could care for it when they wanted but not have to actually worry over the baby's health/life.

Oh in that kind of situation I'm going to go ahead and say yes, weird in general, and maybe offensive re: the premature ones (I haven't had a premature baby so it seems offensive to me but I dont want to speak for mothers who have been there.)

Snowhte21

mrsbecky07:

I can see the reborn dolls that are preemies being useful as a teaching/learning tool - like if you already have a small child, and you have another child who is premature, a doll like that could be helpful so the older child sees what their sibling is dealing with and things like that.

I agree with the use of these dolls as a training/teaching tool but to carry one around and treat it as your child seems strange to me. The article I read said that some people use them as a grieving tool for a child that they lost.

daisyterp

While it's a nice thought to think that these freaky dolls are being used as teaching tools- I doubt it. Kids don't need super life-like dolls that cost $$$$ to learn. A regular/smaller baby doll would probably work just as well. 

Personally I find the reborn dolls just as freaky as the "real dolls" that strange men who are too into comic books "marry."