Baby Dolls and Their State of Undress

[Michael]

There's nothing wrong with taking the clothes off if they can get them back on. I don't want the play where they spend five seconds taking something apart and not being able to put it back together.

Here's my barbie collection: http://members.webs.com/MembersB/edi...bumid=10599095

What is wrong or unnatural about them just playing with these dolls and the accessories without JUST undressing them? I don't care if they change their clothes. What I don't want is the play where they just disasemble and can't put it back.

I don't see any play value in that. I think it's "good enough" for kids to have a collection like I have and PLAY with the toys in a way where the adult doesn't have to be involved AT ALL.

I have kids play with toys that THEY can clean up. Dressing dolls IS a part of "clean up" just like putting blocks in the bin is cleaning up. Once they are old enough and skilled enough to have a shot at dressing the dolls in their play we give them a shot at it. As long as they are able to do BOTH they are welcome to change their clothes. Until then the simple prompt "don't undress the dolls" is all they need. Very simple and I like simple.

My little girls will play for HOURS with these dolls and all we have to do is get the collection out for them and put it back. I don't have to micromanage them AT ALL. That's the kind of play "I" like for my kids.

Can't view the Babie pics unless a member. Is there a picture that you can attach here? My wife worked in the Barbie division at Mattel for years. She also has a great collection but they've never left the box.

[QualiTcare]

Or as I have seen it misspelled here - rediculous.

ohhhh, low blow!

most of kids dolls are naked, and anytime i've ever worked with kids in any capacity they have been. i don't care. if they want them naked, whatever - and of course i'm not gonna "play" with them so if they take them off and want them back on then tooo bad. i guess they can get a lot of practice.

how about cutting their hair? i'm a heathen so my kids have access to scissors and cut their dolls hair.

nannyde - i'd like to see your collection too!

[kidkair]

I got tired of redressing the dolls so I took them away for a couple months. When I brought them back out I also gave them the rule that if they undress them then them must dress them again during clean up. It only took a couple reminders for all the clothes to stay on. I have them keep the clothes on because they are in public and we all need to keep our clothes on in public. That's the reasoning I give them when they tell me their dolls at home have no clothes on too.

[Crystal]

hehehe. a couple of weeks ago I was cleaning the playroom. I dressed ALL of the dolls. Sure enough, the VERY next morning, the kids stripped em' naked.

I think it's great! They bathe the dolls, they diaper the dolls, they try to redress the dolls. It's PRACTICE. The toddlers are learning to undress and dress themselves now, I think this is great practice. The preschoolers are snapping, buttoning, etc. They are pretending to be Mommies and Daddies by undressing, bathing, drying and diapering their babies.

The whole BARBIE thing creeps me out. I've never liked them....and I wouldn't let little kids undress them either....they are not appropriate for young children. I know lots of people here and elsewhere LOVE Barbie, and that's cool. But IMO they are not DAP for three year olds.

[nannyde]

Can't view the Babie pics unless a member. Is there a picture that you can attach here? My wife worked in the Barbie division at Mattel for years. She also has a great collection but they've never left the box.

Well that's weird.

I will have to check that.

[nannyde]

hehehe. a couple of weeks ago I was cleaning the playroom. I dressed ALL of the dolls. Sure enough, the VERY next morning, the kids stripped em' naked.

I think it's great! They bathe the dolls, they diaper the dolls, they try to redress the dolls. It's PRACTICE. The toddlers are learning to undress and dress themselves now, I think this is great practice. The preschoolers are snapping, buttoning, etc. They are pretending to be Mommies and Daddies by undressing, bathing, drying and diapering their babies.

The whole BARBIE thing creeps me out. I've never liked them....and I wouldn't let little kids undress them either....they are not appropriate for young children. I know lots of people here and elsewhere LOVE Barbie, and that's cool. But IMO they are not DAP for three year olds.

Oh my little girls LOVE themselves some Barbies. Oh my goodness they go on and on. I swear the conversations they have when they play Barbies could melt the wax in your ears. :: My favorite is when they accessorize Ken dolls

Kids don't need practice taking off clothing. My 18 month olds can do it.
They don't need practice dumping, destroying, tearing apart, taking apart, etc. They are hard wired to be able to do it easily and at a young age.

Barbie accessories are really really good manipulatives. I like them to start playing Barbies at about 3.5. That's when they can manage the accessories, hair brushes, hair ties, and furniture. About fourish is when they can manage the tops of the dolls. Four and a half to five is when they can do the pants.

I have one DCD who keeps telling me his son is telling him about our Barbies. He's not amused. I made sure I sent a Ken doll home with him one day just to mess with him.

He sent me a text I can't repeat in public ::

[Crystal]

That's my point about Barbies....have you seen their PARTS? And, even the clothing for many of them is simply "slutty". Not appropriate for little kids, IMO.

I also think the original post was about BABY DOLLS, not Barbies.....the barbies are ridiculously hard to redress, so I can see not wanting to have to actually interact with the children to assist in redressing them. Cool that your kids like em' though.

[QualiTcare]

that reminds me - i got some generic american girl type dolls for my daughter for christmas and my 4 year old son started saying he wanted one so i got him this boy doll.

the best part was when i came in the mail and my husband had pretty much NO reaction. he used to get uptight when i'd let him play with a doll or put on lip gloss when he saw me doing it because he's a "manly man" but being an early childhood person, i broke him really fast! i think he's more comfortable now that he sees our son is a mean little devil despite being allowed to play w dolls.

[Crystal]

AWESOME QualitCare.....cute doll too!!!

[nannyde]

I got tired of redressing the dolls so I took them away for a couple months. When I brought them back out I also gave them the rule that if they undress them then them must dress them again during clean up. It only took a couple reminders for all the clothes to stay on.

YES

When they understand that they are the ones to dress them they only do it when they want to actually change their clothes. They don't do it to "tear up".

I want them to DO not UNdo. If it requires an adult to redo what you have undone then you aren't ready to play with it.

I call it the "seek and destroy". It's the same thing as dumping, knocking over, tearing apart, tearing down, etc. It's all the SAME behavior. Not only is it not necessary for healthy growth and development... it can actually be harmful to good solid self entertainment. The excitement and stimulation that comes from seek and destroy can set their minds on THAT level of excitement in order for them to be happy. That's why we see post after post of providers saying kids are tearing up their playrooms and their toys. If it goes unchecked it BECOMES their play. We see countless examples of this on this message board nearly daily.

When you work at the root behavior.. redirecting their desire to have their play BE dumping, destroying, tearing apart... then your end result are kids who are happy to play with toys for their intended purposes. Amazing players who can self entertain. Kids who can play without adult involvement during play and ALL aspects of cleaning up.

Whooo da thunk!!!!!!!!

Adults need to stay out of kids play as much as possible. Let them be kids and play at their OWN level. Interjecting an adult into their play by having the adult FIX what they have done so they can turn around and undo it again is NOT developmentally appropriate IMHO. It also makes for very unhappy adults who most often just leave the toy undone (naked babies).

[nannyde]

That's my point about Barbies....have you seen their PARTS? And, even the clothing for many of them is simply "slutty". Not appropriate for little kids, IMO.

I also think the original post was about BABY DOLLS, not Barbies.....the barbies are ridiculously hard to redress, so I can see not wanting to have to actually interact with the children to assist in redressing them. Cool that your kids like em' though.

No I don't mean THAT kind of talk. They talk "house.. and Mommy and Daddy" stuff with the dolls.

Yeah I know the body parts on the dolls BUT the truth is that women do have chesticles so that doesn't bother me. I think the clothes are fine. They have beautiful little gowns, dresses, etc. It's all just fantasy play... not sexual.

They play the heck out of it but they have older kids who play Barbies with them in their home life. My Barbies are just plentiful, organized, and have a lot of old school accesory pieces. Their Barbies are all over their rooms, closets, car etc. It's the "keeping things together" kind of play that keeps them comin back.

I wish I had room for the Little Tykes BIG house with twelve inch shelving. That's the best house for the Barbies. My poor kids have to make do with the Fisher Price doll house.

[nannyde]

ohhhh, low blow!

most of kids dolls are naked, and anytime i've ever worked with kids in any capacity they have been. i don't care. if they want them naked, whatever - and of course i'm not gonna "play" with them so if they take them off and want them back on then tooo bad. i guess they can get a lot of practice.

how about cutting their hair? i'm a heathen so my kids have access to scissors and cut their dolls hair.

nannyde - i'd like to see your collection too!

http://www.nanshouse.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=10599095

does this work?

[QualiTcare]

my kids have barbies and....get ready.....bratz dolls!

just the other day my son had a male and female brat (naked, of course) and was making them kiss. he wasn't doing anything nasty - just had them kissing. i didn't say a word - that'd just fuel the fire. he suddenly threw them down and went on to something else. i did it when i was a kid and look at me - i turned out GREAT ::

nanny, you mentioned that adults should stay out of kid's play as much as possible which i agree with, so what does it matter if they undress the dolls if you don't help them re-dress them if they want you to? if they take them off, they can put them back on - whether it be 5 days or 5 months later - who cares?

[QualiTcare]

http://www.nanshouse.com/apps/photos...bumid=10599095

does this work?

it works! that is barbie heaven. my daughter just walked up and said what is that? :::gasp:::: are you getting that for me?! (can u tell i shop online much)?

she said, omg - is that ariel?!

[nannyde]

it works! that is barbie heaven. my daughter just walked up and said what is that? :::gasp:::: are you getting that for me?! (can u tell i shop online much)?

she said, omg - is that ariel?!

Check this:

The whole collection cost me about twenty dollars in hard money and about fifty in staff assistant time.

I found the majority of these dolls at a garage sale for a DIME a piece. They needed a lot of work but my staff assistant cleaned and redid their hair while the kids played for about two weeks. I washed all their little clothes and air dried them. That kinda ****ed. I wash them about once a year. That ****s too.

The big pieces of old school furniture were given to us by our neighbor girl for a gift to the day care.

I bought a few accessory collections on ebay to get more shoes and brushes.

We don't keep them out in play so when we rotate them into play they are like woooo hooooooooo. My staff assistant turns on the ipod ihome to drown out the non stop chatty girls.