My Son Plays With Dolls

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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:00 am

... and I'm totally cool with it. In fact, I think it's pretty manly.

When I was a kid, boys didn't play with dolls. We actually did, but we had to hide it from everyone but our closest friends. But let me say that, after being a real dad to 3 kids, I should have practised more when I was younger.

Being a dad these days isn't what it was for our dads. Nowadays dads are (rightfully, might I add) expected to change diapers, feed kids, bathe them, dress them for school, do laundry, and do the dishes. And that's in addition to all the yard work, home repairs and fearlessly investigating strange sounds in the middle of the night.

Playing with dolls is nothing but a warm-up for raising children, and kids don't come with instruction manuals (I looked it up). My son is still a macho-macho man, playing with fire trucks and power tools, but he's also a man who wants to feed and hold babies.

Maybe previous generations were missing something.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Mine did too.
He used to have a toy pushchair as well. That caused a couple of old ladies to tut loudly as we passed.
I did say he was practicing to be a good dad
Their mouths resembled cats bums at that

That was over 20 years ago

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:05 am

Nanny Ogg wrote:

...
Their mouths resembled cats bums at that

...

LOL

That just made my day.
I can vividly imagine how that would have looked like back then.

Did the practice work? I sure hope so.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Quote:

Did the practice work?

I hope so too
He's not had any kids yet

Mind you my youngest son played with dolls too.
It mostly involved dropping them out windows with carrier bags attached as a parachute Rolling Eyes

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:31 pm

I used to imitate my mom's job, physician, on a doll

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 2:08 pm

I used to go around a friends house to play Action Man (That's a sort of a G.I. Joe to those not in the know). and we used to hide all our hand grenades in the toilet of his sister's dolls house.

I'm almost very tempted to say that this was last week, just for the comedy Very Happy

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

The word on the street is that one of the administrators of this site has a doll, the inflatable type. Wink

Good on you Chugg, the point of being a kid is just that, being a kid. Quash his imagination and creativeness and you'll have hell to pay in the future

... now if he's 23 and living in your basement, playing with dolls, then that's another story.

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 2:33 pm

I didnt play with dolls, but I'm brother to 2 yo devil so...

Quote:

Being a dad these days isn't what it was for our dads. Nowadays dads are (rightfully, might I add) expected to change diapers, feed kids, bathe them, dress them for school

This is what I do from time to time as well

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 2:36 pm

Dolls creeped me out as a kid, action figures too. If my friends had any, I didn't want to play with those.

I had an Evel Knevil action figure on a motocross motorcycle. Liked playing with the motorcycle, but not have the action figure with it. One time the action figure's outfit got dirty, tried to wash it but felt so weird that I went and buried the action figure in the backyard. It's probably still there, waiting for some archaeologist to dig him up.

My two boys don't have any dolls, if they did I would tolerate it but they still are creepy to me.

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:00 pm

Pastor Frank wrote:

The word on the street is that one of the administrators of this site has a doll, the inflatable type. Wink

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:23 pm

My daughters played with dolls but also big Tonka trucks. One daughter wanted to grow up to be a big rig truck driver, but became a mother and an RN.

@Jim Morrison So you practiced on a doll? Laughing

We "practiced" on each other not dolls -- boys and girls! Wink

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:51 am

Quote:

... now if he's 23 and living in your basement, playing with dolls, then that's another story.

Hilarious! He's four now, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for that behaviour when he starts growing chest hair. Laughing

He is a balanced guy though. He plays with baby dolls in the traditional "girly" way, but he also puts his firefighter gear on and rescues them from perilous situations.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 5:46 am

^^^

He sounds like an awesome boy! Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:18 am

A four year old will play with anything is sight. It doesn't mean anything. He's way too young to know the difference between manly and girly. If he is holding a baby doll like a baby then he's probably just acting out what he has seen adults or siblings do. Whether you nurture his behavior is your choice. I don't think it's right to tell a child not to play like a girl, that is mean. However, I wouldn't encourage him to do it. Personally, I would Jedi mind trick him into focusing on something else or buy him action figures. I would also show him how to play with toys by playing with him. Boys watch their fathers super close.

Both my kids spend way too much time on their PCs. Gee, I wonder where they learned that from.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:09 am

Clicky

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:14 am

I'll be honest, and although I can see the good intention in the OP, these kinds of discussions always seem a little dubious to me.

What are the possible bad effects to, a child, playing with girl's toys?
Are we worried they'll grow up to be serial killers or is it that they'll possibly end up gay?
Is being gay still such an issue that we have to defend what our kids play with? Or is it that they'll grow up to be 'sissies'?

I honestly think the more people defend what a child plays with, using the argument 'normal', it just sort of reinforces that there is something wrong with what could be considered 'unmanly' later on.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:03 pm

Morgain Le Fay wrote:

Quote:

@Jim Morrison So you practiced on a doll? We "practiced" on each other not dolls -- boys and girls!

what? so you practised real operation on people just for fun? Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:19 pm

^^^ No, Jim. I think you are missing what I was trying to say without using the words. Wink

Let me put it this way. I will show you mine if you show me yours! Wink

That was our version of playing "doctor"

N.O.R.A I heard about that story on the radio and they were talking about the 18 month old picking out his/her own clothes. Now how does an 18 month old pick out clothes! At that age and into the Terrible Twos everything was NO NO. My children would have gone naked at that stage because one never wanted wear clothes! Laughing

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 5:15 pm

^^ I got it right the first time Cool

, but I was about five when played with dolls...

I also played the adult version of doctors when I was a bit older, I always chose gynaecologist

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 5:42 pm

OP,

I believe your son may have a disease. Although not as bad as being left handed, he may be a homosexual.

You may want to terminate his life ASAP. For the Christians should be starting the homo holocaust within the next 2 years or so. I've seen the youtube video's on FEMA camps. Its a fact.

-AAB

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:27 pm

^^ I really hope you are joking...

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:49 pm

^^ The force is not really strong with that one.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:18 pm

@Roy...... Thats wrong man. Thats just wrong. Laughing

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:32 pm

ateabanah wrote:

You may want to terminate his life ASAP. For the Christians should be starting the homo holocaust within the next 2 years or so. I've seen the youtube video's on FEMA camps. Its a fact.

Wait a minute - I thought that the FEMA camps were run by the Godless Atheist Satanist Antichrist Committee of 300 New World Order Global Conspiracy One World Government to oppress Christians. Were Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins lying to us?

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 6:30 am

Boris said...

Quote:

I'll be honest, and although I can see the good intention in the OP, these kinds of discussions always seem a little dubious to me.

Nothing dubious at all. My point was that, just like everything else, social perceptions change over time.

Back in my young days (I'm 40) it was a little different. Boys played with dolls (we all did), but we had to hide it. Back then playing with dolls was un-manly, anything un-manly was possible homosexual behaviour, and homosexuality of course was a mental illness. Back in those days, few men were receptionists or nurses and very few women were firefighters or mechanics. There simply were no stay-at-home dads or female soldiers.

But even though times have changed, it's still the same. Even though there are fewer "gender boundaries", we still have no problem differentiating between men and women. Cuddling a baby doesn't make me less of a macho-macho-man, just like mowing the lawn doesn't make my wife less of a girly-girl.

Makes you wonder where some of these traditions came from.