Bryon Daly wrote:
>
> Julia Thompson wrote:
> >
> >I also avoid the Barbie aisle in the toy department. (And yes, I intend
> >to continue this when my daughter is 5, and she will live a life
> >deprived of Barbie, and she'll just have to *deal*, the way I did, and I
> >don't think it hurt me in the long run.)
>
> I never paid much attention to Barbie issues, but I suddenly realize I have
> a daughter now who will likely one day be wanting a host of Barbie dolls,
> Barbie beach houses, Barbie Corvettes, etc. So I'm curious, why do you wish
> to deprive your daughter of all things Barbie? I take it your parents didn't
> let you have Barbie dolls, either? Were you traumatized at the time?
Not badly. I ended up playing with Barbie dolls at other girls' houses,
and ended up thinking that it was stupid to have a whole ton of Barbie
stuff by the time I was 7 or 8.
One of my cousins had a bunch of Barbie stuff before she was 4. My
mother, while visiting, looked at the catalog my aunt had for Barbie
stuff; my cousin had over $20 worth of clothing, etc. for her Barbie,
and this was around 1965. And my cousin wasn't getting $20 worth of
enjoyment out of the stuff, or appreciating it. That was when my mom
decided to eschew Barbie. (That cousin is a few years older than I.)
Another household with cousins of mine included a couple of girls, and
they didn't have very much in the way of Barbie stuff, if any, and they
seemed quite content with what they *did* have, which included a
furnished dollhouse with a doll family and electric lights that worked
(that someone, maybe their grandfather, had built for them). (These
cousins were a little closer to me in age, but still older than I was.)
And the cousins I saw the most often growing up were actually second
cousins, and they didn't have very many toys at all that I remember (but
the youngest was at least 3 years older than I was), but they were
really good at finding stuff outside to play with, and the oldest once
made a swing for my sister and myself, out of a board and a length of
rope, and tied it to a tree limb, and that was *really* cool. So, as
far as my cousins went, the ones with the least stuff (especially the
least Barbie stuff) seemed to have the most fun. (But they had more
dogs than any of the rest of my cousins, and a better place for riding
bikes, and a beach very close to their house, where they could get into
wet seaweed fights....)
Julia
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