For girls/women: Did you play with dolls as a kid?

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People insisted upon giving me dolls, but I never liked them much and didn't seek them out as something to play with.

When I was very young I had a rather large "walking" doll. I vaguely remember covering it in mailing stickers that said "Glass" and "Fragile", and putting it in my bedroom cupboard.

And when someone gave me a baby doll a few years later, it quickly developed a punk haircut when I introduced it to a pair of scissors.

The third and final incident was a holiday gift exchange in grade 5 or 6, when someone gave me a no-name Barbie clone. Didn't bother buying it any outfits or really playing with it, and I think I finally gave it to a doll-collecting friend.

Ironically, I've always loved stuffed toys. There are at least a hundred of them distributed through my house (In this room alone: A prairie dog; fourteen penguins; a rabbit; a dragon; a mouse; Miss Piggy; and Beaker.)

Oh yes. I had lots of Action Men, and spent my days happily making them kill each other, fall in crocodile infested swamps, kill each other, go to the moon, kill each other, climb furniture, kill each other....
All of which would be slightly more normal if I was a guy

I definitely played with Barbie dolls, brushing their hair and dressing them up. I also played with other dolls, pretending they were real. I also played softball with the neighborhood kids, and did other tomboyish stuff.

What is really strange is that my mom is a doll collector, yet I never had any dolls or so much as a Barbie when I was growing up. I had My Little Ponies, but my sister sold them all at a garage sale when I was like 5. =/

I'm an archeologist, I'm digging this thread out

I had a lot of toys - dolls and toys for boys like cars as well. I liked playing with dolls, especially with my Barbie dolls - I got the first one when I was almost 7 and the last, eleventh when I was 11. I liked imagining they were odalisques in some kind of harem . But my favourite plays used to take place in my mind I had also several little dolls I used to play with - I had also some pieces of furniture (but without a doll house which was replaced by a normal box) and I pretended the dolls created one big family.

Always hated dolls. Considered them to be freakish misrepresentations of the real thing. I didn't have much use for any kind of toys, really. Rather liked to be outside exploring or inside reading.

I had mixed feelings about dolls. They scared me, for some reason. And if I did happen to get close to one, my evil brothers would behead and dismember it. I enjoyed playing with things that I improvised with. Like pretending that one thing was something else, such as an empty oatmeal box was a drum, or a pot lid was a cymbal.

Dolls that resembled people always gave me the creeps. I prefered playing with stuffed animals more.

I tried to because of social pressures, but I couldn't do it. I can't see the logic in such strange ideas. Although, I did have a phase where I had a kimono-wearing doll (and some cheap "mermaid outfit" dolls) that I thought were pretty, but didn't have any urge to play with them like a normal girl would.

I still don't like the concept of "playing pretend".

I used to play with dolls, but not in a very typical way. I used to categorize all the clothes by color, or whatever rule that I had decided to use. I would line everything up in perfect rows, before playing. All this lining up, analyzing, and categorizing took way more time then actually playing with them. When I did get down to playing with them I would generally use the same skit every time, which was a very down to earth play by play of what really happens in everyday life. My mind used to swirl in chaos when I would attempt to play with other girls that wouldn't follow my rules. I used to play with almost all of my toys this way.

My dolls were no more important than my animal figures and toy cars. I used them to make up adventures for them. Sometimes a doll and a tiny plastic jet were best friends. It was all random so I don't think that it was traditional doll activity.

What do people usually do when they play with dolls? Do they just dress them up and then??

I did, but not because I wanted to. I didn't have a choice about it.

Yes, I played with dolls, but I liked playing with Lego more.

My dad said I was never into doll dolls for some reason, just bears, and I played with them like I played with dolls.

I had a doll (and then a different one) that I dragged around with me; but we did not play. I did not view it as an 'entity' or friend or even ponder this. Later I had alot of stuffed animals-those I both played with and viewed as entities or friends or pondered the possibility of life: imagined ect.

I completely was offended and frightened by Barbie type dolls. Those were rediculous! But others fancied over them. Same with cabbage patch: wtf!? was my opinion. Parents committing assault over them.

I thought GI Joes were pretty cool, but never had any of my own.

Yes, I played with dolls when I was a kid. I was pretty imaginative and I loved playing with my doll house when I was little. I too had stuffed animals, my favorite of which was Ernie (like the one off of Sesame Street). He was pretty awesome lol.