Are girl toys age inappropriate??

If your daughters grow up to dress like skanks, it won't be because they played with Bratz dolls.

..or Barbies.

THANK YOU!

My daughter has Barbies (some are actually MINE from when I was little), moxy girls, monster high and I finally caved on the Bratz dolls b/c of the basic common sense that these are DOLLS....TOYS....I control what MY HUMAN daughter wears

Personally, I like playing with her dressing them up and doing their hair - we put on Fashion shows together - actually it kind of promotes mother / daughter bonding time

this is just WRONG in my opinion

DUDE! Even without the doll made for it, myself and my little girl friends used to pretend to breastfeed our baby dolls. We knew what it was and why pretend if you're not going to go all out. :P

WOW!!!!!! I have never heard of such mess:noway:

My sisters barbies never made it long enough to worry about their clothes. Beheadings were common.

Soooooooo glad I have a little boy.

this is just WRONG in my opinion

DUDE! Even without the doll made for it, myself and my little girl friends used to pretend to breastfeed our baby dolls. We knew what it was and why pretend if you're not going to go all out. :P

WOW!!!!!! I have never heard of such mess:noway:

Don't judge. YOU DUNNO!

But seriously, I think it's fairly common for little girls to pretend breastfeed with their baby dolls. *shrug*

NOT JUDGING!!!!!!
Making a statment!!!!
I never did nor did my daughter pretend to!

I'd be more concerned with the music video girls..

I think it's fine as long as they don't want to emulate the doll. I played with barbies in miniskirts for years and I hated skirts myself.

That said, as a future veterinarian, this toy made me want to punch a designer in the face: http://pawcurious.com/2009/02/the-trouble-with-barbie/

I think this explains the problem well:


Any "pet vet" doctor who chooses to wear a miniskirt to work is going to get scratched and all his/her coworkers will laugh loudly when it happens.

This is much more accurate: http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Can-Kitty-Care-Vet/dp/B003FZAAMU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_1

I think it's fine as long as they don't want to emulate the doll. I played with barbies in miniskirts for years and I hated skirts myself.

That said, as a future veterinarian, this toy made me want to punch a designer in the face: http://pawcurious.com/2009/02/the-trouble-with-barbie/

I think this explains the problem well:


Any "pet vet" doctor who chooses to wear a miniskirt to work is going to get scratched and all his/her coworkers will laugh loudly when it happens.

This is much more accurate: http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Can-Kitty-Care-Vet/dp/B003FZAAMU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_1

WAHA!!! I love that your problem isn't the skirt but that the skirt is inappropriately placed.

Eh, I don't think it matters. I played with Barbies all the time when I was little. I don't remember admiring her body and wishing mine was like hers. The self doubt issues came later on in middle school, and I would guess that they were more related to the media than to the toys I played with many years before.

Also, my Barbie had "slutty" clothes, but I never wanted to dress like her and have always been modest!

I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal out of Barbie clothes. Of the roughly 246 various and sundry Barbies and friends-of-Barbie owned by my daughter, at least 232 are naked and in the bottom of the bathtub.

My 6-year-old is very into Monster High. I bought her a Monster High t-shirt last week and she was upset when she came home from school the first day she wore it. I asked her why, and she said that "friend" at after-school care told her that she hated Monster High and didn't like her shirt, which hurt her feelings. I told her that her friend has a right to her opinion, but that since she's only 7, she was probably only repeating what her mom had told her. I explained that some kids' parents don't think certain toys are appropriate and her friend was probably either jealous because she gets to play with Monster High, or was just repeating what her mom said. (Dad, on the other hand, told her to tell her friend to go f herself and find new friends, which is what I think, too, but I'm trying to raise a fairly civilized child.) Lo and behold, the next time she wore her shirt, her friend said something snotty again, and my daughter asked, "Doesn't your mom let you play with Monster High?" The friend was sad and said, "No, but I wish I could," and suddenly all the after-school program little-girl-negativity was turned on her, which is unfortunate. Moral of this story, for all you morally righteous, uptight and indignant parents and parents-to-be (my personal favorites) is that when you are passing judgement on toys or anything else in front of your child, be sensitive to the fact that you may be creating a morally righteous and judgemental child who will use their moral indignation to stir up **** in the grade school.

I don't think that anyone should let their children play with toys that they find inappropriate or offensive, but there's no need to cast judgement on parents who feel differently. There's a million ways to be a good parent without casting judgement or creating a judgemental child.

With that preaching out of the way, I hate Bratz dolls, too, and am relieved that my daughter isn't in to them. I wouldn't necessarily ban them, but I would try to steer her towards other more appropriate dolls if she showed interest.

I was always an intelligent kid. My mother was always an intelligent, perceptive parent. If I was gifted a Barbie, she'd sneak in tidbits of information to me.
"She's pretty, but do you know anyone that actually looks like her?"
"No"
"It's not a very realistic doll, is it."

She'd also tell me that my self worth isn't based off of my appearance, nor is anyone else's. Just because a girl decides to wear skimpy clothing doesn't make her any less of a person. She touched briefly on how dressing sexually for young girls is harmful and how some people prey on little girls, but she always reinforced positive and thought provoking ideals. I played with my Barbies all the time (being an only child) and was a little too old for Bratz when they came along, but I'm grateful she was always available to share some information with me, and not assume that I wouldn't read into it just because of my age.

Being older now, we just recently talked about the difference between gender differences in toys for small children and how she regrets not diversifying my collection to include trucks, plastic mechanic stations etc. that were typically 'male'. The 'learn to nurse!' babies for girls is... odd, at best. I'm all for choosing your own path in life (whether that be a working professional, a stay at home mom, no kids ever, no marriage ever, loving whomever) but it's disheartening to see such confined and outdated options. Girls get baking, dress up, and tea time. Boys get fighting, fixing things, electronics.