For some reason I started to think about when I used to play with Barbie Dolls and thought I would blog about it and see if there were things that people played with a little longer than what was "typical" for their age.
I use the term Barbie Dolls loosely, because between my sisters & I we didn't have a ton, so I used any other small doll or action figure we had as "barbies".
It was in 8th grade that I stopped playing with dolls. I was 13 and the last time I played with them I was bored and it was xmas break. I remember thinking I was too old for this stuff and this would be the last time and I needed to grow up. It was the last time. A couple of months later I had to grow up and get my first period.
When I played with dolls I never made them talk out loud, the conversations always occured inside my head and I played quietly just moving the dolls from "house" (which was a bookcase that was segmented off to make apartments or dresser drawers as houses) to "house". I rarely made a sound. I wonder why that was that I never made my dolls talk outloud. I don't ever remember making them talk out loud. Maybe I did once and was made fun of and stopped. I would make my dolls deal with issues I was learnng about or that were going on in my friends lives (sex, boyfriends, divorce, popularity, etc.) I guess it was a way for me to think through the issues myself.
When I worked with junior high kids they frequently would take action figures and other toys and do play therapy with me as they worked through issues that were bothering them. I guess in a way I was doing play therapy on myself. I don't do much play therapy with high school kids now, but I do some.
I guess I just felt like sharing that information today.
3 comments:
I played with mine until I was 12 I think.
This has nothing to do with Barbies, but have you heard of attachment parenting? I just got into a fight with my friend about one of her friends who is letting her 2 year old nurse still...
Just wondering what your thoughts on it were. Not so I can get in a fight with you, just because I'm curious to get another almost mother's view (I am NOT an almost mother...but my friend is).
Just thought I'd drop in--interesting topic.
I don't remember when I stopped playing with Barbies, but mine never had conversations out loud, either. Any dialogue was strictly in my head.
I also never had a Ken doll, so I took my least favorite Barbie and cut her hair to be the boy. So she was a boy doll with man boobs, I guess!
I remember when I was 5 years old and came home from morning kindergarten @ lunch time and saw my parents sitting on the couch with Ken's swimtrunks down and laughing at his tiny smooth mound.
I was so embarrassed and was a little traumatic for me.
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