Moving
April 28, 2008 by zuska
The girls are going through their things in pursuit of our goal: Two boxes packed per person per week. Beloved and I are trying to make this process as painless as possible (we move in July …. )
They ended up traveling to the apartment next door with their arms full of dolls. The neighbors have three little girls, the oldest currently in kindergarten, the youngest born …. uh, yesterday? (feels that way, although she’s standing up and laughing and otherwise very much at least 9 months old.)
I really don’t think their parents realize that we just dumped at least $1,000 into their kids’ laps.
I’m just glad that we are short a trunk full of clutter.
(J kept Molly. She likes her glasses.)
Oooh I love those dolls. PS has read pretty much all of the books (and her fave is Molly), but we never bought the dolls. She has never been a doll person (or really into toys of any kind), and I just couldn’t justify the cost. Which is a bummer, because after visiting the magnificent store in Chicago when PS was very young I couldn’t wait until she was big enough for one of the dolls.
I bet it was kind of sad to see them all go–although I underatand the need to declutter.
I would never have justified the cost, especially for my girls who have consistently been happier with crayons or cardboard boxes. But my mother has never been happy with gifts of less than $100 for birthdays and Christmas, and so our collection of dolls and clothes is pretty extensive. Including a complete set of the mini dolls.
I’m really not sad at all.
Either are the girls.
I triple-checked.
Probably would have been different if they touched the damned things more than once every two years.
Oh, I love dolls. It is one of the few positive childhood memories regarding my mother. She had this bitterness over her parents never getting her dolls, and I, as the only child who liked dolls, was flooded with them. I got Samantha as a sophomore in high school. Seriously - fifteen years old - and I actually played with her. (Maybe this is part of the reason I had so few friends before adulthood. What teenager would rather play with dolls than kiss boys?) Every so often I get a package in the mail, and my mother has sent me a Madame Alexander doll. She sends them for little milestones in my life. I have over fifty now; they are all in boxes and packed away either in closets or the storage unit in Seattle, but I can’t bear to part with any of them.
Whew. Thanks for your comment Ana because I was starting to wonder whether my nearly-twelve-year-old daughter was seriously stunted because she still plays with her dolls, writes scripts for them (then acts them out with voices and everything), and spends every last penny of allowance on doll clothes/furnishings. When her seven-year old sis got Kaya, it was pure joy that has not stopped to this day.
oh, my kids are freaks. They don’t play with TOYS at all - let alone dolls. Starting when E was 4, I had to come up with unusual birthday gifts (day trips, museum memberships) because they just don’t play with toys.
They write, they build, they act. But rarely with “toys” of any kind. They also write scripts, but they write them for themselves to act out.
Their lack of interest in these dolls may also have something to do with the excess that my mom created. Maybe if they only had ONE doll a piece, it would have been more interested. But they each had FOUR, and it may have just become overwhelming.
Who knows. But they sat on a top shelf collecting dust since we moved into this apartment in 2004.
Nah, your kids aren’t freaks–mine don’t play with toys either–especially dolls. My twins got Cabbage Patch dolls for Christmas last year and one said, “now, what am I supposed to do with this?” with much disdain and very poor manners.
And I understand your lack of sadness. I have begged our relatives not to buy toys and finally convinced my grandmother that memberships to the zoo and museum are much better than more crap my kids won’t play with.
But I totally would have bought my girls the AG dolls if they had an ounce of interest.