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Barbie? Three year olds?

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URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14843
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Topic: Barbie? Three year olds?
Posted By: SMoody
Subject: Barbie? Three year olds?
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 7:54pm
I usually buy gifts through the year for Birthday and Christmas and was wondering when did your child actually starting to play with Barbie.

And what else did you buy your three year old? I am thinking of Baby Alive as she love her baby dolls but on the other side I dont know if it is worth the price.

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http://lilypie.com">

http://lilypie.com">



Replies:
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 8:01pm
I was a my lil pony freak at that age. I can still remember that it was my lil pony everything on my present wish list to santa


Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 8:11pm
I think Barbie would be more 4yrs+, just judging by my 4yo. And not quite at the stage of wanting to dress dolls as far as I can tell - at 3yrs. Baby dolls are great but nearly any cute and cuddly baby doll usually will do. At 3yo children start getting into littlier things, fiddlier things to play with. Hannah has been into the Fisher Price "Little People" since about 3yo. Umm what else did Hannah get at 3yo - a tea set, puzzles with the letters of the alphabet, early puzzles to fit pieces into each other (no more than 60 pieces and that's with help). She also got into glue and glitter (I bought some sprinkling, not pouring, glitter from Whitcoulls, not too expensive) and washable feltpens! Hope that gives you a few steps in the right direction...

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Posted By: SMoody
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 8:23pm
Aaah it does. Thank you busymum. Problem is her birthday is 3 weeks before Christmas so usually have to buy enough to last her for a year before she gets more gifts.

Silly girl for chosing December as a birth month.

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http://lilypie.com">

http://lilypie.com">


Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 8:25pm
Hehe Hannah is 27 Dec - that's why she got so much when she turned 3!

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Posted By: Jennz
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 8:26pm
I second the tea set- Charlotte loved her tea set! Just be prepared to do alot of tea 'drinking' We got her a bike for her 3rd birthday as her main present.

As far as Barbie goes I don't think Charlotte would have really played with one until around now- evil Mum won't be getting her one though

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Jen, Charlotte 7 & Kate 3



Posted By: .Mel
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 8:30pm
You can get "My First Barbie" for under 4yr old's they are bigger and easier to dress etc.

Tea set is a good idea
Nyah loved her vacuum cleaner too.
What about a highchair for her dolly's?


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Mr Mellow (16)
Miss Attitude (8)
Destructa Kid (3)



Posted By: fattartsrock
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 9:11pm
Jake will be getting bits and peices for their playhouse, jug, toaster etc. Hi swee mate sam has all the kitchen stuff and Jake plays for hours making "cuppateas" and "toasts". BLocks.. Mega blocks have some really cool princess" block sets, we got Char one for her bday (lotsa pink, and a wee doll lego thing) and you can buy wee sets to add on to them, vewry reasonable price. Jake is really into blocks atm. Toy stroller?

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The Honest Un PC Parent of 2, usually stuck in the naughty corner! :P


Posted By: mum2paris
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 9:15pm
Ayja plays with Paris's barbies, she especially loves putting them in the barbie car and driving them about.

She also loves anything pretend play, instead of baby alive (which is terrible looking, very fake and means you are constantly cleaning up drink and wet nappy mess) try looking for the fisher-price little mommy dolls, they are wonderful, soft bodied, very hard wearing and not too pricey either, My girls have a couple as they have been given as pressies. Ayja got her own one for xmas, and a little highchair and bed and omg she loves it. She will spend hours playing with her dollys and feeding them putting to bed.

little kitchens/food playsets/teasets are also good, they begin to start mimicking real life in their playing around 2 - 3 yrs old.

Ayja has had all that from and early age since she takes after her sister, so her pressies for her upcoming birthday consist of a barbie of her own, some polly pocket stuff (again since she loves her sisters) and one of those little real-baby lambs since she's gone on and on at me.


Mr potato heads are great for this age too,
colouring books for them to start learning drawing (although will probably mostly just do little scribbles on each page),
books,
a dolls house (again in with the pretend play)
dressups, like fairy wings builders hats, imaginary play stuff

and yep my little pony.. Ayja is very into that, again since everyone bought them for her sister when she turned 3. She very much takes after her sister

one thing paris got lots of though up till about 3, was little people.. which they still haul out and set up and play with.

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Janine and her 2 cool chicks, Paris & Ayja



Posted By: Bombshell
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 9:54pm
oooh the new my little ponys that sing are very cool!!!



Posted By: fattartsrock
Date Posted: 27 February 2008 at 10:05pm
Jake LOVES LOVES LOVES mr potato head. I have bought them for any 2 plus bdays we go to now.

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The Honest Un PC Parent of 2, usually stuck in the naughty corner! :P


Posted By: mum2paris
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 9:29am
Bombshell ayja got given 2 of the baby ones the blue on and the pink one and they are far more kewl for littlies.. the pink one ayja spends lots of time feeding her bottle - she calls them her twins.

The neat thing about potato heads is that even if they already have one it doesn't matter too, i usually find out if they already have one then go buy one of those add-on packs that they can dress up as a firefighter or princess or whatever.

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Janine and her 2 cool chicks, Paris & Ayja



Posted By: nikkitheknitter
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:13am
Hannah has two barbies. My mum got her one for her 3rd birthday. She loves her! (I however am not so impressed. haha)

But yeah, a tea set is great. Hannah plays for hours with it in the bath... drinking bathwater


Posted By: SMoody
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:18am
I think perhaps my child might be spoiled. And here I thought that she doesnt have so many toys. Ha ha. She has basically everything you guys mentioned. Our landlord gave her the blue little Pony that can talk for Christmas. She has two teasets. Have a whole nursery set and a playcot and 2 prams. She has a dollhouse. (fischer price first dollhouse)

The only thing I think she doesnt have is the Mr Patatoe head and we have been at places that she could play with it and not interested in at all. Ai. Guess I will wait for the June sales. I am getting her a trike quite soon so cant even get it for her birthday. So at this stage we might as well get her her own remote control plane. Seeing she is into planes.

She got the building blocks and loves them. She got playfood and the toy kitchen stuff although not the whole kitchen itself but she prefers to work with real stuff. So getting her baking stuff and her own apron. Ai maybe this child just have too much and here I thought we never go overboard.

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http://lilypie.com">

http://lilypie.com">


Posted By: SMoody
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:20am
BTW why is everyone so against Barbie? Just curious.

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http://lilypie.com">

http://lilypie.com">


Posted By: Jennz
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:33am
My reasons are purely remnants from being raised by a feminist! I just don't like the idea of girls playing with a doll of unattainable female proportions. I think girls have to contend with enough when it comes to body image etc and it just seems wrong introducing something that has mens fantasy proportions rather than those of a real woman at such a young age when they are so impressionable

Probably an over reaction but it doesn't hurt her not to have one

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Jen, Charlotte 7 & Kate 3



Posted By: SMoody
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:39am
Aaah I see. See I had a Barbie when I was five and had an eating disorder. Quite severe. But not once did I actually think I want to look like Barbie. I prefer her to the Bratz dolls again.

Quite weird how we all as moms think different hey? I think it is actually quite great that we all do think differently.

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http://lilypie.com">

http://lilypie.com">


Posted By: caraMel
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:40am
Heheh, reminds me of The Simpsons.
"They've just released a Malibu Stacey with an achievable chest!"

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Mel, Mummy to E: 6, B: 4 and:



Posted By: Jennz
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:42am
Urgh those Bratz dolls are awful They dress like hookers!

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Jen, Charlotte 7 & Kate 3



Posted By: caraMel
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:43am
And they have freakishly large heads!

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Mel, Mummy to E: 6, B: 4 and:



Posted By: SMoody
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:49am
So what doll do we end up with then? Perhaps we should all desighn one that is actually in proportion ect and give kids a good self image?

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http://lilypie.com">

http://lilypie.com">


Posted By: nikkitheknitter
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 10:56am
I'm OK with Barbie generally... but "Princess Genevieve" is so pink and sparkly that it makes me want to throw up! haha

I think I can teach Hannah about body image without her being negatively affected by Barbie. I think it's how the parent approaches it. But I get the whole 'anti-Barbie' thing.

Hannah now thinks you have to wear makeup to be beautiful because my sister let her loose in her make up the other day. Argh.


Posted By: CuriousG
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 12:37pm
I don't see anything wrong with Barbie, I played with them growing up and actually lost interest with them by about 10 years old.

I never felt that they were how we should be. I mean, the influences from our mothers and grandmothers/aunties back then was much more than perhaps it is now and I actually looked up to them more than looking at Barbie and how 'pretty' she was.

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http://lilypie.com">
http://lilypie.com">


Posted By: mum2paris
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 5:58pm
See i used to ba against barbie, but then realised that they have changed them a fair amount from the hookerish looks of the 1950-1980s and they are a little more realistic. but again, it's really the parents i think that take offence, little girls just like to dress them up and play with them, you have all sorts showing that little girls can be anything they want to be when they grow up like doctors baby photographers, vets, all sorts.. If we all went along tha tline then why aren't men up in arms about ken's unrealistic manly proportions, lol. but yes, Bratz dolls, oh my god, they dress like hookers, they even have body piercings some of them and if you take a look in the gameboy game bratz bought out the good chicks are the pretty ones and the bad-guys/girls are the ones that have been dulled down and aren't wearing skanky clothes. - what kind of message does that give girls.. all they do is dress up in skanky clothes in different skanky themes.. all skimpy and such like.

Barbie is fine, princesses etc and doctors and all the other things are all good.   but hookerish facist teenage-skank dolls.. no way, i think by targeting them at the 8yr-ish mark too they are selling the fact that barbies are for little kid/girls, the hopes and dreams that barbie gives are for babies, and that what you should begin to aspire to be at 8yrs old is someone who is cool and glam and hangs out with cute guys all day. ICK

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Janine and her 2 cool chicks, Paris & Ayja



Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 28 February 2008 at 7:36pm
I don't mind Barbie too much for girls who like mothers and fathers types of games. Hannah still likes to be the mum and have the baby dolls, not so much playing with the "older" dolls. And I think that's quite age appropriate for her.

As for Bratz. I do NOT want my girls to dress like that...ever. So why would I want them to play with them as an 'acceptable' toy. And I particularly dislike that they are called (what kids would only think is brats, because it's pronounced the same). I most definitely don't want my girls to play with and enact brats! That really would be asking for trouble.

Hope I didn't offend anyone with my strong opinions!

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Posted By: yummymummy
Date Posted: 29 February 2008 at 6:54am
I can't wait to get Gina her first Barbie - nothing against them here. I've already got her a Barbie back pack for daycare
I don't like the Bratz dolls either - they just seem weird and that's not even getting started on the clothes

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http://lilypie.com">      http://lilypie.com">


Posted By: fattartsrock
Date Posted: 29 February 2008 at 8:41am
Originally posted by yummymummy yummymummy wrote:

I can't wait to get Gina her first Barbie - nothing against them here. I've already got her a Barbie back pack for daycare
I don't like the Bratz dolls either - they just seem weird and that's not even getting started on the clothes


me too, and me too.

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The Honest Un PC Parent of 2, usually stuck in the naughty corner! :P


Posted By: nuttymama
Date Posted: 29 February 2008 at 9:27am
Abby is 3 and loves her cheap versions of Barbie, we didn't want to buy the dearer ones until we knew if she would play with them and she loves them.

If you were wanting a doll like baby born but not so advanced I recommend the "Lissi new born Doll". We brought one for Abby's 3rd Birthday and she loves it. She drinks from a bottle(Empty) making a slurping noise and sucks a pacifier and goes to sleep. If you make a loud noise she wakes up, opens and closes her eyes. After 10mins of no playing with her she stops and restarts if put her bottle etc in. She also cries and laughs when you tickle her tummy. We brought her from farmers along with some clothes booties and nappies designed for her. She has a soft body and hard limbs so nice and cuddly. By far the best and most played with thing we have ever brought.

Ohh and I can't stand brats dolls, Abby will never be getting one of those.

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Abigail 06/01/2005
Jayden   21/11/2001
Micheal 03/04/1997



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