In my house, they're naked 99% of the time. How about yours?

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YUP. The boys like the dolls that have no hair too. They like to drool on their heads, yuck. You can always tell them baby is cold and show them how to dress them. We only have a few changes on clothing so if they want to change outfits they only have two choices. I hope to find more dolls the same size so the outfits can fit all the dolls.

Do you have all soft dolls or hard arms/legs/head? I can't decide which size of a doll to settle on. It would be nice to have "triplets" that are all the same size. Many are from the dollar stores where they are all soft and probably 8-10 inches head to toe. They are just too small for standard play strollers. 90% of the time though the kids just want a blanket to wrap the baby in. They don't really play with the bib, hat, bottle, and other diaper bag accessories. It would be cute it they did.

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Yes, always naked. I was shocked the other day when one of the girls asked me to help her put clothes on the baby.

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That's how I felt recently when DD asked me to dress a doll. Of course...it lasted all of 30 seconds before the doll needed a diaper change

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they are half and half right now, most of the barbies are naked and my ds (he's 8) was home on monday (snow day) so he found the cats bungy toy (you hang it off the door) he tied the naked barbie up and was launching her, all the kids thought it was the funniest thing ever. I hate changing dolly diapers, they poop too much.

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NO nekkid babies in play.

All of the kids have the skill set to tear off the clothes. They don't need practice doing it. My 18 month olds can do it.

If they can't replace them BY THEMSELVES they can't take the clothes off.

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All dolls are nakey here too!!! I even bought nightgown type clothes but they are all still in their birthday suits.....maybe we could paint clothing on?!?!

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All babies are dressed! At this moment I have a all girl daycare!! They don't like when the babies are not dressed, they say they are cold

I have all soft babies with hard arms. I have 16 & 18 inch babies. This way I buy preemie baby clothes and you can get some really cute ones for .99 at our goodwill.

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Nekkid as a jaybird. IF they dress them (rare) or have me help dress them, they just take the clothes right back off LOL. And some of those doll clothes aren't easy to put on!!! So when they come to me for help and I do it and then they just take it right back off, I just wasted my time. But I'm glad to do it. I wouldn't ever refuse them help in a normal play activity.

Why would anyone squelch a normal part of being a kid by not allowing them to dress & undress dolls? I don't get that. Seems like a tyrant to me.

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I thought the clothes was part of the packaging??? lol,... I buy the ones with the white cloth bodies and tell them its their onsie. lol

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I'm so mean.

Yes and when it's all said and done... at the end of the day...at the end of the week... at the end of the year.... your kids play with naked dolls and mine play with dressed dolls. That's the only difference.

You "rarely" dress the dolls so they are naked. I never dress the dolls and their are clothed. Neither one of us are "helping in normal play". If you believed it was normal you would dress them for them routinely and "waste your time".

I do the work it takes to teach them not to "take the clothes right back off" so my kids play with fully dressed and accessorized dolls. Your kids take the clothes right back off and they play with "Nekkid as a jaybird" dolls.

Now who's got the better deal? I think mine do and you think yours does. All good for everybody.

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ours are 1/2 and 1/2. DD2 loves dolls so we have a lot. My least favorite are the tiny 3" Disney princess ones with the rubber clothes. Ugh! Then we have a bucket of naked Barbies. The cloth dolls are mostly clothed. I have a couple of different ones with cloth bodies and plastic arms, one Bitty Baby and then 2 Waldorf dolls. They love the Waldorf dolls the best. One I bought for a ridiculous amount of money and the other I made myself. Each doll came with it's own clothes, but we have a huge basket of preemie clothes for them. Both my DDs were preemies and these were the clothes they both wore for almost 3 months and then I bought boy clothes thinking DS would come early like the girls and he was 3lbs bigger than both.

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But what's wrong with taking the clothes back off? (Rhetorical question) They are cloth with peach colored skin and a white "onesie", as laundrymom put it so well. I just feel squelching the method with which the children want to play is ridiculous. Or as I have seen it misspelled here - rediculous.

And btw, my meaning was twisted around. I don't feel there's a right or wrong way to play with dolls. If they want to clothe them, that's fine. If they want to un-clothe them, that's fine. And I don't think mine have "the better deal" because of playing with un-clothed dolls, I think they have the better deal because they are playing how they WANT to play, and not micro-managed.

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There's nothing wrong with taking the clothes off if they can get them back on. I don't want the play where they spend five seconds taking something apart and not being able to put it back together.

Here's my barbie collection: http://www.nanshouse.com/apps/photos...bumid=10599095

What is wrong or unnatural about them just playing with these dolls and the accessories without JUST undressing them? I don't care if they change their clothes. What I don't want is the play where they just disasemble and can't put it back.

I don't see any play value in that. I think it's "good enough" for kids to have a collection like I have and PLAY with the toys in a way where the adult doesn't have to be involved AT ALL.

I have kids play with toys that THEY can clean up. Dressing dolls IS a part of "clean up" just like putting blocks in the bin is cleaning up. Once they are old enough and skilled enough to have a shot at dressing the dolls in their play we give them a shot at it. As long as they are able to do BOTH they are welcome to change their clothes. Until then the simple prompt "don't undress the dolls" is all they need. Very simple and I like simple.

My little girls will play for HOURS with these dolls and all we have to do is get the collection out for them and put it back. I don't have to micromanage them AT ALL. That's the kind of play "I" like for my kids.

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I would say that a good 80% of the baby dolls here are currently naked. If I dressed and undressed the dolls for the dcks everytime that they wanted the doll to be wearing different clothes, then I wouldn't have time for anything else in my day! My solution was that one day I sat with my dcks and taught them how to dress and undress the babies and since then, they dress the dolls on their own. I also have the same policy with the kids dressing up in costumes. If they don't know how to get in and out of the costume, then they need to pick a costume that they do know how to put on and take off or they need to learn how to put the costume on and off because I won't do it for them.

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Can't view the Babie pics unless a member. Is there a picture that you can attach here? My wife worked in the Barbie division at Mattel for years. She also has a great collection but they've never left the box.

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ohhhh, low blow!

most of kids dolls are naked, and anytime i've ever worked with kids in any capacity they have been. i don't care. if they want them naked, whatever - and of course i'm not gonna "play" with them so if they take them off and want them back on then tooo bad. i guess they can get a lot of practice.

how about cutting their hair? i'm a heathen so my kids have access to scissors and cut their dolls hair.

nannyde - i'd like to see your collection too!

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I got tired of redressing the dolls so I took them away for a couple months. When I brought them back out I also gave them the rule that if they undress them then them must dress them again during clean up. It only took a couple reminders for all the clothes to stay on. I have them keep the clothes on because they are in public and we all need to keep our clothes on in public. That's the reasoning I give them when they tell me their dolls at home have no clothes on too.

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hehehe. a couple of weeks ago I was cleaning the playroom. I dressed ALL of the dolls. Sure enough, the VERY next morning, the kids stripped em' naked.

I think it's great! They bathe the dolls, they diaper the dolls, they try to redress the dolls. It's PRACTICE. The toddlers are learning to undress and dress themselves now, I think this is great practice. The preschoolers are snapping, buttoning, etc. They are pretending to be Mommies and Daddies by undressing, bathing, drying and diapering their babies.

The whole BARBIE thing creeps me out. I've never liked them....and I wouldn't let little kids undress them either....they are not appropriate for young children. I know lots of people here and elsewhere LOVE Barbie, and that's cool. But IMO they are not DAP for three year olds.

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Well that's weird.

I will have to check that.

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Oh my little girls LOVE themselves some Barbies. Oh my goodness they go on and on. I swear the conversations they have when they play Barbies could melt the wax in your ears. My favorite is when they accessorize Ken dolls

Kids don't need practice taking off clothing. My 18 month olds can do it.
They don't need practice dumping, destroying, tearing apart, taking apart, etc. They are hard wired to be able to do it easily and at a young age.

Barbie accessories are really really good manipulatives. I like them to start playing Barbies at about 3.5. That's when they can manage the accessories, hair brushes, hair ties, and furniture. About fourish is when they can manage the tops of the dolls. Four and a half to five is when they can do the pants.

I have one DCD who keeps telling me his son is telling him about our Barbies. He's not amused. I made sure I sent a Ken doll home with him one day just to mess with him.

He sent me a text I can't repeat in public

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That's my point about Barbies....have you seen their PARTS? And, even the clothing for many of them is simply "slutty". Not appropriate for little kids, IMO.

I also think the original post was about BABY DOLLS, not Barbies.....the barbies are ridiculously hard to redress, so I can see not wanting to have to actually interact with the children to assist in redressing them. Cool that your kids like em' though.

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that reminds me - i got some generic american girl type dolls for my daughter for christmas and my 4 year old son started saying he wanted one so i got him this boy doll.

the best part was when i came in the mail and my husband had pretty much NO reaction. he used to get uptight when i'd let him play with a doll or put on lip gloss when he saw me doing it because he's a "manly man" but being an early childhood person, i broke him really fast! i think he's more comfortable now that he sees our son is a mean little devil despite being allowed to play w dolls.

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AWESOME QualitCare.....cute doll too!!!

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YES

When they understand that they are the ones to dress them they only do it when they want to actually change their clothes. They don't do it to "tear up".

I want them to DO not UNdo. If it requires an adult to redo what you have undone then you aren't ready to play with it.

I call it the "seek and destroy". It's the same thing as dumping, knocking over, tearing apart, tearing down, etc. It's all the SAME behavior. Not only is it not necessary for healthy growth and development... it can actually be harmful to good solid self entertainment. The excitement and stimulation that comes from seek and destroy can set their minds on THAT level of excitement in order for them to be happy. That's why we see post after post of providers saying kids are tearing up their playrooms and their toys. If it goes unchecked it BECOMES their play. We see countless examples of this on this message board nearly daily.

When you work at the root behavior.. redirecting their desire to have their play BE dumping, destroying, tearing apart... then your end result are kids who are happy to play with toys for their intended purposes. Amazing players who can self entertain. Kids who can play without adult involvement during play and ALL aspects of cleaning up.

Whooo da thunk!!!!!!!!

Adults need to stay out of kids play as much as possible. Let them be kids and play at their OWN level. Interjecting an adult into their play by having the adult FIX what they have done so they can turn around and undo it again is NOT developmentally appropriate IMHO. It also makes for very unhappy adults who most often just leave the toy undone (naked babies).

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No I don't mean THAT kind of talk. They talk "house.. and Mommy and Daddy" stuff with the dolls.

Yeah I know the body parts on the dolls BUT the truth is that women do have chesticles so that doesn't bother me. I think the clothes are fine. They have beautiful little gowns, dresses, etc. It's all just fantasy play... not sexual.

They play the heck out of it but they have older kids who play Barbies with them in their home life. My Barbies are just plentiful, organized, and have a lot of old school accesory pieces. Their Barbies are all over their rooms, closets, car etc. It's the "keeping things together" kind of play that keeps them comin back.

I wish I had room for the Little Tykes BIG house with twelve inch shelving. That's the best house for the Barbies. My poor kids have to make do with the Fisher Price doll house.

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http://www.nanshouse.com/apps/photos...bumid=10599095

does this work?

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my kids have barbies and....get ready.....bratz dolls!

just the other day my son had a male and female brat (naked, of course) and was making them kiss. he wasn't doing anything nasty - just had them kissing. i didn't say a word - that'd just fuel the fire. he suddenly threw them down and went on to something else. i did it when i was a kid and look at me - i turned out GREAT

nanny, you mentioned that adults should stay out of kid's play as much as possible which i agree with, so what does it matter if they undress the dolls if you don't help them re-dress them if they want you to? if they take them off, they can put them back on - whether it be 5 days or 5 months later - who cares?

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it works! that is barbie heaven. my daughter just walked up and said what is that? :::gasp:::: are you getting that for me?! (can u tell i shop online much)?

she said, omg - is that ariel?!

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Check this:

The whole collection cost me about twenty dollars in hard money and about fifty in staff assistant time.

I found the majority of these dolls at a garage sale for a DIME a piece. They needed a lot of work but my staff assistant cleaned and redid their hair while the kids played for about two weeks. I washed all their little clothes and air dried them. That kinda sucked. I wash them about once a year. That sucks too.

The big pieces of old school furniture were given to us by our neighbor girl for a gift to the day care.

I bought a few accessory collections on ebay to get more shoes and brushes.

We don't keep them out in play so when we rotate them into play they are like woooo hooooooooo. My staff assistant turns on the ipod ihome to drown out the non stop chatty girls.

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I am like nannyde, I want them to have the skill to dress them back up. I got tired of dressing them, having the kids strip them down then bring the clothes back to me to dress them again. And unless they are giving the dolls 'baths' they like them dressed.

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I just had to share...my friend calls those Bratz dolls "Prot-tots" meaning prostitution toddlers!?!?! I used to have some but got tired of stepping on their shoes while they lay lost around the house .....wanna buy some more? I have a rather large collection of them w/accessories.....sitting in a storage box never being played with.....cuz they are a little creepy imo.

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i dont care either way if the dolls are dressed or not. i have more important things to worry about other than if poor little plastic suzy is laying there nekkid

my kids know though, not to even ask me to redress them. i tell them, you managed to get it off, you figure out how to get it back on. (nicer then that though) i figure, its got to be good fine motor practice, right?

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with six girls, our whole basement used to be the Barbie Emporium! it was crazy! The BEST house we ever had was an old upright dresser. I hate to throw things out and am always looking for ways to reuse something. So i took out the drawers. The "floors" were the shelve type things the drawers rested on. We got little scraps of carpet and vinyl flooring and covered the floors. We used wallpaper scraps and papered the walls. We had a ball building it, and it looked really good when we were finished-much better than the Dream House my daughter got for Christmas one year! My kids loved barbies, though it used to get frustrating that all the black barbies (all 2 of them) were named Keisha back in the day!
They had them in all states of dress at all times b/c Barbies was a play thing that never ended. They never had to really clean up b/c it was always ongoing-they might stop for dinner or even bed, but would start right back up again when they were able! i think it lasted about 3 years And 2 years of that was "setting up"!
I'm glad to have my basement back...and there is NO PINK in it now!!!

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BRILLIANT IDEA! I am sooo looking on craigslist for a dresser so that I can do this! Our dollhouse is so flimsy and falling apart.

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We don't do barbies here....but we love baby dolls....my dck must be odd because taking off clothes isn't something they do much.
I agree with nannyde on this though....if it was a constant strip fest with the dolls I wouldn't redress the them....if they want them dressed then they can do it themselves!!!...Oh they love those dolls both the girl and boy dck carry the baby dolls around a lot of the day....so sweet.

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that is a VERY good idea for a doll house!!

i used to use ziploc baggies and fill them with water and cover them with wash cloths so my barbies would have water beds - that's when everyone had water beds! so fun.

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I made my dolls onsies out of little socks just cut leg and arm holes and the doll clothes fits over top.

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