Today (2nd of May) is National Baby Day apparently and it’s very apt for us because it’s my ‘baby’s’ birthday. He may not be an actual new born but when you’re the youngest of the bunch I guess you’re always the baby and when the lovely people at Baby Annabell and BABY Born wanted to celebrate #NationalBabyDay with us by sending us a dolly to play with, it had to be a dolly for my birthday boy Jimmy!
I recently read something on a Facebook forum where a woman was asking for advice about whether it’s acceptable to give your son a baby doll to play with. I try not to comment on such threads but I couldn’t help myself that time… I’m no particular feminist and I kind of get ‘girl’s and ‘boys’ toys because girls and boys ARE different but if a boy wants a dolly then why not? I asked her if she wanted her son to grown up thinking it’s not ok to look after the baby, feed the baby, change the baby, love the baby? And she responded to say she’d bought her son the doll! Good I thought! He wanted it and for me, gender specific toys only become a problem when we stop a child from playing with the one he or she’s not ‘supposed’ to…
As it happens I have noticed that my son seems to prefer cars and is transfixed with super heroes despite being surrounded by his sister’s more stereotypical ;girlie’ toys. And she, to begin with, was bought very neutral toys but grew to want pink and princesses. I think children naturally gravitate towards wanting to play with certain toys and this is because of their make-up, some people then look at the situation and skew it by saying we encourage girls to like pink etc. I don’t believe that at all. I just think people like to make a problem where there is none and it’s the same on the other side too because there are some people who wouldn’t allow their boys a dolly, this is a real shame, especially when I see how much Jimmy likes his!.
I’ve noticed that Jimmy becomes much calmer when he plays with a baby doll and behaves in a very different way to when he is charging about waving his light sabre. It’s good to see he has this gentle side and when he received the new Baby Annabell Interactive Brother Doll he was very pleased with him indeed! As was his sister of course… Who was very jealous having always wanted a boy dolly of her own!
Baby Annabell and BABY Born by Zapf have quite a few products they are encouraging boys to play with which is great because sometimes the pink frills could put a boy off. Jimmy has only ever wanted to play with dolls dressed as boys in the past and won’t push the pink toy buggy so my Mum bought him a blue one which he’s fine with. They’re funny things aren’t they…
The Interactive Brother doll is fantastic and sucks his dummy or water with a slurp as his mouth moves in and out making it appear that he really is sucking. He then cries very realistically and as great big tears roll down his face he is soothed by his dummy and drifts off to sleep. Both children fell for him immediately and I have to say that he’s been a big hit!
One thing Jimmy did say as soon as he saw him in the packaging was ‘But there’s a girl playing with him on the box, not a boy. He’s for girls!’ We pointed out that he absolutely WAS for boys but that he’s so lovely everyone wants to play with him. He then said ‘They should have a boy playing with him on the box then too’ and I tend to agree! So Baby Annabell, we love your interactive brother and have no complaints but we would suggest you get Jimmy in to cuddle his Baby Annabell Brother and take a picture of him to prove just how much little boys like playing too!
Here’s my little birthday baby boy playing with his little baby boy! And… Happy National Baby Day!
We were sent a Baby Annabell Interactive Brother Doll for the purpose of an honest review.
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