Arguing over dolls
Until Tuesday, we were a three doll household: Peeka, Aaron, and Cherry. Peeka was a $10 WalMart doll I purchased just before Michael's birth. I bough blue clothes and dressed it up like a boy. Amy immediately discarded the blue outfit, dressed her in pink, and Christened her "Peeka." Cherry was my precious dolly growing up. She was rescued from a thrift store by my grandmother, cleaned up, and presented to me somewhere between my 3rd and 4th birthday. Amy loves the doll because she has hair BUT she isn't quite as soft as Peeka so ranks second in the lineup of dolls. Now Aaron, is an expensive doll with very realistic features and a melt in your arms soft body. My aunt bought her for Amy. She came in a beautiful pink dress and matching blanket. Unfortunately, for Aaron, despite her attempts to look girly Amy decided she was most definitely a boy and discarded the pink dress, changed her into "boyish" looking doll clothes and to synch the deal, named him Aaron. Thus the doll family was complete: two girls and a boy. Everyone got along splendidly. Amy played with them intermittently throughout the week and was content to let the dolls stay in her toy box overnight. Everything was fine in dolly world until 2 months ago. That's when Michael suddenly started showing a definite interest in dollies. And not just any dolly, Michael liked Peeka and only Peeka. He wanted Peeka to go everywhere with him, eat with him, sleep with him, even pray with him during worship. He didn't like Peeka out of his sight. Now this shouldn't have been a problem, because, although Amy preferred Peeka to her other dolls, she really didn't play with her THAT devotedly and definitely rarely if ever slept with her. Plus, she had Aaron (the nicest doll) and Cherry (the doll with hair) all to herself.
Sounds fine and good to a logical adult mind. But when Michael suddenly started using Peeka as a transitional object, Amy suddenly discovered a new found zeal for playing with her as well. Never mind that there were TWO other dolls: both children had to have PEEKA and couldn't seem to see any benefit derived from even temporarily sharing with the other sibling. Daily melt-downs occurred and Peeka was frequently placed in "time-out" on the top of my fridge for being the source of sibling rivalry--all to no avail.
One day, after referring yet another skirmish I'd had enough. "Amy," I exclaimed, "Why don't you play with Aaron, she's a MUCH nicer dolly?"
"She's a BOY and I like to play with GIRL dollies."
"No, honey. She's ACTUALLY a GIRL. She even has a dress on (I noticed Amy had dressed her in a cute little blue dress."
"No Mommy, she can't be a girl because she's a BOY."
"But boy dolls don't wear dresses," I tried remonstrating.
"Well THIS one does." Was the immediate shot back.
Sigh. Anyone still wonder why I went and bought more dolls this last Tuesday?
Sounds fine and good to a logical adult mind. But when Michael suddenly started using Peeka as a transitional object, Amy suddenly discovered a new found zeal for playing with her as well. Never mind that there were TWO other dolls: both children had to have PEEKA and couldn't seem to see any benefit derived from even temporarily sharing with the other sibling. Daily melt-downs occurred and Peeka was frequently placed in "time-out" on the top of my fridge for being the source of sibling rivalry--all to no avail.
One day, after referring yet another skirmish I'd had enough. "Amy," I exclaimed, "Why don't you play with Aaron, she's a MUCH nicer dolly?"
"She's a BOY and I like to play with GIRL dollies."
"No, honey. She's ACTUALLY a GIRL. She even has a dress on (I noticed Amy had dressed her in a cute little blue dress."
"No Mommy, she can't be a girl because she's a BOY."
"But boy dolls don't wear dresses," I tried remonstrating.
"Well THIS one does." Was the immediate shot back.
Sigh. Anyone still wonder why I went and bought more dolls this last Tuesday?
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