Last year, Caitlynn begged and pleaded for us to visit the American Girl store in Chicago. We begrudgingly obliged. After spending a couple hours trapped in the store with Caitlynn being stared by various sets of doll eyes and being surrounded by pink and girlie things, I felt the need to visit a Bass Pro Shop just to even things out. Miles and Joe were lucky. They were able to escape the American Girl store without getting too much pink on them.
Caitlynn has an American Girl doll. Just one doll -- one of those historical dolls that they sell. I actually don't mind the books about the historical dolls. However, I thought that her fascination had waned over the past year when I found the doll just sitting in Caitlynn's room not being played with. It seemed Caitlynn had forgotten about the doll and the numerous sets of clothes until recently.
In the past few months Caitlynn has been playing with her doll and is now circling items in the American Girl catalog as part of her Christmas wish list. She even wants a new doll. This time, however, she wants one that looks like her. Is it me or is that just creepy?
So, that isn't the part that scares me. I can see getting her another doll (only one more) and maybe a doll outfit, but that's about it. I'm not going to spend all of my discretionary income on American Girl toys. I especially won't do it after seeing some websites devoted to American Girl designed and written by teenage girls with serious obsessions over these dolls. Caitlynn already has some obsessive tendencies and I'm not going to feed into it by buying her everything she wants out of the catalog.
I looked at one of these sites devoted to American Girl. It's scary. Just plain frightening. I'd rather watch Chucky movies than subject myself to some of the home movies these girls have made. Mind you, these are teenage girls playing with American Girl dolls. And not just one or two dolls -- one girl has about 20 dolls plus accessories. What!? That's a whole lotta money spent on little clothes for a doll that doesn't do anything but sit there.
Probably the scariest part has to do with the parents allowing this to happen. Sure, you may think it's harmless for a young girl to being playing with dolls. But at age 17 or 18? Um. Shouldn't she be out having a grand old time with friends and boyfriends? Maybe even sip a beer or two (but don't drive!)? (Ok, so I'm not really advocating underage drinking but I am being realistic here. I was 18 once and I had my fair share of cheap beer back then.) I think I would rather have Caitlynn hanging out with friends as opposed to dolls when she's 18.
I have to walk out of the office when Caitlynn starts watching videos about American Girl dolls. Chucky is much a much better doll. At least he's entertaining even if he does want to kill you. He's not scary at all.
I cannot embed the videos. If you want to take a look, click the links below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vgIIMuKKyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1UXKD31WPs&feature=related
Or, better yet... just go to You Tube and do a search for American Girl.
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4 comments:
Do you know there is a whole bunch of adult collectors of the AG dolls? And multiple Yahoo lists devoted to discussion of the doll. Some of the adults have even more than 20...and every outfit made.
This is one of the things about modern society that worries me. Obsessions like this become tomorrow's psychological problems. You are right to be worried. As for the beer, I was drinking at 17 and for us the law said 21 at the time, but then at 19 I was old enough to go to war, but not drink... go figure.
AV
@angelthings -- I had my suspicions about adults collecting these dolls. Don't they have something better to do? I guess not.
@AV -- I try to divert Caitlynn's obsessions towards other areas (crafts, reading, etc). This doll thing will stop for her. We just don't have the money to support it. Underage drinking occurs. Always has, always will. I hope that if my kids do it, they are responsible enough not to drive.
@Marcy, parneting is not easy, especially in the First World today, much simpler here, less temptation.
AV
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