What makes dolls so magical?
Dolls are the last toys out there in the world of talking creatures that even adults can still hear.
Most adults have lost touch with their childhood and through the help of a doll, this magical world awakens again. When your doll speaks, everything else joins in, soft toys, pets, and households appliances.
As parents/ storytellers, we have the opportunity to open gates to a world where animals talk and inanimate objects have their own stories to tell. Here is a world where everything is alive. Dolls provide an awesome outlet to explore with your young child regarding all of life’s challenges and how we relate to them.
To give a doll to your child, symbolically, you are saying, “ This is your first of tasks, the care for your essential self.” A doll is often the first real responsibility in the life of a child. I recall both my children taking the time to feed their dolls, change their clothes, and turn them into wonderful companions. This exchange brings baby “alive” and through this care, taps into the child’s higher self and mission in the world. When they threw their babies around, I gently reminded them that babies are treated with loving hands and they picked up their babies with care and tucked them to sleep in their doll beds. It is with this attention that the doll remains alive. It is when the doll is thrown in a drawer or buried in a pile that the doll dies.
Dolls may help us talk to our children about death, environment, terrible noises, war, life, hope, and questions that cannot be answered.
The ideal doll is a simple one without much detail. A doll with a simple face is able to mirror all your child’s moods and can express anything. Happiness, sadness, fear, anger, etc. It is really hard to imagine a doll being sad when there is a happy face painted permanently on their face.
Again, simple is best. Imagine a doll that may grow with your child, laugh and cry with your child. This is a magical doll.
Here is an example of a parent using their child’s doll, “Sally” to create a story;
“Sally the doll sat in the laundry leaning against the sink tap.
‘Don’t you ever get dizzy?’ She asked.’ Not really,’ said the dryer in a grumbling voice. ‘Just a little hot and bothered.’
‘Where does all the fluff come from?’ asked Sally. ‘Off the clothes of course,’ said the dryer with a giggle.
Sally heard a thump, strangely recurring.’Ohhhhhh,’ said the dryer with a groan,’ I wish she wouldn’t do the sneakers, they give me such a belly ache.”
One more example of a story from a dolls perspective about a child’s doll that disappeared and then resurfaced:
Guess where I have been?
I’ve been up in the air on the back of bird.
I was inside the blue sky.
A bee flew past and buzzed in my ear.
Then the bird flew down
and gently put me
right back here.
Blessings to you and yours,
Julliet Lowe
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