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What do you think about spending $100+ on a doll?
I think it is horrible.
The worst part is that it teaches kids to want to look like a perfect American Girl. It is much worse than a Barbie, since they know they cannot be like Barbie who looks like a shiksa. The American girl is within our hasagos, so the pull is much stronger.
Also, it is perfectly snobby. Have you ever see a kid allow another kid to play with it who didn’t have one.
Whats it any different than spending $800 on a bugaboo stroller?
I buy them for my nieces when they turned 4 because I always wanted one as a child, but would never ask my mother to spend $89 on a doll! But for my nieces, I can splurge.
PBA, yes my grandchildren share their dolls, especially the “twins”. In addition the American Girl Doll is not a new phenomenon, it has been around for at least two generations. I was surprised to find that out because my daughter didn’t know about it when she was a kid and neither did I, but I have recently found out that today’s young mothers have brought their dolls out of storage and have given them to their daughters!
So a doll that lasts for decades is worth the money you pay for it. In addition, the hair does NOT go bad, it can be redone and brought back to life so that the doll looks brand new over and over again. These dolls become a friend for life, that is the life of the children in your home and can then be handed down to the grandchildren. And YOU don’t have to buy more than one if you don’t choose to, but you can buy the accessories, story books, etc which keeps the kids interested in this doll for a very long time.
The store is a magnificent place to visit and it is a trip onto itself. My “girls”, daughter and daughters-in-law and their friends stopped buying junk for the kids birthday gifts at birthday parties and instead they collect money amongst themselves so that the “girls” choose something from the store if they wish to add to their collection. The kids learn the value of money, they learn that they can’t just get whatever they want or whine to their parents that they want something, they look in the magazine and think about what they would love to have in the future and when they “earn” money through gifts, chanukah, purim, etc. they spend their money on what they are “wanting”. My granddaughter (5) needed glasses but didn’t like wearing them, so one of their doctor friends picked up a pair of glasses for her doll too!
My husband and I took our “girls” daughter, 2 daughters-in-law, 7 granddaughters, one grandson and one son (who was enthralled) for our Chanuka trip. My husband was the sport, one doll each (except for the baby), and the “girls” bought one outfit for one other family to share as a chanuka present, and they bought one thing for their own kids. We also watched them at the “salon” as they redid old doll’s hair and made them look new again. First they washed the faces and the hands to make them clean and then they made the hair look like new again. They also have a “hospital” for broken dolls to do repairs.
As for our grandchildren, two of them chose the Jewish doll Rebecca, and the others chose dolls that looked like “them”. With American Girl, you don’t try to look like the doll, you choose one that looks like you! These dolls are much better than Barbie because THESE dolls are KIDS, babies, toddlers and little girls, who dress like babies, toddlers and little kids, so our children play like children and not like little adults.
Why in the world do you think its worse than Barbie?? I have never seen one Barbie doll that i would let in my house. The American doll is not shapey at all. You can get plenty of normal looking outfits for it. What snobby about it? Like Real Brisker said its not any more snobby than a 800 dollar carriage. It is definately more expensive than a regular doll but the arm isnt going to fall off and the hair isnt going to shed all over your house. It isnt such a big deal. A nice lego set nowadays is just as expensive.
I’m with RealBrisker and Best Ima; AG dolls are a “balbatishe” roll model… a far cry from the blonde shiksa, with her shagetz boyfriend
They must be popular cause all the organisations include it in their Chinese Auctions!!
Wouldn’t buy one for my kids!!
Best Ima:
My contention is that the Barbie is not a role model, since our kids know they are not a shiksa.
The american girl is totally within their realm, and teaches them to be vain about their looks and to need to look like the perfect american girl
Popa i hear you. IMHO though i dont think american doll is really about looks. It doesnt have hair down to the floor or a shapey figure. Its a doll that the girls dress up and play with. All girls like to play mommy & dress up & im very makpid with what i bring into the house for the kids especially when it comes to dolls but i didnt feel this would be something to worry about chinuch-wise when i bought it.
poster – wow how did you have so much money at such a young age?
When I was about ten, my sisters and I would each receive coupons every time we did our job (cleaning up the kitchen, setting the table…). Every coupon was worth about $0.25. After a year we had saved up enough coupons for each of us to buy an American Girl. Let me tell you – not only did it make us want to do our jobs, it also taught us the value of money and of earning and saving it!
We would play with them for hours on end…Now my little sisters have mine and my older sister has kept hers in perfect condition and is saving it for her own kids!
blueberry muffin thats a beautiful idea! I did that with my daughter thats how she got her american doll. Now that she got it she uses her “dollars” to save up for different accessories for the doll. I just wish we could go with the 25 cent coupon that worked 20 years ago with my older kids. Nowadays its a dollar coupon. Otherwise by the time she got her doll shed be using it for her children!
No one tries to look like an American Girl Doll as I said earlier, the idea is to find one that looks like YOU! There is Rebecca the Jewish one, there are Indian dolls, black dolls, dolls with different color hair, eyes, skin, freckles, etc. There are babies, twins (the next step) and the regular dolls. The accessories and books are also age-wise and they tell you what is appropriate for different ages. The girl dolls don’t have boyfriends, they have girlfriends so they are a wholesome and quite “kosher” atmosphere. They are quality products and the company stands behind them. The kids really value them and take very good care of them.
The products they sell are returnable if they break so they will fix it or replace it, which has happened with the stroller. The accessories are not that more expensive than buying other similar products.
popa-
I also think that it is an insane amount of money to spend on a doll, but your reasoning is wrong. Have you ever seen an American girl doll? They are far from perfect. They have a mushy body, which means they have no figure, and also they have spaces between their teeth! What is so perfect about that, that girl are trying to emulate?
I still can’t understand why people “need to have it”, and at that price! American girl must have had a really good marketing group when they did it.
my daughter & I thought it was excessive when her mother-in-law spent $55 on a doll for my 3 yr old granddaughter’s birthday recently. IMHO
It is a lot of money to spend, but it’s the only doll that we have that actually lasts! my 16 year old daughters doll got passed down to my younger daughter, & she is all excited-mid winter vacation, I will take her to get the hair redone, & a new outfit. For her it will be like getting a new doll!
Is there really such a social pressure to get an american girl…? My mindset was always that if you have the money and feel it would be beneficial – then go ahead an buy it. If you cannot afford it – don’t buy it!
But I guess if it’s a pressure even for those who cannot afford it – then it is a bit ridiculous…
Popa: You are so right! It is a naveil birshus hatorah. I do not allow them into my home. A relative offered to buy one for my daughter and I did not allow it.
A guest post from Popa’s brother:
There is a very strong case against the American Girl doll. This is a long discussion let’s begin.
#1. Whereas, conventional dolls that children play with foster many good middos, among them caring for a baby, playing with a baby, and the like, the American Girl is an unfortunate opposite.
Children live vicariously through this doll and imagine themselves indulging in all kinds of vanity. It engenders selfish attitudes, and a fantasy of pursuit of physical pleasures.
The “American girl doll” henceforth referred to as “Nuvul B’rshus Hatorah” or NBH is and always will be aptly named.
It is about as muttar as marrying a fat girl. I can’t convince you that its assur, but I’m not doing it and pity the gehenom of the guy who convinced you to.
I don’t think the NBH doll is so bad.
I don’t see any problem with the dolls.
They definitely don’t promote any untznius ideas or perfection in looks.
I think it’s amazing for children’s imagination and fantasy. It makes play life come so real.
I can understand why people wouldn’t spend such high amounts on a doll, but that’s already an individual opinion as to where you want to spend your money.
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