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A Tomboy Mom with Barbie-Doll Daughters
By Michaele Birney Arneson

March 1, 2003







Polly Pocket!®

As a kid, catching tadpoles in the lake and digging potatoes from the garden absolutely fascinated me, and I was much more comfortable wearing cleats and a catcher’s mask than I was in a dress and stockings.

So when my first child, a daughter, was born, I wondered what I would do if she developed a passion for hair ribbons, shiny shoes and the color pink. Or dolls. What would I do if she liked dolls?

Now, with three daughters in the house, dolls have become an integral part of our family’s life. For example, our youngest daughter, nearly six, is “mom” to an assortment of baby dolls. She spends hours—entire days—dressing them, undressing them and dressing them again; taking them on walks through the house; and occasionally giving them baths in the sink (we hope it’s the sink). Our youngest son, five, often plays “dad” to her menagerie, and sometimes one can find all five of our children parading around the house, “walking their children.” One of their children is a baby doll that once belonged to me as child, handed down from my mother. The kids don’t seem to mind that the fingers were chewed off many years ago.


Diva Starz™

Our middle daughter is the type I feared. Her room is so pink it glows into the hallway, and even at eight years old, her primary interest is fashion. Fortunately, I’m still able to direct that interest into her growing assembly of dolls and accessories from the lines of Barbie®, Diva Starz™ and Polly Pocket!®. Maybe someday I’ll be able to share my own secret collection with her—dolls representing a variety of different countries dressed in their traditional garb—acquired for me by my father as he traveled the world.

Even our oldest daughter, now 11, has a continued interest in dolls spurred on by her adoption of “Kit,” one in the line of American Girl dolls. Through Kit, she’s learning about significant time periods in America’s history and developing a healthy self-image at the same time. Not only is she able to participate with the younger girls as they play house or dress-up their dolls, but I’m also able to use Kit to introduce her to more mature activities, such as designing and sewing doll outfits.

I’ve enjoyed this journey through doll-dom with my daughters, enough to realize that I wasn’t entirely the tomboy I choose to remember.

 


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