ACOT Message Board

As most of you know, I am hispanic and I have "tan" skin, dark eyes and hair. I'm married to a fair skinned, blue eyed, blondish guy.  Two of our kids look like him (skin & eye color) and one takes after me.  I have been thinking for awhile that I'd like the girls to have baby dolls of different colors, not just fair/pinkish color skin, which is all they have now.Our Family Dollar has the Cabbage Patch Babies on sale for $9.99 right now but all they had in stock were 8 of the darker skin colored dolls. I have already gotten Danni a baby doll that is fair skinned, and I'm trying to decide if I should take it back to get one from the dollar store. The big box store that I was shopping at had NO baby dolls of color at all, thats why I picked up the one that I did, it looks like a CP knock-off but cuter.  Is it wrong to have different ethnic baby dolls? I think I really want them to have one, but what if they take them out in public? Is it going to be offensive that my child and her baby doll don't "match"? These days I guess anything can be offensive to someone. I know that when I was little, I had 4 Barbie Dolls, and 3 were the typical blonde dolls. One was the Hawian Barbie that had tan skin and long black hair, and brown eyes like me, and that was my favorite one, not the others.  In stores around here, atleast the ones that I go to, you mainly find Caucasian baby dolls and a few African American dolls, but I've never found a Hispanic one. Am I thinking too much on this? My kids probably won't care one way or the other anyway. They are aware that we have all different shades of skin in our family, and Erynn draws us that way also when she colors, but I'm not sure if they would be aware of it when they are playing.Ok, discuss....

Marcy, I don't think it's wrong at all!  There are hundreds of thousands of families that have children of different ethnicities, either their own or adopted. I can't believe anyone would be offended by such a thing.  But, then again this modern day America we're talking about.   

Oh, I forgot to say I think you should buy it!

Ok, and how should I handle it when the 3 yr old asks to pay with the "chocolate" baby......"'cuz, you know Mom, that is the same color as chocolate milk...which comes from chocolate cows."  

I have a very mixed nationality line so my parents always bought me all the different dolls. I had black, white, asian, red head and the blonde/white. I remember having jealous friends because my doll collection was more exotic than theirs.

LOL, Marcy!  You handle it the same way my mother did when my brother was 3 and loudly announced in Kroger, "Look mom, a chocolate baby!"  You die of embarrassment and quietly tell him that is not polite to say....I think it is great to buy different ethnicity dolls.  That is part of your family and it is part of the world.

I say go for it, nothing wrong with it in my eyes,  my niece and nephew are both biracial, and not darked skinned but as my boys call it "brown".  I believe in our school district they are taught people are not black persay they are brown, and thats what I go with as well.  The boys have never said to me or asked me why thier cousins are black, they just dont see it like that nor do I.  I dont know if what I am teaching them is correct in everyones eyes, but I have to be opened minded about it, my family does have to deal with these issues often from very judgemental and cruel people.   My youngest Austin also picks up my nieces dolls that are "brown" and plays with them just the same as her pink skinned dolls lol, so and yes my 3 year plays with her dolls and yes hes a boy.  That an different subject of course lol, his dad says I shouldnt allow that, well bite me if more boys played with dolls they might grow up to be more motherly lol.HUGS

I made a business for myself this way!  I sew ethnic dolls because it's so hard to find dolls that aren't "white ones painted darker shades".  My target?  School counselors who needed dolls that matched their kids!Buy different dolls.  In fact, people should buy different dolls regardless of which ethnic makeup their kids have!

Liam has an african-american boy rag doll that he found at Dollar General.  He LOVED that doll!  He was only like 18 months when he found it and he carried it around a lot until he was 3.  I still catch him sleeping with him sometimes.   I think you should buy whatever you want, and if anyone ever says anything, use my favorite line:  "Why would you ask that?" or "Why do you want to know?" 

I definitely think it is okay....Billy, Elijanna, and I are all "really white" LOL  .eli has dolls of all different ethinicities.  I think it is important for her to be exposed to as many ethnicities as possible.  I don't want her to have the same prejudices that a lot of people have.

Get the dolls.

My first thought was that people often adopt children of different races - and your child can say that they adopted their 'babies'. 

If a kid asks why the doll is 'chocolate' you can just say that dolls, like people, come in many different colors and shapes and sizes.      

Remember the song from Sunday School   

Jesus loves the little childrenall the children of the worldred and yellow, black and white,they are precious in His sight.  

DH gave me some money so I went and got one.  Her name is Karlie Nadia and her b-day is Aug 9th...closest one I could find to Danni's b-day.  I had about half a dozen differnt hair styles to choose from, so I go the one with straight black hair. I'm sure she's going to love it!

Good for you, Marcy!My dd has always been drawn to the ethnic dolls and we have all kinds.  My personal favorite is the boy Hispanic CPK doll whose name is Virgil.  Rebekah is 4 and still never mentions or seems to notice skin color so we never point it out either...I'm sure in time those discussions will come.

My sister's name is Erynne, pronounced Erin. I rarely see it spelled with a "y".Ok, on to the important stuff. I do think kids are more likely to identify with toys that look like them. At the same time if they already have a doll that resembles them, why not have another that doesn't?Our stores around here are full of dolls of different ethnicities which is a good thing seeing as we are all different.

Marcy, I'm glad you chose to buy the doll.  I hate that your area doesn't have so many different choices of dolls in different skin tones for the different nationalities.  Here in Texas, you can find white, brown, darker brown, slightly darker white, and what nationalities are these dolls?  Anglo-Saxon, Latino, Black or for you that prefer to use the term "African-American" (I personally don't like that term, because just because someone's skin color is a darker shade of brown does not make them of "African decent"), and Asian...So, to the point I was going to make, I've got brown skin--I'm Black (Creole-American Indian to be exact; hence the reason I've always selected other on those stupid questionnaires that list "African-American"); anyways, I always had all different colors of dolls growing up, and I was raised that color didn't matter--just like Queen Mum and a few other have said...  a doll is a doll, and with that said, just to show you that children don't care, I have become close friends with a lady in Sweden (she and I are so much alike, we could be twins from different moms!!)  She has two little girls, and you figure people in Sweden don't see darker skin-toned people every day.  Her children (two girls; 2 and 5 yrs old) are used to seeing me on the webcam, and I chat with them from time to time.  They think nothing of it; so two things... once while they were out, the question arrised because they saw a Black person there in Sweden, and were amazed!!  That's when she realized that they thought I wasn't real--black people weren't real, so when they saw this person, they said "Mommy, people don't come in Brown color"... so she explained to them that they do, and she told them that the person was just like "Elise"... well, that's when they told her that "Elise wasn't real, she was just on the computer"...    When she told me that, I was rolling!!  But on to the rest of the story, the youngest one was out with the grandmother shopping and she wanted a new doll... do you know what color doll she selected?  Yep, the brown one.  (a really beautiful baby doll at that)... but out of all the dolls she could have chosen, she picked a brown one, and apparently it's become her favorite doll... we won't know why, because she's only 2, almost 3... but children just like to play, and I think it's important to have a real sampling of dolls, just like the sampling of our population.I know I'll have to deal with something like this when we have children, because my husband is of Latin-American decent; he's first generation American born to Salvadorian parents... so... being a bi-racial couple, do we buy Black dolls or Latino dolls?  I plan to buy everything... all colors.  My niece even has a "Dora" doll, which of course, Dora is Latina and speaks Spanish... but then she also has other colored dolls as well, some that look like her with the darker skin-tone, and others that are white to represent White America...We buy what is cute... no matter what color... I think that makes better grown-ups... and opens the minds of the child as it grows and allows them to form their own opinions...  BTW, if you ever need a different nationality doll, let me know... Texas isn't as prejudice as most people think, and the toys reflect that!  I hope you continue to mix up the dolls, but I think if you get a chance, let the child choose; sometimes you might be surprised!! 

Sarah has white and African American dolls...and hispanic

I'm half tempted to just give Dannica the doll now instead of waiting until Christmas because she has been tormenting Leanna by stealing "her" baby doll. There are all kinds of other dolls and stuffed animals in this house, why does she have to have the same one as her sister??????  This is going to go on for years, isn't it?

This is going to go on for years, isn't it?Yes. It is.  And once they each have one they don't want to play with it anymore.

It is so nice to read that other people think it is good to buy all different ethnic dolls. I love that.  We don't have many (well any) dollas at my house with my boys, but they are biracial.  I am white and dh is Jamaican, so Black.  Saying black doesn't offend him because he is Jamaican.  Not African American.  Anyways I think it supports acceptance and love when we allow our children to be exposed to different cultures and beliefs and skin colors.   It sounds like you are all doing a great job at this!

I think it's great that there are dolls at your house.