What is it about kids disrobing & dismembering dolls??

Australia
August 30, 2010 5:56am CST
My daughter is 3 & no matter which doll she gets given, she has to take the clothes off them...she also has 2 particular dolls where she keeps dismambering them...1 lives in the bath as it's a bath toy & the other one is outside in the backyard I think & none of her limbs are attached & who knows where the limbs are. Why do children have to constantly do this?
2 responses
• Pamplona, Spain
30 Aug 10
Hiya moonchild, I suppose it must be part of the story that they are living out in their imagination. Even though they do take the Doll´s legs and arms off. I can´t imagine what kind of Story but mine never took any of their He-Men toy to pieces they always used to bring them to me to fix them when the leg of He-Man was getting loose and things like that. Perhaps it´s some kind of new fad they have on them and they will outgrow it. Then they might take to not pulling the Dolls apart and taking care of them. You never know with Children they have such imagination. I used to listen to mine making up their own Stories when they were playing with Soldiers and other things. They invented no end of Stories between themselves. I don´t know how they do it we have lost that capability I think.
• Australia
30 Aug 10
My daughter makes up her own stories & games by herself but I would hate to think what the game is when the dolls are dismembered.
• Pamplona, Spain
31 Aug 10
Hiya moon, As maximax says below your child is discovering what she can do that´s all. Maybe it´s just part of her Story. I don´t think that that is bad at all. After all mine used to invent Stories with their Soldiers but they were hardly Fairy Tale Stories either. They used to have combats by the minute in those games good job it was not for real.
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
30 Aug 10
Young girls aged 3 and a bit older are exploring objects. They like to have the ability to take on and off the dolls clothing. They like to be able to pull off the limbs and then the doll is still normal for them. When I was a little girl I loved my dolls. I used to try trimming the dolls hair. I think young children are imaginative and like to learn what they can do with different objects. Your daughter sounds perfectly normal.
• Australia
30 Aug 10
I'm glad my daughter sounds normal! I never did anything like that...I was the sort of child who looked after my stuff.