Favorite childhood stuffed toys: where are they now?

[Kathryn]

Do you still have yours? Does your husband have his? DH is interested in the female vs. male aspect of people still having them as adults.

 

If there are some sort of extreme circumstances to it being lost along the way (fire?), please mention that. I assume other is for people who didn't have favorite stuffed toys?

[Dory]

My favorite pair still go on my made bed every morning. A couple of other ones that I grew up with were given to my dd. My dh doesn't have his doll or stuffy, but he does still have his baby blanket.

[Danestress]

My husband still had Petey Boy, though I am not sure where he is.

 

I left Frosty in a hotel (broke my heart) and at some point my mother must have thrown Lambus away. She was unsentimental about these things.

[abba12]

Each child in my family got a big bear and big bunny when born. I also have the bunny which should have belonged to my sister who passed away, and my other sister has her bear (well, actually, she was cremated with the bear, which was smaller because it was bought after we knew she was sick and mum wanted to be able to lay it beside her in the hospital cot. sister has an identical one bought at the same time. Its the only thing which calmed her severe seperation anxiety and I happen to know she still cannot sleep, as an adult, without it being at least on the bedside table)

 

Those toys are in my room. I also have an assortment of general favourite stuffed animals which will be passed onto my kids when they get a bit older, though dd1 doesn't seem to care for them, very disinterested in any except her rag doll

 

ETA: dhs family was very unsentimental. Dh never had a special toy

[shawthorne44]

My daughter has several of my dolls.  But, I was never into stuffed animals.  

My husband's mother was an anti-hoarder.  He has NOTHING left from his childhood.  In fact, as a late teenager he bought several of his childhood favorite books at a library sale, that his mother had tossed.  

 

ETA:  I will never forget listening to my father talk to his uncle one time.  My dad's uncle talked about the day that his father (I never heard a good thing said about the man) threw away his teddy bear because "The boy is too old for stuffed animals".  My dad's uncle was in his 60's when they are talking about this.  

[Jenny in Florida]

I have almost no belongings from my own childhood. When I broke off contact with my family of origin, pretty much all of the sentimental stuff stayed with them. I have a couple of small photo albums and a few books, but no toys or stuffed animals.

 

My husband doesn't have his stuffed animals from childhood. However, we do have and cherish some Christmas ornaments from his parents' home and several boxes of books and Beanie Baby-type toys that my mother-in-law collected.

 

I voted "other."

[OhanaBee]

My oldest has the bunny I used to sleep with as a child.  It was in her crib waiting when she came home from the hospital and has been with her ever since.  *Her* daughter was given my dd's favorite teddy bear because "Bummy" is just too fragile now for another generation.

[texasmama]

I have several because my mother was good about keeping things.  Dh has none because his mother was not good about keeping things.

[Mrs Mungo]

Both of us had stuff at our parents' homes. However, my parents' house was hit by a tornado last year, so a lot of things were lost.

[lavender's green]

I have a few favorites, made by my grandma, sitting on a shelf in my closet.  DH might have a couple of things at his parents' house, but I suspect not.

[kewb]

I still have Theodora.  She has been with me since I was a baby.  She lives in dd's room now.  Ds has Artist Bear (I was so original naming my stuffed animals).

I don't think dh ever had a favorite stuffed animal.

[happypamama]

I have a couple of mine still, but mainly because DH gave them to me when we were teens. I don't believe I have any of my actual,ones from childhood, though I do have my handmade Raggedy Ann dolls. (And my mom has my Cabbage Patch Kids, as well as my sister's at her house, where they are dressed in outfits she made for them. I think she has a couple of my other baby dolls too, for the grandkids to play with.). I don't believe DH has any of his childhood stuffed animals. Now, his GI Joes and thirty-year-old Legos. . . We have a lot of those.

[Heather in Neverland]

I don't have any toys from my childhood. When I grew up I gave them all away. I don't get really attached to many things. I have one porcelain doll but it is not really a toy. More of a collector's item. It is over 50 years old and sits in a glass case.

 

My dh also does not have any toys from his childhood. I guess we are just not that sentimental.

[Wheres Toto]

I have a bear I received when I was in the hospital as a child.

Dh has a bunch of stuff from when he was a kid.

Oldest dd has her baby blanket and a few stuffed animals from when she was really young.  In her dorm room at college.

 

I guess we are all sentimental.

[TrixieB]

Dh has his favorite (only?) childhood stuffed toy.

 

I, on the other hand, do not.  I preferred dolls to stuffed toys, but I had a favorite stuffed toy.  My brother wanted it so badly that he damaged it, and my mom made me give it to him because he wanted it so much.  He still has it.  It is no longer fluffy and pretty like it was when it was still mine. :D

[Indian summer]

There may still be one or two of mine lurking in my parents basement. Dh's parents don't have any of his toys. They did, however preserve his sister's bedroom as it was when she was living there and all of her toys were still there until she was about thirty. So, it must be a girl thing.

[Liz CA]

The teddy bear I got when I was 2 years old is sitting with my MIL's other bear collection. From what I hear, he is having a tea party frequently with the other bears and MIL's dolls...dh still has a dragon/porcupine/???? stuffed toy that his mother sewed and stuffed for him. :laugh:  He calls it his Snaffalafagus.

[stripe]

Still have mine!

[gardenmom5]

my overly-influential grandmother believed that anything that wasn't pristine should be gotten rid of. so, I got rid of things long before I was ready to part with them.  I didn't pass that attitude to my kids.

 

1dd is the only one who cares about any of her stuffed toys- and Benjamin p. bear has long been retired to a place of honor on a shelf. (about the time his stuffing started coming out at the seams and the fabric was worn thru.)  as she was packing her room for the move, I noticed she even still had her long used 'baby' blanket.

 

I still have some of the other kids stuffed toys, but they really don't care that much.

 

dudeling has stuffed cats, but he's only nine.

 

I do have a cloth doll of my mother's made by an older Russian lady/neighbor (probably in the mid 1940's).  my grandmother wouldn't let her play with it because it would "ruin" it.  not sure exactly where it is right now.  it was never allowed to be loved by a child.

 

dh does have the electric train set his father bought for him when he was three.  he did have to wait for his father to die to get his hands on it.  ;p  (not a kids toy.)

[Susan in TN]

Snoopy Dog and Gray Puppy are in my clothes closet.

[MomtoCandJ]

Dd1 has my popples that my grandma got for me when I was 5 before she passed away. All other burned in a house fire (the popples was at my great grandma's house). Cali and Juli both have hat boxes from dmil to put keepsakes in. Cali has all the blankets people made for her in her closet (she has 3, 2 crocheted and 1 knitted).

[Upward Journey]

Mine (dolls and stuffed animals) have all been acquired by my children or thrown out.

[umsami]

I lost my favorite stuffed animals after moving so many times in college…but my favorite doll has been passed down to DD.

 

My husband saves everything….in original packaging….but has no favorite stuffed animals.  He does have these little video games from when he was a kid. (That still work perfectly.)

[IsabelC]

We still have some of my childhood toys, and they are used by our kids. No, we don't have any of dh's old things.

However, it's not a male/female thing. It's because while my parents still live in the house I grew up in, and kept things in storage, his parents split up and he had to live in a caravan with his mother for some time, so they didn't keep all the stuff she would have liked to keep. 

[Annie Laurie]

I have all my dolls and a few stuffed animals that I had trouble parting with. My dd happily took the stuffed animals, she loves stuffed animals. (Happily, she still does, at 11.) But she's not one for dolls, so they sit in a box. My husband has plenty of things from his childhood - comic books, other books, and a few games, action figures, and cars. My MIL is a saver though, so not sure dh would have saved them on his own.

 

[Audrey]

Mine was a Pooh bear.  Dh's was a Panda bear.  Ds now has them both. :001_smile:

[Janie Grace]

We both had ours until dh's was destroyed by our puppy. It was a sad, sad day. :(

[foxbridgeacademy]

I had my blue and white bulldog until I was 27.  He got lost during a move along with some other childhood keepsakes.  I'm still broken hearted.  DH lost his baby blanket made by deceased g-mother around same time(I know he had it when he was 22 but it was missing a few years later.)  We weren't very organized back then, lucky we didn't misplace the first  kid before the second came along.

 

DD cherishes her "tiger-baby" doll that she got the Christmas before she was born from my mom, as well as the baby blanket she practically lived in (tried to get her to take a bottle by wrapping her in a blanket that smelled like me.... fail.   Kid NEVER took a bottle.)  DS has his rocks still, he'd pick them up from everywhere around the age of 4.

[Camelfeet]

Mine are long gone.  Who knows where?  

 

My husband's mother might have kept some of his in the attic.  Not sure if that counts, as if I ever get them I'm chucking them out regardless of sentimentality since she's a pack a day smoker.

[BarbecueMom]

Wow, I never had a favorite stuffed animal. I doubt DH had one, either. And my kids don't ever look at the few stuffed animals they have. I'm surprised so many people did and still have them!

[Melissa in Australia]

I don't Dh does sort of, he gave it to one of our children when they were about 5. So it is still kicking around the house somewhere.

[LMD]

DD has the bear that my grandmother gave to my pregnant mother. I never got to meet that grandmother. It was in great condition & DD loves it like i did. Dh had one, it is at his parent's house, the new generation of kids frequently play with it.

[Laura Corin]

Mine exists but it is at my mother's house.  I don't think Husband has one.  When we come to clear out my mother's place, I will probably throw mine away.

 

L

[GSOchristie]

Neither do, but, I just threw dh's away.  His mother, who has never gotten rid of anything in her life, recently passed them on to us.  I, who have never kept anything longer than two years, asked dh if he wanted to keep them, he said no, so I threw them away.  So they made it 35 years until they got to our house ;).

 

[Donna]

I have 3 of my favorite childhood stuffed animals. One is an old teddy bear...my first stuffed animal ever given to me by my grandmother when I was born and it sits on a shelf with antiques. The other two are from when I was closer to a teen and they are in my daughter's room sitting on her dresser.

[Amethyst]

I only remember having one stuffed animal as a child. It was a white dog with red ears. A few years after I married, my mom gave it to me. I think she had done some minor repairs on his ears. Since then each of my kids have "owned" him, ie slept with him. I have had to do many many many repairs on him over the years. He is no longer white. He is almost entirely covered with patches of various calico materials. He is quite fragile. He's over 50 years old now. My youngest is 13 and no longer sleeps with him but he sits on her bookshelf. 

[Onceuponatime]

I have one of mine, just by chance. My mother was a purger and would get rid of anything she thought I didn't need at the drop of a hat, while I was at school. My stuffed animals didn't have a chance. Except...fast forward to adulthood. When I was at my aunt's house she handed me a little stuffed red horse that my mother had made for me when I was an infant. Apparently, I had left it at my grandmother's (father's mom)house and my grandmother kept things her grandchildren left as mementos of them. She would display them at Christmas every year. I didn't know this until after she passed away. We were only able to see her about once every 3 years because we always lived too far away. So, I've got the red horse and it comes out at Christmas as more of a reminder of my Grandmother than my mom.

 

Dh did not have stuffed animals growing up, but he did have G.I. Joes. His sister sold most of his belongings when he left home for the Navy.

 

I think we are both unscarred, for the most part. :)  However, this has made me Very sympathetic to my children's love for their possessions. I try not to make them part with anything they feel they can not live without. All three at home still have stuffed animals, some that belonged to their two older siblings. My daughter still has some of hers that her son now has. My oldest son dispersed all his at the age of 14 and never looked back.

[Happy]

After I became a teen, it seemed my 'lambie' was gone. My mom tossed a lot of stuff, so I figured the stuffed lamb was one of them. I honestly didn't remember missing her until I had kids myself.  A few years after my mom died, we sold her house. I inherited a ton of stuff...so much we stored it in our garage while I sifted through it all. One sunny Sunday afternoon, I found a metal box--actually a metal box made to hold a Craftsman skil saw. My family likes tools so that's what I figured was inside.

 

Silly me. I opened it and white fabric spilled out. My mother's wedding dress (simple, tea length satin)...a small swatch of fabric came next. Doll clothes...I was so small at birth, I wore doll clothes. (No preemie outfits back then) Then tucked into the bottom was my lambie. I went from smiling and laughing to weeping in less than 30 seconds.

 

Very precious! I could imagine my mom packing all those things away for me.

 

So yes, I have my favorite stuffed animal from childhood. My husband doesn't have much at all from his childhood. (sigh) My children (in their 20s) have their favorite stuffed bears in my back closet. Someday these sons might be mature and responsible enough for me to hand the bears over to them for safe keeping. Maybe. ;)

[MysteryJen]

Dh doesn't have any and doesn't remember having a favorite. I only have my dolls (Madame Alexander baby dolls). My girls never really played with them, so they are packed away (restored and lovely) for my grandchildren.

[LucyStoner]

My lovie was a yellow metal Tonka truck. I don't still have it. I think I opted not to bring it on one of our moves when I was about 7. I also had this ornate knitted blanket that I threw away when I realized my mom's mom had made it. There was no love lost between me and her, ever.

[HS Mom in NC]

Neither of us kept any childhood toys into adulthood.

[readwithem]

Llama the Lamb is in my closet.  She hasn't spoken to me since I cut her tongue out for talking too much when I was about 3.

[Luanne]

I voted other since I don't have a husband.  I do still have some of my childhood stuffed toys.  I would have more if my second husband hadn't got rid of them behind my back.  I had a bear my father gave me when I was about 10 and a doll my great grandmother made for my grandmother to play with.  He felt like he had a right to get rid of these items to hurt me.  Anyway.... I still have a stuffed striped cat and my Drowsy doll from when I was ages 4-6.

[WishboneDawn]

I have Ernie from Sesame Street. All my others were thrown out by mistake when I was a teenager. I never was a kid that caredaa ton for stuffed animals so Ernie is tucked away somewhat, treasured but never cuddled our anything.

 

I did have one important animal and that was Rowlf from The Muppets. Each of the kids in my family got a Muppet one Christmas and they were sort of our family totems. :) Unfortunately they were all tossed out by mistake in that one great tragedy. But as an adult my one brother found the Scooter he had owned on EBay. Then he found and sent me the Rowlf doll. Then I found the Kermit doll my other brother had had had at a thrift store and finally a couple of years ago I found the Fozzie that my sister had had. I have it to her at Xmas and it had special meaning because my brother had passed away two years previous and she had his Scooter.

 

None of us are sentimental in regards to stuffed animals but the Muppets are special to ask of us regardless of gender.