What is with this recent trend of having a stuffed animal.....

[DawnM]

and naming it, and taking it around with you everywhere you go and giving it a personality and have it say things?

I have several FB friends who have such things.  One grown man has a stuffed buffalo named Marty and his job requires a lot of travel.  He takes pics of Marty and posts, "Marty enjoying the view from the Sears Tower" or "Marty getting ready to board the plane" or "Marty says he won't go on the Eiffle tower because he won't go on anything that is called I fell!"

Is this odd or is it just me?

[Jean in Newcastle]

It's like a Flat Stanley game, I think.  Just a way to show where you've gone and what you are doing in a lighthearted way. 

[scholastica]

I, luckily, have not seen this. That’s so strange.

[vonfirmath]

Sounds like an outgrowth of Flat Stanley and similar programs that kids do.

 

So maybe more attempts by adults to not grow up or, at least, keep some of their childhood as they grow up.

 

[Arctic Bunny]

Sounds like someone trying to become popular on social media!

[Rachel]

I agree I thought it was a spin-off if Flat Stanley. I thought people who did it were usually doing it for their young kids. My husband once took a stuffed animal to work with him after one of the kids kept asking if they could go to work. He texted them pictures throughout the day, he didn’t put anything on Facebook though. 

[marbel]

I know one person who does it.  For her, it's to share her travels with family and friends in a fun way.  It's very low on my list of social media annoyances.  (And I have a lot, LOL.)

[Pronghorn]

I am delighted to hear this is a trend. And I just thought I had an unusual daughter.

[DawnM]

7 minutes ago, marbel said:

I know one person who does it.  For her, it's to share her travels with family and friends in a fun way.  It's very low on my list of social media annoyances.  (And I have a lot, LOL.)

 

These are grown men, and they have their animals say things.....that are supposed to be cute, but that you know they made up.  I guess it is an annoyance for me.  If it were their daughter or they had young kids, maybe, but the ones I am seeing have no young kids and no grandkids.

[Caroline]

One of our school bus drivers does this on breaks. He has a stuffed bear that rides on his bus all the time. The elementary school on his route has a bear as it’s mascot. When he travels, he tweets pictures of himself and and the bear and hashtags them so the kids can follow them. He has won several bus driver awards. The kids love it. 

[DawnM]

2 minutes ago, Caroline said:

One of our school bus drivers does this on breaks. He has a stuffed bear that rides on his bus all the time. The elementary school on his route has a bear as it’s mascot. When he travels, he tweets pictures of himself and and the bear and hashtags them so the kids can follow them. He has won several bus driver awards. The kids love it. 

 

I could see that.  He works with kids, it is for the kids.  That makes sense to me.

[Guest]

We have a family stuffed frog that my DD bought at a gift shop years baxk -and immediately afterwards, my mother tripped and broke her elbow. DD decided the frog was responsible, and since then, DH has left notes and done things with the frog, kind of like Elf on the Shelf (and when we were with my nieces over Christmas, the frog would often appear with whatever the elf was doing-DH seems to take a lot of delight in that kind of thing)-and he does take the frog when he travels to send pictures to DD. It isn’t shared on social media, but we have a lot of pictures of that frog in our photo directory. 

Edited June 26, 2019 by dmmetler

[maize]

Seems entirely harmless, I have no objection to adults bring playful.

Way back when I was in college I knew not one but two male college students who carried small stuffed animals in their shirt pockets wherever they went. It was a conversation starter I think.

[Garga]

I grew up in an odd household.  There were some bad parts of my odd household, but there were also nice parts, too.  The nice part is that my family embraced allowing people to be different and to be playful.  

It’s silly but it’s very harmless.  It probably makes him feel happy to make up these goofy things for his stuffed to “do” and “say.”  I would never rain on someone’s parade over something this innocent.

[Tanaqui]

Maybe it's odd, but who cares? Let people do what they like, and you do what you like.

[Ottakee]

I had never heard of that personally...but I am at a local concert in the park thing tonight....free concert featuring local band at a local park.  There is a lady here dancing with a stuffed raccoon . She has on a ball cap with coon tails hanging over each ear too.   So maybe it is a thing???

[Shoeless]

I think people are a) bored and b) still struggling how to fit social media into their lives.  It results in trends like this that are sometimes funny and sometimes weird. 

[May]

I’ve never seen this but my first thought was “Flat Stanley” for adults. I have to admit, my daughter and I did FS for one of her friend’s kids. We had a blast😊 It seems harmless enough😊

[DawnM]

1 hour ago, Tanaqui said:

Maybe it's odd, but who cares? Let people do what they like, and you do what you like.

 

It's ok to not like something someone else does.  I don't care enough to unfriend or hide them, but I do find it odd and that is ok.  We all have things we find odd that maybe others don't.  

[ktgrok]

I know at least two authors that take stuffed animals to conferences, book signings, etc. It's a game to get a photo with the animal. But, I also know that part of the allure of doing this is that instead of the author posing for photos, they have fans take photos of the stuffed animal. If you have body image issues, or are not thrilled with your face on social media, it's a clever way to still interact with the fans, be on social media, and yet not have your own photo taken. Could the men also be doing this - rather than take a selfie at a landmark, they take a photo of the stuffed animal at the landmark. Still shows they were there, and is "cute" but if they are not happy with their appearance or what not it lets them off the hook. 

[DawnM]

Just now, Ktgrok said:

I know at least two authors that take stuffed animals to conferences, book signings, etc. It's a game to get a photo with the animal. But, I also know that part of the allure of doing this is that instead of the author posing for photos, they have fans take photos of the stuffed animal. If you have body image issues, or are not thrilled with your face on social media, it's a clever way to still interact with the fans, be on social media, and yet not have your own photo taken. Could the men also be doing this - rather than take a selfie at a landmark, they take a photo of the stuffed animal at the landmark. Still shows they were there, and is "cute" but if they are not happy with their appearance or what not it lets them off the hook. 

 

I don't think so, there are plenty of photos of them as well.  

[happi duck]

I have never seen this but think it sounds cute!

I appreciate that Marty still calls it the Sears Tower! 😜 

Eta: our church and others have a character one is encouraged to take photos of and share them

Edited June 27, 2019 by happi duck

[SKL]

I haven't seen this, but is it like those gnomes people used to photograph a long time ago?

I think it's a cute idea.  I have done some of it with my kids' doll and bear - mostly to try to get the kids into a better mood.  😛  My sister always comments on my photos with the bear / doll in them, even though I don't always notice they are there.

[TABmom]

I've never seen adults without kids doing this. But our co-op has a stuffed dog that rotates to people's houses, the idea being that the kids take a picture of it and write about what they did with the dog. It's kind of fun. There's a little scrapbook by the end of the year.

[AmandaVT]

I have seen one person in my area doing this and he has a giant, almost life sized, really realistic stuffed tiger that he keeps in the back of his convertible. The first time I saw it, I totally thought it was real! 

[Lecka]

Maybe they do it for some young relatives?  My kids would have loved that when they were younger, if an aunt or uncle or cousin did it.  

[Laurie]

1 hour ago, DawnM said:

 

It's ok to not like something someone else does.  I don't care enough to unfriend or hide them, but I do find it odd and that is ok.  We all have things we find odd that maybe others don't.  

I'm not involved with fb so I wouldn't know if that's a trend.  But I can tell you that seeing a man alone in a public place carrying a stuffed animal around and posing with it...that would make me think he could be hanging around and using the stuffed animal as a child lure.  (I heard someone on a tv show who taught people about protecting kids from child abduction and what kinds of "child lures" are used to get  victims to go with them.)

"Marty getting punched in the face by some kid's mother"

 

 

 

[Lecka]

When I was a child my family used to receive postcards from relatives and then we would look at the location on a map or globe.  But they had to send the postcards to me, my cousin, etc.  This would be so much easier.  

Part of me is thinking “maybe I will start doing this someday.”  If my oldest niece has a baby, maybe I would like to do it.   Or maybe I would stick to postcards.  

Edit:  at this point I am on Facebook only to keep in touch with relatives, and maybe I would make a group and only have those pictures be for relatives.  It would probably be a good idea.  

Edited June 27, 2019 by Lecka

[Momto6inIN]

5 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

I have not seen this "trend" but I am not a part of social media beyond this and one or two other message boards.  

 

BUT....I have to say....a few years ago, I worked at CVS.  CVS carried a lot of Pillow Pets around Christmastime.  A LOT of pillow pets.  And I worked nights.  Sometimes overnight.  And, it was pretty boring.  So.........yeah.  Many nights I would dig the least cuddly/cute Pillow Pet out of the bin, fold it up to make it's animal (if you or your kids have a pillow pet, you know what I mean.)  and then walk around with it under my arm.  In the stupid/silly hours of the morning, I would totally name him "squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my squishy."  But I blame boredom and getting slap happy at 1am, rather than any sort of social media.  No one took pics lol.  

Picturing this actually happening makes me so happy 😊

[Tanaqui]

1 hour ago, Laurie said:

I'm not involved with fb so I wouldn't know if that's a trend.  But I can tell you that seeing a man alone in a public place carrying a stuffed animal around and posing with it...that would make me think he could be hanging around and using the stuffed animal as a child lure.  (I heard someone on a tv show who taught people about protecting kids from child abduction and what kinds of "child lures" are used to get  victims to go with them.)

"Marty getting punched in the face by some kid's mother"

 

Child abduction by strangers is really rare, especially of pre-adolescents.

Also, I can tell you from experience that you don't need to be the weird person with the stuffed animal to attract kids. Just get a dog.

[Joker]

1 hour ago, Laurie said:

I'm not involved with fb so I wouldn't know if that's a trend.  But I can tell you that seeing a man alone in a public place carrying a stuffed animal around and posing with it...that would make me think he could be hanging around and using the stuffed animal as a child lure.  (I heard someone on a tv show who taught people about protecting kids from child abduction and what kinds of "child lures" are used to get  victims to go with them.)

"Marty getting punched in the face by some kid's mother"

 

 

 

This makes me sad. Dh travels a bit for work. Once our dog put his favorite toy in dh's open suitcase while we slept. Dh didn't find out until security. He then went nuts (and it was the cutest thing ever!). Dh took pictures and videos of that toy everywhere, including the middle of the road and the security checkpoints. He filmed and took pics of that stupid toy while he was eating, driving, working, and at the airport. After he was home, he edited it and showed it to us and it is something our kids will remember forever. It was awesome! I truly think most people are good and it's ok for a man to have a stuffed animal. 

[J-rap]

It's a little unusual but it sounds like it's just a trend and a way to have some fun and be a little creative.  

[scoutingmom]

Well, it was just when dh was a truck driver, and it was mostly for the kids...

 

He picked up a small rock from the Rocky Mountains.  Called it "Chip" and did occasionally take pictures of Chip at various places.  (His brother / Driving Partner had one named "Rocky")

Chip rode around in our glove compartment for years after my dh got a non-driving job.  I think Chip is gone now though.

[pitterpatter]

Perhaps the guy wants to share his travels but is camera shy, so he uses the stuffed animal as a stand in?

[GailV]

One of the female scientists I follow on Twitter does this when she goes to various research conferences, and it never really struck me one way or the other -- it's just something she chooses to do with her time. Putting pictures on Twitter does make it more likely that people will look at what you're posting, so maybe there's aspect of making sure people are aware that female scientists who are going out and doing interesting things actually exist.

I don't know if I've ever actually seen a picture of her.  I've no doubt she posted that sort of thing regularly she would be deluged with crappy messages about her body and looks because there are tons of people just waiting for an opportunity to pull that sort of nonsense.

Also, tangentially, following female scientists on social media is great.

[DawnM]

36 minutes ago, pitterpatter said:

Perhaps the guy wants to share his travels but is camera shy, so he uses the stuffed animal as a stand in?

 

No, plenty of pictures of the actual guys on their pages.

[Familia]

7 hours ago, scoutingmom said:

Well, it was just when dh was a truck driver, and it was mostly for the kids...

 

He picked up a small rock from the Rocky Mountains.  Called it "Chip" and did occasionally take pictures of Chip at various places.  (His brother / Driving Partner had one named "Rocky")

Chip rode around in our glove compartment for years after my dh got a non-driving job.  I think Chip is gone now though.

Now, Pet Rocks...that is a whole ‘nother thing - not even close! 😉

(unfulfilled childhood longing here)

[TravelingChris]

16 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

I have not seen this "trend" but I am not a part of social media beyond this and one or two other message boards.  

 

BUT....I have to say....a few years ago, I worked at CVS.  CVS carried a lot of Pillow Pets around Christmastime.  A LOT of pillow pets.  And I worked nights.  Sometimes overnight.  And, it was pretty boring.  So.........yeah.  Many nights I would dig the least cuddly/cute Pillow Pet out of the bin, fold it up to make it's animal (if you or your kids have a pillow pet, you know what I mean.)  and then walk around with it under my arm.  In the stupid/silly hours of the morning, I would totally name him "squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my squishy."  But I blame boredom and getting slap happy at 1am, rather than any sort of social media.  No one took pics lol.  

We got a pillow pet for one of our daughters when we were travelling and she forgot her pillow.  It was easier to stop at CVS and get it versus trying to find a store that sells regular pillows and then finding a very soft pillowcase.  She does not post it on social media.  She did post a photo of a Star Wars character doll  kind of thing with some accessory she fashioned on her own (knitting, sewing, can't remember which it was)   but that was kind of different.  I think she posted to Instagram and she is not looking for followers- just her friends and part of her family.

[Janeway]

My son did it last year, the oldest. I just thought back to when I was in high school and teens started wearing Looney Toon shirts when I was a teen. My mom would not let me. She thought it was so weird and childish. I saw my son taking his little Fortnite stuffed animal to school and thought similar thoughts but remembered how my mom reacted to my request for a Looney Toon shirt and decided to just not pass judgement and let it go by as his fun phase thing for the year.

[pitterpatter]

I agree. I see the traveling stuffed animal thing all over the internet. I really don't think it's all that strange. Something fun and cheap to do for a short time to break the monotony of life. Usually, there's story behind it, if you dig back far enough. Love the story about your dog, btw. 🐶 Brings back all kinds of warm fuzzies of our silly pooch.

12 hours ago, Joker said:

This makes me sad. Dh travels a bit for work. Once our dog put his favorite toy in dh's open suitcase while we slept. Dh didn't find out until security. He then went nuts (and it was the cutest thing ever!). Dh took pictures and videos of that toy everywhere, including the middle of the road and the security checkpoints. He filmed and took pics of that stupid toy while he was eating, driving, working, and at the airport. After he was home, he edited it and showed it to us and it is something our kids will remember forever. It was awesome! I truly think most people are good and it's ok for a man to have a stuffed animal. 

 

[katilac]

 

15 hours ago, DawnM said:

It's ok to not like something someone else does.  I don't care enough to unfriend or hide them, but I do find it odd and that is ok.  We all have things we find odd that maybe others don't.  

But your other post did say that it's an annoyance to you, and I find it odd that it would rise to the level of annoyance. More honestly, you're being annoyed by this is an annoyance to me 😂

I have a thing about people calling other peoples enjoyments odd, silly, childish, pointless, or whatever. 

fwiw, I've seen this on social media for years upon years, it's not recent. Yes, it is usually people whose jobs require a lot of travel. Constant travel can be tedious, so good on them if they find a way to make it more fun. 

18 hours ago, DawnM said:

These are grown men, and they have their animals say things.....that are supposed to be cute, but that you know they made up.  

Well, yes, we do. Because stuffed animals, lol. 

[DawnM]

17 minutes ago, katilac said:

 

But your other post did say that it's an annoyance to you, and I find it odd that it would rise to the level of annoyance. More honestly, you're being annoyed by this is an annoyance to me 😂

I have a thing about people calling other peoples enjoyments odd, silly, childish, pointless, or whatever. 

fwiw, I've seen this on social media for years upon years, it's not recent. Yes, it is usually people whose jobs require a lot of travel. Constant travel can be tedious, so good on them if they find a way to make it more fun. 

Well, yes, we do. Because stuffed animals, lol. 

 

I have my things and you have yours.  

[MaBelle]

I have a gnome that my kids gave me named Gnorman, and for a while after I got him we did the picture thing.  He fed the chickens, watched Alabama football games and chilled in the pool.  At Christmas he got all my nutcrackers drunk.  It was Gnome in the Home instead of Elf on the Shelf.

[stephanier.1765]

I saw a women pushing a cart at Walmart with a baby doll sitting in the front seat of the cart. I had to look twice because it looked so real. She didn't have any children with her.

[Jean in Newcastle]

8 minutes ago, stephanier.1765 said:

I saw a women pushing a cart at Walmart with a baby doll sitting in the front seat of the cart. I had to look twice because it looked so real. She didn't have any children with her.

I had a man come up to me and make a comment when I was holding an American Girl doll in the library.  My daughter, who had asked me to hold her doll, had gone to the bathroom.  He didn't think that I had any children with me either.

But either way. . .   of all the obnoxious and mean things that people do sometimes in public, what does it matter for something harmless like this?  Even if somehow the baby doll gave her some degree of comfort for. . . whatever. . . she might be going through? 

 

[dirty ethel rackham]

On 6/26/2019 at 3:29 PM, DawnM said:

and naming it, and taking it around with you everywhere you go and giving it a personality and have it say things?

I have several FB friends who have such things.  One grown man has a stuffed buffalo named Marty and his job requires a lot of travel.  He takes pics of Marty and posts, "Marty enjoying the view from the Sears Tower" or "Marty getting ready to board the plane" or "Marty says he won't go on the Eiffle tower because he won't go on anything that is called I fell!"

Is this odd or is it just me?

I know a woman (who has no kids and doesn't want any) who brings a stuffed bear, Pierre, on all her travels and she takes pictures of him on the plane, in the taxi, from the Eiffel tower, etc.  A pic without his hat because he left it in the hotel.  A pick of him opening a package in the mail of his missing hat. I just it was just her weird schtick.  I didn't realize it was a thing.  She is not the kind of person who I would imagine following a trend.  

[MercyA]

1 hour ago, stephanier.1765 said:

I saw a women pushing a cart at Walmart with a baby doll sitting in the front seat of the cart. I had to look twice because it looked so real. She didn't have any children with her.

Some women have these dolls to help them deal with miscarriage or infertility--others, just because they like them. Not my thing, but I find it interesting. Here are some snippets from the Wiki article about "reborn" dolls:

The overwhelming majority of reborn customers are older women. The process of buying a reborn can be done to simulate an adoption process, rather than a prosaic sale of a product. As part of this, the dolls often come with fake birth certificates or adoption certificates. Many women collect reborns as they would a non-reborn doll, whilst others purchase them to fill a void of a lost child and may treat reborns as living babies. Media features and public receptions have used such adjectives as "creepy" to describe the reborns. This can be explained by the uncanny valley hypothesis. This states that as objects become more lifelike they gain an increasing empathetic response, until a certain point at which the response changes to repulsion. Department stores have refused to stock the dolls because of this reaction, claiming they are too lifelike.

Many reborn owners are simply doll collectors, while others have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal loss, have no means for adoption, or suffer from empty nest syndrome. They may utilize the dolls as a substitute for a child. Some owners dress the dolls, wash their hair, and may even take them for walks in strollers and take them shopping. Reborn hobbyists refer to the emotional response to holding their dolls as cuddle therapy. Studies suggest cuddling a baby causes a release of hormones which produce a sense of emotional well-being, and some psychologists believe that this may happen with realistic dolls as well. Consultant psychiatrist Raj Persaud explains that mothering a real newborn baby releases the hormone oxytocin in the mother, and hypothesizes that this may explain why "reborn mothers" become emotionally attached to the reborn baby doll.

Edited June 27, 2019 by MercyA

[Valley Girl]

7 hours ago, katilac said:

 

But your other post did say that it's an annoyance to you, and I find it odd that it would rise to the level of annoyance. More honestly, you're being annoyed by this is an annoyance to me 😂

I have a thing about people calling other peoples enjoyments odd, silly, childish, pointless, or whatever. 

fwiw, I've seen this on social media for years upon years, it's not recent. Yes, it is usually people whose jobs require a lot of travel. Constant travel can be tedious, so good on them if they find a way to make it more fun. 

Well, yes, we do. Because stuffed animals, lol. 

Just jumping off your post, katilac...

The idea that we're only supposed to have neutral or positive reactions to things is puzzling to me. I think people are perfectly entitled to like... dislike... be annoyed, put off, or irritated by... deem stupid or selfish or silly... all sorts of things. Other people are perfectly free to have reactions to those judgments. It would be one thing to confront someone about it IRL and express a negative opinion on something innocuous or quirky aloud. Hopefully none of us would ever do that. But on a message board? To me, that's a perfectly fine place to say "Hey, guys, I think this is really weird, and I don't get it." Life--and this board--would be pretty boring if we all always nodded in agreement about stuff.

[stephanier.1765]

3 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I had a man come up to me and make a comment when I was holding an American Girl doll in the library.  My daughter, who had asked me to hold her doll, had gone to the bathroom.  He didn't think that I had any children with me either.

But either way. . .   of all the obnoxious and mean things that people do sometimes in public, what does it matter for something harmless like this?  Even if somehow the baby doll gave her some degree of comfort for. . . whatever. . . she might be going through? 

 

I didn't make any judgments at all. I was simply caught off by what looked like a baby not being a baby. That's it, nothing more. I also saw her more than once and never was she with children. So a doll being with a woman is a bit out of the ordinary and that caught my attention as well. She was older so MercyA is probably right as to the reason why she had one. So no judgment from me at all. Curious, yes. Judgment, no.

 

[katilac]

11 minutes ago, Valley Girl said:

Just jumping off your post, katilac...

The idea that we're only supposed to have neutral or positive reactions to things is puzzling to me. I think people are perfectly entitled to like... dislike... be annoyed, put off, or irritated by... deem stupid or selfish or silly... all sorts of things. Other people are perfectly free to have reactions to those judgments. It would be one thing to confront someone about it IRL and express a negative opinion on something innocuous or quirky aloud. Hopefully none of us would ever do that. But on a message board? To me, that's a perfectly fine place to say "Hey, guys, I think this is really weird, and I don't get it." Life--and this board--would be pretty boring if we all always nodded in agreement about stuff.

Like I said, it's a thing with me. I love weird people and nerdish enthusiasms and I don't get why people have to dislike . . . be annoyed, put off, or irritated by . . . deem stupid or selfish or silly . . . things that don't negatively affect anyone and that bring some people a sense of fun or joy. My loophole for being annoyed by this is that the collective aura of judgement, spoken and unspoken, puts a damper on people's innocent fun (<<somewhat hyperbolic but not completely). 

That is, however, a far cry from saying that people are only supposed to have neutral or positive reactions to all things.