American Debt Dolls

Hey All! Welcome to the new home of Are You My Mothers. This cyber-duh is going it solo in the blogging world. Hats off to familyequality.org and the others but I've opted for a single-family home so to speak. Come visit. Whenever you'd like.

For today's opener: 5 Year Olds and Addiction

Betsy, daughter age 5, is as addicted to American Debt Dolls as Cher is to fame, as W is to money, as Harry Potter is to Butterbeer. She reads the American Debt Doll catalog in cars, trains and airplanes, on the toilet, at the dinner table (she tries). She talks about American Debt Dolls incessantly. She knows which friend has which doll, knows the pets, beds, and clothes that come with each doll. She tucks her two Debt dolls in to bed each night in their pajamas, props them up against the wall so they can watch her take a bath.

This might sound cute to some of you, developmentally appropriate especially given that Betsy is an only child and Julie and Molly (see above) are more or less surrogate sibs. But for me it's becoming the equivalent of a fingernail against a blackboard - on a good day.

If I have to hear one more story about Julie and Ivy or Molly and Emily every marble is going to fall from my head. I've come close to saying, "Betsy mommy doesn't care about American Girl Dolls." But I know better.

Betsy's favorite pastime is she and I on the sofa with popcorn and hot chocolate reading American Debt Doll catalogs. I do this because I've banned them from bedtime reading.

"It's not reading."

"But it's words, mommy."

"It's like candy, words that are like Nerds or Sweet Tarts."

"But you let me eat candy."

"Not for dinner."

"But this is bedtime."

"Bedtime is the dinner of meals."

The marbles by then have started to slip out of my ears.

I was addicted to things too when I was younger, obsessed over bows and arrows, matchbox cars, and making clay penises for all my boy dolls. But weren't those educational preoccupations? Wasn't I exploring gender? I suppose Bets is exploring something too, girlie-hood and growing up and social relations. But it's so darn expensive. And so darn boring.

Still I made another date for the couch and the catalogs. Soon there will come a time when she doesn't want mommy near her on a date. You can be damn sure when that time comes I'll grab Julie and Molly and trail her like a bloodhound.