Buy Barbie for kid in your family / have Barbie doll in childhood?

[shootingstar]

Honest, it never occurred to me to buy Barbie (or Stacey) doll for any of my 3 nieces when they were little girls and all different contrasting ages. As aunt, I don't recall buying any doll for them.  For nieces and nephews, I bought a stuffed animal here and there, along the way for some of them.  Eyeore the donkey, a furry lovely seal, etc.

I think I didn't buy any dolls, because nieces and nephews seemed to have an overabundance of toys whenever I visited each home. And there were some dolls. Every time I visited, I seemed to trip over toys strewn across the carpet.

Barbie doll completely bypassed myself and 4 sisters as a doll:  my parents could not afford to buy a toy at the whim of a fad/child.  There was a Heidi like blonde doll...dressed in little dirndl with stiff curly blonde hair. That was the only doll we had. We had only 1 large paper box as our toy box with toys.

As someone raised with several sisters, sure it was very easy for me to buy, clothing, hair accessories in fun pink/lavender/orange, pale blue colours for nieces.  So I guess that's the substitute for Barbie doll gifts and her accessories.  I dunno.

[groupw]

My SiL was an engineer for Mattel when my kids were young. We had Barbies and Hot Wheels.  It wasn’t a never-ending barrage of toys, but they had several of each. Mattel liked to give failed prototype clothes to kids to keep them from the dumpster diving collectors. We benefited. 
However, our girls learned to sew by making outfits for their dolls from scrap fabric, beads, ribbon etc 

[ChrisL]

My daughter went through her Barbie phase about the time we got our Aussie.  All of her Barbies had mangled feet & hands but she played with them like that anyway! 

[Wilbur ★]

One daughter liked Barbie dolls, the other, not so much.

[Zephyr]

I think each of my girls got one from their aunt one Christmas, but neither really used it much so we never expanded their inventory.

But Fisher-Price?  We had Fisher-Price stuff coming out the wazoo

[goldendesign]

Our daughter likes Barbies or their Disney princess counterparts.  We usually watch Amazon for the mini playsets, Barbie and a dessert cart, or mini Dr office/vet/salon/etc as they have more going on than just the doll. We'll buy them and use them as gifts for her friend's parties. They've always gone over well, I think. She likes the Barbies but has lately been obsessed with Polly Pockets. I think she's got 3-4 playsets right now.

 

[TrentonMakes]

Our daughter got a "baby doll" for Christmas about the time she found out her baby brother was on the way... that's really the only doll she ever played with - she never had a Barbie nor any interest in them.  OK by me!

[MickinMD ★]

My sister had one in the 60's.

My uncle by marriage had an uncle that owned a lot of Carolina Beach, NC. and we used to get a free week down there in a building he rented out.  The uncle's only daughter, about 40, had what she called her "Barbie Mausoleum."

She had at least 100 different editions of Barbie dolls and she got a food company to give her a hundred or so transparent plastic food containers that fit the dolls and she had them laid out in rows along a few walls of a room, looking like they were in coffins with transparent lids closed over them.

[Razors Edge ★]

I've definitely bought all sorts of Barbie nonsense for kids over the years. As the kids got older, they greatly diversified their interests, but in the under 8 age range, they were popular along with other dolls and all the assorted doll stuff.  My oldest sister liked Barbie back in the early 70s and had lots of that stuff, but she also shed it as she became more independent and interested in "older" things.  Stuffed animals lasted longer as interests than Barbies for most girls I know.

[ChrisL]

3 hours ago, goldendesign said:

Our daughter likes Barbies or their Disney princess counterparts.  We usually watch Amazon for the mini playsets, Barbie and a dessert cart, or mini Dr office/vet/salon/etc as they have more going on than just the doll. We'll buy them and use them as gifts for her friend's parties. They've always gone over well, I think. She likes the Barbies but has lately been obsessed with Polly Pockets. I think she's got 3-4 playsets right now.

Oh yeah Polly Pockets.  My daughter had a bunch of those & the accessories too.  I remember seeing Polly Pocket shoes in my dogs poop!  

[Kirby]

We had Tammy dolls. I think they were the poor man's Barbie dolls, but we liked them.

[Kzoo]

My daughters all had a Barbie or 2 but were never that into them.

My most vivid Barbie memory was visiting WoKzoo's sister's family in Iowa City on Thanksgiving.  About a half hour before we were to sit down to eat, my niece, who was the same age as Daughter#3 (probably 5 at the time) used a microwave they had down in the basement to cook one of her Barbie's.  By the time one of us adults upstairs noticed the smoke, Barbie was a blackened mess, and the house stunk like burned Barbie the rest of the afternoon.  It's a great family story.

[Razors Edge ★]

11 hours ago, shootingstar said:

I think I didn't buy any dolls, because nieces and nephews seemed to have an overabundance of toys whenever I visited each home.

FTR - this is a HUGE factor for me buying gifts nowadays.  Kids just have so much "stuff" and you see how they react to getting even more stuff on specific days of the year.  We played the "toy game" for a while when they were small, but as they age in "individuals" and can appreciate things a bit more, it becomes much more specific to them and usually experiential in nature - a show, an event, an outing, etc..  It tends to work out better as the event can be away from the holiday or birthday, so it is a break from the normal rather than just one of many things on a specific date.

[MoseySusan]

I had nine Barbie dolls of various vintage with a boxful of clothes, shoes, inflatable furniture, and unique “Supersize Barbie” that was 18” tall. 

[Wilbur ★]

3 hours ago, MoseySusan said:

I had nine Barbie dolls of various vintage with a boxful of clothes, shoes, inflatable furniture, and unique “Supersize Barbie” that was 18” tall. 

My sister had none.  Mom was a bra burning era feminist!  She did not like Barbie's.  

[maddmaxx ★]

She was after my time.  I had those paper dolls with the paper clothes that had tabs to fold over to keep them on.

Yes, it was a different time when nobody thought much of a boy with a doll in the morning and a rifle in the afternoon.  I guess today it's one or the other only.

[Dirtyhip]

I love Barbie. I identify as a free spirit lady that likes freedom and power. I had all the Barbies. I had all the cars. I had the townhouse. It didn't make me weak. I was empowered. 

Actually, I would not mind buying a new one. I could buy her new outfits quarterly. 

[shootingstar]

40 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I love Barbie. I identify as a free spirit lady that likes freedom and power. I had all the Barbies. I had all the cars. I had the townhouse. It didn't make me weak. I was empowered. 

Actually, I would not mind buying a new one. I could buy her new outfits quarterly. 

Barbie doll can be a doctor, astronomer with her own little telescope, etc.

I do confess as gifts for nieces and nephews, I have bought a least 1 gift book as one of several presents for each of them over the years. All except 1, enjoy reading (still).