So, the last time I was doing the doll making thing, it was all completely different in my brain. I was and am, and will probably always be a left wing kind of person, who cares about the environment, who cares about waste, and consumerism and excess and everything that goes along with that, but then I had babies! And don't children bring with them a host of STUFF? All kinds of stuff, for all kinds of reasons, it seems to swarm into your house and multiply, and quite a lot of it is acquired with the best of intentions. You buy things, you think to yourself, this tiny human owns nothing, we must get it everything it needs. But oh my goodness, so does everyone else in your life, and they don't have to be living close to you, friends of friends, and aunts of friends, and cousins of neighbours, and so and so on. And with kindness and the best of intentions, you suddenly have more stuff than you even knew it was possible to own, and it all has to go somewhere. And some of it is beautiful and just your taste and some of isn't, but then there is the guilt of being given something with such sweet intentions.
And, anyway, it feels great to give, so everyone is giving and giving and giving. And we live in a society with such chaotic and strange values and priorities, and we have access to so much stuff, and it is so cheap and available, and the consequences of acquiring it, and especially obtaining it to give to someone we barely see, are so abstract, that we just keep on keeping on. After all, it makes the world go round and creates jobs and all that stuff right?
But of course, we know when we're home alone with all this freaking stuff, that it is just a pain. A pain to store, a pain to clean up, and it just keeps arriving. There comes a point when a child has so many toys, they don't even notice any of them. It just adds to the stress of an already chaotic life.
And children do need (I use this term loosely!) some toys. They definitely do need to play, to engage deeply in meaningful self directed activities. It helps their brains develop, it is meditative and therapeutic. But then you go strolling down the toy aisle at your local department store, and it is divided into the girl and boy sections, chopped up into blue and pink, and even the lego- which is a toy I love- is packaged up according to gender, and into projects with instructions to make very specific things- things that already exist, a lot of things that are from movies or television shows, and, well, it's kind of depressing to think that even at such a young age, we are taking our littlest people and indoctrinating them into such mediocrity.
And so, I guess I've grown up a bit, and so have my dolls. They are not perfect, most of them are girls. But I make them slowly and properly and out of things that are as sustainable as possible. And they can be used for open ended play. And as I watch my little people develop, it's just becoming clearer and clearer to me that they really don't need all that much stuff at all, they just need some good stuff, things that can be used again and again in different situations, that can be adapted to whatever is the curiosity of the day, that can be dragged around the house for comfort and company, or chatted to as other things are happening.
B.
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