WASHINGTON – Many people like to stop and play with newborn babies, but now some adult women are playing house with fake babies.
Some women are even going as far as taking day trips with the fake babies to the park, out to eat, and even hosting birthday parties for them.
Forty-nine-year-old Linda is married with no children of her own. Now, she says she feels like a mother because she has Reborns — dolls made to look and feel like the real thing.
“It’s not a crazy habit, like, you know, drinking, or some sort of, something that’s going to hurt you. It’s like a hobby.and it doesn’t really hurt anybody,” Linda said.
These women are paying big bucks for this hobby, from $100 to a few thousand dollars. For Reborn owner Lachelle Moore, the fake babies fill a void.
“What’s so wonderful about Reborns is that, um, they’re forever babies,” said Moore, who has grown children and grandchildren. “There’s no college tuition, no dirty diapers… just the good part of motherhood,” she added.
In her Kansas City home, Moore even has an elaborate room for the dolls. She organizes birthday parties, bakes a cake and even invites guests.
Psychologists say there could be a problem if and when these women stop interacting socially with others in their life.
Psychologists say there could be a problem if … Thus sayeth the culture of death. I must say that my reaction to this story is that it creeps me out. Our society’s view of children as an inconvenience is bad enough and when a natural instinct towards motherhood is diverted in such a way the distortion is made more evident. Children now are seen as a resource-monger, as something that takes away from what you have. The comedian Gallagher and notorious watermelon smasher use to illustrate parenthood by putting a diaper on an anchor. I thought this pretty funny at the time when I was a young father myself, but this bit of comedy is now seen a the reality of parenthood and all of the joys of such mostly ignored.
49 comments
THis article is a satire, right?? So creepy… what do they say to other people when they’re at the park and people want to look at the “baby”? At least people who treat dogs like children are focusing their misguided efforts on a living being.
@ joanne:
you’re probably right, but i just thought i’d share my 2 cents on this whole situation. i dont comment on this blog all that often, and when i read this entry, i felt that i could offer my own personal insight into this ridiculous idea.
I’m sorry to tell you, you are all wrong. We do not make substitute babies, we are artists, just like someone would paint on canvas, we paint on vynal. My collection started with porcelain dolls,and am a multi award winning artist, which in todays society is still collectables, we don’t ridacule blokes and their cars, or train collections. How can you say it replaces real life. I have lost a son, and by no means does my hobby or collection ever be considered a replacement of his life. Could someone please get it right.Art is worth what someone considers agood price for the item they are buying, weather it be a doll, a reborn, a matchbox car or train set. or like our Government has paid for art in the halls of Parliment. June M.
That’s. Just. Sick.
Wasn’t there an old sci-fi movie about population control where women who craved motherhood were given life-like dolls to care for? Is this a test run?
How horrifying.
People wanted dogs as substitutes for children, and now they want mechanized dolls, thus taking them even FURTHER from the ability to actually connect to another living being.
The atrocities which will be committed by the culture that goes this route are frightening to contemplate. Are we becoming something even more dehumanized and soulless than Hitler’s national socialists?
As at the top of my post: How horrifying.
Cabbage Patch Dolls revisited.
These women prove that you can twist the concept of motherhood, but you can’t erase the maternal instinct in their hearts.
Maybe they could help overburdened single moms by babysitting REAL babies instead. They need some spiritual guidance.
It’s very sad. These dolls can not possibly fill the void. I can’t have children, and desparately wish there was an easy answer to fill the void, but there isn’t. What are they going to do when this fails to meet their need to nurture? I just don’t understand….
OK, this is definitely pretty far out on the strange side. I can just about (if I stretch far enough) kind-of-sort-of see how Linda might perhaps get into these things—she’s never had real kids. But I truly don’t comprehend Lachelle Moore, with children and grandchildren of her own. I mean, she says this doll gives her “only the good part of motherhood?” Maybe it’s just me, but when I think of the awesome and humbling and mind-blowing parts of being a dad, they pretty near all have to do with my kids being people, specifically other people than me. To turn from that to a doll—it’d be like turning from filet mignon to chewing gum.
Poor ladies.
Peace,
–Peter
Couldn’t agree more. The fact that these dolls even exist is a classic example of our culture’s tendency to identify a real human need and then fill it with something that just won’t cut it.
These things sound like Cabbage Patch dolls for grownups.
All I can think of is a kid whining, “But Mommmmm, I’LL take care of the puppy!” and every parent knows where that often ends.
These women were not up to or willing to tend a real child when the time was right, and now all that’s left are these pale replicas. Maybe these dolls are the only things they are capable of tending at all, a pale echo of a once real desire too long suppressed. Sad.
I kept thinking about the “therapeutic pregnancies” from A BRAVE NEW WORLD, where women, barred from actually having children, but still having maternal instinct, would be encouraged to purposely become pregnant as a treatment, only to terminate the pregnancy before it could be carried to term.
This is a total perversion of motherhood. I am not suprised by such behavior though. Our society has become so unnatural that it was inevitable that we see this particular pseudo-motherhood pop up.
Leticia, watching other people’s children wouldn’t help these poor wretches. They have renounced true children and are feeling the pain that results from that choice. Personally, I wouldn’t want such a person near my child. If they can’t hack motherhood on their own, then they would be unsafe for other people’s children, even for short stretches.
Fiat Voluntas Tua
Wow! This sound like the Twilight Zone! Creepy!!
Isn’t that what some women in P.D. James’s Children of Men resorted to? Except here there are REAL BABIES around that they could be playing with.
“good part of motherhood” What part would that be? These dolls don’t smile or laugh, do they?
Creepy. And very sad.
Yes. It was the book Children of Men in which the women, because nobody could have children, would buy realistic dolls and treat them as if they were real with birthdays and everything.
I saw this on 20/20 last Friday! It was in their “Extreme Mothering” episode and they lumped it in with homebirth, extended brestfeeding and serial surrogate pregnancies!
Yes. It was weird. The one woman interviewed said that she had looked into adopting, but it took too much time and money and that paying for college would be too difficult. She also said she enjoyed the attention she got when people came over to look at her “baby.” This gal was 49years old! My first thought was “how selfish.” Now I just feel sorry for her.
As a new father of my second boy, I must say, there is no way these women are actually getting the good part of motherhood. Like one commentor said, “Do these babies smile or laugh?” To go way beyond that, you don’t get to watch them learn to roll over, to crawl to walk, to tumble around and drool and make raspberries! You don’t get to watch them light up when you say their name or listen to them crack up when you lift them up in the air.
It is sad to see that people could even attempt to replace real life with some store-bought knock-off.
I saw this on 20/20 also and was amazed. How very sad…and a reflection of a society in which everything is quick and easy with no long term commitment. How much better to adopt or even foster a child…or reach out to someone who needs love and attention. A little reality would be nice.
Leticia is sooo correct.
There are infant homes where having someone hold the infants and play with them are so much in need. Look at the orpanages in many former Soviet bloc countries. Look at a four and five year old child’s development. They are stunted both physically and emotionally.
This is soo sad.
Pathetic.
When I was stationed in Sardinia there was a local woman who had gone off the deep end after losing her unborn child. Decades after the fact she was still wandering the streets with a baby doll, tending it like a newborn.
These folks are seriously in need of help. I’ll be praying for them.
And yes, it’s indicative of where our culture has gone. God help us all.
Yes, I am afraid even for some parents with a couple of real children, they are viewed more as fashion accessories than as human persons.
A word…….adoption.
I suppose this is yet another gimmick of Planned Parenthood to push the culture of death mentality further along.
Our Lady of Life, pray for us.
I was totally fascinated, saddened and “creeped out” by that 20/20 segment. The fact that they mentioned difficulty finding a Reborn “mother” willing to speak on camera is telling.
The degree of disorder in this practice makes the people who treat their pets like children look positively ‘normal.’ (For instance, the woman we saw pushing a cat in a stroller at an art fair last summer.)
This reminds me of the very disordered men and women in Japan who have full size, very life-like ‘doll’ boyfriend/girlfriends and believe themselves better off with the fake than the real (because the doll never complains, never leaves you and never insults you)
How long do you think it will be before 20/20 has episodes of women and men with both fake husbands/wives and babies?
The Culture of Death meets the Culture of I-Want-It-Now. Just too creepy.
It would be interesting to know how many of these baby doll moms are post-abortive. That would explain a lot.
“There’s no college tuition, no dirty diapers… just the good part of motherhood,” she added.
I just figured out what this is. It’s like motherhood porn. Instead of objectifying women for the thrill of cheap sex with none of the attachments, this is objectifying babies for the thrill of cheap motherhood with none of the attachments.
that is so weird!! i remember watching this on ’20/20′ with my mom, and as i was watching it, i was thinking ‘ok, that first lady didnt have kids, so i can kinda see how she’d get attached to that baby doll’ i suppose that first woman viewed the doll as like a coping mechanism to compensate for the fact that she never had kids. but even then, you can always adopt! there are little children in the soviet bloc, turkey, china, and india who need loving homes and families! as for the woman who makes the dolls, she’s just an entrepreneur! she came up with the idea of a lifelike doll for women who didnt or couldnt have kids, found a market for her product, and is trying to milk it for as long as she can. its not like she’s selling anything dangerous, although i personally find it ridiculous that someone should have to pay over $100 for a doll when you can go to a toy store and find something just as lifelike for less.
but thats not to say that im some kind of inhuman monster; personally, i agree with many of the commenters-there’s nothing like having a child of your own. god willing, i would love to have a child of my own someday cuz with a real child, you get to watch them take their first steps, hear them say their first words, and basically watch them grow up. you just can’t get that from a doll. but not everyone is the same-some people are more attached to material things, as was demonstrated by some commenters, this story, and personal experiance.
Quoting Brian…”There’s no college tuition, no dirty diapers… just the good part of motherhood,” she added.
I just figured out what this is. It’s like motherhood porn. Instead of objectifying women for the thrill of cheap sex with none of the attachments, this is objectifying babies for the thrill of cheap motherhood with none of the attachments”
profound and to the point. This is about objectification. Naturally, since we as a society no longer place human value on babies they become objects. http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2009/01/throw-baby-out-with-trash.html
Has anyone seen the movie “Lars and the Real Girl”? I know it sounds awful, but it’s very clean (though you’d never guess it from reading the description on the dvd case), and entirely about this idea of real person vs. convenient object. Lars fears intimacy (for various reasons) and wants something that he owns and controls and is always convenient and just like himself, but ends up with the realization that reality is much better even with all its difficulties.
I’m wondering how mother/grandmother Lachelle Moore’s children & grandchildren feel about their Mother/Grandmother owning a “Reborn”???
Tell you what: If I were Lachelle’s child/grandchild I’d be thinking, “Whaaaa? Am I chopped liver, or what??”
More prayers to St. Michael the Archangel, folks, we are under siege!
“i would love to have a child of my own someday cuz with a real child, you get to watch them take their first steps, hear them say their first words, and basically watch them grow up. you just can’t get that from a doll.”
TamTam, I think the strongest point made by this doll trend is that “having” or not “having” children has become all about the parent. Rather than asking, “What can I give? In what way can I give life and nurture a child?” they are asking “What do I want, and how can I GET it?”
The rewards of parenting a real child come with and through the labor of self-donation, just as we are filled with love when we give love. A beautiful design. God always knows what He’s doing.
Unless an adult is undergoing therapy for trauma, I can’t see how the doll-child business is anything but exploitation and delusion. Still, IF the women most attracted to the dolls are post-abortive, that would be a warning/alarm to broadcast.
You know, my daughter went through a siliar phase. “Suzy” was her baby. She took her everywhere. Her whole day revolved around taking care of Suzy, and if Suzy was missing, we practically had to call the FBI.
Only everyone thought it was cute and precious behavior and played along with it, because my daughter was a toddler.
And when she got a REAL LIVE baby brother, Suzy became just a toy to be tossed aside and ignored.
I think what REALLY disgusts us about this story is that we have grown women acting like toddlers– and people playing along with them, and even giving them attention!!!
I think this story may ultimately be less about the culture of death than the end of adulthood. These women want to be fussed over like precocious toddlers.
Were they all single? I’d assumed they were– I can’t imagine a husband going along with this….
Deirdre has it right. The continuation of juvenile behavior into adulthood is encouraged and even exploited as entertainment. No wonder some young folks are so mixed up.
As others have noted, these women have no remote idea what “the good parts of motherhood” are, or the sacrifice required to attain them.
The good parts all have to do with things like bravery and adventure and the risk of a broken heart… not to mention the free and altogether mystical act of loving another human being.
It is never too late for anyone to embrace these things, but it’s a step that demands your life stop revolving around you and any childish fixation on your own momentary emotional states.
God help them.
This is just one of two “trends” which highlights the incredibly evil selfishness of our society today. The other trend is known as “child-free” neighborhoods. There are really some neighborhoods set up to be forbidden to children.
Were we not warned by Our Blessed Lord that there would come a day when people would be saying “blessed are the wombs that are barren and blessed are the breasts that have not suckled”? Here we are folks. Hell does indeed start on earth and it begins with this selfishness that looks upon all others, even the most helpless as a “burden”.
One word of caution here–please do not throw adoption into your mix of what could serve these women. Adoption is a long, expensive and sometimes very painful process–I speak from personal experience. Our adoption resulted in our beautiful and delightful son coming home from overseas, but that sort of outcome would not be the therapy these pathetic women need. Visiting this sort of infantile confusion on a needy and unsuspecting child through adoption is akin to giving your bio kids to an insane asylum for the good of the patients. And I seriously doubt these women could pass the intense screening one goes through in the process.
How about we just pray that all children find the home they need, and all women find the peace and solace of Jesus Christ.
Tamtam,
I forgot to say that in the event the doll-toting women are not trauma survivors, your reasoning is probably correct. It would then indicate something even more scary about the wacky world we live in, though, ie, we might be living in a giant insane asylum. Yikes!
I found this very sad. I wanted very much to be married and have children by my 30s. However, I cannot imagine using a doll to fill that desire. I feel very bad for these women.
I suppose that these women don’t have role models in being single and childless. I had great-aunts who were childless and widowed relatively young. They turned their love and care outward to other people, including paying tuition for medical school for two neighbourhood boys.
Shanasfo, I also read that a Japanese manufacturer was developing a robot with the vocabulary and looks of a small child, so that elderly people could have a “grandchild”. In Japan, the young people aren’t having children.
Jeff, is there a url to the news story? I found an MSNBC story about these dolls, but not this particular article.
God bless!
When I worked on a Dementia unit there was a woman who carried a doll around. It wasn’t a particularly realistic doll, but it was very real to her. It was difficult to take it away from her to change her clothes. Sometimes we could put the baby to bed and then take her to the toilet to get her pants off, but her attention was always on the doll. Other days she would fight you, and I mean literally, tooth and nail, before she would let go of it. This woman also constantly relived in words a story in which she obviously gave birth to a baby, her father found her, called her mother, who took the baby away from her and killed it. She acted this out, always ending with “Don’t hurt the little baby, please don’t hurt the little baby.”
This makes me think that the person who suggested that some of these women may be post abortive is correct.
There was also another woman on this unit, over a hundred years old, who was convinced that God was punishing her by not letting her die because she had killed a baby that her little sister had given birth to secretly.”I killed that little boy” she would say sometimes. At other times she would say “I thought it was the right thing to do at the time, but it wasn’t.” This doesn’t tie in with the doll story, but I couldn’t help including it with the other one. Other times did have their own darkness. Or perhaps it is the same darkness in a slightly different form.
I think it’s significant that the real stories here involving doll substitutes (as opposed to sponsored infomercials about these doll-babies) have key words in them like “toddler” and “dementia”.
To make the nurturing of dolls a cute, mainstream activity rather than a bizarre remedy for the lack or loss of a child is akin to mainstreaming abortion as a solution to crisis pregnancy. It masks problems rather than resolving them. (Of course, abortion is much different in that a real person is killed every time it is carried out “successfully”.
Fr George, I don’t know whether PP had anything to do with the promotion of such dolls, but the practice sure would fit in with their thinking and boost their industry.
Other times did have their own darkness. Or perhaps it is the same darkness in a slightly different form.
Though in those other times the act WAS considered a murder. Not a good to be funded by the govt.
Lately I’ve been thinking about a theme Christopher West uses in discussing theology of the body–that Satan plagiarizes the sacraments. Not only the sacraments, but all good things. It’s not surprising that the “culture of death” would carry this into mothering, by substituting dolls for real babies. This fits right in.
My Goodness, really are these people who are collecting these dolls really hurting anyone? NO, they are not out asulting people, stealing, murdering, abusing substances, or plotting terrorist attacks. As far as I can see the only people making comments here really are winging and whinnin over something that doesn’t even affect them personally. I do make these dolls and have so far donated 2 of them to a dementia home, and they tell me that doll therapy really helps some patients. I have done lots of different forms of art, and I consider reborning dolls another challenging form. It is not easy, and takes many many hours of work, for infact very little money payment in terms of hourly wage. If it isnt hurtin you, your family personally, then you dont have to be worried about it DO YOU?
Did anyone see Dr. Phils show Yesterday, at least he has agreed it is not a sicknesss or obsession just a hobby as most of us reborners have been telling you. If all the negitive people out there went and made one, they would see how difficult it is to perfect such an art. It isn’t an over night perfection, sometimes it takes years to perfect it and get recognition from your piers. So please all you skeptics ,go have a class and then you can judge how we become so passionate about our hobby. Thank You, J M
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