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I have a stuffed animal in my car. He's my good luck charm for when something becomes so bad that he can no longer protect the car, he protects the pilot.
There is a practical reason to having a stuffed animal as the car's protector. When things go flying, they hurt a lot less. Of course, I don't carry stuffed animals into many stores but for that, I have my silver talisman of the day around my neck.
I believe in a God and in a devil......why shouldn't I believe in luck?
My belief in magic we can put aside here except to say that believing can be a way we make the world work for us. Whether it is magic or religion, it can make it easier for us to live in this world.
My belief in stuffed animals is part of a very powerful fantasy life. At times in nightmares, I have ........ dream cavalry come to my rescue in the form of 21st century attack helicopters (picture a Mil Mi-24 Hind in S-67 construction in 21st century style), unicorns, or......stuffed animals and my Wicca beliefs.
As far as my stuffed animals go, the pictures in my photo album on this site being just one small sample, many many things. Buying them was something I did with Mom and to make up a childhood time when I couldn't. At one time, I thought that such a massive collection could go to the children of a children's hospital when I die.....well, allergy laws nyeted that notion. They make a better test audience for practicing a speech than blow up sex dolls. They subscribe to my Wicca beliefs of being surrounded by animal spirits. They are part of my Wall of Dreams in my bedroom. They have in times been comforters for some of the cats.
After Dad died, I would decorate Mom's house on holidays with oodles and oodles of stuffed animals, mostly small ones. So there would be Halloween ones, Christmas ones, Valentine Day ones, even managed to get a decent collection for Mother's Day such as a Kanga type next to her larger son of Dundee. For Easter, there were rabbits all over the place......and a Moose. A lesson I learned from Captain Kangaroo.
If I ever have to bail out of the house, the "collective thought" of the collection is to take the puppets in the herd for they can be used to entertain children (and they don't take up as much room) at the bail out site.
And then, there is Bear.
Bear is a 3 ft stuffed Grizzly that Mom and I bought together (or maybe I bought him and showed him to Mom)......and then Mom, kidnapped him. He would sit in Mom's living room on the sofa and when she came out in the morning, saw his head from behind, it gave her comfort that she wasn't alone in her house. Mom and her friends would dress Bear up with seasonal Tee shirts.
If anything else, there are so many memories in them.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 09-23-2022 at 08:00 PM..
In the past month I have noticed at least 3 young adult women carrying a stuffed animal in the grocery store checkout. I've also seen them while shopping in various parts of the store. These are young women who appear to be in their early 20's. They looked very "emo" for lack of a better term. They seemed normal, if a bit subdued, but looked as though they were a bit fragile.
Now look, I understand if some or all of these young women are having serious mental health issues. It just seems a bit odd. But if it works for them, OK.
I'd never heard of college cry rooms until I saw another C-D thread in the past week. I actually think these can be quite beneficial, and perhaps they should have been instituted much sooner.
I used to work for the City of Los Angeles in the City Hall building back in the early 70's. There was a big, low lighted room with beds where employees could go lie down and rest or sleep on their break or lunch hour. This was a very humane thing to provide. Our society could use a lot more of that.
As for stuffed animals I used to have a few in my bedroom, especially after my children were born and even after they became adults. Things that were my favorites. I'm just curious about carrying them in public and whether this is actually a thing nowadays or whether it was just coincidence that I saw 3 different young adult women in the past 4 weeks carrying a stuffed animal. Holding it to very close to their chest.
Perhaps stuffed animals and cry rooms arent such a bad idea with things being so stressful and uncertain these days. My opinion though is that these things shouldn't become too much of a crutch or a replacement for getting professional help if necessary.
I’m a therapist in a skilled nursing facility, and even patients without dementia who are there for short term rehab, often have stuffed animals in their room or even in bed with them. I don’t see a problem with that. After certain heart surgeries that involve opening the sternum, , hospitals used to give you a pillow to hold against your chest when you sit up or when you cough to protect the area. But now a lot of them give out teddy bears instead that are used the same way. It’s just comforting to hold stuffed animal. I wouldn’t carried around in public, but kids and young adults have always follow trends that the rest of us might think of as silly.
In the past month I have noticed at least 3 young adult women carrying a stuffed animal in the grocery store checkout. ...
As for stuffed animals I used to have a few in my bedroom, especially after my children were born and even after they became adults. Things that were my favorites. I'm just curious about carrying them in public and whether this is actually a thing nowadays or whether it was just coincidence that I saw 3 different young adult women in the past 4 weeks carrying a stuffed animal. Holding it to very close to their chest.
Perhaps stuffed animals and cry rooms arent such a bad idea with things being so stressful and uncertain these days. My opinion though is that these things shouldn't become too much of a crutch or a replacement for getting professional help if necessary.
I'm thinking it's part affectation and part fragility. As a society it seems to me that for quite a few generations I've personally watched being raised, we've trained our youth to be victims, rather than teach them how to survive and even thrive in life's adversities. It's one thing to recognize when we or others are feeling frail and protect those feeling low, but to foster it into perpetuity is detrimental to the individual and society.
As my mom would say: "Okay, you've had a good cry, now go wash your face and get back to your work at hand."
That's a good point - part affectation and part fragility. Makes sense. I agree we've trained our youth to be victims, and hopefully the pendulum will swing back toward the middle at some point. We're not there yet.
My children are in their mid to late 30's, They were involved in team sports (soccer and basketball) and my daughter was on dance teams and in theatre. I used to envy them because I'm from the era before Title IX which ushered in female sports in schools.
When I was a teen, the only thing you could do was drill team, cheerleader, songleading (pom poms) or flag twirling. There was no opportunity to toughen up and learn how to get back in there and do your best (as a girl) in a team effort. That's why I question online learning for children, but that's another subject. I saw my children learn so many valuable lessons about life through team sports. Their father, to his credit, forced them to not quit when things got tough.
I too can remember my parents saying the same thing about a good cry. There's nothing wrong with it.
We can all be compassionate and understanding and thinking, 'Meh, if it makes them feel better...' all we want, but what most don't consider is that we do have evil in this world.
Let's say that one of these stuffed animal types is in the grocery store. They are withdrawn, carrying their stuffed animal, and showing the world that they are unstable. (Because they are.)
Now, let's say in that same grocery store is a predator. They are everywhere, regardless of how many people want to pretend that this world is sunshine and rainbows.
This predator sees this stuffed animal person. He (because it's usually a 'he'), has just found a very easy target who is announcing to the world that they are a very easy target.
Should we continue to coddle and give them cry rooms, or should we do better than that? These are grown adults, not children. It's time we stop treating them like children. The adult world is not always fun, kind, or pretty. These cry room types need to learn that, but how about not the hard way.
How about they learn to toughen up, get a grip, and stop whining about everything. Let's make sure they are actually diagnosed with a mental illness by a professional, not self diagnosed, which seems to be the craze these days. I can't even count how many out there claim to have PTSD - they have no idea how terrible that is, yet they throw it around because something made them uncomfortable one time. Same with OCD. I know someone with true OCD - it is not something I would ever want to have to deal with. It is FAR beyond 'everything has to be clean', yet, again, people throw that self diagnosis out there as if it wasn't as horrifically serious as it is.
If they don't have a mental illness, they need to get over themselves.
If they do, instead of handing out money because they are 'too fragile' to work, how about we work on them so that they can be functioning members of society without a stuffed animal.
The ones I saw were with a male about their age, which ties into what Sonic_Spork wrote about (role play). Theoretically not as much opportunity to attack, but what about when they get to the parking lot and the male is busy with putting groceries into the car?
I agree that we need to work with these people, who are much too fragile as they are to deal with society and working. I'm not trying to be mean, but far too much of it is by choice. Laziness, fear, over-reaction to trauma, perceived persecution, etc. Disability has been taken too far in terms of fragility, and also popping out babies that society is forced to support <that's another subject.
I'm thinking it's part affectation and part fragility. As a society it seems to me that for quite a few generations I've personally watched being raised, we've trained our youth to be victims, rather than teach them how to survive and even thrive in life's adversities. It's one thing to recognize when we or others are feeling frail and protect those feeling low, but to foster it into perpetuity is detrimental to the individual and society.
As my mom would say: "Okay, you've had a good cry, now go wash your face and get back to your work at hand."
Now there's a curious observation, seeing those with stuffed animals as being fragile and the victims and not seeing someone who has, at least, a layered defence.
Well, I think there are some, like those I've seen, who have a fragile appearance and demeanor. That's the first thing I thought when I encountered these young women. I would imagine they'd have very slow reflexes to any kind of sudden surprise or danger.
I think there's no doubt that these are layered defenses. Even the role play "littles" might have layered defenses that lead to their interest in being a "little."
Well, I think there are some, like those I've seen, who have a fragile appearance and demeanor. That's the first thing I thought when I encountered these young women. I would imagine they'd have very slow reflexes to any kind of sudden surprise or danger.
I think there's no doubt that these are layered defenses. Even the role play "littles" might have layered defenses that lead to their interest in being a "little."
Well, let's take my Wicca beliefs for a moment and then go a bit further. That is, all my stuffed animals are representations of animal spirits that surround me and if attacked, I just release them so my assailants are torn to shreds.
Interestingly enough, it doesn't quite work that way in dreams and not because "that's impossible" but rather because things don't balance out in the energy such an act would pull from me. To release one means only a few seconds he could be active, to release many would be fractions of a second for one. Magic in the real world as it might be.
Dreams and magic aside, though, this could also be seen as my understanding of nature and how I use what I observe to my advantage, such as if walking through a forest and birds take to the trees, I hunker down because I know that some disturbance is causing them to take flight. Understanding, seeing things how animals see them can be a great disarmer of camouflage, for example. That is, we may see one thing but if the animals are reacting a certain way to it, why are they?
How does one learn to make their surroundings work for them?
Does one need to be surrounded by stuffed animals to have such an appreciation? Not necessarily but as we are talking psychology, two things. First, there is logic by analogy that in the mind of who we are talking about, just as it applies in one world, so it might apply in another.
Secondly, in the Dr. Who story, The Sunmakers, the huntress Leela is prepping to attack but feels afraid and knows she should not. K9, the robot dog, tells her there is a chemical inhibitor in the air that is causing her fear. Leela does not understand (this is more in the novelization) all what K9 is saying but takes it to mean that there is no need for fear, it is the magic of her enemies that is causing the fear, and hence, she will just ignore it.
How one interprets the world should not be such a great concern to another.....provided it does not harm another and that the job gets done as it needs to be.
That's a good point - part affectation and part fragility. Makes sense. I agree we've trained our youth to be victims, and hopefully the pendulum will swing back toward the middle at some point. We're not there yet.
My children are in their mid to late 30's, They were involved in team sports (soccer and basketball) and my daughter was on dance teams and in theatre. I used to envy them because I'm from the era before Title IX which ushered in female sports in schools.
When I was a teen, the only thing you could do was drill team, cheerleader, songleading (pom poms) or flag twirling. There was no opportunity to toughen up and learn how to get back in there and do your best (as a girl) in a team effort. That's why I question online learning for children, but that's another subject. I saw my children learn so many valuable lessons about life through team sports. Their father, to his credit, forced them to not quit when things got tough.
I too can remember my parents saying the same thing about a good cry. There's nothing wrong with it.
I think you guys are reading way too much into this. I don’t think it has one thing to do with whether they’re tough or not. Young people are still waffling back-and-forth between childhood and adulthood, Hello Kitty was very popular with girls all the way up to their 20s. Girls in their 20s still shriek with delight when their boyfriend wins them a stuffed animal at a carnival. And they did 50 years ago too.
It’s just the newest fad bringing them in public, nothing more.
Last edited by ocnjgirl; 09-25-2022 at 04:42 PM..
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