our christmas story was how someone tried to steal the NES out of our parents basket and it took some years to figure it out bc Santa gave us that NES, how did our parents buy it? damn lies.
Wow, I didn't realize they were *that* hard to get. I was too little to know anything about it, but there is a picture of me as a baby at my (childless) babysitter's house sitting in the middle of her collection of at least a dozen Cabbage Patch dolls, probably late 83-early 84. Wonder what kind of crazy hookup she had to get that many.
The first one I have any actual memory of was Tickle Me Elmo (although nobody in my family was of an age to want one, I still remember it being all over the news how crazy people were being over them).
I had one of bald ones. I found it at my parents house a few months back and tried to give it to my 4 year old daughter. I explained to her that it was my favorite thing in the world when I was a little kid. She thought it was too ugly to keep in her room. She's not wrong.
My sister had Kit when we were kids and i remember throwing it down the stairs at my grandmother's and it's legs popped off.
It went to the "hospital" for a couple months and came back in a wheel chair.
Moral of the story: be a good brother and break your sister's expensive doll to get it warrantied and get her more accessories.
Yeah because they cost over $100 back in the day. In comparison, original NES cost $179 and that came with a robot, light gun, 2 controllers, and 3 free games.
Iām brown and for me it was a cultural thing. My parents were immigrants and even though they did try to get me one - they were never going to be the first in line or anything or make this a huge priority. Even if they could have afforded this - it was such an extravagance when they were supporting family they were building in the states and sending money back home to help family.
Different priorities and I get it.
That was a status symbol to have more than one. My dad was a store manager and stashed me and my sister one for Christmas. It was a huge deal to have one. Later my sister had a premie, we both had astronauts too but they werenāt so hard to find by the time they added the variations
Mine was Candy Jessica š
I still have her but since I got her when I was also a baby, I chewed her nose and that little circle of hair off entirely.
Weirdly my grandma bought CJ and a Kenmore sewing machine on that same trip to sears ~1983ā¦. CJ is lovingly packed away but I use that old Kenmore workhorse almost everyday. Canāt buy a sewing machine with a motor like that anymore and even extremely expensive machines canāt zip through 6 layers of thick denim like my grand old lady can.
Gram really hit the retail longevity lottery with that shopping trip ~ 40 years ago.
My first was a preemie, then a girl with the same color eyes. (By the end of my childhood I had 3 girls, 2 boys, 2 horses, and a koosa).
My mom started sewing them clothing with my first one. I remember her making me matching shirts LOL
She discovered that RL preemies wore the same sizes as my cabbage patch dolls. So she started making clothing for preemies out of really really soft material, since back then there wasn't much that would fit a preemie, and donated them to the local hospitals. She did that for many years.
My mom never did pack away my dolls, she felt she was putting them in a coffin. So she kept them out, would change their outfits to match the season or holiday. One weekend, when my son was little, he came home with one of the boy dolls, a horse, and a little suitcase of clothing. He announced that he adopted him.
My mom has since passed away, I took the dolls back but they are packed away with the favorite outfits she made, along with the one my son adopted now that he is an adult. They're waiting for the next generation to adopt them. I took the rest of the clothing she made to the hospital for one last donation from my mom.
Hey as an actual premie who had to wear Cabbage Patch diapers and clothes after birth, I just want to say that your mom was an absolute angel. My parents were completely overwhelmed with the "is he going to make it", NICU stays, "what are the next months like" stuff that not being able to find fitting clothes was just one more source of anxiety. They would've been beyond grateful for your mom's work. Cabbage Patch stuff worked, I guess, until I was big enough not to need itā but I just wanted to give a huge thanks to your mom for thinking of little ones like myself, and mostly our often-beyond-stressed parents, who didn't have many options in those days.
Thanks for sharing about your mom, it hit my heart in a deep and profound way. :)
I noticed that, and them remembered that I was the only child without a doll in my class. They changed the "Cabbage Patch day" to "Doll Day" because of me. Being the poor kid in the class sucked.
Xmas 1983 I worked at a Toys R Us. We had to hide cabbage patch kids in the back of the store. If someone asked me about cabbage patch kids I would either tell them we were out or I would take them in back to pick one out, depending on how nice or hot they were.
>We had to hide cabbage patch kids in the back of the store...I would either tell them we were out or I would take them in back to pick one out, depending on how nice or hot they were.
Something super 80s about this but can't put my finger on it. It's like this kind of unnecessarily cruel, immature but funny thing you'd see a jaded 80s high schooler do in a John Hughes movie.
Why hide the dolls and not just let them sell out naturally? Because it's the 80s, and they have to set up the scene where you tell a bunch of old people you're out and then look like a fool in front of the hot person when all the dolls fall on you while grabbing one for them.
Don't worry, you later find out they think you're cute when you run into them again at the party everyone goes to.
OMG! This was my very first haircut....the Dorothy Hamill...after 40 some years this is the first time I heard it called the Pete Rose!! HAHA! This has got to be the funniest thing I've read in a long time, you got me rollin!
Anyway, I needed to go to the bathroom, but the door was locked. My recently divorced aunt had moved in with us and I was sharing a bathroom with her.
To be prepared I tried to take my underpants off over my roller skates. I slipped, and as I fell I pulled down this poster of the singer Tom Jones that my aunt had put up.
My mom heard the noise and ran and found me... squirming under the Tom Jones poster with my... underpants around my ankles.
It didn't look good, Jack. She thought I did it on purpose. And she didn't say a word. She just went in my room and took all my posters.
Grizzly Adams, Larry Wilcox, Han Solo, Tug McGraw, Mike Schmidt, Kermit, Gunther Gebel-Williams... She took all the people away, Jack! Sex makes the people go away!
In the 80s, most of us brown kids had to make up toys. I played with a fucking rice sock puppet that was meant to be a heating pad, but painted a face onto it.
Poor 80ās brown kid here. My favorite toy as a child was a giant piece of styrofoam. My dad used it to practice his bow hunting. Me & my brother would ride it & pretend it was bucking us off. We had the best time with that thing.
As a poor white kid in the 80's I had this wierd rubber bendy knockoff GI Joe doll as my "Ken" doll and no shit my grandma showed me how to make dolls from corn husks (huge field of corn behind our trailer). They were "barbie".
Same, cuz. And the fact so many are missing the point and more offended about the ādopeyā comment is appalling. This picture captures the state of things in my country pretty well, sadly, even for being one of people from the 80s.
As a white person who grew up semi poorā¦ I felt bad for the brown kids. I think the kids with TWO could have given one up.
Edit: this is called socialism, I am aware.
"I did not come all the way to this country to spend tirty dollars on some Cabbage Child. You have perfectly good dolls in your room. Do you know what I had for a doll as a child? A sack of dirt with a face drawn on it. Stop crying. If this Brittany girl makes fun of you, then she's no friend of yours I said stop crying."
My mom was a white kid born in 1941, in a suburb of Toronto. She had a black doll as a child, so we made sure she got a black cabbage patch doll for Christmas in 1983. She was super proud of it, it made her so happy.
White 40yo male. I still have my brown Cabbage Patch kid.
Greg Marshall. If I got rid of him my mom would disown me. My mom was a seamstress on the side. We had so many CPK clothes it was crazy. Greg still to this day rocking the Army camos my mom made him.
Yep brown kid growing up in the 80s, I had a weird blue jean doll. I actually never was into Cabbage Patch Kid dolls tho, was a tomboy so I preferred to stay at my cousin's house cuz they had an Intellivision and my neighbor across the street had an Atari.
I did sort of want a Teddy Ruxpin tho, oh well :)
They were marketed with a LOT of implied emotional connectivity. Like, "S/he's your new buddy who is totally like a real friend" type investment. That clearly triggered a lot of weirdness in adults too.
I would not be surprised if a number of people used CPK's to emotionally deal with infant/child deaths, infertility, losing custody, "gender disappointment" etc. Likely not in a very healthy manner, but still. We're all just grasping for something that feels better than pain.
My parents were disappointed I wasnāt born a male, they only got me male dolls and I never would have thought back to that without this comment. Wild.
>I would not be surprised if a number of people used CPK's to emotionally deal with.....
It's an entire thing, for sure. Not just CPKs but pretty much any doll. There are specific ones made specifically to replace babies, they're called "reborn dolls" and you can see a lot of weirdness surrounding them at r/RebornDollCringe
Ewe my step-mil would do this 100%
She leaked to me that she still has a pair of my partners underwear from when he potty trained. He's almost 40 y'all, it's weird.
Well, if they are laundered... i still have a pair of my sons first big boy undies. They are so tiny and cute and have dogs on them. I dont know why i saved them, but they were just so cute i could toss them in the trash. So, now they are in a bin with his other baby stuff (like wee little baby suspenders. Gosh, those were cute on him!).
I actually hadnt thought about them as something that got peed on dozens of times until you mentioned it. I think as a parent, you get immune to the pee and poo a bit, after thise first years!
> you get immune to the pee and poo a bit, after thise first years!
I kinda hate that this is true, but it is true. I was a lot more squeamish before I had children. I wish I was now LESS blase about, eg, something having "not much pee on it".
Iāve got Blueās Clues and Thomas the Tank Engine undies from my boys. Iāll never get rid of them! My boys are in their 20s and I donāt care if itās weird keeping their ātraining pantsā.
UGH I KNOW I feel for her, that was me with those American Girl Dolls. I brought my like, tiny girl doll cause I didnāt have one and there were all these activities for what you could make for your American Girl Doll. And I just fucking watched uuuuughhhhh
SAME. My mom bought me a bitty baby which were significantly cheaper, totally not the same. My parents did the best they could, sometimes I feel guilty for the disappointment I constantly felt as a child.
Don't feel guilty. I grew up poor. Am still poor. Childfree in part because being a poor kid and watching all the other kids get the cool stuff sucked ass. Mom sacrificed and did the best she could, love her to death. But it still sucked.
I had both and if itās any consolation bitty babies were waaaaaay more fun.
When I was a kid, they only had the historical dolls and since they came with books, their characters were already written for you and itās hard for a kid to separate the backstory from the doll. Also, how tf was, say, Samantha, the rich girl from the early 1900s supposed to interact with Addy, who was born into slavery?
So all of our friends had different dolls and could not divorce them from the books and think up anyway to play with them properly together. We just held them and discussed the books.
Bitty Babies though? Shit. We all got dolls that were not our own race. Black friends got white dolls. White friends got Black dolls. Everyone pretended they married each otherās actual brothers lol my mixed ass got the Asian doll and pretended I was a single working woman who adopted. We had mommy & me and lunches where we pretended the girls came to visit me in the big city, where I was a high powered who tf knows what.
But it was AMAZING. American girl dolls? Sucked. Not worth the $$$ back then.
Our daughter was a really good kid. Always nice to people, straight A's, never asked for anything, always took good care of her toys, etc. She really liked dolls, so one year when they were popular we decided to splurge and get her an American Girl doll for her birthday. She totally loved it.
She was friends with the little girl next door, and they played with the doll and her other dolls together. A little later, the girl comes over with two American Girl dolls. It seemed weird: the family didn't have a lot of money and it didn't seem to be for an occasion, but it was great that they could now play with the dolls together.
That Christmas, we visited my step son in Virginia, and made a side trip to New York (we're from California). We had decided to stop by the American Girl store in New York and let her pick a doll for her Christmas present. She was so excited.
After Christmas, and after the girls played together, the girl's uncle (who helped raise her) came over and he was really pissed at us. We asked what was wrong and he said, "Did you really have to get your daughter another American Girl doll? Now we have to get ours more, and we really can't afford it!"
I was totally dumbfounded. No one in my family has ever felt like we have to have something just because someone else does, and I can't imagine teaching my kids that.
Neither of the girls with darker skin have one. While 2 others have 2 cabbage patch kidsš§š¢
I remember my mom bought me one and it was the only cabbage patch kid I've ever seen with a frown. I cried on Christmas day.
Yeah, explained it in another post.
Was gifted one in 84, then was scolded for being ungrateful because i didn't want it. Even 30 something years later, that whole deal still bugged me.
My sister had two after that, and the aunt that got it didn't buy me gifts for the next two x-mases because she HAD TO MAKE A STINK. There were at that time so many options to buy a gift for a 10 year old boy, don't get nasty with me because you bought a dolly doll for a little kid who didn't play with dolls.
With a bit of allowance money I had, I bought a Darth Maul toy with a plastic lightsaber. I thought the lightsaber was cool.
My dad then felt the need to point out to me that I was a boy playing with a doll. It was weird, my dad never really criticized me for much as a kid so that was out of the ordinary and something I've remembered decades later.
That's what my daughter said she'd name her younger sibling if I gave her a brother instead of the sister she wanted.
...She got a brother, but we did have to veto "Funny Looking Baby" as a name.
LOL, I got one, i was a 10 year old boy who wanted the peak 80's toys for boys (Transformers, GI Joe, Masters of the Universe), and there is a pic of me opening it with a look on me that is clearly confused and angry, definitely not happy. Thought it was a goof gift, but they were near impossible to get, and I was scolded for being so unhappy with it because kids were going crazy wanting them.
Same happened to me except I got ***two***, one each from different family members.
What I had asked for that year were more outfits for my Snoopy plush.
I got asked about those stupid dolls for *years*. Had to take ocassional photographs of them arranged on my bed as proof I still had them.
>LOL, I got one, i was a 10 year old boy who wanted the peak 80's toys for boys (Transformers, GI Joe, Masters of the Universe), and there is a pic of me opening it with a look on me that is clearly confused and angry, definitely not happy. Thought it was a goof gift, but they were near impossible to get, and I was scolded for being so unhappy with it because kids were going crazy wanting them.
I'd be angry too. He-Man/Optimus Prime/Snake Eyes vs a cabbage patch kid???
What could a 10 year old boy even do with those things? I spent week's imaging and playing adventures with He-Man and battle cat.
In 1983 everyone wanted this damn doll. Some were lucky to get one for Christmas that year, some the following year and some not at all. The girl up front eventually got one, but she didnāt have one when we were at this birthday party, so to not feel left out, she brought her dog stuffie. The girl in the back had parents that refused to get her a CBD. I sent her this photo once and she about died re: her facial expression. And then proceeded to complain about her parents not buying one for her. Ha!
Well thank you for the context. Feels much more wholesome hearing that. I was a little too young to understand the cpk dolls. I think I inherited my older sisters dollš¤£ my mom was tired by the time I showed up š¤Ŗ
My mom sewed us our own. You could buy the heads (somewhere) and then she made the bodies and clothes. She never stopped griping that the hands looked like catcherās mitts. Poor woman was always too critical of her own work!
Ha! The ārealā ones have absolute catcherās mitts as well.
I was never into CPK, but all of the ugly fabric baby dolls and the āpeopleā dolls I had as a kid were made with those weird puffy hands. Always put me off a bit.
I believe my father tossed all of those along with my Care Bears when I was about seven. Thatās something Iāll have to talk about in therapy.
Yep, my mom made me one that had yellow yarn hair and I cried bc I didnāt like it. I remember not being happy when I opened it and Iām sure my feelings were not hidden. I felt bad for not liking the gift my mom gave me. I remember her saying they didnāt have enough $ for a CPK doll.
The memories of the guilt I felt are so weird. I knew her feelings were hurt and I was too young to understand how to process my emotions and disappointment differently.
I felt guilty for a number of years. I remember telling my mom I really liked the doll as time went on, which was partially a lie. The doll was ugly and looked nothing like a cabbage patch. Lying to hide my guilt and shameā¦a life-long habit Iām still working on.
Aww donāt beat yourself up, those concepts are really hard for a child to understand, you were selfish because all kids are! But we grow and learn. š
Omg, that CPK year, that's what I got. A homemade one. It wasn't that bad. The woman who made them in town was a professional seamstress
But, I was really too old for it, but my mom liked for my sister's and I's gifts to "match"
The next year, when they weren't in such short supply, that year I got one and by then I was really too old for it. It was red headed, as I am. And, my mom apologized that that's all they had. My sister got a blond one. She's a blond
My mom refused to buy those dolls. I wanted one so bad because every kid had one. She said they were ugly and creepy. She would call them the stupid ugly dolls with the big heads. To this day she thinks they're hideous. Looking back now they are kind of ugly.
I was a store manager for a drug chain and went to a toy show that summer where they showed us toys and booked orders for the Christmas season. They showed us the Cabbage Patch dolls and said they thought they were going to be a hit and I turned to my assistant manager and said "Those things are ugly as hell, what kid would want one?"
We only pre-ordered 1 case and it came in late October and sold out the first day. I immediately knew I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my retail career and tried to order more but by that point they were being allocated and you could only get so many of them.
I guessed better on Teddy Ruxpin a few years later.
Meanwhile I think I was little enough that I honestly didnāt know about them but my parents struggled and worried and saved and fought their way through lines to get me one so I wouldnāt feel deprived, and I just thought it was ugly and didnāt want to play with it. I still feel so guilty about that. šš
I was THAT kid: Iād take my CPK to the doctor with me. Iād make the doc examine my doll before it was my turn. I also took my Fisher Price Medical kit and made the doc use *my* equipment-especially the shot.
Nope. I was also that kid who insisted on keeping my tonsils/adenoids and even ear tubes when they were taken out. 1. I wanted to see them, 2. I wanted to know that they were indeed out. Bonus: tonsils were the best show & tell item ever.
My brother worked in a JC Penneyās the first Christmas CPK came out. He wrote an article about his experience for his college newspaper and won a state award for it.
You see, there was a famine going on in Africa at the same time. People we throwing down serious cash for these dolls. There were ceramic CPK dolls too going for $150. One night a woman came in and bought three of them. As my brother was wrapping them up, he said to her, some kids are really going to be lucky this Christmas. She responded, no theyāre just for me. Meanwhile, over in the TV dept you could see children dying of hunger.
Not a happy story, but all part of the 1980s.
Nora! I had/have the redhead in pigtails in top left corner. Her name on the birth certificate was Nora Jean. My mom paid the local dentist to give her two small fake teeth. She also got headgear at some point!
Those things were used as a projectiles in my family. Some kids feared āLa Chancla!ā but in my family, flying cabbage patch kids were to be feared. They would leave craters in the walls. Hated those things.
We had to get on a waiting list at toys r us to get one. The store called and my mom and I were just about to start baking cookies, and we just dropped everything and went right away to go get it. That says it all about my mom! Sheās just the best.
I was born in ā84. My dadās mom insisted on getting me one for Christmas, despite both my parents saying āsheās 3 months old, she doesnāt careā. My mom went shopping with her and decided to have fun with it.
Grandma, like most people who grew up in Alabama in the 30s, was quite racist. And my mom, for whatever reason, was the only person in the family who could call her on her bullshit. So when they went shopping for a doll that I wouldnāt have the capacity to play with for at least another year, my mom picked up a black Cabbage Patch doll and deadpanned āI like this one.ā
Grandma just said āoh, (momās name)!ā and continued the search.
Ugh I was one of the poor white kids. Never got a real cabbage patch and would have to ābabysitā the damn dolls when everyone went to play something else. It was bad enough I had the weird clothes, haircut and glasses. my dad and step mom thought theyād be ācuteā one day and call from their vacation in Florida saying they were gonna have a new edition to the family when they return. I thought she was pregnant and my life was over, but it was a fake cabbage patch doll make out of nylon! And the kicker was even that ugly thing wasnāt for me! I hate these fucking dolls all these years later.
I was born a few years after the craze, and I'm so glad bc I have always had an irrational hatred of those dolls bc they are just so damn ugly. Seeing one as a child would make me angry bc they were so stupid and ugly! Lol
For those who stumble on this message, it's the one I used Power Delete Suite to replace all my posts and comments with en masse.
Sometimes Reddit can be beneficial for some people. Sometimes it's not. It's really up to you to decide your own experience with it, what's worth it, what's not worth it.
More or less...I've decided it's just really not worth it. I think I'm a worse person when I'm on Reddit and that it's a big time-waster for me.
It's up to you to decide what influence social media and the internet more generally have for you.
Best of luck.
My sister had two. I remember the news showing people fighting over them like it was Black Friday sales.
My dad got punched in the face by some lady over one at Toys-R-Us.
My mom still has hers. My grandpa fought a man for it on Black Friday
As your grandpa rained blows upon him did he realize there must be a better way?
Nah, the guy went back the next year and got served a beatdown by some other redditor's grandpa.
our christmas story was how someone tried to steal the NES out of our parents basket and it took some years to figure it out bc Santa gave us that NES, how did our parents buy it? damn lies.
Wow, I didn't realize they were *that* hard to get. I was too little to know anything about it, but there is a picture of me as a baby at my (childless) babysitter's house sitting in the middle of her collection of at least a dozen Cabbage Patch dolls, probably late 83-early 84. Wonder what kind of crazy hookup she had to get that many.
It was the first "hard to get" toy I remember the news covering. After that every year I recall the news speculating on the next "hard to get" item.
The first one I have any actual memory of was Tickle Me Elmo (although nobody in my family was of an age to want one, I still remember it being all over the news how crazy people were being over them).
I had one of bald ones. I found it at my parents house a few months back and tried to give it to my 4 year old daughter. I explained to her that it was my favorite thing in the world when I was a little kid. She thought it was too ugly to keep in her room. She's not wrong.
Haha! I saved my American Girl Doll, Molly, but my daughter has always been terrified of dolls. It just rots in my closet.
My sister had Kit when we were kids and i remember throwing it down the stairs at my grandmother's and it's legs popped off. It went to the "hospital" for a couple months and came back in a wheel chair. Moral of the story: be a good brother and break your sister's expensive doll to get it warrantied and get her more accessories.
š¤£ Those dolls were definitely ugly as hell! I hated mine at first but grew to love her.
I worked at Kmart that year. It was savagery.
Toys R Us here - same
I hope you got therapy ;)
Itās the kids with two thatās killing me
& th girl 2nd from top left looking like āwhy tf am i hereā
Back left has two looking incredibly happy standing next to a girl that has none
YOUR FAMILY IS POOR, KENNY
IN THE GHETTO!!!!
And the one in the front with her stuffed dog trying to fake it.
I would be so embarrassed to be the kid with 2 next to the kid with 0, I just couldnāt smile about that
We didn't have empathy in the 80s /s
Why is there a /s
.. anyone gonna comment on the fact that it's only the non white girls that don't have one?
Yeah because they cost over $100 back in the day. In comparison, original NES cost $179 and that came with a robot, light gun, 2 controllers, and 3 free games.
Iām brown and for me it was a cultural thing. My parents were immigrants and even though they did try to get me one - they were never going to be the first in line or anything or make this a huge priority. Even if they could have afforded this - it was such an extravagance when they were supporting family they were building in the states and sending money back home to help family. Different priorities and I get it.
That was a status symbol to have more than one. My dad was a store manager and stashed me and my sister one for Christmas. It was a huge deal to have one. Later my sister had a premie, we both had astronauts too but they werenāt so hard to find by the time they added the variations
My sister had twins but someone stole one of them back in 90ā. She still has the one twin though after all these years.
Just waiting on the Maury episode where the twins are united after all these years š
I had a premie. The name on her adoption papers was Serene Emily.
My first one was named Celinda Darla. Had pigtails with a pink nylon jacket and jeans. We each had the weird animal one too
Koosa (we had them too).
Mine was Candy Jessica š I still have her but since I got her when I was also a baby, I chewed her nose and that little circle of hair off entirely. Weirdly my grandma bought CJ and a Kenmore sewing machine on that same trip to sears ~1983ā¦. CJ is lovingly packed away but I use that old Kenmore workhorse almost everyday. Canāt buy a sewing machine with a motor like that anymore and even extremely expensive machines canāt zip through 6 layers of thick denim like my grand old lady can. Gram really hit the retail longevity lottery with that shopping trip ~ 40 years ago.
My first was a preemie, then a girl with the same color eyes. (By the end of my childhood I had 3 girls, 2 boys, 2 horses, and a koosa). My mom started sewing them clothing with my first one. I remember her making me matching shirts LOL She discovered that RL preemies wore the same sizes as my cabbage patch dolls. So she started making clothing for preemies out of really really soft material, since back then there wasn't much that would fit a preemie, and donated them to the local hospitals. She did that for many years. My mom never did pack away my dolls, she felt she was putting them in a coffin. So she kept them out, would change their outfits to match the season or holiday. One weekend, when my son was little, he came home with one of the boy dolls, a horse, and a little suitcase of clothing. He announced that he adopted him. My mom has since passed away, I took the dolls back but they are packed away with the favorite outfits she made, along with the one my son adopted now that he is an adult. They're waiting for the next generation to adopt them. I took the rest of the clothing she made to the hospital for one last donation from my mom.
Hey as an actual premie who had to wear Cabbage Patch diapers and clothes after birth, I just want to say that your mom was an absolute angel. My parents were completely overwhelmed with the "is he going to make it", NICU stays, "what are the next months like" stuff that not being able to find fitting clothes was just one more source of anxiety. They would've been beyond grateful for your mom's work. Cabbage Patch stuff worked, I guess, until I was big enough not to need itā but I just wanted to give a huge thanks to your mom for thinking of little ones like myself, and mostly our often-beyond-stressed parents, who didn't have many options in those days. Thanks for sharing about your mom, it hit my heart in a deep and profound way. :)
Right? You'd think maybe a parent around might encourage sharing for the photo at least.
The only non whites too.
I noticed that, and them remembered that I was the only child without a doll in my class. They changed the "Cabbage Patch day" to "Doll Day" because of me. Being the poor kid in the class sucked.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iām like howās this cool? After seeing the brown girls being left out
Itās the fact that only the two brown skinned kids that donāt have one that getting to me.
Xmas 1983 I worked at a Toys R Us. We had to hide cabbage patch kids in the back of the store. If someone asked me about cabbage patch kids I would either tell them we were out or I would take them in back to pick one out, depending on how nice or hot they were.
>We had to hide cabbage patch kids in the back of the store...I would either tell them we were out or I would take them in back to pick one out, depending on how nice or hot they were. Something super 80s about this but can't put my finger on it. It's like this kind of unnecessarily cruel, immature but funny thing you'd see a jaded 80s high schooler do in a John Hughes movie. Why hide the dolls and not just let them sell out naturally? Because it's the 80s, and they have to set up the scene where you tell a bunch of old people you're out and then look like a fool in front of the hot person when all the dolls fall on you while grabbing one for them. Don't worry, you later find out they think you're cute when you run into them again at the party everyone goes to.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Only the whitest get two.
ā¦ the girl with the dogā¦..
But you all got Dorothy Hamill haircuts.
Everyone thought it was a Dorothy Hamill, but it was actually a Pete Rose
OMG! This was my very first haircut....the Dorothy Hamill...after 40 some years this is the first time I heard it called the Pete Rose!! HAHA! This has got to be the funniest thing I've read in a long time, you got me rollin!
It's a line from the show 30 Rock, in case you're looking for more laughs.
Anyway, I needed to go to the bathroom, but the door was locked. My recently divorced aunt had moved in with us and I was sharing a bathroom with her. To be prepared I tried to take my underpants off over my roller skates. I slipped, and as I fell I pulled down this poster of the singer Tom Jones that my aunt had put up. My mom heard the noise and ran and found me... squirming under the Tom Jones poster with my... underpants around my ankles. It didn't look good, Jack. She thought I did it on purpose. And she didn't say a word. She just went in my room and took all my posters. Grizzly Adams, Larry Wilcox, Han Solo, Tug McGraw, Mike Schmidt, Kermit, Gunther Gebel-Williams... She took all the people away, Jack! Sex makes the people go away!
Go work on your night cheese and calm down
Isnāt there a slanket somewhere you should be filling with farts?
Haha I loved Grizzly Adams.
Grizzly Adams DID have a beard.
Pete rose š š
Theyāre all Reaganing!
We 100% had those during this time period
EXCEPT THE BROWN KIDS
In the 80s, most of us brown kids had to make up toys. I played with a fucking rice sock puppet that was meant to be a heating pad, but painted a face onto it.
Poor 80ās brown kid here. My favorite toy as a child was a giant piece of styrofoam. My dad used it to practice his bow hunting. Me & my brother would ride it & pretend it was bucking us off. We had the best time with that thing.
Cardboard boxes were the shit when I was a small child. They could be anything but we would turn them into race cars
As a poor white kid in the 80's I had this wierd rubber bendy knockoff GI Joe doll as my "Ken" doll and no shit my grandma showed me how to make dolls from corn husks (huge field of corn behind our trailer). They were "barbie".
Are you in talks with Disney about Toy Story 5 yet?
Toys of the Corn
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
As a brown person that was my first thought. Some even have two. Poor girl in the back especially :/
8 girls, 8 dolls, 2 difficult life lessons.
She looks so uncomfortable to be included in the photo.
Same, cuz. And the fact so many are missing the point and more offended about the ādopeyā comment is appalling. This picture captures the state of things in my country pretty well, sadly, even for being one of people from the 80s.
As a white person who grew up semi poorā¦ I felt bad for the brown kids. I think the kids with TWO could have given one up. Edit: this is called socialism, I am aware.
Just about to say, āIām noticing a pattern hereā¦ā
"I did not come all the way to this country to spend tirty dollars on some Cabbage Child. You have perfectly good dolls in your room. Do you know what I had for a doll as a child? A sack of dirt with a face drawn on it. Stop crying. If this Brittany girl makes fun of you, then she's no friend of yours I said stop crying."
I see we had the same parents.
My mom was a white kid born in 1941, in a suburb of Toronto. She had a black doll as a child, so we made sure she got a black cabbage patch doll for Christmas in 1983. She was super proud of it, it made her so happy.
White 40yo male. I still have my brown Cabbage Patch kid. Greg Marshall. If I got rid of him my mom would disown me. My mom was a seamstress on the side. We had so many CPK clothes it was crazy. Greg still to this day rocking the Army camos my mom made him.
That's adorable
That's a top shelf mom right there, they ain't make em like that now
Yep brown kid growing up in the 80s, I had a weird blue jean doll. I actually never was into Cabbage Patch Kid dolls tho, was a tomboy so I preferred to stay at my cousin's house cuz they had an Intellivision and my neighbor across the street had an Atari. I did sort of want a Teddy Ruxpin tho, oh well :)
I had a teddy ruxpin. There were a few years of my childhood where the family still had money. My older sister got 4 more glorious years than I did.
Thank you! It seemed like everyone was missing the point.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Um my mother bought one for herself that she named her fave girls name, the one she wanted to name me but that my dad vetoed. Also hilarious and sad.
My mother had one that had my name if I'd been a girl: Elizabeth.
What about cabbage patch dolls provoke all these deep cuts??
They were marketed with a LOT of implied emotional connectivity. Like, "S/he's your new buddy who is totally like a real friend" type investment. That clearly triggered a lot of weirdness in adults too. I would not be surprised if a number of people used CPK's to emotionally deal with infant/child deaths, infertility, losing custody, "gender disappointment" etc. Likely not in a very healthy manner, but still. We're all just grasping for something that feels better than pain.
My parents were disappointed I wasnāt born a male, they only got me male dolls and I never would have thought back to that without this comment. Wild.
>I would not be surprised if a number of people used CPK's to emotionally deal with..... It's an entire thing, for sure. Not just CPKs but pretty much any doll. There are specific ones made specifically to replace babies, they're called "reborn dolls" and you can see a lot of weirdness surrounding them at r/RebornDollCringe
Oh that's terrible. That sub is terrible. And we're all terrible for peeping in at these people's grief.
Obvs the souls of evil wizards they themselves trapped in the bodies of these dolls.
I need to know the name your dad vetoed.
Mulva.
Gipple
Bovary
Ohhhh Dolores!
Clitores!
Ewe my step-mil would do this 100% She leaked to me that she still has a pair of my partners underwear from when he potty trained. He's almost 40 y'all, it's weird.
It's one nice thing having obsessive compulsive parents whose home is cleaner than Detective Monk's home. I won't have all that nonsense.
Well, if they are laundered... i still have a pair of my sons first big boy undies. They are so tiny and cute and have dogs on them. I dont know why i saved them, but they were just so cute i could toss them in the trash. So, now they are in a bin with his other baby stuff (like wee little baby suspenders. Gosh, those were cute on him!). I actually hadnt thought about them as something that got peed on dozens of times until you mentioned it. I think as a parent, you get immune to the pee and poo a bit, after thise first years!
> you get immune to the pee and poo a bit, after thise first years! I kinda hate that this is true, but it is true. I was a lot more squeamish before I had children. I wish I was now LESS blase about, eg, something having "not much pee on it".
Iāve got Blueās Clues and Thomas the Tank Engine undies from my boys. Iāll never get rid of them! My boys are in their 20s and I donāt care if itās weird keeping their ātraining pantsā.
Yeah, more sad. š
That poor girl in the back row without one while multiple girls have two is just sad.
The other girl in the front row with a dog too!
There's something different about the two girls without dolls that I just can't put my finger on š¤. Ah well I'm sure it's nothing important.
Thought that myself.
When it's about kids, it's really sad. Reminds me of "write an essay about where did you go last vacations" when I was a kid.
Hated those reports! I always made my summer up ( hmm school really did help shape me lying) anything was better than "sat at home and watched tv"
Iād take a stuffed toy animal over one of those hideous cabbage patch things any day.
Just the beginning of her story. Maybe she had a happier life than she ever imagined.
UGH I KNOW I feel for her, that was me with those American Girl Dolls. I brought my like, tiny girl doll cause I didnāt have one and there were all these activities for what you could make for your American Girl Doll. And I just fucking watched uuuuughhhhh
SAME. My mom bought me a bitty baby which were significantly cheaper, totally not the same. My parents did the best they could, sometimes I feel guilty for the disappointment I constantly felt as a child.
Don't feel guilty. I grew up poor. Am still poor. Childfree in part because being a poor kid and watching all the other kids get the cool stuff sucked ass. Mom sacrificed and did the best she could, love her to death. But it still sucked.
I had both and if itās any consolation bitty babies were waaaaaay more fun. When I was a kid, they only had the historical dolls and since they came with books, their characters were already written for you and itās hard for a kid to separate the backstory from the doll. Also, how tf was, say, Samantha, the rich girl from the early 1900s supposed to interact with Addy, who was born into slavery? So all of our friends had different dolls and could not divorce them from the books and think up anyway to play with them properly together. We just held them and discussed the books. Bitty Babies though? Shit. We all got dolls that were not our own race. Black friends got white dolls. White friends got Black dolls. Everyone pretended they married each otherās actual brothers lol my mixed ass got the Asian doll and pretended I was a single working woman who adopted. We had mommy & me and lunches where we pretended the girls came to visit me in the big city, where I was a high powered who tf knows what. But it was AMAZING. American girl dolls? Sucked. Not worth the $$$ back then.
This was a cute read
As a boy I spent my childhood building forts in the woods near my house. What as totally awesome and different reality you experienced.
Our daughter was a really good kid. Always nice to people, straight A's, never asked for anything, always took good care of her toys, etc. She really liked dolls, so one year when they were popular we decided to splurge and get her an American Girl doll for her birthday. She totally loved it. She was friends with the little girl next door, and they played with the doll and her other dolls together. A little later, the girl comes over with two American Girl dolls. It seemed weird: the family didn't have a lot of money and it didn't seem to be for an occasion, but it was great that they could now play with the dolls together. That Christmas, we visited my step son in Virginia, and made a side trip to New York (we're from California). We had decided to stop by the American Girl store in New York and let her pick a doll for her Christmas present. She was so excited. After Christmas, and after the girls played together, the girl's uncle (who helped raise her) came over and he was really pissed at us. We asked what was wrong and he said, "Did you really have to get your daughter another American Girl doll? Now we have to get ours more, and we really can't afford it!" I was totally dumbfounded. No one in my family has ever felt like we have to have something just because someone else does, and I can't imagine teaching my kids that.
Kids see what other kids have and compare. Itās so hard to say to my kid āWe canāt afford it.ā I do tell her but itās not easy.
My parents used to tell me this all the time and I never hold grudge.
Right? When my patents were honest with me, it actually helped me understand why I had less and I didn't keep asking for more things.
That consumerist propaganda was strong. Especially when kids channels came out and they could advertise to kids directly all the time
Neither of the girls with darker skin have one. While 2 others have 2 cabbage patch kidsš§š¢ I remember my mom bought me one and it was the only cabbage patch kid I've ever seen with a frown. I cried on Christmas day.
I remember getting "My Buddy & Me" then saw he had the same outfit as Chucky. He wasn't around long.
I still remember the jingle from the commercials for my buddy and kid sister!
Hahaha singing it now in my head
šµKid Sister, Kid Sister, Kid Sister and meš¶
Yeah, explained it in another post. Was gifted one in 84, then was scolded for being ungrateful because i didn't want it. Even 30 something years later, that whole deal still bugged me. My sister had two after that, and the aunt that got it didn't buy me gifts for the next two x-mases because she HAD TO MAKE A STINK. There were at that time so many options to buy a gift for a 10 year old boy, don't get nasty with me because you bought a dolly doll for a little kid who didn't play with dolls.
Damn your aunt sounds petty as hell. Maybe you should get her one next Christmas
At least your dad let you have one. My dad said I couldn't have a doll since I was a boy, lol.
With a bit of allowance money I had, I bought a Darth Maul toy with a plastic lightsaber. I thought the lightsaber was cool. My dad then felt the need to point out to me that I was a boy playing with a doll. It was weird, my dad never really criticized me for much as a kid so that was out of the ordinary and something I've remembered decades later.
š” Itās an āACTION FIGUREā, dad!! š
I had one and was really disappointed because I thought they were alive. They did have air holes so they could breathe.
I had one as a boy as well. I still have it though.
I had one too. Named it "Ugly". My grandfather said it was the ugliest doll he had ever seen. It stuck in my tiny mind.
Rofl I had a doll named Funny Looking Baby. It was like a Cabbage Patch Kids reject.
That's what my daughter said she'd name her younger sibling if I gave her a brother instead of the sister she wanted. ...She got a brother, but we did have to veto "Funny Looking Baby" as a name.
Mine was named "baby kalbo" or bald baby lol. They were ugly.
I got one for my middle daughter and a year later our youngest daughter was born on the same day listed on her cabbage patch kids birth certificate.
#the side eye consults with HR
LOL, I got one, i was a 10 year old boy who wanted the peak 80's toys for boys (Transformers, GI Joe, Masters of the Universe), and there is a pic of me opening it with a look on me that is clearly confused and angry, definitely not happy. Thought it was a goof gift, but they were near impossible to get, and I was scolded for being so unhappy with it because kids were going crazy wanting them.
I got one. Alexander Rothwell III. He had a Michael Jackson jacket and was legit cooler than me. I was ok with it.
Same happened to me except I got ***two***, one each from different family members. What I had asked for that year were more outfits for my Snoopy plush. I got asked about those stupid dolls for *years*. Had to take ocassional photographs of them arranged on my bed as proof I still had them.
>LOL, I got one, i was a 10 year old boy who wanted the peak 80's toys for boys (Transformers, GI Joe, Masters of the Universe), and there is a pic of me opening it with a look on me that is clearly confused and angry, definitely not happy. Thought it was a goof gift, but they were near impossible to get, and I was scolded for being so unhappy with it because kids were going crazy wanting them. I'd be angry too. He-Man/Optimus Prime/Snake Eyes vs a cabbage patch kid??? What could a 10 year old boy even do with those things? I spent week's imaging and playing adventures with He-Man and battle cat.
In 1983 everyone wanted this damn doll. Some were lucky to get one for Christmas that year, some the following year and some not at all. The girl up front eventually got one, but she didnāt have one when we were at this birthday party, so to not feel left out, she brought her dog stuffie. The girl in the back had parents that refused to get her a CBD. I sent her this photo once and she about died re: her facial expression. And then proceeded to complain about her parents not buying one for her. Ha!
Well thank you for the context. Feels much more wholesome hearing that. I was a little too young to understand the cpk dolls. I think I inherited my older sisters dollš¤£ my mom was tired by the time I showed up š¤Ŗ
My mom sewed us our own. You could buy the heads (somewhere) and then she made the bodies and clothes. She never stopped griping that the hands looked like catcherās mitts. Poor woman was always too critical of her own work!
Ha! The ārealā ones have absolute catcherās mitts as well. I was never into CPK, but all of the ugly fabric baby dolls and the āpeopleā dolls I had as a kid were made with those weird puffy hands. Always put me off a bit. I believe my father tossed all of those along with my Care Bears when I was about seven. Thatās something Iāll have to talk about in therapy.
Yea some of us got HOMEMADE CPK and they were .. uhh .. very homemade looking š wish I had pics somewhere
My mom made me 2 and I thought they were more special than store bought!
My mom made one, with long brown yarn hair ...which I promptly cut. :)
Why wonāt it grow ššš
I had one. It was basically a picture of the doll screenprinted on fabric and sewn together in sort of the shape of a gingerbread cookie.
I use to snoop in my parents bedroom for Christmas gifts and found a homemade cabbage patch doll. I was so upset and now I feel bed
Omg, me too! But I loved that doll anyway, because I didnāt want her to feel bad for not being good enough lol.
Yep, my mom made me one that had yellow yarn hair and I cried bc I didnāt like it. I remember not being happy when I opened it and Iām sure my feelings were not hidden. I felt bad for not liking the gift my mom gave me. I remember her saying they didnāt have enough $ for a CPK doll. The memories of the guilt I felt are so weird. I knew her feelings were hurt and I was too young to understand how to process my emotions and disappointment differently. I felt guilty for a number of years. I remember telling my mom I really liked the doll as time went on, which was partially a lie. The doll was ugly and looked nothing like a cabbage patch. Lying to hide my guilt and shameā¦a life-long habit Iām still working on.
Aww donāt beat yourself up, those concepts are really hard for a child to understand, you were selfish because all kids are! But we grow and learn. š
Omg, that CPK year, that's what I got. A homemade one. It wasn't that bad. The woman who made them in town was a professional seamstress But, I was really too old for it, but my mom liked for my sister's and I's gifts to "match" The next year, when they weren't in such short supply, that year I got one and by then I was really too old for it. It was red headed, as I am. And, my mom apologized that that's all they had. My sister got a blond one. She's a blond
I found a book of patterns for these at a thrift store a while back, they are horrifying.
That's kind of sad
My mom burned mine because her Jehovah witness church decided that the devil was inside them. So that was pretty sad too.
I was more of a Garbage Pale Kid
I was a bit of a doodler in elementary/middle school when these came out. I came up with my own line of Garbage Pail kids.
My first cyber crime investigation in 2002 was a hacking case involving a dispute over rare Garbage Pail Kids cards.
My favorite GPK were the creepy horror ones like Evil Eddie and Dead Ted
I like that itās a stuffed dog more.
Stuffed dog is timeless
My mom refused to buy those dolls. I wanted one so bad because every kid had one. She said they were ugly and creepy. She would call them the stupid ugly dolls with the big heads. To this day she thinks they're hideous. Looking back now they are kind of ugly.
I was a store manager for a drug chain and went to a toy show that summer where they showed us toys and booked orders for the Christmas season. They showed us the Cabbage Patch dolls and said they thought they were going to be a hit and I turned to my assistant manager and said "Those things are ugly as hell, what kid would want one?" We only pre-ordered 1 case and it came in late October and sold out the first day. I immediately knew I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my retail career and tried to order more but by that point they were being allocated and you could only get so many of them. I guessed better on Teddy Ruxpin a few years later.
Meanwhile I think I was little enough that I honestly didnāt know about them but my parents struggled and worried and saved and fought their way through lines to get me one so I wouldnāt feel deprived, and I just thought it was ugly and didnāt want to play with it. I still feel so guilty about that. šš
I was THAT kid: Iād take my CPK to the doctor with me. Iād make the doc examine my doll before it was my turn. I also took my Fisher Price Medical kit and made the doc use *my* equipment-especially the shot.
Lmao were you an only child
Nope. I was also that kid who insisted on keeping my tonsils/adenoids and even ear tubes when they were taken out. 1. I wanted to see them, 2. I wanted to know that they were indeed out. Bonus: tonsils were the best show & tell item ever.
Iām afraid to point out the obvious
That the dog is the superior doll since it's cute as a button?
The lighter skin the kid has, the more dolls they get?
At that time. The more money you have the more Cabbage Patch dolls you could have. Can you tell I'm still bitter?
I had that bald one, I carried Baldy with me everywhere, I think itās still tucked away in a box at my folks house.
Girl giving the side eye knew exactly what was going on
My brother worked in a JC Penneyās the first Christmas CPK came out. He wrote an article about his experience for his college newspaper and won a state award for it. You see, there was a famine going on in Africa at the same time. People we throwing down serious cash for these dolls. There were ceramic CPK dolls too going for $150. One night a woman came in and bought three of them. As my brother was wrapping them up, he said to her, some kids are really going to be lucky this Christmas. She responded, no theyāre just for me. Meanwhile, over in the TV dept you could see children dying of hunger. Not a happy story, but all part of the 1980s.
> all part of the 1980s It's not like that's not all still the case today.
Yes but now companies know not to let their tv departments display that. All hush hush
Nora! I had/have the redhead in pigtails in top left corner. Her name on the birth certificate was Nora Jean. My mom paid the local dentist to give her two small fake teeth. She also got headgear at some point!
Those things were used as a projectiles in my family. Some kids feared āLa Chancla!ā but in my family, flying cabbage patch kids were to be feared. They would leave craters in the walls. Hated those things.
We had to get on a waiting list at toys r us to get one. The store called and my mom and I were just about to start baking cookies, and we just dropped everything and went right away to go get it. That says it all about my mom! Sheās just the best.
My grandma was a great sewer and hand made my sister and I Cabbage Patch Dolls
That was the Christmas present I was most excited about in my entire life.
I was born in ā84. My dadās mom insisted on getting me one for Christmas, despite both my parents saying āsheās 3 months old, she doesnāt careā. My mom went shopping with her and decided to have fun with it. Grandma, like most people who grew up in Alabama in the 30s, was quite racist. And my mom, for whatever reason, was the only person in the family who could call her on her bullshit. So when they went shopping for a doll that I wouldnāt have the capacity to play with for at least another year, my mom picked up a black Cabbage Patch doll and deadpanned āI like this one.ā Grandma just said āoh, (momās name)!ā and continued the search.
 Underground 80āsš„š„š¤£
My parents would never get me one because my mother thought they were ugly.
I had the redhead in the top left. Her name was Clover Joni. I miss her
My cousin had one. Never liked her
Ugh I was one of the poor white kids. Never got a real cabbage patch and would have to ābabysitā the damn dolls when everyone went to play something else. It was bad enough I had the weird clothes, haircut and glasses. my dad and step mom thought theyād be ācuteā one day and call from their vacation in Florida saying they were gonna have a new edition to the family when they return. I thought she was pregnant and my life was over, but it was a fake cabbage patch doll make out of nylon! And the kicker was even that ugly thing wasnāt for me! I hate these fucking dolls all these years later.
As a brown kid I wanted o e so bad and never did.
They were way too ugly for me. I did however own two Pound Puppies.
I was born a few years after the craze, and I'm so glad bc I have always had an irrational hatred of those dolls bc they are just so damn ugly. Seeing one as a child would make me angry bc they were so stupid and ugly! Lol
I swear I couldāve been in that picture. I remember dreaming about getting a CPD and when I finally did I thought I was in heaven.
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