I had one of thease.....they were cute....I'm a good mom now. Coincidence???

Just kidding.

Yup - I grew up in the 80's with that kind of thing being shown to me.  And now my daughter gets this --> http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=5825&e=sweet-as-me(not from me, but she's had stuff like this as gifts)Not much has changed.

just an off-topic question... why are little girls encouraged to have baby dolls and pretend to be mommies, but there's no baby dolls for little boys to pretend they're daddies? Or have anyone of you ever witnessed that?

I've known little boys who played with baby dolls as 'daddies,' but the toys certainly weren't marketed to them.

Other than the creepy girl and the script which uses phrasing well beyond her age-level, I'm left indifferent about this "vintage socialization." Sort of a, yeah, and....?

You forgot the most important parts: what matters is what other people think of your parenting ability. Everyone agrees on what makes a great Mum. And, it is natural to define youself based on others' opinions of your mothering ability.

"Mothering requires a lot of repetitive, time-consuming work, but good moms think “it’s a pleasure.”

not that I take issue with people taking issue with this, but personally speaking (as an older sibling to a 2 year old boy, NOT a parent) most of the non-feces related grooming stuff with him, however repetitive, actually is a pleasure. Take the bath for example: its the same routine everyday, but it's one of the few times he's sitting still and I can spend my time only caring for him and enjoying his company without having to potentially tell him not to break something or stick his hand in the outlet, et. al. I mean evolutionarily speaking, aren't we hardwired for it– don't chimps pick bugs out of each others fur and whatnot as a way of social bonding?

My son "nurses" his baby doll. Cute!

Fun fact: Barbie, for all her flaws, was one of the first toys for girls that encouraged them to envision their adult selves as anything other than a mom.

On top of all that, it also teaches girls that being a "good mommy" (to a little girl) means indoctrinating her into traditional femininity by "spending a lot of time on her hair" and putting her in "gorgeous clothes" so she's "well-dressed". So in that way, it serves to equate "forcing your baby to perform in a gender-specific way" with "love".

This actually creeps me out quite a bit. I'd like to see more baby dolls that are advertised as being ones you can play with in a non-gender specific way, like baby dolls that go to the park, or on adventures, etc. These dolls just lie about what parenting is about and what makes for a "good mommy". There's WAY more to "good parenting" than merely combing hair and putting your girl in a pretty dress. After all, if it were true that gender performance is the most important aspect of parenting, then the parents on "Toddlers and Tiaras" would be the best parents in the world. Good grief!

As a childfree adult, I refuse to give toys like this to children. Instead I give knives and drums.

Childhood isn't a time to be devoted to honing one's parenting skills.

HAHAHA! I remember this commercial! Well, I remember the part where the MyChild doll "stands by herself". That was the feature that had me begging for a MyChild for Christmas. Now that I'm an adult, I've chosen not to have children... perhaps because I realized that my baby would not, in fact, be able to immediately stand on her own. ;)

I remember these dolls pretty well (traumatic experience--lost my favorite one. her name was Michelle, as all my dolls were named).

I also remember that they made boy dolls and marketed them under the "My Buddy" moniker.

So, the girls were marketed a doll called "My Child" and the boys were marketed a doll called "My Buddy".

Ha! At least the boys were marketed a doll at all. But then again, there were no baby boy My Child dolls, so again setting us up not only to think of ourselves as mothers from an early age, but that we should only want girls. This is a mindset that I have only recently disengaged.

hmm....when i was little (or little-ER) i was always annoyed that my mom wouldn't let me play with plastic toys, and dressup-dolls and what-not like the other kids, but now, in retrospect, i'm kind of glad i've been spending my childhood making weapons out of sticks and mud intead of dressing up a disproportionate model of a child and talking in a creepy voice about it. haha ahh makeshift stick weapons, how i do love you :D

Ooh, I so totally had a My Child doll. What a horrifying commercial, but apparently it worked- I remember begging for the doll! We had a good mix of girly and gender-neutral toys, though, and I like to think I turned out all right. Of course, my parents are both teachers and my dad was teaching high school marketing classes about interpreting ads at the time.

As for boys playing with dolls, I haven't seen anything specifically marketing nurturing toys to boys lately, but it's pretty easy to encourage boys to engage in nurturing play anyway. My son puts baby dolls and teddy bears to bed (tucking them in, kissing them goodnight, etc). My nephew says he's a daddy and pretends to take a baby doll to daycare on his way to work. I think they play this way naturally, depending on what they observe in their family situations and assuming no one slaps a toy out of their hands and tells them to man up.