What do you think about adoption "barbie?"?

Question

Adoption barbie is made by Mattel and is given to adoptive parents exclusively at the White Swan Hotel when adopting in China. Apparently most adoptive parents stay here? Or it is the most popular place to stay for adoptive parents when adopting in china? I don't know the specifics.

But I have read that parents staying at this hotel only get the exclusive White Swan Adoptive parent barbie that has a chinese baby. Curious what others think about this?

You can see a picture of it on this persons webpage: http://www.dawilsonfamily.com/5-27.html

Apparently a petition was started to allow "all" adoptive parents to get one: http://www.petitiononline.com/chb/petition.html

Answer 1

Puke!

Just one more item, that shows we adoptee's are viewed as a commodity by some, to be bought and played with. The fashionable accessory and new 'must have'.

As for the cabbage patch comment.......another gimmic, can those dolls, get access to their 'birth' records, 'cause sure as the sun rises, 'real' USA adoptee's can't.

What next, the amputee doll, the autistic doll, the bi racial doll, the g*y doll, the blind doll, the daddy's a pedophile doll, the mothers a pro doll, after all if it helps 'explain' adoption and makes it 'easier' for the child, then surely the same principle applies to other scenarios children are living in. WHAT A CROCK!

A big titted, single, fashion ruled, blonde, plastic sterotype mother.....oh perfect!  Your little china doll, can never hope to match up to this ideal.(all American dream girl)

Answer 2

In my opinion it's an inappropriate gift. As an AP who doesn't care for the doll I would never "petition" to get one. But aside from that it's just a Barbie. They called it a "Going Home" Barbie.

Answer 3

i think it should be available for all adoptees to get one

Answer 4

Um, barbie?  I don't think much of ANY barbie.  But let's pretent this was a proportionate appropriate doll.

If sounds like a marketing gig to get people to stay at the White Swan Hotel.  Its like getting your fairmont points.  For every child you adopt, you get a barbie!

Answer 5

I'd like to second everything that Babywait said, since it was put so much better than I could have put it!  We didn't stay at the White Swan, but were familiar with the dolls.  I am certainly not heartbroken that my girls don't have one, but I also don't fault anyone for appreciating them.  Barbies may not be proportionately accurate, but I played with them when I was little, and my daughters love them now.  I bought my older daughter the "Panda Rescue Barbie" while in China and she loves it!  It's nice for our Chinese children to have dolls available that share some of their features.  If someone doesn't like the White Swan Barbie so be it, but they shouldn't judge those who appreciate the thought.

Answer 6

who the h**l desingns these things? YUK.

Its bad enough that barbie is meant to give the impression of the "perfect body", and gives out the wrong impression to little girls, then this?

Its rather strange

Answer 7

I think of it as a kind gift to the child.  Most of you are over thinking this- and you really need to get a grip.  I don't see anything wrong with it.  

I know hospitals give little freebies to parents of newborns.  I've heard of police and fire fighters giving dolls to children who have been through traumas.  It's just a nice token/gift/thought.

AND I think they should have one for a boy child as well...  my son has alot of family (doll house size) figurines of many races.  It's good for him to see that all families are different and don't need to be white-white.

http://www.letsplaydolls.com/abused_proj...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries...

http://www.merpetsales.com/barbie/Pregna...

http://www.womenenews.org/article.cfm/dy...

Answer 8

I stayed at the White Swan in '06 when I adopted my third child, who was four years old at the time.    We were taken on a sightseeing trip by the guide, and when we came back, the Barbie box was on my daughter's bed in the hotel room.  She was absolutely thrilled to have this new toy to play with, since she came to me with nothing but the clothes on her back.  We never regarded it as a "collector's item" or a special adoptive thing, just a new toy for Sophia.   Incidentally, the Barbie was very indecently dressed, in a tiny miniskirt and a matching vest that was just hanging open, with no shirt under it.  She really should have been called "b***s-hanging-out Barbie!"

  

Mattel also built an infant/toddler playroom at the White Swan, where adoptive families could bring their new children to play while they were guests in the hotel.

Answer 9

I have always believed that Barbie was not a good toy...as a child and even more so now as an adult.

I think Matel could use its money to fund more useful "tools" for adoptive parents and adoptees.

Answer 10

personally i hate barbie. they are messy and clothes get lost and shoes get sucked up in the vacuumm!! =)

Anyway on to your question, i personally don't think barbie is a good toy or tool to explain adoption to a young child. in my eyes it seems that someone is just trying to make a buck or two off adoptive parents. there are other tools and toys that are more age apporiate if one must explain adoption to their children.

Answer 11

I'm too busy being sidetracked by the other answer using cabbage patch kid dolls to help explain their adopted child's personal story.  Did your child grow in a Cabbage Patch?  Or did they actually have a biological family that they came from?  Did you have a shelf full of waiting to be adopted kids to choose from?

I'm sorry, but the message that those dolls give about adoption is not realistic at all.

Same goes with Barbie.

Answer 12

I've never been a Barbie fan.  i've always thought she was some guy's "girl body" fantasy and no way obtainable by a real woman.  Talk about setting young girls up for body image distortion and failure.  After this i'm really not a Barbie fan.  Now Ken on the other hand....JK

Answer 13

Creepy.

Answer 14

Now I've seen everything!

There is even a petition because people feel they should be entitled to a doll as well as a baby - puleeeeeeeeeze

ETA.  What a sweet idea spydermomma - kudos

Answer 15

I think that is just ANOTHER Thing to seperate and make adoptees weird.

Why don't they bring out a BIRTH BARBIE DOLL While they are at it...a boy one and a girl one and really make it MORE Seperate bleh

Oh thats a good point what do they give for baby boy adoptees at the white swan ??

Throw up a little bit in my mouth is right !!!

bleh

Answer 16

I don't see any problem with this. I see it as a special keepsake for the families of these Chinese babies. They can make it a big deal or just keep it in a memory box and share it when their child is older.

Adoptive parents  elsewhere,can start their own keepsakes or special memories. I wouldn't sign the petition- kindof silly.

Answer 17

If I were considering adoption for my child, Barbie as a mother would be cut at the first round.  She can't make up her mind about her career, her boyfriend, Ken, is perpetually ambivalent about marriage, she is a clothes horse, and she has a raging identity crisis.

On second thought, she does have a house with a pool, a pony, and a boat.  So, maybe she is not so bad.

Seriously, the commercialized adoption culture in the US is sick.  This is just another symptom of the lack of consideration for the child.

Answer 18

I think there are more pressing issues in the world at the moment and not who didn't receive a Barbie doll on adoption of a CHILD.

I think we should start a petition to see if these people need

psychiatric help!!!!

Answer 19

I can see something like this in the sense that children will often "play-pretend" in order to comprehend a situation and become comfortable with it.  My twin nieces "played adoption" when we were going through the process.  It was their way of understanding it.  Any child therapist can tell you that using dolls or toys that mimic their experiences or situations is a valuable therapy tool.  

So yes, there are amputee dolls, biracial dolls, "abused" dolls.  They're used in child "play therapy."

Kids do this all the time, not necessarily for adoption related stuff either.  My oldest was about 3 when we got a dog.  He went a weekend of "playing puppy" while he got used to the idea of having a dog in the house.  When the weekend was over, it was fine, he stopped "playing puppy" and adapted to the new arrival in the house.

That said, Barbies (I was never a Barbie person) seem to be collector's items as well as toys.  They make a Holiday Barbie every year, Barbies for the Wizard of Oz, I Love Lucy, Scarlett O'Hara, etc.  I'm thinking that Adoption Barbie falls along the lines of a collector's item rather than an adoption education toy or a child therapy tool.  I wouldn't get one. Not my kind of thing.  

On a side note, I disagree with the assertions that this must be about adoptive parent entitlement.  I think that phrase gets overused here quite a bit.

Answer 20

This maybe an unpopular answer but I am entitled to my thoughts on the issue, especially since I am adopting from China.  First let me say I am not a real fan of Barbie in general b/c I feel the doll reinforces warped body issues in girls.  I don't have a problem with the "adoptive Barbie" though if families want to receive them.  My reasoning is in a transracial adoption (as our adoption from china will be) the caucasion barbie and asian baby will mirror what my child will be living.  Whatever child I am matched with from China will be a chinese child with two caucasian parents.  It the barbie and baby represents her family makeup how is that wrong.  We will be looking for ways to help our child feel comfortable with the dynamics of our family (be they transracial, adoptive, cultural etc)  I think if the barbie and baby make the child feel good to  have something in their life that looks like their situation that is fine.  It is one more thing in our "toolbox" of skills/things to help with raising a transracial child.  (we have joined an FCC, families with chinese children, group,we already have had asian friends, have found a school to teach chinese culture and language etc) so if it is one more thing to help our child feel like something out there represents their reality then I am for it.  I won't comment on some other APs petitioning for a "right" to have the doll, I don't feel I have a right to anything in life except to make my own decisions (and then live with the ramifications of those decisions)  

Families stay at the white swan as it was for a long time the nicest hotel on Shamian Island (where the US Consulate  is located and is a required stop on your adoption trip) and was conveniently located near the consulate.  Shamian Island was not "created" for adopting families and there are MANY business travellers that stay at the white swan.  

I hope the heated rhetoric on this thread can be toned down as some of it seems to attack those who chose international adoption and china in particular and has in some posts painted those of us as APs or PAPs from china as insensitive,selfish clods.  I think APs or PAPs that choose china are like any other HUMANS,some of us are good and  some of us are clueless.   I am sure I will get some thumbs down (as most of my posts on the adoption board seems to) but I wanted to share my viewpoint which is one of a PAP from China.

Answer 21

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.  I think it's sick and twisted.

Hey, I just got a really good idea.  How about "Adult Adoptee at the therapist's office Barbie"?

Answer 22

i would have to agree with the person above me....the important fact is that you are trying to or did adopt a baby, in the grand scheme is a barbie really all that important?

its a doll.

Answer 23

The White Swan hotel is near the American Embassy in Guangzhou, or at least it used to be (I no longer follow adoption from China, but I think the Embassy may have moved), so all or most Americans adopting from anywhere in China have to spend a good portion of their adoption trip in Guangzhou, which usually means staying at the White Swan hotel.  

From what I understand, the Embassy and White Swan Hotel are on an island in Guangzhou (Shamian Island I want to say) and this island is set up exclusively to cater to adoptive families.   International Adoption is big business in this part of China, and throughout China, it brings the orphanages more money if they adopt their children internationally (right now the orphanage "fee" is 5000, which is a crazy amount of money when you figure the average person there makes about 40-60 dollars a week!)

Mattel has paid to create a play room in the White Swan for adoptive parents, and donates the Barbies too.  

I think that the other adoptive parents who are complaining that the Barbies should be available to everyone are stupid.  This just proves more, that PAP's and AP's generally have an entitlement attitude, and don't understand WHY they can't just have everything they want.  

I know there are good, amazing PAP's and AP's out there, (I hope, if we do decide to go ahead and adopt we will be good ones) but the bad ones seem to be more vocal and obviously bring a lot of negativity out.  

We were planning on adopting from China, but than the rules changed, and I have now had a LOT of time to look into and research adoption, and I don't like what I see.  I do not like the Chinese system, and we will not be adopting from there (if we adopt at all).  Even though there really is still a true need for people to adopt  from there, the CCAA is money hungry and is not looking out for the best interest of the children.  The orphanages are full, yet only able to refer two or three children a month for adoption.  However, the orphanages have a lot of special needs children who people are unwilling to adopt, and these children need homes just as much as the healthy baby girls everyone wants from China.  

Most adoptive parents who adopt from China were looking for the cheapest, fastest way to get a baby girl, and so there is a lot of entitlement going on in the China adoption community, which can be really nasty.  I have had to stay away from it for a while now because it can be really hard to stomach.  

Anyway, that was a long rant, but no.  I do not think the barbies should be made available to everyone.

Answer 24

Crazy, huh? The official name is "Going Home Barbie." And oh my but some of them are really strange looking, too (not that other Barbies aren't). And I'm pretty sure Barbie is way too young to adopt from China. Plus they are closed to singles now. I don't think Barbie would make a very good adoptive mom, maybe a guardian for Skipper if something happened to her parents (hmm, do any of them actually have parents?), but not otherwise.

They sell for a fairly high price on eBay, too. Usually over $200 and I've seen them go for over $300. Mind you, these prices are usually for benefit auctions that go to providing surgeries to orphans in China, so I'm sure that inflates the price. I'm not sure it this link works:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/...

If it doesn't, you can search eBay advanced search for already closed auctions.

I don't know why they only give them out at the White Swan. It seems to be some sort of weird marketing thing on the part of Mattel, and perhaps the White Swan. Here's a pretty comprehensive article:

http://www.internationaladoptionnews.com...

But never mind me, because I'm bitter, see, since we didn't get one as we did not stay at the White Swan <wink>. Most US adoptive families have, though, because it used to be right next to the US Consulate where you had your appointments to approve the child to be brought into the US (by then the adoption was already finalized in the child's home province). Because of this convenience and because it probably seemed like a good business decision for the hotel to cater to adoptive families, they became identified as "the" adoption hotel. This is just for US adoptive families, mind, because I think all other countries go through Beijing. It is also on this pleasant little island (used to be controlled by French and British interests) connected by bridge to the rest of Guangzhou (Canton), and there are lots of shops and such on the island that cater to adoptive families, so most US adoptive families still stay there. Plus, you know, the a-parents would get all bent out of shape with their agencies if they didn't get the Barbie!

And actually I would have liked to have gotten one to donate to an auction. I mean where else do you get $200-300 to donate to a good cause for free?

Answer 25

I think we all can use "tools" when it comes to understanding or explaining adoption to anyone.  Without communication, people may remain "closed off" in their opinions, hence, ignorance which happens all too often with adoption.

Also, the Cabbage Patch Doll is another doll that you "adopt". I purchased two of them several years ago when we began our process. I plan to use them to help our daughter understand her personal story when the time comes.

She just turned one, and we have already started with our adoption language.  

Again, I don't see any harm in the Dolls.  I think we all need some added help/support when it comes to adoption.