Breastfeeding dolls. Good idea/bad idea?

I knew there was something missing from my life. It’s a doll that breastfeeds! Not on your actual nipples  – because that would be weird – but on some strategically positioned flowers that you wear as a bib. Well, maybe not you. Actually a child.

Sadie Whitelocks writes for The Daily Mail:

“The toy market is constantly innovating when it comes to baby dolls. But a new product designed to simulate breastfeeding has sparked widespread anger among parents. Makers of The Breast Milk Baby claim that their new doll allows children to experience the ‘magic of motherhood’.

But parents have spoken out in anger over the toy, which they have slammed as ‘totally inappropriate’. The doll comes with a bib for the child to wear, with pink flowers indicating the nipple area.

When held to the breast the doll makes suckling noises, and start crying if it is not burped afterwards.

Consumers took to the internet to express their disgust. A comment on a New York Daily News article read: ‘Why would a little girl need to learn how to breast-feed before she has breasts? Before she goes through puberty?

‘This is another disgusting example of forcing adulthood on our children decades before they’re ready to absorb it.’

Sometimes all this outrage can make me feel exhausted. From the dawn of time, little girls have been copying what their mothers do. Is this any different? When I was a kid, I always wanted a baby who would wee. I never got one. Therapy has helped heal the hurt.

But seriously. SERIOUSLY. I’m going to file this one under “wouldn’t-buy-one-but-not-in-the-least-offended-by-it.” Promotes the sexualisation of children? I’m not buying that either.

Can you summon any outrage about this? Or is it a good thing?

Thank you James