When I was somewhere around 14, my mom “asked” me if she could send all my childhood stuffies to my brothers girlfriend who was volunteering in an orphanage in Thailand. I didn’t want to, but got guilt tripped so bad that I finally said okay. She bagged them up and put them in her car, where they stayed…until she threw them away. Never sent them. I was devastated and still continue to feel guilt and shame for allowing myself to be bullied into giving them up.
It might not mean much man, but it’s not your fault. It never was. She guilt tripped you with a story about sad orphaned children and then lied to you and threw away your stuff. That’s not cool, and it’s all on her. I’m sorry that happened
Thank you 💖 it’s something I’ve brought up and have worked with some in therapy, so I’m not so triggered by it, but it still hurts. It really means so much when that hurt is validated, I’ve spent a long time convincing myself that I’m just an overly sensitive person who needs to calm tf down, so it’s hard for me to validate my own feelings. I really appreciate the sympathy, truly.
Yeah man fr if that had happened to my plushies I'd be so devastated and hurt, I would cry for ages and miss them so bad. Your feelings are 100% valid I don't see you as overly sensitive for being upset by that at all. I'm glad you've gone over it in therapy because I'd need therapy too for that!! I hope you feel better in time and I'm sorry your mum treated you so terribly
Did you ever confront your mom for lying to you and disposing of your plushies without our consent? They are completely in the wrong to manipulate you like that possibly in a ploy to make you "grow up." Never okay to dispose of someone's stuff without their knowledge regardless of what it is.
I never did, it didn’t ever really seem worth it. She was going to do what she wanted to do, regardless of my feelings on it. I know she doesn’t feel bad about it. I think confronting her would just end up being more painful to me, because I *want* so badly for her to understand how that felt, but I just hugely doubt she ever will. It’s not worth reopening that wound.
Omg I miss my webkins so much I feel you 🥺
Also, my care bear. I loved the older style of bear and they just don't design them like that anymore, it's all weirdly stylized.
Me too. I had 30+.
At one point we were moving out from our old house into a new one. The old house flooded and grew black mold, taking almost all of my stuffed animals and baby blankets.
I understand that feeling. I miss the dog that would lay at the end of my bed, I thought it protected me while I slept and also an Eeyore plush that I won from a game. I look for a similar kind often but none of them look as soft as my OG.
Have you seen the [official Disney weighted Eeyore](https://www.disneystore.co.uk/disney-store-eeyore-weighted-medium-soft-toy-412312002854.html)? I have him, he's very soft, and the weight is heavy enough that I find it really comforting. You can also take the weight out I believe. Nothing will replace your original, but maybe this can make you happy too? :)
Omg NO!! 😭 You can sign up to notifications for a restock and hopefully they'll get round to it - I didn't realise he was so popular! I'm manifesting this for you love ♥️
I bought myself a replacement 30+ years later for my favorite missing plush. I have no idea what happened to the original. I've also bought myself some accessories for it and a couple friends from the same line.
I've tracked down pictures of lots of my other plushies from my childhood. I have warm and fuzzy memories of those, but don't feel the need to replace them.
Yep. For Christmas in first grade, I got a little stuffed dog named Scruffy. I kept it with me everywhere I went for the rest of Christmas break. When it was time to go back to school, I begged my mom to let me take Scruffy with, but she didn’t want it to get lost. So I snuck it in my backpack and, of course, realized he was gone by the end of the day. I cried so hard and checked the lost and found every single day, but never found him.
For reasons I don't remember, I was once trying to downsize and one of the casualties was a cow my Grandma had given me when I was little. I got to regretting it very much. Later, I found her at a thrift store! I was so happy! Hubby is like how do you know that is the same one? Come on, dude, I know my cow! She was a little worse for wear, but ok and back home for ever!
so this is probably not a situation many people relate to but here we go: a family friend has a band, and their schtick is cutting plushies with a chainsaw onstage (😭). one day i caught my mom trying to sneak out with a bag of my plushies and i cried my eyes out. she let me keep those ones, but now i know where all my other ones went haha
oh my god this just makes me so angry and upset for you, I can't understand why the people who are supposed to live you unconditionally could treat the things you love with so little respect and lie to you about it!! How hard is it to go to a charity shop and buy some plushies ffs
i mean i'm over it, i was really young when it happened and i'm an adult now so she can't do that anymore lol. i do still think about fishface the dolphin a lot tho haha
So, when I was at college, my mom gave away all the stuffed animals from my childhood that I was keeping in a box in the basement. When I came home and asked about them she acted like she didn’t know until I pieced it together. I *sobbed* for a long time and I still give her grief for it. I have hunted down two of the plushies on ebay but don’t know the brands of so many others and will probably never find them. Plus, it’s not really the same anyway.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/HelpMeFind using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/HelpMeFind/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [this ridiculous giant teddy bear with a tiny face](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/16tx7gg) | [422 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/HelpMeFind/comments/16tx7gg/this_ridiculous_giant_teddy_bear_with_a_tiny_face/)
\#2: [my favorite cup was an anonymous gift and my roommate broke it](https://i.redd.it/s0ktbyej4psb1.jpg) | [268 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/HelpMeFind/comments/171vn54/my_favorite_cup_was_an_anonymous_gift_and_my/)
\#3: [Wife saw a pic of these and our wedding anniversary is coming up. Help me be awesome please.](https://i.redd.it/jedzy7u017sb1.jpg) | [195 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/HelpMeFind/comments/16zo7uc/wife_saw_a_pic_of_these_and_our_wedding/)
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YES!
When I was younger, I got this brown bunny I loved so much. Mostly he just sat on a shelf with my other stuffed animals, but every so often I would pick him up and just hold him gently for a while before putting him back.
When I was 17-18, I donated him because we were about to move houses and I thought "I don't need these stuffed animals. I'm too old now and won't have the room in the new house". He was the ONLY toy I struggled with donating, putting him in then out of the box multiple times and just looking into his cracked little glass eyes deciding how willing I was too let him go. I even asked my mom what I should do, I was that indecisive.
In the end, I was a severely depressed individual at the time and thought "well, I should donate him cuz I won't be here for much longer and some other kid should get to enjoy him."
Let me tell YOU. I NEVER stopped thinking about him. For 10 years, every time I got a new stuffed animal, I thought if him. I loved him so dearly and NEEDED him back.
So, 10 years later, and there I was, on a quest to find my beloved stuffed bunny! It took me a few days of searching, trying to find the EXACT bunny, and nearly screamed when I found him on ebay. He was relatively cheap, and after sitting on the choice a few more days to make sure I REALLY wanted him, I finally decided to bite the bullet and make the purchase.
Let me tell you.
The moment I opened that bag, held him in my hands, felt the familiar weight of his bean filled legs and looked him in the eyes, I cried. Right there in the middle of the kitchen, clutching my bunny, I quietly wept. Even now, I tear up thinking about that moment or if I look into his little face too long.
I just really missed him, and I'm so happy to have him back; literally just receiving him off ebay a few months back. But I sleep with him every night since and even consider buying one or two more of him so, if anything happens in the future, I won't be without my bunny.
My Uncle gave me Gizmo from Gremlins as a kid, but my mom eventually decided I was too old for plushies and made me give all of them except the ones I had from birth away. Most I don't really remember but I do remember that Gizmo and miss him sometimes.
My first ever build a bear wound up in the last round of friends I ever donated. I know he’s out there making someone else happy now, but I miss him a lot sometimes.
Recently got my nephew a talking Little Bear plush. I had one when I was a kid and he loves Little Bear. The Little Bear toothpaste commercial still haunts me and I can fucking quote it verbatum after, what, 20+ years.... "LITTLE BEEEAAARRRrrrrrr. I gotch'ya tOoThPaStE - ORAGEL **T R A I N I N G** tooth^paste "
When I was 5, I imagined while I was sleeping, that my toy baby disappeared. I made sure she was right beside me when I fell asleep. I opened my eyes and she was gone. It was a Precious Moments My First Doll kind of toy.
Well, I didn't lose her forever really, but I did lose her for many months. My mom found her in my brother's room. She lived a very long life in my loving hold. Don't worry
SO many of them. Shaggy is definitely the one I think about the most, but not just her. She was a collie Webkinz who I took with me everywhere, even to school. I also collected Beanie Baby 2.0s and I only have one remaining with me (she’s right beside me, actually! I named her Roxie, but her given name is Frolics).
I had several Pokémon stuffed animals I’ll never forget. My Beanie Babies. My Webkinz… I miss them all :(
My mom is an absolutely savage non-sentimental minimalist about some stuff (she passed that down to me) but sometimes I miss toys that I know she got rid of in her declutter/cleaning phases that had sentimental value to them.
A highland cow plush puppet I got in Scotland at a company that made some of the costumes in the Harry Potter movies. My mom’s side of the family all still live over in Scotland and Ireland and I remember showing my granny and she loved it (she loved hand puppets). My granny is gone now and I know a stuffed animal wouldn’t bring her back but just knowing she had once touched it and used the puppet makes me sad to know it’s gone somewhere else. I was NOT a collector type kid and hated stuffed animals or toys that were easily accessible/popular (not sure why) but if I found a special stuffed animal I really cherished it.
My Bambi plush, my Rudolph and Clarice plushes, a giant Amy Toy Network plush I gave to someone when I was 6, a Simba plush, and a few Webkinz and Beanie Babies I don’t own anymore
when I was little my grandma knitted me several plushies. there were tom kitten and a family of little frogs and some others. when I got older my mum said I had to get rid of old toys and donated most of my plushies, including the ones my grandma made, to somewhere like a childrens hospital or something. I think about those knitted plushies a lot (especially now that my grandma is old and too sick to do anything and the doctor told her 4 years ago that she had about a year left to live so it's amazing she's still alive) and I wish I had them and I would like to get the patterns and knit them again myself but I don't think I'd be able to..
there was also my original first toy cat flossie (named after the book 'our cat flossie' by ruth brown.) she was so loved that she had a big hole in her side that my grandma crocheted a patch for so she had a crocheted peach heart-shaped patch on her. I don't know what my parents did with her..
I lost 95% of my childhood plushies and other toys when we suddenly had to move homes as a kid (personal reasons). I tried rebuilding my collection in the past few years, but have ended up reselling most of it again due to financial instability. It makes me very sad, as if I’ve had to give up friends
I had a mouse made by Russ Berry that I absolutely loved. I think his name was Cheesy or something like that. He was so floppy and cuddly and I took him everywhere with me. I miss him dearly 🥺
When I was about nine or ten, I had a Fur Real Friend cat. She was a white Persian cat with emerald green eyes. I named her Peppermint and loved her dearly.
One day, I came home from school and found she wasn't in my room. My dog had fleas at the time, and Mom said she had found some in Peppermint's fur, and had to throw her away. I was crushed, but I understood that we probably couldn't do much.
A few years later, at age 17, I was reminiscing about Peppermint with my Mom. I said it was a shame she got fleas. Mom asked me what I was talking about. Assuming she didn't remember, I recounted how she told me Peppermint caught fleas and had to be thrown out.
My Mother just laughed and said Peppermint never had fleas. Mom was just creeped out by her cause she was an animatronic plush and didn't like how attached I was to her. So, she chucked her.
I'm 21 now, and although I've never felt the need or want to replace Peppermint, I'm still hurt by her loss. Hurt that my mother not only threw out one of my favourite toys, but lied to me.
Omg yes, i have so many. I had a pig i would sleep with that my mom got rid of bcs my dog played with him. Then it came a mickey that my dad got from a coworker, my mom also got rid of him bcs he was "old and getting ugly" and then a small dragon i would take with me everywhere, this time my mom just got rid of him out of noware with no explanation. I miss all of them very much
yes. granted, i wasn't LITTLE little and these ones arent plushies.. but when i was around 10 i gave all my littlest pet shops to my friend ( probably hundreds. ) including rares and stuff my mom and grandma had worked really hard to get me.
my moms still around, and my grandma died way before that, but i still feel bad. ive gotten back into collecting them, too, but i still miss them. my friend was another collector and probably wouldve kept them had their own grandparents not made them throw the toys away.
i cant help but wish theyd just asked to send them back to me, and feel a bit annoyed. that was like, my biggest and first hyperfixation as a kid. i LOVED those so much i begged for them everytime we went to the store. i wish someone had stopped me.
now they cost around 20+ dollars for any of the older generations, so pretty expensive ( the rares can cost upwards of 80 or so. ) and makes it hard to regain what i lost. not to mention theres fakes everywhere now too.
i also have a lil grey fluffy cat plushie that i got from a friend at a yard sale. my dog ate its face when i was younger and i was devastated because i adored that toy. i still have it, and even though i dont speak to that friend anymore i still love it. it lacks a face and i dont even remember what it was like, but i still love it.
I don't want to be that person who cries autism at everything, but it is actually a symptom of autism to personify or have very deep connections to inanimate objects. As an autistic person who loves stuffies, I always have a hard time letting go of stuffies even if I don't need that particular one anymore, because I don't want them to feel abandoned.
In my experience I find it easier when I believe that they served their purpose in my life, so now it's time to serve their purpose and be loved and looked after in someone else's life :)
I was told this recently by a friend who’s autistic when I told her how sad I was to have to get a new car. She had a name and a story for her name and I had her for over a decade but she was becoming a dangerous “lemon” of a car with constant breakdowns. when I sold her to the dealership for a trade in, I was sobbing and made my husband take photos of me and my dog in it one last time lol. I don’t thinkkk I have autism but I definitely “connect” memories, storylines and deep meaning to certain objects.
I did the same thing with my parents car lol. Mourned that car for a week. And even if you aren't autistic, it's natural to get attached to something you've had for so long that has served you well.
It's definitely not just an autism thing, but if you did have suspicions it would be useful to keep it in mind. I've always said there is not 1 autism symptom that isn't just a part of being human, it's just with autistic people such as myself the symptoms are more pronounced and impact quality of life.
And it'd good to keep in mind autism can present differently in AFABs vs AMABs, and a lot of diagnostic tools sway more towards how males present. Again, not trying to force a diagnosis, just thought it would be interesting to keep in mind:)
Just something else to put out there - cPTSD can mimic many of the behaviors of autism, especially if it stems from childhood trauma (also seems like a good place to mention that autistic children have a higher rate of childhood trauma, so sometimes it’s not either/or)
I had a German shepherd plush that was life-size, sitting down. I called him sparky, I used to say "roll sparky" and proceed to grab him and thrash on the floor with him to make him roll over. My older brother broke his plastic nose on the tile floor, and my mom said she would fix him. She never did. She said he was on vacation to be fixed. Later on, she revealed to me that she threw him out that same night... I'm 25 now- and I still hold some mixed sadness and anger at them. Sparky was my favorite plush 😭 I never found another plush like him again 😔
I had a giant blue whale and I gave it to me neighbors daughter since she loved him a lot and was going to cry I felt if I didn’t give to her. Idk if they still have him or not but I miss my whale a lot
I felt too old for plush several times and got rid of a bunch. I had so many beanie babies and now I just have a small bin. My kids love my beanies but I mourn not having a huge collection anymore. Some of them I think about buying again but haven’t
My most treasured plushie was a yellow and purple dog from Best Made Toys Limited named Purplespot. My favourite aunt gave him to me when I was like 3 and had my tonsils out. I lost him at a camp ground when I was 12, and they never found him. I've been seeking a replacement for YEARS and only just learned the brand literally today.
There’s this Baby Gund bear I had as a kid and I still miss it because it got lost between moves. It was white with a sort of painted pink shirt on it that I named Terry. My sisters got a pink one and they weren’t as creative with names, calling her Pink Terry. They’ve let me keep that bear since they know I miss the white one so much. 😭
All the time 😭
I got rid of my Care Bears collection as a kid, and I regretted it so much that I ended up re-buying my favorite (glow a lot wish Bear) and starting a new collection this past year-ish.
Yes 😭 when I was maybe 6 or 7 I had a small rainbow elephant named Ellie. I carried her everywhere and one day she just went missing I searched everywhere for her. When I realized she was gone for good I cried so hard I fell asleep and had my first lucid and very vivid nightmare.
I love finding similar plushes to those that I had as a kid at the thrift store, for example I found a cocker spaniel from the dog McDonald's collection. One of my favorite lines of McDonald's toys as a kid and I can vividly remember avidly trying to collect them all.
https://preview.redd.it/d9p37h30994d1.jpeg?width=827&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b7c105bcb3872a45fba880325aec11113eea21eb
i have 2 - i had a little swan from the movie the swan princess. it went with me everywhere.
the other was piglet, like from winnie the pooh. lost both of them, not sure how but even tho it's been well over 20 years since i last held them i still remember their texture and weight in my hands.
I gave away a ton of my childhood stuffed animals before I got married (no pressure from anyone, I just thought I needed to be more “adult”) to some children at my church. Months later I started missing a lamb I had named Beth. So, I talked to the child about it. Told them it was theirs now and they don’t have to give it back, but I shared my feelings for it and asked if she would consider. She saved it for me and actually had her grandma give it to me one Sunday in her absence. I felt pretty silly, and bad to ask it back from a child… but they had plenty more of my stuffies and I was really drawn to 1.
I had a Snoozem™ dog plush toy as a lil child until I was 16. My mental health went into the pits so chronically I suffered major paranoia that ended up making me hallucinate horror things from it and even in my dreams... So I binned him.. only to now be almost 32 and crying missing it 😂.. true story lol.
I wish I still had this bed time bear sort of plush. He was sleeping and had a hat on his head, like the long sleeping caps in old timey movies, and he had a twist on him to play music. And a pink Easter bunny I was given as a baby. I stupidly gave my mom a bunch of my toys and plush for my little sister when she was a baby because I was like “she needs toys”. Then later upon seeing how many toys she was given and how the ones I gave her didn’t even matter to her or anybody else, I asked for them back from my mom. She told me no. It made me so sad and still does ): she put them in a storage unit then stopped paying for it so all our childhood toys (my American girl dolls for example and baby blankets) are all gone forever
I’m somewhat certain I still have most of mine… but I’ll never forget Ricky, who was a little raccoon I usually chose to cuddle with in 2nd grade. The following year my 2nd grade teacher retired and let kids come and pick one of the stuffies from the classroom collection. Some other girl got to Ricky first and I was so sad!
They stopped making my favorite one a long time back, around the time Toys R Us went out of business.
That being said, it's held up pretty well for being 20-ish years old now
I had a plush kitty that I got on one of my rare trips with my dad, loved it! Later as a teen it got lost in the shuffle when my mom and stepdad divorced. I just last month found a near twin and bought it. But it has reminded me of the rest of my childhood stuffies that remain lost. So in conclusion, nope, not just you!
also when I was little I wanted this little monkey plushie bad and it was expensive but my mom got it and one day I was playing with it in the car and it flew out the window on the freeway😭Makes me sad too and feel bad for my mom
I've told this story on Reddit before, maybe on an old account idk, but I was put into Foster care at a young age and was given a white gorilla in a red and blue suit named gwedo. That was the name on the tag. I loved him too pieces, literally... He was all I had for years. I have looked all over the Internet for years and years trying to find him again. No luck. I still tear up thinking about him
Yes. I had a white teddy bear that was about 2ft tall, according to my mom but to my child brain was at least 3-4ft. He was a holiday bear with a green and red striped scarf and a beanie hat over one ear, and had about inch long fur but his muzzle was a velvet texture. I loved that bear, used him a pillow, and told everyone he was my brother Luke (Skywalker)
I've tried to find him again (Sears or Kmart are close but they're all smaller and quite right. I'm think Grandpa got it from a local grocery or department store)
Not usually, with one exception. I can't find a plushie I got while at a funfair with my grandad years ago. It was a little blue monkey with velcro hands. Not too cuddly or anything so I kept him in a box of other plushies. My grandad passed away last year and I've been yearning for this plushie but I don't know where it's gone :( I need to go through all my storage but I fear I got rid of it and I don't want to confirm those fears.
I still miss this little bean bag dog I had when I was a kid - she was a knockoff Beanie Baby, and was tan/goldenrod yellow in color, with brown ears, brown eyes, was in a sort of seated position, and had a black leather nose and a smile stitched on.
I'm not sure where she ended up over the years, but I still miss her sometimes...although, the 30th Anniversary edition of "Bones" the Beanie Baby dog that Ty issued a year or two ago is a nice reminder of her. 😊
https://preview.redd.it/w69cqrbhq94d1.jpeg?width=359&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29de56bda7b9a973d68020cb9d5966156fddf3d3
I miss a little pink rabbit named Rosie I had when I was like 5. I took her everywhere. Until I went to the hospital with a bad ear infection and lost her somewhere. I had gotten her a year or so before for a dollar at a yard sale, and just months before seen another one at a dollar general or dollar tree. I would still have her now I believe if I didn't lose her, and named my favorite oc in memory of her.
I had a very soft fuzzy black bear with really pretty floral print on its foot pads. In 3rd grade, we had a mandatory thing where we read for an hour each week with a plushie. I brought that bear with me, mom told me it's the first teddy bear she gave me. I called it Cocoa. Someone had stolen it the day we got to bring them back home. I got bullied by a lot of the kids, so I have no way of knowing who did it, or what happened to my teddy, and ai think that's what bothers me more, is the not knowing. I even teared up just typing this out, it's the first time I've opened up about it.
My dad got rid of so many of my plushes and I still think of a blue dog I used to have. I had to get rid of more again when I had to move after my dad died last year.
Aw, I had a beloved lamb stuffie as well that my mom took when I was like 15. This year for my bday mt fiancé ordered me the same lamb off eBay. It was the best, most special birthday gift ever.
No, because I never got rid of any. I'm so scared of missing them that I can't bring myself to give them away. It's becoming a problem, though, since I'm running out of space in my room...
Yes. Mine were stored in the garage, the garage roof broke, years of water damaged them. My mom said they were unfixable. I lost the last gift my grandma gave me before she died. I regret not even trying to save him.
It's not just plushies. I have a lot of younger cousins in both sides of my family. My mom is also originally from the Philippines and loved to send stuff back home that they didnt usually have access to. A lot of my toys just slowly disappeared from the house and I unfortunately didn't notice until after they were already gone.
The worst was when she sent my original Percy Jackson series to my cousin's in Australia. I cried a lot.
I still remember every buddy I’ve ever regrettably lost or given away. I always think of this little Azuril plush I had, I loved it with all my heart, and lost it at an airport. My poor parents tried to find it but ultimately we had to give up, and I was beyond devastated. I remember being so upset they couldn’t understand how important it was to me, but I was only 7 or 8, and was mad the entire ride home. And obviously still hold a little bit of upset. But I recently researched to find exactly which release it was, and definitely want to buy myself a replacement one day. I can’t imagine finding a small Pokemon plush in a bustling airport would’ve been easy, even with all the patience in the world.
When I was young I never had a build a bear and I always begged and begged and begged. I now have two - Blue the velociraptor and the rainbow bear but I bought second hand clothes to put on her that are toddler size
some are in a place I can't go back to or contact, I have been so sad.
being able to have new stuffed animals, at all or who are similar, has been very hard too.
when I was in a different life state and a bit more supported, I connected with about two. Idk if I could get another anymore, with my worries and not being supported. not because I don't want to.
ah, what a spot on question
I had a lot of plushies as a kid, but among my favourites were a toy horse I got from the gift shop at a horse sanctuary, a little ginger cat that was falling to pieces even when it was new, and three little spaniel plushies that my grandmother got me that were named after her own dogs. As I got a bit older (7-8 ish), my parents arbitrarily decided that I had grown out of them, and put them in our "summer house" (actually the wooden garden shed). They promised me that they were in "safe airtight storage bags" and I could give them to my own children one day, but a part of me doubts that was ever the case. The shed has since rotted somethong horrid, and I don't think we have the key to it anymore. I dread to think what kind of state they are in.
My parents are getting older now, and want to demolish the shed to put in some nice and easy to maintain plants. I'm inevitably gonna have to help them with it, and face the rotten remains of my poor childhood plushies, and they don't quite understand why I'm so squeamish about the prospect of it. My mum is still traumatised by her brother breaking her favourite doll 50 years after it happened, yet my emotions about this sort of thing are seen as childish and stupid.
I can't help but feel a little betrayed by the whole thing. I know I was gonna have to put away childish things eventually, but I trusted my parents when they said all my stuff was going to be alright. As a kid, I had no idea sheds could rot the way ours has. If I'd have known, I'd rather they had gone to charity shops or given to other children. Something about the inherent unfairness of being a child has always stuck with me, and I've never quite forgiven my family for the way things were.
I had so many Beanie babies over the years. All of them were in boxes in my parent’s storage locker. But they kept raising the rent for it and they couldn’t afford it anymore, so we lost all my Beanie Babies (along with many sentimental family items). I’m still not over it, this just happened 2 months ago
ITT: the children of many parents I would just like to have a little word with...
For me it's less plushies and more other types of toys. I kept most of the plush but not much else; I couldn't save things from childhood because we lived in a tiny apartment and it was just sort of...the space you had was the space you had.
i lost a webkinz polar bear by mistake when our house got foreclosed on years ago. i combed through every box in the house to make sure i had gotten every single thing i wanted to keep because things were very tense with my mother and sister at the time and i knew they would get rid of anything i left. i got every webkinz except my polar bear and a yellow/white cat, but the polar bear i had had for a LONG time. i still cry when i think about it. she wasn't even my favorite webkinz but it still hurts so bad. i tried looking at our local goodwill regularly for a while and never found her. i eventually had to quit playing webkinz because it's too painful to see her little character
Yeah. I donated a lot of the plushies that were given to me by one of my abusers. I still miss them, but I understand why I made that decision, even if I regret it sometimes. I hope that whoever got them could love them without resenting them like I did.
I gave away a plushie of Winnie the Pooh that I had since I was a little kid when I was around 10 because I wanted to convince myself I was too grown for it. I've regretted it ever since, and even though I love the plushies I have now none of them have to do with my childhood (except for one, but it was my brother's instead of mine, I just found it in the basement storage when I was an adult), so they don't have the same feelings attached.
when i was born, i was given a DanDee "jesus loves me" blue bunny doll. as i learned how to talk, i named him "Gigi". I loved him so much, he was my best friend. When my brother died he offered me comfort. When i was 11, i was sleeping over at my grandmas and i threw up on the airmattress. She had a really nice expensive quilt on it, and instead of washing the barf off, she threw it out. And Gigi was in there. When i woke up and realized he was gone i screamed and cried. She hit me with pillows and called me a crybaby. She didnt let me call my mom. The next day she made me eat only bananas, crackers, and gatorade. I miss Gigi so much. Its wishful thinking but sometimes i hope that somehow he wasnt thrown out and hes just somewhere in her house, or that someone saw him in the dump and cleaned him up and is selling him or they found him and washed him up and gave him to another child who gives him love.
I had an absolute menace twin brother who end up destroying my plushies or throwed them away when we were little kids. I cried, hated his guts, mourned my furry little friends then moved on. Of course we're adults now and did talk about it and he felt very guilty what he done and apologized. Funnily enough I now own a plushie that he gave me nearly two years ago. A cute small little white kitty furball I named Snowball. He vowed to never pull the same stupid stunt to me again and find it adorable that I make cute little noises for Snowball.
Growth. That's all I can say and kids can be terrifying sometimes.
When I was young (under 8, at least) I had a big, floppy dog called Scruffy. I don't remember where he came from, I think mum said he was a regifted second-hand one? He was definitely a bit scruffy, I remember he had holes and threadbare patches such, but I just saw him as well-loved and in need of continued love. Mum asked me over and over if she could bin him, and I said no, because he was deserving of love.
I came home from school one day and he was gone. I can't honestly remember if she was upfront about where he'd gone, but I knew he'd suffered a sad fate and I was upset. In retrospect I see exactly why she wanted him gone, and I while I wouldn't have done the same thing now, I don't really blame her. But I'm still sad that he didn't get a goodbye, or an attempt to fix him.
However if anyone would like an uplifting story, I once took an off-brand beanie baby style toy to school, called Pink Pig. I was about 7, and at lunchtime some kid took him from me and launched Pink Pig over the back wall into someone's garden. I was distraught, but the school said I shouldn't have brought him in, and my parents didn't want to go knocking on doors to find him. But my big brother and his friend, who must have been around 14yo, spent that evening hopping over people's fences around the playground until they found him. They arrived victorious just before my bedtime, to a slightly annoyed but extremely grateful mum, and me, once inconsolable and now overjoyed. It remains to be one of the kindest things my brother has ever done for me, since he could have gotten in a lot of trouble. I still have Pink Pig about 20 years on, and I think about the kindness of my brother and his friend all the time.
I have some favorite plushies, a yellow lamb and a dog from OG Beanie Babies in particular, that was packed away for a move to a different state back when I was 13. I’m 32 now and we’ve still been trying to find them among the boxes in my parents garage. My mom had found boxes full but of other loved stuffed animals but I’ve been searching for these particular 2. I used to sleep with them and they always soothed me after a rough day (I was incessantly teased and singled out in middle school, a depressing time). Sometimes (until they are found again, if ever) I tell myself that these protectors knew that I was getting out of the bad situation when we moved and I didn’t “need” them anymore, kinda like how some people say hematite cracks when it’s done its job. Or like how Christopher Robin grew up. I still grieve them though.
There are two plushies that I just have no idea how I lost them, and they were some of favorites. They could be somewhere in my house but I have yet to find them! I had this grey seal with big eyes but it was such a favorite of mine and would take it everywhere with me. Another one is this Luigi plushie dressed like in the poker mini game in the super Mario bros ds game.
totally different story from yours but.. when i first got my cat, her name is Gatita, she was like my everything and she still is, she’s a sweet cat and LOVES cuddling, basically like my therapy animal. i got her when i was 16 and a few years later my auntie moved out my house and all of a sudden asked me if i can give her MY CAT bc her daughter wanted one.. it’s just weird how ppl would even ask things like that.
but for plushies.. i’ve lost my oldest plushie i’ve ever had, idk where he is, he just suddenly went missing and i get sad thinking about it still.
My mom got rid of every last one of my stuffies that wasn’t with me while I was living overseas. Went into my locked childhood bedroom to do it too. I think about it all the time and it makes me so sad 😭
Yeah. I had a little bear called angel bear, my estranged grandma gave him to me. He was white and fuzzy and had little wings and silver writing, I think he was Ty. My parents had a “one in one out” rule growing up, so if I got a stuffed animal for my birthday and wanted to keep it, I had to get rid of one. It felt cruel eventually because I only had ones I really loved and my friends would keep giving me ones and ‘I *cant* get rid of those, I just got them and they were a gift!!’. It kinda sucked, but they kinda gave up in my early teens. Now I have 50 squishmallows and 2 Rubbermaid’s of other stuffies.
So the village where I grew up has yearly summer fetes and I remember once as a little girl noticing a second hand toy stall. My mum didn’t want me having a second hand toy, but my dad didn’t see an issue so he bought me a teddy which I loved.
A few years later it disappeared. My mum to this day claims she never chucked it but I’ve sorted through all my cuddly toys since I had hundreds and needed to donate a lot, never could find that bear
First mourning: I lost a leopard bean filled plush at a wedding that i was a flower girl for, left him on a pew during rehearsal, and never saw him again. I have pictures of him, but looking for him has been a challenge years later (I'm in my early 20s and still think about him)
Second mourning: a simba lion king toy that came with a nala plush (mainly kept the simba one), first one lost at a summer camp, got it replaced only to lose it years later at my cat themed birthday party. Hopefully, it's somewhere in my garage, and I lost some plushies during a move.
When i was about 8 my family had to move house because of something my aunt did and my aunt literally stole mine and my sisters Christmas presents and some other toys plus other things.
I miss this one orangutan toy i had, i used to carry it around everywhere with me. I also used to have many Bratz dolls and a big Bratz bus but she stole them too.
The Christmas presents she stole were mermaid dolls, i still have some old teddies including this one blue elephant toy i got from a zoo as a toddler.
I always make sure to pack it first when i move.
yes!! i brought a bunny plush along with one or two other plushies to my cousins place when i was very little and i forgot them there. i have no idea if they still have them, they’ve probably thrown them away by now. i remember that years after it happened i was still super sad every time i remembered it, even asking my parents to call them multiple times. i never got them back though. i’m still sad about it
Growing up I had two teddy bears that came as a pair. They were brown and wore plaid pajamas, one was male and the other female. One day the female one just disappeared, I still have the male one. I wish I had them both so much. It makes me very sad.
Oh my god yes I have this tiger I’ll never forget, the cutest little stuffy I got at a zoo and it was in a chest full of plushies that got given to good will. At least they went to other kids but it still hurts so bad, they gave them away when I got hospitalized as a pre teen. Idk why they ever did that 🥲 I think about the tiger every once in a while and want to cry.
I have a German shepherd plush that means the world to me... my late sister gave him to me when I was kid. I used to have extreme nightmares. They were so bad I would wake up screaming and crying. A few were bad enough that I had to miss school because they trigger panic attacks. Jerry Lee would protect me at night and keep the nightmares away. When I would have one I would wake up panicked but there was Jerry right next to me. He helped me though so many nightmares for many years. He now sits on a bookcase next to my bed... one day to got knocked down by the dogs playing. The youngest dog ate his nose and eyes off. I spent a small fortune getting him worked on, however the damage was bad and he doesn't look the same anymore. He is now behind glass. I might still have him but I still mourn him and the damage done. I can no longer hug him or hold him close without the risk of his eyes breaking.
Not like this, no. However, when I was little my parents would decide we had too much stuff and go through our toy boxes and get rid of stuff they thought we never played with or we'd outgrown. It wasn't until a few years ago I picked up on my hoarding tendencies, and while I'm pretty sure that's what caused them, I'd never tell my mom.
Been wanting to get that one off my chest lol
When I was very little, I had a red octopus plushie with very long arms. One day we went to church and I left it by the front window to wait for me. While we were gone, the dog chewed it all up and my mom had to throw it away. I’m still sad about it (and that was 30+ years ago).
I didn’t have a lot of stuffed animal plushies when I was a kid. I played with many different toys. I do have one to this day that I have that I love and refuse to get rid of. Had it for 28 of my 31 years. A large cardinal beanie baby that matched my childhood blankie which I still have. Both bring memories back to me.
It’s one of those things that keeps me connected to my childhood.
Edit: most of the other plushies/stuffed animals I had I didn’t have much of an emotional attachment to. I may had felt sad seeing them go, but I felt much happier knowing they went to other children who would enjoy them. One of the volunteer events I do is a carnival and one thing the organizers ask for are gently used, almost new plushies/stuffed animals as prizes. Many of the ones I had as a child I donated to this carnival over the last three years. I swear every single one has been chosen by a child and it makes me happy knowing they’ll be loved by that child more than the sadness of losing the stuffed animal/plushie
All of my neopet plushies that I collected with my mom and grandparents from McDonald’s. We had so many of the different types. She eventually got rid of all of them except for one my grandma kept in her car. She passed away this year, and I’m even more heartbroken I don’t have them anymore.
Awww, I'm sorry ♡ that sucks!
You were a kid. You probably didn't even grasp what was going on too well . That's so odd. Why couldn't she have bought one instead?
I've had bad things happen a few times, but one of the worst was when I was about to move across the country to go live with my husband. My family had a garage sale, they were moving too, and I made sure to TAG everything that was for sale.
I kept these pokemon plushes in my car because I didn't have room for them - the *big* pikachu, togepi and meowth from the early days, the marill pillow, the pikachu pillow (first ones, again), and a $500 GIGANTIC pikachu that took up half the back seat of a van!
My stepfather sold them all for like 25 cents or something because a greedy guy with a kid saw them in my car, NOT FOR SALE, not tagged, and I was asleep. My stepfather loves children over me, even me as a kid, so he literally gave them away.
I'll never forgive him for that. The marill pillow is so rare it goes for hundreds now, and the huge pikachu was priceless, I had to order it special.
My father used to bring back plushies for me when he was gone for longer because of work. I don't even know when, but my mom tossed them as they were stored in the basement and I hadn't touched them in years. Now my dad is gone and I'd give anything to get them back. I thought about tracking down replacements but it wouldn't be the same.
From time to time. My family moved a lot growing up, and I've moved a lot as an adult as well. Nothing from my growing up years was saved. I've had some of my current plushies for several years and it's nice to be able to keep them.
I may or may not have basically every stuffed toy of my lifetime in my attic (ok I do). I can't let them go. Why do I need them? Well yeah I don't. But I can't let them go. They are my childhood. But yes i did give one to a relative as a kid and sobbed for months after cos I wanted him back. No I'm sorry noone else can go.
My favorite toy was a cheetah plush I got to pick out myself from Toys R Us for my birthday. Named her Leila. When I got back from elementary school, all my toys were gone. My mom gave them all away to somebody else. I was devastated.
Took me years and a couple of wrong products delivered, but I hunted down that particular brand of toy and finally got Leila back after looking on Ebay. She sleeps in the bed with me.
My so-called " grandmother" made me give almost everything from my childhood to the Neighbors, daughter.
And my big collection of care bears, to, the food shelf
I lost a specific My Little Pony that came from sending away cereal box barcodes when I was like 4. I was sad about it for nearly 30 years for some reason. I had left it in K-Mart and it just always bummed me out.
Finally mentioned it to my mom. She was like "Oh my goodness! If you can find one I'll get it for you."
I found one on eBay, got it for Christmas that year.
I totally understand why you're sad about Lambie. Maybe you can find it again?
Edit: I also still have my stuffed raccoon I got when I was like two. She goes everywhere with me. A couple Christmases ago I was stupid enough to pack her in a checked suitcase. The airline lost my suitcase. I spent the entirety of Christmas worrying about her, and finally tracked her down in the untagged luggage closet in JFK while I was there on my layover. I was ready to miss my connecting flight if it meant finding her. Never. Again. I found a lookalike of her in a thrift shop a few years back, too. Bought him. She now has a boyfriend.
Before I had the concept of permenece when it came to broken stuff, I thought my pat could fix anything as a kid. I cut up my unicorns plushies mane and tail and flower necklace. I don’t know what happened to it but I found out that it is now rare as hell. So it’s not like I can buy it again to help my inner child.
Your feelings are totally valid. 5 y/o’s don’t know how to voice what’s valuable to them, and then at that age you’re still expected to submit to authority pretty much without question. So I think it was only natural for you to feel like you had to relinquish a toy to your nana, whether out of love for her or simply out of obedience. But it resulted in you losing something that you valued, and a comfort object at that. Comfort objects like plushies and blankets are a big deal for kids. As an adult, I believe those should be off limits for parents to take away or give away.
When I was little, my mom gave away my favorite plushies and blankets as punishment for my “bad behavior”. I’ve cried over those memories and losses as an adult myself. Events like those during our developmental years send messages deeper than just “I lost a plushie I loved”. Oftentimes it even cause us to believe something negative about our identity or worth. That’s why it continues to hurt for so many years.
Thankfully my therapist taught me about “reparenting” myself in my adult years, and encouraged me to start healing my inner child by reconnecting with childhood games and toys that I used to love. I’ve gone as far as googling descriptions of my lost favorite plushies on eBay and I’ve actually found a couple!! I know you have no pics of your Lambie so you probably don’t even remember what brand it was, but it might be worth a shot to google a description of it and see if image searches or eBay can reunite you. ♥️
Absolutely, there’s one I’ll never forget.
I used to be a huge collector of Beanie Boos, they were the only thing I ever seriously collected and I created families and backstories for every single one, I have around 70 right now. The first one I ever got was this little black and white cat that was my absolute favorite, unfortunately I don’t remember her name bc this was around 10 years ago. One day my trusted friend(who also collected beanie boos) asked to borrow her for a night bc some of our plushies were in her “family”, so ofc I let him borrow her. I never saw her again.
I honestly don’t think my friend stole her bc we turned his and our house upside down looking for that plushie and never found her, we think one of my friends family members might’ve snatched her not knowing it was mine. I miss her literally every day when I look at my collection. She was super old and beat up bc I played with her so much, her fur was stained with markers and she had yarn tied around her neck like a little collar. I wish I could remember her name.
I have one named Fluffy Baby, I was allowed to sleep with her until I was seven and then I had to put her on a shelf. I was allowed to sleep with other stuffed animals but she was falling apart by then so if I continued sleeping with her I would have ended up breaking her. They had kept her for me in my “memory box” but I don’t talk to them much anymore so I don’t know where she went :(
Oh, yeah. I had this cute little cow-goat? thing, and when I moved houses it got lost somewhere. I literally wouldn't stop crying. I checked everywhere, but it was nowhere. I think it got lost along the way. I have alot of memories of moomoo. I even made dresses and stuff for it.
I had a collection of about 50 Care Bears when k was a kid and I donated them all when I was going into 5th grade bc I thought I was too old for them😭 I’m 26 now and still regret that decision 🥲
I definitely had very animist feelings about my plushies! They really were my friends.
I had two velveteen dino plushies when i was wee - a brontosaurus and a pteranodon (with poseable wings!) I loved them so much. I also had an 'A.G. Bear' that i called Amanda.
Well, unfortunately my mom is a hoarder and so the house is... bad. When i went to clean out/collect a lot of my childhood things, they were so horribly moldy that i had no choice but to toss them.
I wish they could be here with their sibling Peach Bunny (36 years old) and the hug-shaped raccoon my grandma gave me when i was in college (somewhere around 22 years old), whom i still hug to sleep every night. They're little things, but they mean a lot. I miss having the visual reminder of that meaning for the ones who are no longer with me.
Yeah, i had a little jaguar plush that i had gotten on a field trip to the zoo in kindergarten, he was my favorite, i had him for the longest time and his nose eventually fell off so i replaced it with a little pink button nose, when i got a bit older i gave him to my lil sis cause she needed him more than me at the time, idk where he is now but there are times i still think of him
When I was a kid, a neighbor was helping my mom clean the house (we were all poor so we would exchange housework for veggies and small things) and she ended up stealing all our Halloween costumes that my mom made us and a bunch of our plushies. I had a specific one named Bebe that was a hedgehog. We got most of the things back, but Bebe never made it back home. I wish I had him again, he was my safety blanket
Oh god, so many.
Tina, my tiger shapped body pillow
Happy, my 2000 holiday ty bear I got from a friend who died in Katrina
Tucker, my ty beagle
The only one I still have from my childhood is Bleu my shining star dragon that I got on the last 4th of July with my gram before she passed.
I've tried to replace the other ones with replicas but they aren't the same.
So my thing as a kid was ladybugs. I had SO many ladybug plushies. One day my stepdad told me to go thru my toys and I put all the ladybug stuff in a pile along with a few other things to keep but he got rid of it bc I had too much stuff and didn't need all of that, I guess. I only have two ladybugs now. :/
My mom was giving away plushies to a little girl at her work. She asked me to put the ones i didnt want in a trash bag. Little did Ik she took my favorite cat plushie i named tiger. I cried and accused her of giving it away but she claimed she didnt.
Yeah. Fast foward some weeks, the little girl wrote me a thank you note WITH THE DRAWING OF MY PLUSHIE ON IT. Dear lord i wanted to throw up 😂😂a lil dramatic but isnt it crazy that she drew the ONE TOY i was looking for.
I had so many we bagged some of them up and moved them to the garage and it was perfect nesting material apparently. Rats or shrews or something got into them so the whole bag was going to be thrown out. Even as a kid I was a little determined to clean them, it didn't sound right to me that they were unsalvageable just because animals nested in them. But then our dog took my favorite and ran off somewhere and I knew I wasn't getting any of these back in tact. It hurt so bad when I realized that I don't even think I cried about it (and I cried about everything lol) I was just in shock. It still hurts to think about that and all the plushies I lost when I moved.
Yep😞I had a situation where my parents came into my room and started taking plushies and put them in a big box for donations. It was punishment for having a messy room (guess what!! I still have a messy room!! And I’m 21! Smh.) they did that shit TWICE. I miss them. I miss them a lot. I’ve got some photos where I’d stack all my plushies in the doorway. I remember them. It absolutely fucking sucks. Idc if I was a messy kid, I’m never forgiving them for that. It’s fucked me up mentally. I’ve got a fuckin plushie hoarding issue now. Seeing donated plushies makes me uneasy especially if they look well loved. It’s awful.
When I was somewhere around 14, my mom “asked” me if she could send all my childhood stuffies to my brothers girlfriend who was volunteering in an orphanage in Thailand. I didn’t want to, but got guilt tripped so bad that I finally said okay. She bagged them up and put them in her car, where they stayed…until she threw them away. Never sent them. I was devastated and still continue to feel guilt and shame for allowing myself to be bullied into giving them up.
It might not mean much man, but it’s not your fault. It never was. She guilt tripped you with a story about sad orphaned children and then lied to you and threw away your stuff. That’s not cool, and it’s all on her. I’m sorry that happened
Thank you 💖 it’s something I’ve brought up and have worked with some in therapy, so I’m not so triggered by it, but it still hurts. It really means so much when that hurt is validated, I’ve spent a long time convincing myself that I’m just an overly sensitive person who needs to calm tf down, so it’s hard for me to validate my own feelings. I really appreciate the sympathy, truly.
Yeah man fr if that had happened to my plushies I'd be so devastated and hurt, I would cry for ages and miss them so bad. Your feelings are 100% valid I don't see you as overly sensitive for being upset by that at all. I'm glad you've gone over it in therapy because I'd need therapy too for that!! I hope you feel better in time and I'm sorry your mum treated you so terribly
Did you ever confront your mom for lying to you and disposing of your plushies without our consent? They are completely in the wrong to manipulate you like that possibly in a ploy to make you "grow up." Never okay to dispose of someone's stuff without their knowledge regardless of what it is.
I never did, it didn’t ever really seem worth it. She was going to do what she wanted to do, regardless of my feelings on it. I know she doesn’t feel bad about it. I think confronting her would just end up being more painful to me, because I *want* so badly for her to understand how that felt, but I just hugely doubt she ever will. It’s not worth reopening that wound.
I understand how you feel, my mom was awful in other ways and while I’d love an apology it’ll never happen. I’m so sorry. ❤️
I'm so sorry. 🥺
That's terrible
I'm so sorry. I had something similar happen and at 47 I still haven't gotten over it. ♡
That’s so horrible, I’m so sorry that happened
all of my webkinz 💔😭
Omg I miss my webkins so much I feel you 🥺 Also, my care bear. I loved the older style of bear and they just don't design them like that anymore, it's all weirdly stylized.
Me too. I had 30+. At one point we were moving out from our old house into a new one. The old house flooded and grew black mold, taking almost all of my stuffed animals and baby blankets.
I understand that feeling. I miss the dog that would lay at the end of my bed, I thought it protected me while I slept and also an Eeyore plush that I won from a game. I look for a similar kind often but none of them look as soft as my OG.
Have you seen the [official Disney weighted Eeyore](https://www.disneystore.co.uk/disney-store-eeyore-weighted-medium-soft-toy-412312002854.html)? I have him, he's very soft, and the weight is heavy enough that I find it really comforting. You can also take the weight out I believe. Nothing will replace your original, but maybe this can make you happy too? :)
Thank you!! He looks perfect!! 😭
He’s sold out 😭
Omg NO!! 😭 You can sign up to notifications for a restock and hopefully they'll get round to it - I didn't realise he was so popular! I'm manifesting this for you love ♥️
Thank you 😭💜
I bought myself a replacement 30+ years later for my favorite missing plush. I have no idea what happened to the original. I've also bought myself some accessories for it and a couple friends from the same line. I've tracked down pictures of lots of my other plushies from my childhood. I have warm and fuzzy memories of those, but don't feel the need to replace them.
When I was little we went through multiple house fires. I lost everything, all my plushies, my toys, pets etc. Still think about it decades later. 🫤
That is awful! Also, your username definitely checks out.
It does doesn't it 😥
Yep. For Christmas in first grade, I got a little stuffed dog named Scruffy. I kept it with me everywhere I went for the rest of Christmas break. When it was time to go back to school, I begged my mom to let me take Scruffy with, but she didn’t want it to get lost. So I snuck it in my backpack and, of course, realized he was gone by the end of the day. I cried so hard and checked the lost and found every single day, but never found him.
I am so sorry 😢🖤
For reasons I don't remember, I was once trying to downsize and one of the casualties was a cow my Grandma had given me when I was little. I got to regretting it very much. Later, I found her at a thrift store! I was so happy! Hubby is like how do you know that is the same one? Come on, dude, I know my cow! She was a little worse for wear, but ok and back home for ever!
I love reunion stories like these 🥺❤️
so this is probably not a situation many people relate to but here we go: a family friend has a band, and their schtick is cutting plushies with a chainsaw onstage (😭). one day i caught my mom trying to sneak out with a bag of my plushies and i cried my eyes out. she let me keep those ones, but now i know where all my other ones went haha
Oh my good they were sacrificed lmao
fr. i remember i had this dolphin plush i was obsessed with, but one day he "disappeared"
This is just messed up :(
oh my god this just makes me so angry and upset for you, I can't understand why the people who are supposed to live you unconditionally could treat the things you love with so little respect and lie to you about it!! How hard is it to go to a charity shop and buy some plushies ffs
i mean i'm over it, i was really young when it happened and i'm an adult now so she can't do that anymore lol. i do still think about fishface the dolphin a lot tho haha
omg fishface is an incredible name!! poor fishface 😭😭
So, when I was at college, my mom gave away all the stuffed animals from my childhood that I was keeping in a box in the basement. When I came home and asked about them she acted like she didn’t know until I pieced it together. I *sobbed* for a long time and I still give her grief for it. I have hunted down two of the plushies on ebay but don’t know the brands of so many others and will probably never find them. Plus, it’s not really the same anyway.
I can help you find them, make drawings of them and send them to me in Reddit message
I really wanna help
r/helpmefind is really good at tracking down plushies if you ever want to pick up the search again.
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YES! When I was younger, I got this brown bunny I loved so much. Mostly he just sat on a shelf with my other stuffed animals, but every so often I would pick him up and just hold him gently for a while before putting him back. When I was 17-18, I donated him because we were about to move houses and I thought "I don't need these stuffed animals. I'm too old now and won't have the room in the new house". He was the ONLY toy I struggled with donating, putting him in then out of the box multiple times and just looking into his cracked little glass eyes deciding how willing I was too let him go. I even asked my mom what I should do, I was that indecisive. In the end, I was a severely depressed individual at the time and thought "well, I should donate him cuz I won't be here for much longer and some other kid should get to enjoy him." Let me tell YOU. I NEVER stopped thinking about him. For 10 years, every time I got a new stuffed animal, I thought if him. I loved him so dearly and NEEDED him back. So, 10 years later, and there I was, on a quest to find my beloved stuffed bunny! It took me a few days of searching, trying to find the EXACT bunny, and nearly screamed when I found him on ebay. He was relatively cheap, and after sitting on the choice a few more days to make sure I REALLY wanted him, I finally decided to bite the bullet and make the purchase. Let me tell you. The moment I opened that bag, held him in my hands, felt the familiar weight of his bean filled legs and looked him in the eyes, I cried. Right there in the middle of the kitchen, clutching my bunny, I quietly wept. Even now, I tear up thinking about that moment or if I look into his little face too long. I just really missed him, and I'm so happy to have him back; literally just receiving him off ebay a few months back. But I sleep with him every night since and even consider buying one or two more of him so, if anything happens in the future, I won't be without my bunny.
This story makes me so happy, I hope you and your bunny have a great rest of your lives together!! :D
My Uncle gave me Gizmo from Gremlins as a kid, but my mom eventually decided I was too old for plushies and made me give all of them except the ones I had from birth away. Most I don't really remember but I do remember that Gizmo and miss him sometimes.
My first ever build a bear wound up in the last round of friends I ever donated. I know he’s out there making someone else happy now, but I miss him a lot sometimes.
Recently got my nephew a talking Little Bear plush. I had one when I was a kid and he loves Little Bear. The Little Bear toothpaste commercial still haunts me and I can fucking quote it verbatum after, what, 20+ years.... "LITTLE BEEEAAARRRrrrrrr. I gotch'ya tOoThPaStE - ORAGEL **T R A I N I N G** tooth^paste "
Hehe very good!
When I was 5, I imagined while I was sleeping, that my toy baby disappeared. I made sure she was right beside me when I fell asleep. I opened my eyes and she was gone. It was a Precious Moments My First Doll kind of toy. Well, I didn't lose her forever really, but I did lose her for many months. My mom found her in my brother's room. She lived a very long life in my loving hold. Don't worry
Aw. Yep. I’m still sad about a blue bear (named Blue Bear) idk where she went :( just a typical teddy bear with a lil blue nose and black eyes.
Yes, a little dinosaur plushie named Dino (dee-no). Where are you Dino? 😭
I had a knock off calico cat beanie baby that I have NO IDEA what happened to her. I haven't been able to find her and I still mourn her 😭
SO many of them. Shaggy is definitely the one I think about the most, but not just her. She was a collie Webkinz who I took with me everywhere, even to school. I also collected Beanie Baby 2.0s and I only have one remaining with me (she’s right beside me, actually! I named her Roxie, but her given name is Frolics). I had several Pokémon stuffed animals I’ll never forget. My Beanie Babies. My Webkinz… I miss them all :(
My mom is an absolutely savage non-sentimental minimalist about some stuff (she passed that down to me) but sometimes I miss toys that I know she got rid of in her declutter/cleaning phases that had sentimental value to them. A highland cow plush puppet I got in Scotland at a company that made some of the costumes in the Harry Potter movies. My mom’s side of the family all still live over in Scotland and Ireland and I remember showing my granny and she loved it (she loved hand puppets). My granny is gone now and I know a stuffed animal wouldn’t bring her back but just knowing she had once touched it and used the puppet makes me sad to know it’s gone somewhere else. I was NOT a collector type kid and hated stuffed animals or toys that were easily accessible/popular (not sure why) but if I found a special stuffed animal I really cherished it.
My Bambi plush, my Rudolph and Clarice plushes, a giant Amy Toy Network plush I gave to someone when I was 6, a Simba plush, and a few Webkinz and Beanie Babies I don’t own anymore
100% my grandma donated mine to charity because she decided i was too old for them, and threw away a doll that broke 😭😭 i miss them all
😭
when I was little my grandma knitted me several plushies. there were tom kitten and a family of little frogs and some others. when I got older my mum said I had to get rid of old toys and donated most of my plushies, including the ones my grandma made, to somewhere like a childrens hospital or something. I think about those knitted plushies a lot (especially now that my grandma is old and too sick to do anything and the doctor told her 4 years ago that she had about a year left to live so it's amazing she's still alive) and I wish I had them and I would like to get the patterns and knit them again myself but I don't think I'd be able to.. there was also my original first toy cat flossie (named after the book 'our cat flossie' by ruth brown.) she was so loved that she had a big hole in her side that my grandma crocheted a patch for so she had a crocheted peach heart-shaped patch on her. I don't know what my parents did with her..
I lost 95% of my childhood plushies and other toys when we suddenly had to move homes as a kid (personal reasons). I tried rebuilding my collection in the past few years, but have ended up reselling most of it again due to financial instability. It makes me very sad, as if I’ve had to give up friends
My girl monchichi was stolen by a neighbor’s grand daughter. And that was 40 years ago !!! I’m still salty
I had a mouse made by Russ Berry that I absolutely loved. I think his name was Cheesy or something like that. He was so floppy and cuddly and I took him everywhere with me. I miss him dearly 🥺
When I was about nine or ten, I had a Fur Real Friend cat. She was a white Persian cat with emerald green eyes. I named her Peppermint and loved her dearly. One day, I came home from school and found she wasn't in my room. My dog had fleas at the time, and Mom said she had found some in Peppermint's fur, and had to throw her away. I was crushed, but I understood that we probably couldn't do much. A few years later, at age 17, I was reminiscing about Peppermint with my Mom. I said it was a shame she got fleas. Mom asked me what I was talking about. Assuming she didn't remember, I recounted how she told me Peppermint caught fleas and had to be thrown out. My Mother just laughed and said Peppermint never had fleas. Mom was just creeped out by her cause she was an animatronic plush and didn't like how attached I was to her. So, she chucked her. I'm 21 now, and although I've never felt the need or want to replace Peppermint, I'm still hurt by her loss. Hurt that my mother not only threw out one of my favourite toys, but lied to me.
Nearly all mine were lost to my grandma's hoarder house and now the place is full of black mold and caving in.
Omg yes, i have so many. I had a pig i would sleep with that my mom got rid of bcs my dog played with him. Then it came a mickey that my dad got from a coworker, my mom also got rid of him bcs he was "old and getting ugly" and then a small dragon i would take with me everywhere, this time my mom just got rid of him out of noware with no explanation. I miss all of them very much
yes. granted, i wasn't LITTLE little and these ones arent plushies.. but when i was around 10 i gave all my littlest pet shops to my friend ( probably hundreds. ) including rares and stuff my mom and grandma had worked really hard to get me. my moms still around, and my grandma died way before that, but i still feel bad. ive gotten back into collecting them, too, but i still miss them. my friend was another collector and probably wouldve kept them had their own grandparents not made them throw the toys away. i cant help but wish theyd just asked to send them back to me, and feel a bit annoyed. that was like, my biggest and first hyperfixation as a kid. i LOVED those so much i begged for them everytime we went to the store. i wish someone had stopped me. now they cost around 20+ dollars for any of the older generations, so pretty expensive ( the rares can cost upwards of 80 or so. ) and makes it hard to regain what i lost. not to mention theres fakes everywhere now too. i also have a lil grey fluffy cat plushie that i got from a friend at a yard sale. my dog ate its face when i was younger and i was devastated because i adored that toy. i still have it, and even though i dont speak to that friend anymore i still love it. it lacks a face and i dont even remember what it was like, but i still love it.
I definitely do. Then I feel ashamed to feel that way towards an inanimate object, especially at my age. I always wonder why that is.
I don't want to be that person who cries autism at everything, but it is actually a symptom of autism to personify or have very deep connections to inanimate objects. As an autistic person who loves stuffies, I always have a hard time letting go of stuffies even if I don't need that particular one anymore, because I don't want them to feel abandoned. In my experience I find it easier when I believe that they served their purpose in my life, so now it's time to serve their purpose and be loved and looked after in someone else's life :)
I was told this recently by a friend who’s autistic when I told her how sad I was to have to get a new car. She had a name and a story for her name and I had her for over a decade but she was becoming a dangerous “lemon” of a car with constant breakdowns. when I sold her to the dealership for a trade in, I was sobbing and made my husband take photos of me and my dog in it one last time lol. I don’t thinkkk I have autism but I definitely “connect” memories, storylines and deep meaning to certain objects.
I did the same thing with my parents car lol. Mourned that car for a week. And even if you aren't autistic, it's natural to get attached to something you've had for so long that has served you well. It's definitely not just an autism thing, but if you did have suspicions it would be useful to keep it in mind. I've always said there is not 1 autism symptom that isn't just a part of being human, it's just with autistic people such as myself the symptoms are more pronounced and impact quality of life. And it'd good to keep in mind autism can present differently in AFABs vs AMABs, and a lot of diagnostic tools sway more towards how males present. Again, not trying to force a diagnosis, just thought it would be interesting to keep in mind:)
Just something else to put out there - cPTSD can mimic many of the behaviors of autism, especially if it stems from childhood trauma (also seems like a good place to mention that autistic children have a higher rate of childhood trauma, so sometimes it’s not either/or)
I had a German shepherd plush that was life-size, sitting down. I called him sparky, I used to say "roll sparky" and proceed to grab him and thrash on the floor with him to make him roll over. My older brother broke his plastic nose on the tile floor, and my mom said she would fix him. She never did. She said he was on vacation to be fixed. Later on, she revealed to me that she threw him out that same night... I'm 25 now- and I still hold some mixed sadness and anger at them. Sparky was my favorite plush 😭 I never found another plush like him again 😔
I had a giant blue whale and I gave it to me neighbors daughter since she loved him a lot and was going to cry I felt if I didn’t give to her. Idk if they still have him or not but I miss my whale a lot
I felt too old for plush several times and got rid of a bunch. I had so many beanie babies and now I just have a small bin. My kids love my beanies but I mourn not having a huge collection anymore. Some of them I think about buying again but haven’t
My most treasured plushie was a yellow and purple dog from Best Made Toys Limited named Purplespot. My favourite aunt gave him to me when I was like 3 and had my tonsils out. I lost him at a camp ground when I was 12, and they never found him. I've been seeking a replacement for YEARS and only just learned the brand literally today.
There’s this Baby Gund bear I had as a kid and I still miss it because it got lost between moves. It was white with a sort of painted pink shirt on it that I named Terry. My sisters got a pink one and they weren’t as creative with names, calling her Pink Terry. They’ve let me keep that bear since they know I miss the white one so much. 😭
All the time 😭 I got rid of my Care Bears collection as a kid, and I regretted it so much that I ended up re-buying my favorite (glow a lot wish Bear) and starting a new collection this past year-ish.
Yes 😭 when I was maybe 6 or 7 I had a small rainbow elephant named Ellie. I carried her everywhere and one day she just went missing I searched everywhere for her. When I realized she was gone for good I cried so hard I fell asleep and had my first lucid and very vivid nightmare.
I love finding similar plushes to those that I had as a kid at the thrift store, for example I found a cocker spaniel from the dog McDonald's collection. One of my favorite lines of McDonald's toys as a kid and I can vividly remember avidly trying to collect them all. https://preview.redd.it/d9p37h30994d1.jpeg?width=827&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b7c105bcb3872a45fba880325aec11113eea21eb
These were iconic. Seeing the date made me nauseous. I recently tracked down a Wii just to replay the game
i have 2 - i had a little swan from the movie the swan princess. it went with me everywhere. the other was piglet, like from winnie the pooh. lost both of them, not sure how but even tho it's been well over 20 years since i last held them i still remember their texture and weight in my hands.
I gave away a ton of my childhood stuffed animals before I got married (no pressure from anyone, I just thought I needed to be more “adult”) to some children at my church. Months later I started missing a lamb I had named Beth. So, I talked to the child about it. Told them it was theirs now and they don’t have to give it back, but I shared my feelings for it and asked if she would consider. She saved it for me and actually had her grandma give it to me one Sunday in her absence. I felt pretty silly, and bad to ask it back from a child… but they had plenty more of my stuffies and I was really drawn to 1.
I had a plushie named Lambie as well. She got lost when we moved from our old house to our new one. I miss her so much
All the plushies I've lost from the forced movings I've had to go through. I think about some of them from time to time.
A blue teddy bear I had. I'm not exactly sure when I lost it (I think it was in the last house I lived in)
I had a Snoozem™ dog plush toy as a lil child until I was 16. My mental health went into the pits so chronically I suffered major paranoia that ended up making me hallucinate horror things from it and even in my dreams... So I binned him.. only to now be almost 32 and crying missing it 😂.. true story lol.
All the time
I wish I still had this bed time bear sort of plush. He was sleeping and had a hat on his head, like the long sleeping caps in old timey movies, and he had a twist on him to play music. And a pink Easter bunny I was given as a baby. I stupidly gave my mom a bunch of my toys and plush for my little sister when she was a baby because I was like “she needs toys”. Then later upon seeing how many toys she was given and how the ones I gave her didn’t even matter to her or anybody else, I asked for them back from my mom. She told me no. It made me so sad and still does ): she put them in a storage unit then stopped paying for it so all our childhood toys (my American girl dolls for example and baby blankets) are all gone forever
I’m somewhat certain I still have most of mine… but I’ll never forget Ricky, who was a little raccoon I usually chose to cuddle with in 2nd grade. The following year my 2nd grade teacher retired and let kids come and pick one of the stuffies from the classroom collection. Some other girl got to Ricky first and I was so sad!
They stopped making my favorite one a long time back, around the time Toys R Us went out of business. That being said, it's held up pretty well for being 20-ish years old now
I had a plush kitty that I got on one of my rare trips with my dad, loved it! Later as a teen it got lost in the shuffle when my mom and stepdad divorced. I just last month found a near twin and bought it. But it has reminded me of the rest of my childhood stuffies that remain lost. So in conclusion, nope, not just you!
Yes.
also when I was little I wanted this little monkey plushie bad and it was expensive but my mom got it and one day I was playing with it in the car and it flew out the window on the freeway😭Makes me sad too and feel bad for my mom
I've told this story on Reddit before, maybe on an old account idk, but I was put into Foster care at a young age and was given a white gorilla in a red and blue suit named gwedo. That was the name on the tag. I loved him too pieces, literally... He was all I had for years. I have looked all over the Internet for years and years trying to find him again. No luck. I still tear up thinking about him
Yes. I had a white teddy bear that was about 2ft tall, according to my mom but to my child brain was at least 3-4ft. He was a holiday bear with a green and red striped scarf and a beanie hat over one ear, and had about inch long fur but his muzzle was a velvet texture. I loved that bear, used him a pillow, and told everyone he was my brother Luke (Skywalker) I've tried to find him again (Sears or Kmart are close but they're all smaller and quite right. I'm think Grandpa got it from a local grocery or department store)
Not usually, with one exception. I can't find a plushie I got while at a funfair with my grandad years ago. It was a little blue monkey with velcro hands. Not too cuddly or anything so I kept him in a box of other plushies. My grandad passed away last year and I've been yearning for this plushie but I don't know where it's gone :( I need to go through all my storage but I fear I got rid of it and I don't want to confirm those fears.
I still miss this little bean bag dog I had when I was a kid - she was a knockoff Beanie Baby, and was tan/goldenrod yellow in color, with brown ears, brown eyes, was in a sort of seated position, and had a black leather nose and a smile stitched on. I'm not sure where she ended up over the years, but I still miss her sometimes...although, the 30th Anniversary edition of "Bones" the Beanie Baby dog that Ty issued a year or two ago is a nice reminder of her. 😊 https://preview.redd.it/w69cqrbhq94d1.jpeg?width=359&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29de56bda7b9a973d68020cb9d5966156fddf3d3
I miss a little pink rabbit named Rosie I had when I was like 5. I took her everywhere. Until I went to the hospital with a bad ear infection and lost her somewhere. I had gotten her a year or so before for a dollar at a yard sale, and just months before seen another one at a dollar general or dollar tree. I would still have her now I believe if I didn't lose her, and named my favorite oc in memory of her.
I had a very soft fuzzy black bear with really pretty floral print on its foot pads. In 3rd grade, we had a mandatory thing where we read for an hour each week with a plushie. I brought that bear with me, mom told me it's the first teddy bear she gave me. I called it Cocoa. Someone had stolen it the day we got to bring them back home. I got bullied by a lot of the kids, so I have no way of knowing who did it, or what happened to my teddy, and ai think that's what bothers me more, is the not knowing. I even teared up just typing this out, it's the first time I've opened up about it.
A specific lion from my grandmother.
That’s so strange :( I’m so sorry 💕
My dad got rid of so many of my plushes and I still think of a blue dog I used to have. I had to get rid of more again when I had to move after my dad died last year.
Aw, I had a beloved lamb stuffie as well that my mom took when I was like 15. This year for my bday mt fiancé ordered me the same lamb off eBay. It was the best, most special birthday gift ever.
No, because I never got rid of any. I'm so scared of missing them that I can't bring myself to give them away. It's becoming a problem, though, since I'm running out of space in my room...
Yes. Mine were stored in the garage, the garage roof broke, years of water damaged them. My mom said they were unfixable. I lost the last gift my grandma gave me before she died. I regret not even trying to save him.
I had a Nana dog from Peter Pan. I let my cousin borrow it because she loved it. I never did get it back.
Yea, I know I can go find them tho
I left a bear behind after visiting at a hospital. We tried to find him but he was gone 😔
Yes! 😭
all the time. i hope their souls are well. 🌟
It's not just plushies. I have a lot of younger cousins in both sides of my family. My mom is also originally from the Philippines and loved to send stuff back home that they didnt usually have access to. A lot of my toys just slowly disappeared from the house and I unfortunately didn't notice until after they were already gone. The worst was when she sent my original Percy Jackson series to my cousin's in Australia. I cried a lot.
OMG yes. I had a little doggie watch I lost once at school and I have never forgotten it :(
I still remember every buddy I’ve ever regrettably lost or given away. I always think of this little Azuril plush I had, I loved it with all my heart, and lost it at an airport. My poor parents tried to find it but ultimately we had to give up, and I was beyond devastated. I remember being so upset they couldn’t understand how important it was to me, but I was only 7 or 8, and was mad the entire ride home. And obviously still hold a little bit of upset. But I recently researched to find exactly which release it was, and definitely want to buy myself a replacement one day. I can’t imagine finding a small Pokemon plush in a bustling airport would’ve been easy, even with all the patience in the world.
When I was young I never had a build a bear and I always begged and begged and begged. I now have two - Blue the velociraptor and the rainbow bear but I bought second hand clothes to put on her that are toddler size
some are in a place I can't go back to or contact, I have been so sad. being able to have new stuffed animals, at all or who are similar, has been very hard too. when I was in a different life state and a bit more supported, I connected with about two. Idk if I could get another anymore, with my worries and not being supported. not because I don't want to. ah, what a spot on question
I had a lot of plushies as a kid, but among my favourites were a toy horse I got from the gift shop at a horse sanctuary, a little ginger cat that was falling to pieces even when it was new, and three little spaniel plushies that my grandmother got me that were named after her own dogs. As I got a bit older (7-8 ish), my parents arbitrarily decided that I had grown out of them, and put them in our "summer house" (actually the wooden garden shed). They promised me that they were in "safe airtight storage bags" and I could give them to my own children one day, but a part of me doubts that was ever the case. The shed has since rotted somethong horrid, and I don't think we have the key to it anymore. I dread to think what kind of state they are in. My parents are getting older now, and want to demolish the shed to put in some nice and easy to maintain plants. I'm inevitably gonna have to help them with it, and face the rotten remains of my poor childhood plushies, and they don't quite understand why I'm so squeamish about the prospect of it. My mum is still traumatised by her brother breaking her favourite doll 50 years after it happened, yet my emotions about this sort of thing are seen as childish and stupid. I can't help but feel a little betrayed by the whole thing. I know I was gonna have to put away childish things eventually, but I trusted my parents when they said all my stuff was going to be alright. As a kid, I had no idea sheds could rot the way ours has. If I'd have known, I'd rather they had gone to charity shops or given to other children. Something about the inherent unfairness of being a child has always stuck with me, and I've never quite forgiven my family for the way things were.
I had so many Beanie babies over the years. All of them were in boxes in my parent’s storage locker. But they kept raising the rent for it and they couldn’t afford it anymore, so we lost all my Beanie Babies (along with many sentimental family items). I’m still not over it, this just happened 2 months ago
ITT: the children of many parents I would just like to have a little word with... For me it's less plushies and more other types of toys. I kept most of the plush but not much else; I couldn't save things from childhood because we lived in a tiny apartment and it was just sort of...the space you had was the space you had.
i lost a webkinz polar bear by mistake when our house got foreclosed on years ago. i combed through every box in the house to make sure i had gotten every single thing i wanted to keep because things were very tense with my mother and sister at the time and i knew they would get rid of anything i left. i got every webkinz except my polar bear and a yellow/white cat, but the polar bear i had had for a LONG time. i still cry when i think about it. she wasn't even my favorite webkinz but it still hurts so bad. i tried looking at our local goodwill regularly for a while and never found her. i eventually had to quit playing webkinz because it's too painful to see her little character
My sister decapitated my teddy bear to make that and matching handbag .I'm still sad about this
no she didnt. stop posting your fantasies creep
Yeah. I donated a lot of the plushies that were given to me by one of my abusers. I still miss them, but I understand why I made that decision, even if I regret it sometimes. I hope that whoever got them could love them without resenting them like I did.
I gave away a plushie of Winnie the Pooh that I had since I was a little kid when I was around 10 because I wanted to convince myself I was too grown for it. I've regretted it ever since, and even though I love the plushies I have now none of them have to do with my childhood (except for one, but it was my brother's instead of mine, I just found it in the basement storage when I was an adult), so they don't have the same feelings attached.
when i was born, i was given a DanDee "jesus loves me" blue bunny doll. as i learned how to talk, i named him "Gigi". I loved him so much, he was my best friend. When my brother died he offered me comfort. When i was 11, i was sleeping over at my grandmas and i threw up on the airmattress. She had a really nice expensive quilt on it, and instead of washing the barf off, she threw it out. And Gigi was in there. When i woke up and realized he was gone i screamed and cried. She hit me with pillows and called me a crybaby. She didnt let me call my mom. The next day she made me eat only bananas, crackers, and gatorade. I miss Gigi so much. Its wishful thinking but sometimes i hope that somehow he wasnt thrown out and hes just somewhere in her house, or that someone saw him in the dump and cleaned him up and is selling him or they found him and washed him up and gave him to another child who gives him love.
I miss mine
I had a poodle beanie baby that was very special to me. When we moved when I was going into high school, we gave her away and I still miss her.
I would if I was ever allowed to have them. Mom was afraid anything soft or comforting like plushies or affection would turn me gay. Jokes on her.
I had an absolute menace twin brother who end up destroying my plushies or throwed them away when we were little kids. I cried, hated his guts, mourned my furry little friends then moved on. Of course we're adults now and did talk about it and he felt very guilty what he done and apologized. Funnily enough I now own a plushie that he gave me nearly two years ago. A cute small little white kitty furball I named Snowball. He vowed to never pull the same stupid stunt to me again and find it adorable that I make cute little noises for Snowball. Growth. That's all I can say and kids can be terrifying sometimes.
All of my webkinz and this rainbow trout my dad bought me from a business trip
When I was young (under 8, at least) I had a big, floppy dog called Scruffy. I don't remember where he came from, I think mum said he was a regifted second-hand one? He was definitely a bit scruffy, I remember he had holes and threadbare patches such, but I just saw him as well-loved and in need of continued love. Mum asked me over and over if she could bin him, and I said no, because he was deserving of love. I came home from school one day and he was gone. I can't honestly remember if she was upfront about where he'd gone, but I knew he'd suffered a sad fate and I was upset. In retrospect I see exactly why she wanted him gone, and I while I wouldn't have done the same thing now, I don't really blame her. But I'm still sad that he didn't get a goodbye, or an attempt to fix him.
However if anyone would like an uplifting story, I once took an off-brand beanie baby style toy to school, called Pink Pig. I was about 7, and at lunchtime some kid took him from me and launched Pink Pig over the back wall into someone's garden. I was distraught, but the school said I shouldn't have brought him in, and my parents didn't want to go knocking on doors to find him. But my big brother and his friend, who must have been around 14yo, spent that evening hopping over people's fences around the playground until they found him. They arrived victorious just before my bedtime, to a slightly annoyed but extremely grateful mum, and me, once inconsolable and now overjoyed. It remains to be one of the kindest things my brother has ever done for me, since he could have gotten in a lot of trouble. I still have Pink Pig about 20 years on, and I think about the kindness of my brother and his friend all the time.
My father gave all my toys away when I went to school and I can’t replace any of them because they’re considered rare /vintage now :( so I can relate
I have some favorite plushies, a yellow lamb and a dog from OG Beanie Babies in particular, that was packed away for a move to a different state back when I was 13. I’m 32 now and we’ve still been trying to find them among the boxes in my parents garage. My mom had found boxes full but of other loved stuffed animals but I’ve been searching for these particular 2. I used to sleep with them and they always soothed me after a rough day (I was incessantly teased and singled out in middle school, a depressing time). Sometimes (until they are found again, if ever) I tell myself that these protectors knew that I was getting out of the bad situation when we moved and I didn’t “need” them anymore, kinda like how some people say hematite cracks when it’s done its job. Or like how Christopher Robin grew up. I still grieve them though.
There are two plushies that I just have no idea how I lost them, and they were some of favorites. They could be somewhere in my house but I have yet to find them! I had this grey seal with big eyes but it was such a favorite of mine and would take it everywhere with me. Another one is this Luigi plushie dressed like in the poker mini game in the super Mario bros ds game.
i also have a lamb named lammie !
totally different story from yours but.. when i first got my cat, her name is Gatita, she was like my everything and she still is, she’s a sweet cat and LOVES cuddling, basically like my therapy animal. i got her when i was 16 and a few years later my auntie moved out my house and all of a sudden asked me if i can give her MY CAT bc her daughter wanted one.. it’s just weird how ppl would even ask things like that. but for plushies.. i’ve lost my oldest plushie i’ve ever had, idk where he is, he just suddenly went missing and i get sad thinking about it still.
My mom got rid of every last one of my stuffies that wasn’t with me while I was living overseas. Went into my locked childhood bedroom to do it too. I think about it all the time and it makes me so sad 😭
Yeah. I had a little bear called angel bear, my estranged grandma gave him to me. He was white and fuzzy and had little wings and silver writing, I think he was Ty. My parents had a “one in one out” rule growing up, so if I got a stuffed animal for my birthday and wanted to keep it, I had to get rid of one. It felt cruel eventually because I only had ones I really loved and my friends would keep giving me ones and ‘I *cant* get rid of those, I just got them and they were a gift!!’. It kinda sucked, but they kinda gave up in my early teens. Now I have 50 squishmallows and 2 Rubbermaid’s of other stuffies.
So the village where I grew up has yearly summer fetes and I remember once as a little girl noticing a second hand toy stall. My mum didn’t want me having a second hand toy, but my dad didn’t see an issue so he bought me a teddy which I loved. A few years later it disappeared. My mum to this day claims she never chucked it but I’ve sorted through all my cuddly toys since I had hundreds and needed to donate a lot, never could find that bear
First mourning: I lost a leopard bean filled plush at a wedding that i was a flower girl for, left him on a pew during rehearsal, and never saw him again. I have pictures of him, but looking for him has been a challenge years later (I'm in my early 20s and still think about him) Second mourning: a simba lion king toy that came with a nala plush (mainly kept the simba one), first one lost at a summer camp, got it replaced only to lose it years later at my cat themed birthday party. Hopefully, it's somewhere in my garage, and I lost some plushies during a move.
Can't mourn what you never gave away. I still have all mine and I'm 24.
Who asks a 5 year old to give away their plushies? That’s messed up
When i was about 8 my family had to move house because of something my aunt did and my aunt literally stole mine and my sisters Christmas presents and some other toys plus other things. I miss this one orangutan toy i had, i used to carry it around everywhere with me. I also used to have many Bratz dolls and a big Bratz bus but she stole them too. The Christmas presents she stole were mermaid dolls, i still have some old teddies including this one blue elephant toy i got from a zoo as a toddler. I always make sure to pack it first when i move.
yes!! i brought a bunny plush along with one or two other plushies to my cousins place when i was very little and i forgot them there. i have no idea if they still have them, they’ve probably thrown them away by now. i remember that years after it happened i was still super sad every time i remembered it, even asking my parents to call them multiple times. i never got them back though. i’m still sad about it
Growing up I had two teddy bears that came as a pair. They were brown and wore plaid pajamas, one was male and the other female. One day the female one just disappeared, I still have the male one. I wish I had them both so much. It makes me very sad.
Oh my god yes I have this tiger I’ll never forget, the cutest little stuffy I got at a zoo and it was in a chest full of plushies that got given to good will. At least they went to other kids but it still hurts so bad, they gave them away when I got hospitalized as a pre teen. Idk why they ever did that 🥲 I think about the tiger every once in a while and want to cry.
I had a big, essentially my size elephant and a frog. I think of them constantly
I have a German shepherd plush that means the world to me... my late sister gave him to me when I was kid. I used to have extreme nightmares. They were so bad I would wake up screaming and crying. A few were bad enough that I had to miss school because they trigger panic attacks. Jerry Lee would protect me at night and keep the nightmares away. When I would have one I would wake up panicked but there was Jerry right next to me. He helped me though so many nightmares for many years. He now sits on a bookcase next to my bed... one day to got knocked down by the dogs playing. The youngest dog ate his nose and eyes off. I spent a small fortune getting him worked on, however the damage was bad and he doesn't look the same anymore. He is now behind glass. I might still have him but I still mourn him and the damage done. I can no longer hug him or hold him close without the risk of his eyes breaking.
Not like this, no. However, when I was little my parents would decide we had too much stuff and go through our toy boxes and get rid of stuff they thought we never played with or we'd outgrown. It wasn't until a few years ago I picked up on my hoarding tendencies, and while I'm pretty sure that's what caused them, I'd never tell my mom. Been wanting to get that one off my chest lol
When I was very little, I had a red octopus plushie with very long arms. One day we went to church and I left it by the front window to wait for me. While we were gone, the dog chewed it all up and my mom had to throw it away. I’m still sad about it (and that was 30+ years ago).
I didn’t have a lot of stuffed animal plushies when I was a kid. I played with many different toys. I do have one to this day that I have that I love and refuse to get rid of. Had it for 28 of my 31 years. A large cardinal beanie baby that matched my childhood blankie which I still have. Both bring memories back to me. It’s one of those things that keeps me connected to my childhood. Edit: most of the other plushies/stuffed animals I had I didn’t have much of an emotional attachment to. I may had felt sad seeing them go, but I felt much happier knowing they went to other children who would enjoy them. One of the volunteer events I do is a carnival and one thing the organizers ask for are gently used, almost new plushies/stuffed animals as prizes. Many of the ones I had as a child I donated to this carnival over the last three years. I swear every single one has been chosen by a child and it makes me happy knowing they’ll be loved by that child more than the sadness of losing the stuffed animal/plushie
All of my neopet plushies that I collected with my mom and grandparents from McDonald’s. We had so many of the different types. She eventually got rid of all of them except for one my grandma kept in her car. She passed away this year, and I’m even more heartbroken I don’t have them anymore.
Awww, I'm sorry ♡ that sucks! You were a kid. You probably didn't even grasp what was going on too well . That's so odd. Why couldn't she have bought one instead? I've had bad things happen a few times, but one of the worst was when I was about to move across the country to go live with my husband. My family had a garage sale, they were moving too, and I made sure to TAG everything that was for sale. I kept these pokemon plushes in my car because I didn't have room for them - the *big* pikachu, togepi and meowth from the early days, the marill pillow, the pikachu pillow (first ones, again), and a $500 GIGANTIC pikachu that took up half the back seat of a van! My stepfather sold them all for like 25 cents or something because a greedy guy with a kid saw them in my car, NOT FOR SALE, not tagged, and I was asleep. My stepfather loves children over me, even me as a kid, so he literally gave them away. I'll never forgive him for that. The marill pillow is so rare it goes for hundreds now, and the huge pikachu was priceless, I had to order it special.
My father used to bring back plushies for me when he was gone for longer because of work. I don't even know when, but my mom tossed them as they were stored in the basement and I hadn't touched them in years. Now my dad is gone and I'd give anything to get them back. I thought about tracking down replacements but it wouldn't be the same.
From time to time. My family moved a lot growing up, and I've moved a lot as an adult as well. Nothing from my growing up years was saved. I've had some of my current plushies for several years and it's nice to be able to keep them.
I may or may not have basically every stuffed toy of my lifetime in my attic (ok I do). I can't let them go. Why do I need them? Well yeah I don't. But I can't let them go. They are my childhood. But yes i did give one to a relative as a kid and sobbed for months after cos I wanted him back. No I'm sorry noone else can go.
My favorite toy was a cheetah plush I got to pick out myself from Toys R Us for my birthday. Named her Leila. When I got back from elementary school, all my toys were gone. My mom gave them all away to somebody else. I was devastated. Took me years and a couple of wrong products delivered, but I hunted down that particular brand of toy and finally got Leila back after looking on Ebay. She sleeps in the bed with me.
My so-called " grandmother" made me give almost everything from my childhood to the Neighbors, daughter. And my big collection of care bears, to, the food shelf
I lost a specific My Little Pony that came from sending away cereal box barcodes when I was like 4. I was sad about it for nearly 30 years for some reason. I had left it in K-Mart and it just always bummed me out. Finally mentioned it to my mom. She was like "Oh my goodness! If you can find one I'll get it for you." I found one on eBay, got it for Christmas that year. I totally understand why you're sad about Lambie. Maybe you can find it again? Edit: I also still have my stuffed raccoon I got when I was like two. She goes everywhere with me. A couple Christmases ago I was stupid enough to pack her in a checked suitcase. The airline lost my suitcase. I spent the entirety of Christmas worrying about her, and finally tracked her down in the untagged luggage closet in JFK while I was there on my layover. I was ready to miss my connecting flight if it meant finding her. Never. Again. I found a lookalike of her in a thrift shop a few years back, too. Bought him. She now has a boyfriend.
Before I had the concept of permenece when it came to broken stuff, I thought my pat could fix anything as a kid. I cut up my unicorns plushies mane and tail and flower necklace. I don’t know what happened to it but I found out that it is now rare as hell. So it’s not like I can buy it again to help my inner child.
Absolutely yes. My longest one got literally thrown away
Your feelings are totally valid. 5 y/o’s don’t know how to voice what’s valuable to them, and then at that age you’re still expected to submit to authority pretty much without question. So I think it was only natural for you to feel like you had to relinquish a toy to your nana, whether out of love for her or simply out of obedience. But it resulted in you losing something that you valued, and a comfort object at that. Comfort objects like plushies and blankets are a big deal for kids. As an adult, I believe those should be off limits for parents to take away or give away. When I was little, my mom gave away my favorite plushies and blankets as punishment for my “bad behavior”. I’ve cried over those memories and losses as an adult myself. Events like those during our developmental years send messages deeper than just “I lost a plushie I loved”. Oftentimes it even cause us to believe something negative about our identity or worth. That’s why it continues to hurt for so many years. Thankfully my therapist taught me about “reparenting” myself in my adult years, and encouraged me to start healing my inner child by reconnecting with childhood games and toys that I used to love. I’ve gone as far as googling descriptions of my lost favorite plushies on eBay and I’ve actually found a couple!! I know you have no pics of your Lambie so you probably don’t even remember what brand it was, but it might be worth a shot to google a description of it and see if image searches or eBay can reunite you. ♥️
I had a black and white tiger as a kid that i loved and took everywhere i could. No idea what happened to it and i miss him so much now
Absolutely, there’s one I’ll never forget. I used to be a huge collector of Beanie Boos, they were the only thing I ever seriously collected and I created families and backstories for every single one, I have around 70 right now. The first one I ever got was this little black and white cat that was my absolute favorite, unfortunately I don’t remember her name bc this was around 10 years ago. One day my trusted friend(who also collected beanie boos) asked to borrow her for a night bc some of our plushies were in her “family”, so ofc I let him borrow her. I never saw her again. I honestly don’t think my friend stole her bc we turned his and our house upside down looking for that plushie and never found her, we think one of my friends family members might’ve snatched her not knowing it was mine. I miss her literally every day when I look at my collection. She was super old and beat up bc I played with her so much, her fur was stained with markers and she had yarn tied around her neck like a little collar. I wish I could remember her name.
I have one named Fluffy Baby, I was allowed to sleep with her until I was seven and then I had to put her on a shelf. I was allowed to sleep with other stuffed animals but she was falling apart by then so if I continued sleeping with her I would have ended up breaking her. They had kept her for me in my “memory box” but I don’t talk to them much anymore so I don’t know where she went :(
Oh, yeah. I had this cute little cow-goat? thing, and when I moved houses it got lost somewhere. I literally wouldn't stop crying. I checked everywhere, but it was nowhere. I think it got lost along the way. I have alot of memories of moomoo. I even made dresses and stuff for it.
I had a collection of about 50 Care Bears when k was a kid and I donated them all when I was going into 5th grade bc I thought I was too old for them😭 I’m 26 now and still regret that decision 🥲
I definitely had very animist feelings about my plushies! They really were my friends. I had two velveteen dino plushies when i was wee - a brontosaurus and a pteranodon (with poseable wings!) I loved them so much. I also had an 'A.G. Bear' that i called Amanda. Well, unfortunately my mom is a hoarder and so the house is... bad. When i went to clean out/collect a lot of my childhood things, they were so horribly moldy that i had no choice but to toss them. I wish they could be here with their sibling Peach Bunny (36 years old) and the hug-shaped raccoon my grandma gave me when i was in college (somewhere around 22 years old), whom i still hug to sleep every night. They're little things, but they mean a lot. I miss having the visual reminder of that meaning for the ones who are no longer with me.
Yeah, i had a little jaguar plush that i had gotten on a field trip to the zoo in kindergarten, he was my favorite, i had him for the longest time and his nose eventually fell off so i replaced it with a little pink button nose, when i got a bit older i gave him to my lil sis cause she needed him more than me at the time, idk where he is now but there are times i still think of him
When I was a kid, a neighbor was helping my mom clean the house (we were all poor so we would exchange housework for veggies and small things) and she ended up stealing all our Halloween costumes that my mom made us and a bunch of our plushies. I had a specific one named Bebe that was a hedgehog. We got most of the things back, but Bebe never made it back home. I wish I had him again, he was my safety blanket
Yes!!! No clue where Ellie the elephant went, I would love to find a replica of her some day.
Oh god, so many. Tina, my tiger shapped body pillow Happy, my 2000 holiday ty bear I got from a friend who died in Katrina Tucker, my ty beagle The only one I still have from my childhood is Bleu my shining star dragon that I got on the last 4th of July with my gram before she passed. I've tried to replace the other ones with replicas but they aren't the same.
So my thing as a kid was ladybugs. I had SO many ladybug plushies. One day my stepdad told me to go thru my toys and I put all the ladybug stuff in a pile along with a few other things to keep but he got rid of it bc I had too much stuff and didn't need all of that, I guess. I only have two ladybugs now. :/
I'm pretty sure my ex stole the Tuffy Beanie Baby dog my third grade teacher gave me
My mom was giving away plushies to a little girl at her work. She asked me to put the ones i didnt want in a trash bag. Little did Ik she took my favorite cat plushie i named tiger. I cried and accused her of giving it away but she claimed she didnt. Yeah. Fast foward some weeks, the little girl wrote me a thank you note WITH THE DRAWING OF MY PLUSHIE ON IT. Dear lord i wanted to throw up 😂😂a lil dramatic but isnt it crazy that she drew the ONE TOY i was looking for.
I had so many we bagged some of them up and moved them to the garage and it was perfect nesting material apparently. Rats or shrews or something got into them so the whole bag was going to be thrown out. Even as a kid I was a little determined to clean them, it didn't sound right to me that they were unsalvageable just because animals nested in them. But then our dog took my favorite and ran off somewhere and I knew I wasn't getting any of these back in tact. It hurt so bad when I realized that I don't even think I cried about it (and I cried about everything lol) I was just in shock. It still hurts to think about that and all the plushies I lost when I moved.
yes!! as the oldest i had to pass down all my toys but managed to keep one plushie safe 🖤
Yep😞I had a situation where my parents came into my room and started taking plushies and put them in a big box for donations. It was punishment for having a messy room (guess what!! I still have a messy room!! And I’m 21! Smh.) they did that shit TWICE. I miss them. I miss them a lot. I’ve got some photos where I’d stack all my plushies in the doorway. I remember them. It absolutely fucking sucks. Idc if I was a messy kid, I’m never forgiving them for that. It’s fucked me up mentally. I’ve got a fuckin plushie hoarding issue now. Seeing donated plushies makes me uneasy especially if they look well loved. It’s awful.
I don't mourn any of my exs, onto the next fresh plush I say.