{"id":14281,"date":"2014-09-04T19:27:20","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T00:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/?p=14281"},"modified":"2014-09-04T19:27:20","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T00:27:20","slug":"american-girl-brings-back-a-retired-doll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/american-girl-brings-back-a-retired-doll\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear American Girl, I thought “retired” meant “gone forever”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear American Girl<\/a>:<\/h3>\n

I just received the latest American Girl catalog in the mail. I was puzzled to see that you\u00a0decided to return Samantha to the sales line-up.<\/p>\n

What? I thought “retired” meant “gone forever,” as in “This product is retired and so you cannot buy this product from us any longer.”<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong: I love American Girl. I love the stories, the products, the cafes… \u00a0almost the entire experience. I’d rather spend money on one gift, or collection of gifts my daughter will cherish and play with, versus purchasing several inexpensive gifts for her birthday or at Christmas that I doubt will last nearly as long or be enjoyed as frequently. I love how these gifts cause her imagination to run wild in beautiful ways. That is why my daughter has\u00a0a small collection of your\u00a0dolls.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yes, it frustrates me that Kirsten, the first doll my daughter\u00a0received, was retired\u00a0soon after she received it, meaning we cannot buy any of her accessories. But that is the deal. Once a doll is gone it is gone.\u00a0I played by the rules. I didn’t even seek out accessories on ebay.<\/p>\n

But now I’m beginning to wonder who is next. My trust is beginning to wane. I’m beginning to feel played.<\/p>\n

Now, with new un-retired dolls, how do we know when a girl will really be retired?<\/p>\n

I recognize American Girl is in business to make money, but the decision to bring back retired dolls doesn’t sit well with me. My daughters heart is already tugged with the fear of dolls retiring. I was ready to deal with that. We’ve played that game and thought about our purchases there, sometimes buying before a doll retires and sometimes not. But now we have to deal with old dolls coming back and the urgency in that? Come, ON, American Girl. When you retire a doll, does it mean she’s gone or not? Which is it?<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

A\u00a0frustrated mom who has supported you through the years<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Readers,<\/h3>\n

What do YOU think about this decision? Am I missing something and just a little cranky? Are you delighted to see an old friend back on the shelves? Or do you question this decision, too?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear American Girl: I just received the latest American Girl catalog in the mail. I was puzzled to see that you\u00a0decided to return Samantha to the sales line-up. What? I thought “retired” meant “gone forever,” as in “This product is retired and so you cannot buy this product from us any longer.” Don’t get me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-and-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14281"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14285,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14281\/revisions\/14285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}