While I don't have an stuffed animal, I do have an mood pillow that I stitched and fixed for over 20y now. I can't sleep without it, it's part of me

We have a moose that goes on trips with us. I recently made a tiny 3D printed version that we call his "drones". They go on the bike rides, hikes, etc.

I also have a stuffed beanbag frog/toad called "Fleagle" from when I was a toddler and I keep it in my nightstand. It's the only thing I still have from back then and I feel that same way.

Thanks for clarifying that it's your plushies that you keep locked up. Otherwise, I would have a lot more questions.

overlooking the bedroom

Front row seats then

IKEA has giant ladybug pillows!

I love this!

I have a handful of stuffed animals, but my most prized ones are Teddy the bear that my pop-pop gave me at the hospital when I was born and a cat that my grandmother hand stitched, she made one for each of her grandchildren and mine is one of few that are still around. I’m 41 and I have also never been ashamed 😊

Word! I'm a nearly 40 guy.

I got a blue bear when I was born. It is called bear. It has a few stitches, and a hole in it's ear. I also have a blue mouse called Mouse.

They've been sitting on the shelves in the kids rooms for many years now.

Never too late to build your collection, however big or small. My SO got one of those chonky seal plushy about 4 years ago, and they almost never goes away without it now. When I see them leave with their big hiking backpack, the seal plushy squished on the side of it with one of the bag's straps and buckles, I just feel love inside.

How can you tell it's British?

I'm currently sat beside my wife who is half asleep hugging one of our blahaj. She sleeps with one every night.

I have two blåhaj - one in my bed for snuggles, who is well loved and well worn, and one hanging out on the back of my sofa for "Sunday Best" 😆

Eeeehhhh, I'd silently judge anyone with a Funko collection. 2 or 3 would still be fine

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

• C.S. Lewis

My friend was embarrassed when I stayed over the first time because others had made her feel bad about these things. She’s a very emotionally mature person with degrees, social skills, and all the rest and I wasn’t about to act superior just because she had a big chipmunk that made her feel good.

I’m not sure you’re on the side of this that you think you are and I hope no one has to deal with that until you can address it.

The problem isn't the toys and dolls, but being overly attached, which can happen to any material possession, even "adult things" like cars or clothes.

Two things.

First, dating and commitment is about matching and compatibility, not about some kind of objective ranking system of quality or merit. It's about how a partner or potential partner rates on your own personal scale, not some sort of societal scale built by social consensus. So while it is ok for you to find a particular trait to be a negative, or even a deal breaker, your point is completely irrelevant to the advice being given, which is not to hide important traits of one's identity.

Second, your own preference here is stated in unnecessarily condescending terms, as if your preferences are right and the opposite preference is wrong or the sign of some kind of disorder. Whatever your definition of "toys and dolls" are, it probably isn't a very tightly defined term, and I'd venture to guess that you are OK with some kinds of "toys" but not others. People collect stuff. People develop emotional attachment to physical things all the time. And for you to gatekeep and say which things are acceptable or unacceptable is kinda an asshole move.

I'm really not sure why you're being downvoted. Your comment was polite, contributed to the discussion, and was made in good faith.

I'm on the other end. I don't think keeping a stuffed animal matters really. I have a functionally useless old timer pocket knife from when I was a kid and I just kept it for sentimental/memory value.

I know you think you're coming off as magnanimous, but it's got the same energy as "I've got a lot of gay friends actually" energy.

Don't.