What's a Teddy Bear to you?

[GusGus77]

My daughter had this recently and I realized she didn't have any stuffed bears! Luckily I saved a couple from my childhood and I knew where it was packed away! So I rummaged through the crawl space for a teddy bear. I guess I just thought it meant it had to be specifically a bear.... I guess I am in the minority....

[anniemae]

teddy bears are like the original stuffed animal. Now there are soooooooo many stuffed animals. My dd has stuffed monkeys, fish, snakes, bunnies, hippos etc. I think she has one stuffed bear somewhere. Many many years ago, I think stuffed animals were more rare and maybe there wasn't the selection there is today?

[Poohforyou]

My dd has 2 stuffed bears from build a bear birthday parties years ago but they aren't her favorite animal. I can tell you as a preschooler if my dd wanted to bring an animal other than a teddy bear in for teddy bear week i'd have let her. That isn't a battle worth fighting.

[CheekyRose]

Since you specified "teddy bear", I'd assume you meant an actual bear. If a teacher meant "your favorite stuffed animal", I'd expect the wording such as "stuffy" or "stuffed animal".

That said, a lot of kids don't have teddy bears anymore. Our elementary school does a teddy bear picnic in kindergarten where the kids are supposed to bring in a teddy bear. My kids both brought in teddy bears that they had received as gifts and we had around the house in like-new condition. They both had tons of stuffed animals of other sorts, but just never liked the bears, so if it weren't for those gifts, both my kids would have had to bring in a dog or horse or monkey.

[rszdtrvl]

To me, a teddy bear is a stuffed bear. Not a giraffe, moose, cat, etc. A bear.

That being said, kids have different stuffies. I slept with a teddy bear until I met my husband at age 19.

DS sleeps with a pillow pet. He has a hard time sleeping without it - even though he is almost 16.

[kate_wdw]

I think of a Teddy Bear as a stuffed bear.

However, if pre-schoolers are invited to bring a Teddy Bear to school, I would just assume that there will be some children who don't have Teddy Bears and some children who, given the chance to bring a stuffed animal to school, are going to choose to bring their favorite stuffed friend, and that's okay. The alternative (expecting preschoolers without Teddy Bears to lose the opportunity to take a stuffed animal to school) would be pretty mean-spirited, IMO.

If this is repeated next year, I think the invitations should make it clear that stuffed friends of all varieties are welcome (to save what should be a fun activity from being stressful for parents and kids).

[Fire14]

My " Teddy" is a beagle named Belle ( snoopy's sister). I have lots of bears but they are polar bear variety. I may have a brown teddy bear around here but who knows.

[DarthMama]

My daughter's pre-K class had teddy bear day too. I helped her dig a bear out of the toy box, but her favorite stuffed toy -- Boots the monkey -- went along too (to hear my daughter tell it, Boots would have thrown a big fit if he was not allowed along). I think it is highly likely that only the monkey came out of her bag at school, since she never plays with the bear.

[minkydog]

Originally Posted by rszdtrvl

To me, a teddy bear is a stuffed bear. Not a giraffe, moose, cat, etc. A bear.

That being said, kids have different stuffies. I slept with a teddy bear until I met my husband at age 19.

DS sleeps with a pillow pet. He has a hard time sleeping without it - even though he is almost 16.

I sleep with a brown bear every night and I'm 56. I can't sleep without it. My DH kinda looks at it like but he doesn't say anything.

[Princess_Meghan <3]

I would have assumed favorite stuffed animal- I have a Care Bear, Bedtime Bear, that I still sleep with at 20, who I brought to stuff like that(though sometimes my care bears rotated out who got to go to school for things like show and tell). My sister has a stuffed dog named rottie, and my other sister had a stuffed german shepherd that looked like our dog.

The kids I babysit have a range of animals that do activities with us. The 6 year old I babysit has a bear, named bear, who does everything with us. His 3 year old brother has a stuffed jaguar named baby kitty who does everything with us.

[SandrA9810]

Teddy bears are awesome, well any stuffed animal really, because they always seem to be the perfect pillow. I can always fall asleep faster on my bear than I can any pillow on the bed, and there's lots of pillows.

While my favorite is a bear, I can picture a lot of kids wanting to show off their favorite stuffy rather than bringing a bear they don't like as much.

BTW, Thanks for making a bunch of Build a Bear ads show up on the DIS.

[Andtototoo]

I'm somewhat surprised that you'd assume every child has or wants a teddy bear, to be honest.

I didn't have a teddy bear when I was little and neither did my daughter. We just weren't into bears. I had a baby doll. My dd had a stuffed black and white pig and then a stuffed Mickey that she loved. Now that I think about it, my sister had a stuffed worm that was her favorite.

If I were a parent and it was "teddy bear week" at school, I'd assume it's was totally acceptable that my child bring in their favorite stuffed animal. I'd assume you'd rather she do that than make her feel left out for not having the "approved" stuffed animal.

[AlohaPolynesian]

My younger brother had a blankie, my sister had a big polar bear she brought with her everywhere, and I had a cat. I had that cat from the time I was 5 until I graduated college!!!!

ETA: I don't even really like cats in real life. So it was funny that I was so attached to that thing!

[LJSquishy]

I would have assumed to bring an actual bear for "Teddy Bear week". I am surprised actually that quite a few read it as just bring a stuffed animal. To me, a stuffed animal is a general term for any animal/character with stuffing. A teddy bear is only a bear. Not a monkey, pig, penguin, etc. Just a bear. I am a stickler for details.

With that said, a lot of kids don't have actual teddy bears. It would have been best to specify to bring their favorite stuffed animal.

[Ppufi]

A teddy bear is definitely only a bear. Anything else is a stuffed animal.

I still have my teddy bear, Miss Bear.