Apparently one in five traveling salesman sleep with one. No I am not talking about their secretaries. Rather a poll by the motel chain “Travelodge” in 2007 found that 20% of salesman had a childhood teddy bear. I surveyed 100 first year students at the University of Bristol last week and found that 75 also still had their childhood attachment object.
I find these sentimental objects absolutely fascinating and have dedicated a large section of my book to the issue. Why do we form these strong emotional attachment to inanimate objects? My eldest daughter is still attached to her “blankies” at 15 years of age, while my youngest never formed such an attachment. It is a particularly Western phenomenon and is thought to be related to our sleeping practices where we separate children from mothers during the second year whereas children in the Far East sleep with the mother well into middle childhood. Presumably, the teddy bears and blankets in the crib help the child to self-soothe and provide a comforting reminder of context. But these objects soon become the focus of obsessional behaviour and our researc shows that young children treat them as if they have feelings and thoughts.
Any parent who has ever suffered the loss of their child’s attachment object will be familiar with the distress such events can cause. I know have a small collection of photographs of wanted posters put up around Bristol by parents desperate to reunite some rag doll with its owner. The one in the picture above was lost a couple of years back. I called the mother to find out if mouse was ever found. She told me that some kind-hearted soul had taken one the poster to their Gran who was an expert knitter. She produced another “Mouse” that looked exactly the same. However, as far as Laurel (the little girl in the poster) was concerned. It was an acceptable replacement. There is something deeply essential about such objects that go over and beyond what they are made off or look like.
The funniest story I have heard concerning this phenomenon is the little boy who left his teddy behind in Australia when the family emigrated to the UK. Years later at his wedding ceremony, he received a telegram from “Teddy.” Apparently, this brought a tear to the young man’s eye.
