Hah. And again:

Hah.

Owning a teddy bear as an adult NOT a sign of immaturity.

Apparently earlier studies suggested it was a "red flag" for some kind of personality disorder. But when they looked at "nonclinical" adults - there was no link between adults owning a teddy bear and things like poorly regulating their emotions and such.

I tend to agree with that. While some people with a teddy bear as an adult may be immature, that doesn't mean that having a teddy bear is necessarily a symptom of immaturity.

(Unfortunately, although I allegedly have online access to the full article, I can't get it to come up. So I don't know if there are more details in it than that teaser blurb given there).

I guess I get frustrated by reading claims that things I like - for example, cartoons - are a "hallmark of immaturity." Because, dangit, if I'm immature, I should have more fun and fewer responsibilities than I do. I shouldn't be so beset about concerns as to whether I am doing my work well enough; I shouldn't have so many evening meetings.

(I watch cartoons for my humor needs because nearly every 30 minute sitcom I've tried to watch in the past year has been sufficiently vulgar that I have had to turn it off a few minutes in. I'd rather have silly puns on Phineas and Ferb than innuendo on some supposedly-for-grownups program. It's like that old Calvin and Hobbes comic about "May contain adult themes" - and they figure it has to be about something about going to work or paying taxes. What passes for "adult content" is often pretty sophomoric. And while I admit I enjoy some sophomoric humor, some of the current sitcoms take it to places beyond what I'm comfortable with)

And I admit: more often than not, in the evening, when I crawl into bed to read before sleeping? I find one of the Pony amigurumi I've made....or the stuffed dragon....or my BMO....and I tuck it up in the crook of my arm as I read. It's surprising how much comfort that gives me. And I can't believe that there's anything so very wrong about that...surely other people have self-comforting behaviors that are at least as "strange"? I've said before my critters are "substitute pets" because I cannot have furry pets (the only kind I'd want to have) because of my allergies, and also, I'm really not home enough to give a dog or a cat the attention it would deserve.