This chapter offers an innovative interpretation of reborn doll ownership by examining the reborn collector phenomenon in the United States as a form of nonreproductive parenting. This understanding contrasts with the common narrative trope used to explain reborn ownership, which casts adult doll play as evidence of ‘failed’ motherhood and mental distress. Such mainstream understanding is demonstrated in the episodes from popular television shows Chicago Med, Servant, and BoJack Horseman that figure as case studies. On the basis of ethnographic research on doll owners in the US, the chapter argues that fictional narratives do a disservice to the thousands of real-world collectors who enjoy reborns as part of a complex, self-initiated therapeutic practice that draws on the most idyllic parts of early parenthood. A brief history of reborn dolls is provided as well as a prescient look at what the dolls foretell about synthetic relationships more broadly.