An Alan Smithee Nation wrote:My dad burned my only stuffed toy when I was about four. He thought it would make me gay. He was an asshole in many, many ways.
Ahh the old 'inflicting psychological trauma instead of actually parenting' thing. Sorry to hear that.
To answer IM's question, you do you basically. Have no soft toys, have a roomfull. We're all a bit weird in our own ways and collecting soft toys is pretty harmless.
I must have had some soft toys when I was little but only one stands out that I remember. A tiger that my dad got from a promotion thing for filling up at a particular petrol station. I don't know where it is, it's quite likely that it got lost as we moved around a bit when I was a kid, so I think on the rare occasions I remember that I won't actually look for it. I'd rather think it was in a box somewhere at my parents than learn for sure it's just been lost.