Take the father back-stage to the little dears (7)

I believe the answer is:

poppets

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'the little dears' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.

'take the father back-stage' is the wordplay.
'take the father' becomes 'pop' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'back' is a reversal indicator.
'stage' becomes 'step' (as in a step or stage of a process).
'step' reversed gives 'pets'.
'pop'+'pets'='POPPETS'

'to' acts as a link.

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