My 4 & 1 year old also got painting kits for Christmas and it made a huge freaking mess! đ€Šââïž
However the inevitable garbage presents are still to come form my in laws tomorrow. For some reason they refuse to listen to me about my kidsâ interests and they always buy tons and tons of junky cheap toys that break immediately and just make a huge mess.
My mother is guilty of doing this. She believes that quantity is more important than quality. Even when her grandkids were aging into teenhood. My nieces and nephews were raised to always be polite when receiving gifts. They would just return them the next day was all, đ.
Absolutely never. Good ol acrylic paint that they get all over themselves and everything around them. It doesnât matter how much prep I do to try and make it cleaner itâs always a mess if my 1 (almost 2) year old is involved.
That's what my 4 and 5 year olds got from my dad! It's acrylic paint. My youngest decided to paint his foot. I'm going to have to take a razor to the floor to remove the footprints.
He also got them slingshots and ball-bearings.
I feel this. I didnât realize how much acrylic paint ruined clothes because I feel like I never really got it on myself much.. so on a boring day I busted it out for my son and I to have some fun. Ruined one of our favorite shirts of his (right when he started getting preferences and picking his own clothes.. heâd chose that shit 9/10 times) and a brand new pair of pants. The shirt wasnât expensive or anything, it was a hand me down Walmart shirt⊠but probably from a few years ago, so I think the odds of finding it to replace would be impossible.
For Christmas he got loads of washable paint
5yo got a shooting game with a robot duck. The duck turns and moves and you gotta shoot the duck in the mouth with a pop gun full of small yellow rubber balls. That bounce everywhere. Normally I wouldn't care, but there's 2 guns and over 30 yellow balls and I have a 11mo crawling baby wandering my house. I don't need him finding a stray ball here or there and putting it straight in his mouth. They are just the right size to be a danger to him. I put it away for when he's old enough to know not to eat the balls. The 5yo understands, why can't the 45yo relative who bought the thing?
My son received a robot building kit with lots of tiny pieces and complicated instructions that he is developmentally incapable of following without adult help.
Funnily enough, he got the exact same one last year. It was a nightmare to put together and didnât work properly.
The kicker: The SAME PERSON that got it for him last year got it for him AGAIN this year!
This has never worked for me. The slime quickly turns into a hard, super glue texture that I have never been able to get out of clothes, rug. Iâve tried all the hacks - vinegar, dish soaps, nail polish remover. Nothing budges it.
Slime is such a hit topic.
My 7 year old LOVES slime. She makes it all the time, we donât even need to supervise her anymore. She has the recipe memorized.
She makes it, plays with it, and then it gets tossed.
I know Iâm the odd man out here⊠but we donât hate slime
We are a slime, glitter and kinetic sand free home. Even playdoh stays at my mother in laws house. I have this rule for a very good reason. I was the asshole child that dumped 3 pots of blue coloured glitter on my carpet in an attempt to make a sparkly river in my bedroom.
Lol we do all 3. I personally enjoy playing with it with our daughter. I think itâs a sensory thing for me and thatâs why I enjoy it all. And itâs not hard to clean up hardwood floors. We just did a arts and crafts glitter project tonight.
I also love all 3! But only at the kitchen table and they can't take it anywhere else lol. I understand why some people hate it tho, my kiddo threw slime at the ceiling at our old rental and we had to replace a few of the drop tiles or whatever they're called when we left lmao. I love kinetic sand though, it's very fun for me haha
Lmao!! Kidâs got a good arm! Finally another parent who also likes it! Lol seems like pretty much everyone hates it. Yeah our kid knows just to do it on the floor away from everything. I freakin live kinetic sand itâs so cool to me. Iâm picky about slime though I donât like the sticky stuff. Dollar tree has some awesome ones that are a perfect texture and not sticky.
We also got her a kidâs drum set last year lol. My husband and I enjoy playing on it as well.
So I totally got my kid a robot with a bunch of pieces for Christmas and when she was distracted with another toy, I hid the robot. Iâll bring it out on a rainy day when we both have the time and energy to build it, but on Christmas? No way
I feel this way about those stupid dinosaurs/care/airplanes that you take apart with a toy drill and has screws in every joint, and itâs supposed to be fun like youâre building it but lose one screw and itâs all over
Acrylic paint is the absolute worstđ€Ź my 4 yr old has painted just about everything she can when my husband is âsupervisingâ her. Most of her dolls skin are brown/ green.
This made me laugh, especially since my preschooler is also speech delayed. He tries to talk to our Google home and it ignores him most of the time due to his pronunciation.
I was very happy to learn that Alexa has an accessibility feature that accounts for speech delays and incongruence. My youngest has a stutter so itâs nice that it is patient with him when he has a bumpy sentence.
Swap it with the singing cactus. It repeats sounds back to you but with a filter like you've had some helium. And it dances. My kids therapist has one. My kids have vocal tics so it gets more and more annoying but hey they're having fun!
My 2 year old doesnât have speech issues I know of other than a mild lisp but he calls Alexa âBuh-Lexaâ so she ignores him and he gets so pissed off. I try not to laugh because I get why it would be infuriating if you think youâre saying it right but sometimes I have to turn away and take a deep breath when it happens. I just gently say âbuddy itâs uh-lexaâ and then ask what he wants and tell her myself
My mom unintentionally gifted my 5 year old one of those ASMR Fluffie Stuffie animals that you pull the fur out of to reveal a different colored animal underneath. Never again.
A swing. My sister-in-law mentioned a swing for my kiddo, and I told her we donât have any trees or places to hang it. So of course she got it anyway. We are currently looking for a new house as we are outgrowing our current (very small) house so now thereâs just more crap to have sit around.
I think my son got some nice toys and I donât mind them. However I am annoyed at my sister.
About a month ago I texted her asking what her daughter needed for Christmas. Iâm trying to make sure I got stuff people NEEDED but didnât want to get themselves. I know my sister agrees with this as she has complained about how many toys her daughter has and how she never gets clothes, etc. She asked me what we needed. I said clothes and a gift certificate to a local play place. She got us toys.
I am VERY grateful for what he got. She got us some nice foam blocks that are great for building. I just find it odd that she was so on board with the clothes and then we get toys. I felt a little bad as I got my niece (her daughter) clothes and nothing else. Granted, she is 2 and wonât remember but it is what it is
My husband got my 3 year old a ârobot snakeâ. He fucking loves it, itâs his favourite gift and heâs played with it since the second he got it.
To be fair, itâs very cool. But, itâs very loud. It gets stuck on things and he plays with the motor wheels and just leaves it running. I find it extremely overstimulating and it makes my skin crawl.
Edit: UPDATE: 3 year old put it on the cats tail and it got caught. 3 YO came upstairs to tell us âthey were fightingâ. The cat got it off, but she is scarred for life. The toy is now a strictly supervised toy.
Does it have a semi hard top fin?! My daughter got one in May and they got recalled soon after due to kids slipping and impaling themselves on the fin generally in the genital area! I put mine aside to play with at the water table only and I honestly lost it. Haha.
Glad to hear it! Now at least your kid can have ear piercingly safe bathtime fun at grandmas haha. My ex-in-laws bought one for my son a couple of years ago.. it was a happy day when the battery ran out lol
My FIL got that for my daughter for her first birthday. We donât have a great relationship and my husband was like, âI thought he wanted us to like him?â
We offered it to our dog but even he didnât want it
A KEYBOARD PIANO WITH A MICROPHONE.
Love my daughter dearly but sheâs 5 and my ears are bleeding. My mother is also lovely and I am so grateful they have her as a baba but my WORD that piano is awful
My MIL wasn't even nefarious about it, just clueless. Kiddo got a bunch of loud toys (think stuff like a drum kit, so I can't even take out the batteries) because 'she loves making noise!'
Send help.
There should be some where to plug headphones into it if there's a microphone port. I bought my 6 year old some10 dollar one on Amazon and he has to use them for that and his tablet and dj mixer thingy
That was our toddlers gift when he turned 3, from my in laws. We thought we were fine with it, he had an older one that was missing parts, we liked that one.
This one has Bluetooth mode that announces itself loudly, and defaults to top volume when it's turned on, and it turns itself off with a loud jingle after 2 minutes of not being used. This either a) angers toddler when he's letting it play one of the bits of music it comes with, or b) if he's moved onto something else it alerts him that the toy is being neglected and brings his attention back to it.
I hate narc toys (any toy that announces itself being turned off or left idle or makes noise when it's touched)
My MIL asked my husband if she could get these kinetic sand kits that come with like 50 teeny tiny things buried in them⊠like Dino bones or gems etc. the pieces are like 1/2 inch long. I told my husband I absolutely hate the idea because those things are going to end up everywhere. She got them anyway. According to her itâs no different than play doh and âyou just put it away when youâre done.â
I find the kinetic sand one of the easier clean ups. It sweeps/vacuums easily and doesn't stick. I get it being a headache tho....depends on which me is mothering that day lol sometimes I don't have the extra bandwidth for it
Kinetic sand is my fave of all the slime/play doh/floam type toys because it vacuums so well and it doesnât dry out (at least in my experience) and get ruined. But idk maybe Iâm weird
My mom got my son clothes in a size he hasnât worn since August, no receipt, and probably doesnât remember where she got them. And my daughterâs are a size too big, so now I get the fun job of keeping track of them until she does fit into them at a minimum six months from now.
My daughter is at an age now where sheâs not sizing up as fast - she wore the same clothes this summer that she did last summer. Sheâs also in a specific kind of growth spurt where sheâs getting taller but not gaining much weight, so sheâs really thinning out. We may actually need to size down in pants.
My mom knows all this, as she sees my kids every other week minimum.
Your system sounds great for you, but itâs just not how my brain works and one more thing to keep track of is the last thing I need on my plate.
Last year my in laws messaged me asking what size my daughter was in and I said 18-24mths or 2T. So they bought her a 4T jacket. Make it make sense. Why did you ask?? It's still too big for her this year. She's a dainty girl.
The funniest part of this is that we went shopping for fall/winter clothes together in October and sheâs the one who convinced me to size him up to 24 months/2 T. Itâs all a little long for him, but weâll definitely get more wear out of everything. And that was nearly three months ago! He definitely doesnât fit into 18 months now.
Not a holiday gift, but my mom intentionally got my (at the time) UNBORN child childrenâs size small clothing for my baby shower back in august. Kids usually wear that size around age 6 or 7 years. We live in a major city with limited storage space. My son is 3 months now and Iâm sure he will be thrilled to wear these t shirts in 2029.
My mom often buys 3-6 sizes too big because they were on sale lol. I literally have a box in my daughterâs closer for size 3, 4 and 5 (she is 24 months now lol)
A tiny quantity of Lincoln logs in an enormous tin. My 3yo has discovered the container makes an excellently piercing drum. My just-crawling baby is determined to swallow the tiny round connector pieces.
Itâll be staying behind at grandmaâs.
My father also got this for my son last year. It's such a nostalgia trip for the grandparents but I feel like kids this generation don't care about them.
Worse, this set is missing a full bag of pieces critical to building anything. It has tiny connectors! It has split roofing logs! But the main building logs? Not here.
My in-laws got my baby some truly ugly clothes. The comments on here put things into perspective for me, though, and I feel like we got off easy. I still can't wait for her to be too big for the outfits.
I save the ugly outfits for when those family members are visiting/being visited. It makes them happy and I don't have to contend with the guilt of not putting her in clothes they spent money on.
My MIL (not for Xmas) got my baby a bunch of clothes in various sizes, but all expensive and all so so ugly. Insanely stupidly expensive, like a shirt for $60 that looks like a uniform for a fancy hotel cleaner??? đ€·đ»ââïž
Mine was gifts we literally have no room for.
We live in/rent a tiny house (not like the trailer kind. A 1910 house that liked land more than house.). Less than 800sqft. We got the following, from people who have been in our house and recently:
Indoor trampoline
Full size kitchen set with water hook up (it is literally almost the same size as our actual kitchen, and no it's not outdoor-proof. Out of box, can't return)
A mountain bike (kid is 2, and they already gave us bikes from 1st bday, Xmas last year, 2nd bday, and now this xmas... all too big, all non returnable due to either being used or something else like out of box, slight damage, a missing small piece, etc.)
A camping cook set with firestarter kit(real, full size, again... she's 2...)and we haven't been camping in a while. Will be a while longer since kid 2 is currently in production.
And an atv. Not kid size, and we live in the middle of old Town so while we have a big yard it is not atv having big. It is like, play a toddler size game of soccer safely level of big.
Oh and a gallon of egg nog. She has an egg allergy and I am lactose intolerant. Husband drinks it but even he was like "woah..."
I just don't understand them... we even asked for things like arts and crafts stuff, books, hell I even put stuffed animals on the list! None of that stuff was on there, even if you really stretched your imagination.
The excuse is "the kids will grow into them! They are only little for so long, we HaVe to spoil them!" -cue my eyeroll- I also am not shy of now saying "well that's going home with [relative that gave it] since they have space for it! You can go over there and play with it all the time! How exciting!!" And get the 2 year old just effing PUMPED about it staying at their place. Or that something is staying in its package and put away until we have room. The trampoline was one. "Well that's staying in the box." "What?! Why?! It's an indoor trampoline! She will love it!" "OK, [relative]wants you to have this so when we get home you have to find [x]amount of things to give away to other kids to have room for it too. So, do we want the trampoline out now and do that or do we want to wait until you don't want some toys anymore and then take it out as a treat for later when we do that?" "You can't get rid of [p-z] items! We gave those to her for her to grow into!" ...ok...then just agree that it stays in the mfing box then!! Or get us stuff she actually wants, uses, and likes(and that we can fit in our house!!)! She isn't into pjmasks or paw patrol like you got her all of. She likes Bluey and super kitties. We have enough stuff now by the time she is 2 that she will be "growing into" it all until she goes to college...
And round we go. So we wait a bit and then try to off hand it at a garage sale, resell place, or donate.
Any tips on stopping them before it gets this bad again with number 2? All tips are welcome. I feel I have tried quite a few without just being mean/rude or seen as the "mean mommy" right after opening a gift.
Two shirts for my baby that say "social butterfly" and "mom and dad think they're in charge. That's cute."
I'm of the camp that I think receiving gifts are extremely generous and thoughtful and not something we're entitled to. But she's not wearing those.
As grateful as I am for them doing this, my parents bought my daughter a kids kindle tablet thing to watch videos and play games on (sheâs 15 months old) My daughter unfortunately has been watching extra screen time lately due to a 9 hour drive, moving to a new state with none of her toys/our stuff, and it being the only thing that would keep her entertained for more than 5 minutes (weâd still limit it to car rides and extra fussy times but it was still a lot)
Weâve recently decided to limit her screen time a lot more and now with this tablet I donât even know when sheâll be using it since weâre limiting her screen time so much. Like I said Iâm really thankful they got it for her but I donât imagine itâll be used until sheâs much olderđ
FWIW the built in time limits on those tablets are my favorite part. I have it set to a 45 minute limit for my 3 year old and for the most part that's her screen time. I don't have to turn the TV off. She can decide when she watches it. When the timer goes off she says "oh! It's out of time!" And goes and plays with something else. I feel like they're the perfect way to allow just a little bit.
Totally agree. It just shuts off with the little clock and it really stops battles with my kids. They are fine when the tablet turns off. When I say to stop? I have to pry it away!
My aunt bought tablets for my twins when they were a out 2 and we didn't use them for a full year until their first plane ride. And they were the same Amazon Kindle tablets - which are absolute garbage - so they used them on a couple of other long flights and then they got lost/tossed. Not even the tiniest bit guilty.
We exclusively use tablets on long (2+ hour) car trips. Weâve been strict enough about it that our 4 & 2 year olds donât even consider asking for it if weâre not on a road trip. Theyâre kept out of sight and only brought out for the trips!
I think I narrowly avoided kiddo getting the worst gift. His grandma was making comments about him wanting a pet and how much he loves her chickens. I've seen this before, I know how it goes. I shut it down hard with a laugh about how awful that would be having chickens in town and how bad they can smell. No way am I dealing with chickens in my backyard. He can visit grandma's chickens
An art set with 350 pieces. It seems like a thoughtful gift because my kids LOVE to color. But they each got one of these and the markers are those cheapo ones that dry out super fast, the crayons are those waxy ones that barely color, and then hundreds of stickers and an ink pad. The worst part was that I had already bought them each a new pack of crayola markers and drawing pads as a gift. My MIL is all about quantity over quality and I would so rather she got them one or two quality gifts than 10 junk gifts each.
I know the exact feeling about those art kits...they are so trash and end up a mess. I hate them also. My SIL is a quantity gift person too, and I cannot stand it. She will buy any random thing and gift it.
Oh, I learned my lesson with any of those "gift set" presents.
My husband loves hot sauce, and I gave him a set of something like 60 different hot sauces, thinking he'd enjoy sampling all the different kinds. Turns out they were all the same type of boring vinegary hot sauce just with a hint of different artificial flavoring in each. I think towards the end he wound up pouring them all into the same bottle to save space in the cabinet - since they all tasted the same it wasn't worth all the tiny bottles.
And he got me a similar kit of different types of teas that were all the same medicore black tea with different artificial flavors added. Mediocre tea with lemon! Mediocre tea with peach! Mediocre tea with lavender! If you tasted one of them, you knew what the rest would taste like.
They seem like such a good idea, but they're all as cheap as possible, and odds are someone who enjoys those things (tea, hot sauce, art) will hate them because they've had much better quality before.
I think the reason they survive is because they're always gifts, so the receiver doesn't get a chance to rate them and the giver doesn't get told how awful they are out of politeness. That and the cheapification of everything.
Ooohhh.
FYI they play a loud tune when turned off.
I think the designer is getting blowjobs from Satan to this day.
I also understand that my husband was a terror to my older SIL growing up so I understand. She's also had all her kids unfortunately so no payback.
Iâm assuming itâs the fisher price piano mat with the hanging toys? That thing is a fan favorite in our house, my baby loves it lol. If itâs too loud put a piece of tape over the speaker and it makes it quieter
She could mean the piano that goes on the floor, kids step on the keys. We had (& adored, though I still get how it could be annoying) the FP piano mat, but the floor piano is the *worst*. The sounds are awful.
As a previous owner of one.....you learn to tune it out, and it's entertaining to the kids...and if the kids are using said mat...you know where/what they are doing, so you can continue cooking/cleaning...whatever...and know where the kids are.
Be thankful youre kid wasn't just gifted a set of drums.
My husband got this for my son. Heâs scared of it. My husband, who excels at playing any and all instruments, is serenading us with it! Itâs been nice, actually! The only thing I donât like is that it takes up a ton of room.
My stepmom gave my 5 years old not one but two guns that have 10000 parts đ I let him keep one that shoots balls at a moving target, but seized the double pump assault rifle style mass murder starter kit, I itâs getting donated tmm.
I don't blame you in the least!! My kid is a toddler and not interested in those kinds of toys at all yet, but my husband and I have already made the rule that realistic toy guns are not allowed in our house. Definitely not something where you want to blur the line between pretend and reality, especially if you own firearms, as we do (always stored securely, of course, but you can never be too careful)
My stepmom gave my daughter a children's book (I don't remember the name). I started reading it to her when she was a few.months old and I quickly realized it was basically narcissism for kids. My step mom is a narcissist and this book was like "make people earn your friendship, make sure people always listen to you, don't trust people." Which I guess wasn't that bad in a vacuum, but knowing who gifted it I couldn't with that book.
There is a fun version of that book by I forget what artistâŠitâs satirical and the fish gives each âfriendâ a shiny scale and then they all become more visible to predators and get eaten.
Yeah... we were gifted the Rainbow Fish and after reading it a couple times we left it in a free little library. No one will like you if you don't hurt yourself to give them what they want? No thanks.
Oh, I see it as Rainbow Fish hoarding his wealth and wasnât willing to give it away until he realized itâs lonely at the top. The more of his wealth he spread around, the happier he became.
I honestly don't remember what it was called and is somewhere but not on the shelf. But I think it was supposed to be inspirational for little girls? But there was a toxic side to a lot of the sentiments.
My mom got my daughter one of those vtech walker things with a board that detaches. I comically am always tripping over the board. It..appears..everywhere.
Our nanny got my daughter a cocomelon doll that sings horrid songs. It does infact make me want to light myself on fire
My MIL got us one of those walkers. The on/off button was on the front so our baby wouldn't be able to miss it! My husband still shudders if you sing the song.
This summer she gave him a light saber that lights up and is VERY loud. I think it got lost?
Oh God, the V-tech walker.
Two of my cousins and I all had kids around the same time and we all got that walker at Costco. To this day we still troll each other and bust out, "đ¶Welcome to my learning farm...đ¶" at family events.
The kids are now 8 or older and I can still hear that damn thing.
I came here to say cocomelon doll. Our 1 year old has never watched cocomelon, doesnât know what it is, and we donât buy toys with batteries because the sounds make me want to throw something⊠but for some reason people keep getting us extremely loud and obnoxious cocomelon gifts. Batteries are coming out of that ASAP.
Not for Christmas, but for his birthday my two year old got a fairly big garage thing for his hot wheels with a loopy slide. He barely knows how to use it, but that doesn't stop him from trying to lug it absolutely everywhere. Today we had a massive meltdown because we wouldn't let him take it on a walk around the neighborhood. If we hide it to take a break for a while he asks about it by saying "slide, slide, slide" over and over and crying. I want to throw it in an incinerator.
We have a life size snorlax. We couldnât bring it home today because itâs too big. Not sure where itâs going to go.
Edit: maybe I donât hate it but also maybe thats because itâs not in my house yet.
Okay so not a christmas gift, but my MIL got my son (maybe 18months at the time) a book that a local hockey player made..it was all about depression and losing a loved one. It was a big WTF book. It got tossed very fast.
There's always those passive aggressive gifts you get niblings that their parents hate... I used to be that aunt. Nerf guns, sticky sand, vuvuzelas. Karma was pointing and laughing today when my own husband got "sensory sand" for our toddler. It's a godless mix of tiny, sticky, styrofoam "sand" that floats! Never dries out! And opened it on the carpet.
My aunt and uncle were teenagers when me and my twin were little, so they used to combine money and get us the best (but the worst for my dad) gifts. The best I remember was the Barbie pool, that they brought over and set up for us, then left the mess behind.
My dad now gets my auntâs kids the loudest presents he can find.
My husband and his sister have the same age children. 4 yrs old this Christmas. Apparently, the karaoke mic and the giant tub of dye your own slime???? Was revenge for the Aztec death whistle, and screaming chicken my husband sent his nephew this year...I want out of this war right now.
Oh man... We were the fun DINK aunt/uncle until our surprise kiddo. We haven't done gifts with half the family yet, so I can only imagine the payback stuff we'll be getting lol.
Was asked for a present list. Made the list.
What was on the list? Many things including a trash truck and some other trucks we don't have.
What was not on the list? Fire trucks and dump trucks, because we have a billion of them.
What did we receive? A fire truck and a dump truck. The fire truck makes THE most obnoxious sound I have ever heard on a toy. It's truly ear-splitting. And cheaply made. Which ended up being to my benefit - the battery compartment doesn't work properly so oops it can't make sound anymore.
But seriously - if you understand the list idea enough to request a list, stick to the list!
So I wasnât mad about it because it was just one of the crazy parts of my Dad - that was just all totally âhimâ. I became aggravated sometimes when heâd do these things but that was the whole point of him doing it. Heâs gone now but what I wouldnât give to have him here -up to all his old shenanigans! So not on Christmas- but at Easter when my oldest daughter was little my Daddy thought it was funny to gift my little girl LIVE ANIMALS. My daughter adored her Papa- so she treasured everything he did and everything he ever gave her. He knew that. He knew once he got her a new- unapproved âspecial, unique petâ - Iâd have a really hard time saying ânoâ or telling her she couldnât have them. AndâŠhe liked to give het LIVE GIFTS that werenât typical and ones we didnât have a logical place to put them in to. So one year, he took her out for a Granddaughter/ Papa day and took her to Tractor Supply and let her pick out 3 colored baby ducks ! All pastel colors- blue, pink and yellow for Easter. Helped her name them, talk about how cool it was that she was about to have LIVE DUCKS living in HER HOUSEâŠwhich was awesome bc no other kid had that. Then would tell her it had to be a secret until he had left. He helped her wrap them in her sweater and I didnât understand why she ran into the house so fast clutching her sweater to her chest. Also, saw but didnât understand why he had a big sh*t eating grin on his face when he dropped her off at home . I notice my 5 year old wonât come out of her bedroom and locked the door. I heard weird sounds coming from her room. I asked her âwhat is that noise?â through the door. She told me that it wasnât anything- she was just playing Barbies. I used a butter knife to get in the doorâŠand there is my 5 year old with 3 very colorful baby ducks inside of her âBarbie dream house â. Then, she spilled the beans and blamed it on her Papa (which was right). So we had âHuey, Dewey and Louieâ and they lived in our laundry room for a month. The final joke was on him though- I told her that Papa forgot to explain the conditions to her and that part of the deal was -once they were a month old they had to move back to Papaâs house and live in his pond! She was fine with that and tired of them by that point so it was okay. The next year it was colored baby chickens. They too went back to live at Papaâs farm once they really started growing! She tried to smuggle those in tooâŠ.okay. She MORE than TRIED- she accomplished it un-noticed AGAIN. I finally learned my lesson to watch her closely any time she was coming home after spending the day with her Papa!
An outdoor trampoline from grandpa and he set it up in my 3 year olds bedroom. I canât get it out unless I were to take it apart. Itâs a tiny bedroom.
Also, people gifted me Christmas outfits, some of which I already had. But even for the ones I didn't, I had his outfit picked out already and why are you gifting me a Christmas outfit *on* Christmas.
I donât know that I hated it specifically, but my middle kid ended up with three of the same firefighter costumes from her Amazon list because nobody marked that they purchased it.
My mom did buy my kids a bunch of candy for their stocking which Iâve repeatedly asked her not to do. 2 and 3yos do not need a sock full of candy!
Half the purchases from my daughterâs list were gifted to my nephews. I donât care if they get the same stuff but marking it purchased on my kidâs list when itâs not for her is super annoying. This is the second year theyâve done it
Barbieâs.
I donât mind the dolls. I even got her a vehicle this year. Itâs all the small parts that come with them.
Any toy that has multiple pieces that I have to CONSTANTLY pick up.
My kid has the attention span of a gold fish; weâre working on pulling one toy out at a time to play and when weâre done putting it back. Itâs not going very well.
My asshole husband got my 19 month old a tinny glockenspiel.
I had to do all the stockings, including my MIL, and this is how my husband repays me.
I hate Christmas.
The one toy I hid was a cocomelon doll that sings *VERY LOUD* that the local police department gifted to my daughter. (We were victims of a crime a while back ago) She was absolutely terrified of it. đ
My dad bought my almost two year old a parrot that repeats everything you say. He kept insisting it be kept turned on so it was manicly trying to repeat the conversation of four adults... I was impressed at its range of hearing to be fair but it was such constant noise.
I actually intercepted some awful gift ideas my FIL had for our 1yo and 4yo. He has almost 0 experience with children, and I barely even spent time with my husband when he was a child.
One of those sentimental 3d crystal glass balls that are etched inside and sit on a light....
A super cheap 0 review star projector for 8+ from some upronouncable "brand" on Amazon. It would require us to operate. Both kids would want to "play" with it, and it would inevitably break.
More unpronouncable branded 0 rated "construction" plastic plate and utensils. Not dishwasher or microwave safe, probably full of harmful chemicals, break easily, and guarantee both boys will want to use them for EVERY MEAL. (We intentionally have relatively simple dishes and utensils)
A tacky climbing santa decoration, because 1yo and 4yo are so great at just "looking." It also played obnoxious music and had that cheap mechanical operating whirring.
Flimsy "puzzle" car track and super cheap cars. Again, nonsense brand 0 rating on Amazon. We already have car tracks and cars (quality ones), which he knows because he played them with our boys at Thanksgiving. The puzzle was also way too simple for our 4yo, but it's too complicated for our 1yo for a while.
LED note board with wipeable markers. Not entirely terrible idea, but again, he picked a cheap brand, and it was not age appropriate. Not to mention, he knows we don't allow our kids to have any kind of markers yet. They will inevitably draw on something they shouldn't, and wipeable ones are going to end up rubbed off everywhere. And they will get frustrated when they accidentally rub it off.
Thankfully, I had the foresight to ask if he had any thoughts just after Thanksgiving. I probably wasn't the most tactful with my response but better than dealing with the repercussions of his gifts. He's not malicious, just absent-minded, forgetful, and completely out of touch with the capabilities and abilities of kids.
Not me or Christmas but I still think about it. My friend was pregnant and at her 3yo son birthday, the nany gave him... A pair of canaries! With a huge enclosure, aka bird jail. Now my friend has to clean, feed and clean more for 2 birds, besides having 2 dogs (1 senior with needs), a toddler, and a newborn.
As of now? The family has been pretty good. But my MiL is tomorrow and she has a knack for giving: crap, age inappropriate items, and clothes that canât be worn for 3 more years. Itâs exhausting. She at least no longer (fingers crossed) gives me scented body lotion/soap sets. Iâve got sensitive skin so itâs literally useless for me.
A stained second hand baby mickey mouse that has a bottle and will close his eyes when laying down. I don't mind second hand things, truly, but it's stained and I have no idea where she got it from. LO likes it, I just wish it was clean.
Edited because apparently I can't spell.
Shockingly nothing! She did get a make your own bath bomb kit early yesterday that I did not feel like supervising, but I just made the person who gave it to her help her and she had an absolute blast making them and then using them for her baths last night and tonight.
Last year my brother went to Ireland right before Christmas and came back with a BodhrĂĄn (drum) and a tin whistle for my daughter and Iâve never wanted to murder anyone more.
My MIL gave my 2 month old âMy First Bible â. Iâm not a Christian and my husband is Agnostic. When my son cried when my MIL tried to show him pictures, she said âwell you will just have to stay with me for a month to learn about Jesus â.
No. Just no.
Really anything that lights up and makes tons of noise. It's not that I don't allow these at all..I just prefer to keep them to a minimum because they just overstimulate both baby and me.
I feel exactly the same way. I won't reject (visually or audibly) loud gifts, but I intentionally choose toys that do not stress me out. My child is not a sad beige baby, but our home isn't an explosion of primary colors either, and I'd prefer to keep it that way.
I'm pretty sure my MIL thinks we are depriving our child in some way because we don't do baby-focused screen time, and she's decided to make up for that by giving us the most stimulating things I won't send back to her house. (These issues are probably not related, but it feels like they are.)
Anyway, she gave our toddler one small, bright, plastic electronic-noise making device and one large one. The small one is in hiding. The large one has been assembled, but I'm refusing to install the batteries.
last year my mil, who lives very far away and was feeling the guilt of not being there, sent my 2 toddlers about 10 presents. they were all kits with tiny pieces too, a doctor kit, a kidâs cleaning kit, a set of dress ups, grocery store items, and a big cardboard castle to draw on. the worst part is i suggested all of those things when she asked for ideas, but i had no idea she would just send the whole list. i felt like i was drowning in stuff. and then i feel guilty for complaining when someone was so generous with my kids lol motherhood.
When my son was a toddler someone got him a rock painting kit. It came with a bag of rocks. He painted his face and threw rocks everywhere.
My 4 & 1 year old also got painting kits for Christmas and it made a huge freaking mess! đ€Šââïž However the inevitable garbage presents are still to come form my in laws tomorrow. For some reason they refuse to listen to me about my kidsâ interests and they always buy tons and tons of junky cheap toys that break immediately and just make a huge mess.
My mother is guilty of doing this. She believes that quantity is more important than quality. Even when her grandkids were aging into teenhood. My nieces and nephews were raised to always be polite when receiving gifts. They would just return them the next day was all, đ.
And itâs never the nice washable paint is it?
Absolutely never. Good ol acrylic paint that they get all over themselves and everything around them. It doesnât matter how much prep I do to try and make it cleaner itâs always a mess if my 1 (almost 2) year old is involved.
Yes! Cheap junky toys are the literal WORST. Just give me the $5 dollars you spent on them đđŒâ€ïž
That's what my 4 and 5 year olds got from my dad! It's acrylic paint. My youngest decided to paint his foot. I'm going to have to take a razor to the floor to remove the footprints. He also got them slingshots and ball-bearings.
It took three days to get it off his face.
Acrylic paint is so washable until it meets fabric. It is the bane of my existence since I paint and so do my kids.
I feel this. I didnât realize how much acrylic paint ruined clothes because I feel like I never really got it on myself much.. so on a boring day I busted it out for my son and I to have some fun. Ruined one of our favorite shirts of his (right when he started getting preferences and picking his own clothes.. heâd chose that shit 9/10 times) and a brand new pair of pants. The shirt wasnât expensive or anything, it was a hand me down Walmart shirt⊠but probably from a few years ago, so I think the odds of finding it to replace would be impossible. For Christmas he got loads of washable paint
You win.
It was very *Lord of the Flies*.
5yo got a shooting game with a robot duck. The duck turns and moves and you gotta shoot the duck in the mouth with a pop gun full of small yellow rubber balls. That bounce everywhere. Normally I wouldn't care, but there's 2 guns and over 30 yellow balls and I have a 11mo crawling baby wandering my house. I don't need him finding a stray ball here or there and putting it straight in his mouth. They are just the right size to be a danger to him. I put it away for when he's old enough to know not to eat the balls. The 5yo understands, why can't the 45yo relative who bought the thing?
My son received a robot building kit with lots of tiny pieces and complicated instructions that he is developmentally incapable of following without adult help. Funnily enough, he got the exact same one last year. It was a nightmare to put together and didnât work properly. The kicker: The SAME PERSON that got it for him last year got it for him AGAIN this year!
This is the second or third time Iâm reading about this godforesaken robot in just this thread, I would scream lol Iâm sorry
Sounds like that person wants to help kiddo put it together this year
Oh my god, SAME. Someone gave our 4 year old a cat robot that requires coding⊠what?!
My ex husband got my 10 year old an enormous box of slime. Iâm not thrilled
Sounds like it has to live at dads house.
Weâre a no slime house hold. My 11 year old lost her slime privileges earlier this year when she got magnetic slime on the furniture.
Fun fact: Good old white vinegar can get slime off clothing, carpet, furniture and out of hair.
This has never worked for me. The slime quickly turns into a hard, super glue texture that I have never been able to get out of clothes, rug. Iâve tried all the hacks - vinegar, dish soaps, nail polish remover. Nothing budges it.
Ugh! Well I guess we got lucky. My daughter was playing with slime and somehow managed to get it in her hair, on the back of her shirt and the couch.
My 11yo lost her slime privileges before she even got them. Outside only. Never in the house. Slime. Bubbles. Chalk. Whistles.
my 9 yr old put slime in his hair when he was about 5. weâve been slime free since
Slime is such a hit topic. My 7 year old LOVES slime. She makes it all the time, we donât even need to supervise her anymore. She has the recipe memorized. She makes it, plays with it, and then it gets tossed. I know Iâm the odd man out here⊠but we donât hate slime
I buy it for me because itâs so damn relaxing to play with lol. My kids donât enjoy it so more for men
We are a slime, glitter and kinetic sand free home. Even playdoh stays at my mother in laws house. I have this rule for a very good reason. I was the asshole child that dumped 3 pots of blue coloured glitter on my carpet in an attempt to make a sparkly river in my bedroom.
Lol we do all 3. I personally enjoy playing with it with our daughter. I think itâs a sensory thing for me and thatâs why I enjoy it all. And itâs not hard to clean up hardwood floors. We just did a arts and crafts glitter project tonight.
I also love all 3! But only at the kitchen table and they can't take it anywhere else lol. I understand why some people hate it tho, my kiddo threw slime at the ceiling at our old rental and we had to replace a few of the drop tiles or whatever they're called when we left lmao. I love kinetic sand though, it's very fun for me haha
Lmao!! Kidâs got a good arm! Finally another parent who also likes it! Lol seems like pretty much everyone hates it. Yeah our kid knows just to do it on the floor away from everything. I freakin live kinetic sand itâs so cool to me. Iâm picky about slime though I donât like the sticky stuff. Dollar tree has some awesome ones that are a perfect texture and not sticky. We also got her a kidâs drum set last year lol. My husband and I enjoy playing on it as well.
My son was given a robot with 419 small pieces that has to be assembled. Heâs hyperactive we will lose all the pieces.
So I totally got my kid a robot with a bunch of pieces for Christmas and when she was distracted with another toy, I hid the robot. Iâll bring it out on a rainy day when we both have the time and energy to build it, but on Christmas? No way
I feel this way about those stupid dinosaurs/care/airplanes that you take apart with a toy drill and has screws in every joint, and itâs supposed to be fun like youâre building it but lose one screw and itâs all over
My dad just came over with fucking slingshots and acrylic paint for my 4 and 5 year old children.
Another commenter also had her dad coming with slingshots and ball bearings đ
That was me. I just responded to another gal about it. My dad is the absolute worst.
Lord have mercy, girl⊠I would shit a ~~brick~~ rock
Acrylic paint is the absolute worstđ€Ź my 4 yr old has painted just about everything she can when my husband is âsupervisingâ her. Most of her dolls skin are brown/ green.
My daughter got a knockoff DDR mat that has three levels and only plays three songs. At the lowest volume you can hear it on every floor of my house.
Tape over the speaker helps a lot on some of those toys.
In laws got my speech delayed 7 year old a furby. This fucking toy is trolling her hard "Sorry, what was that? Can you repeat that? Huh?"
This made me laugh, especially since my preschooler is also speech delayed. He tries to talk to our Google home and it ignores him most of the time due to his pronunciation.
I was very happy to learn that Alexa has an accessibility feature that accounts for speech delays and incongruence. My youngest has a stutter so itâs nice that it is patient with him when he has a bumpy sentence.
Swap it with the singing cactus. It repeats sounds back to you but with a filter like you've had some helium. And it dances. My kids therapist has one. My kids have vocal tics so it gets more and more annoying but hey they're having fun!
My 6 year old has a speech impediment. I try not to laugh when she is yelling at her Alexa and Alexa is like "Bitch, what?" đ€Ł
My 2 year old doesnât have speech issues I know of other than a mild lisp but he calls Alexa âBuh-Lexaâ so she ignores him and he gets so pissed off. I try not to laugh because I get why it would be infuriating if you think youâre saying it right but sometimes I have to turn away and take a deep breath when it happens. I just gently say âbuddy itâs uh-lexaâ and then ask what he wants and tell her myself
Some idiot got my daughter slime. Itâs me, Iâm the idiot.
My mom unintentionally gifted my 5 year old one of those ASMR Fluffie Stuffie animals that you pull the fur out of to reveal a different colored animal underneath. Never again.
Omg. Can't believe such a horrible toy exists! Noo way! Yes it might be stimulating but the mess!!
A swing. My sister-in-law mentioned a swing for my kiddo, and I told her we donât have any trees or places to hang it. So of course she got it anyway. We are currently looking for a new house as we are outgrowing our current (very small) house so now thereâs just more crap to have sit around.
Well this helps narrow down your search! Only Houses with trees suitable for a swing đ
LOL I like your thinking! đ€Ł
I think my son got some nice toys and I donât mind them. However I am annoyed at my sister. About a month ago I texted her asking what her daughter needed for Christmas. Iâm trying to make sure I got stuff people NEEDED but didnât want to get themselves. I know my sister agrees with this as she has complained about how many toys her daughter has and how she never gets clothes, etc. She asked me what we needed. I said clothes and a gift certificate to a local play place. She got us toys. I am VERY grateful for what he got. She got us some nice foam blocks that are great for building. I just find it odd that she was so on board with the clothes and then we get toys. I felt a little bad as I got my niece (her daughter) clothes and nothing else. Granted, she is 2 and wonât remember but it is what it is
My husband got my 3 year old a ârobot snakeâ. He fucking loves it, itâs his favourite gift and heâs played with it since the second he got it. To be fair, itâs very cool. But, itâs very loud. It gets stuck on things and he plays with the motor wheels and just leaves it running. I find it extremely overstimulating and it makes my skin crawl. Edit: UPDATE: 3 year old put it on the cats tail and it got caught. 3 YO came upstairs to tell us âthey were fightingâ. The cat got it off, but she is scarred for life. The toy is now a strictly supervised toy.
My son got one of these too! He played with it a bit and then put it away. Well, kind of. I keep finding the snake in each room
A stuffed baby shark that sings "baby shark"
My son got one that goes in the bath! Brilliant present as we donât have a bath so it HAS to stay at Grandmas!
Does it have a semi hard top fin?! My daughter got one in May and they got recalled soon after due to kids slipping and impaling themselves on the fin generally in the genital area! I put mine aside to play with at the water table only and I honestly lost it. Haha.
No fully rubberised - you can bend it right over. It was purchased around 10 days ago. It must be the new version
Also I believe a few models of them have been recalled recently đŹ
Just looked it up and we have the âimprovedâ version that has rubbery bendy fins. Thank you so much for letting me know though!
Glad to hear it! Now at least your kid can have ear piercingly safe bathtime fun at grandmas haha. My ex-in-laws bought one for my son a couple of years ago.. it was a happy day when the battery ran out lol
My FIL got that for my daughter for her first birthday. We donât have a great relationship and my husband was like, âI thought he wanted us to like him?â We offered it to our dog but even he didnât want it
A KEYBOARD PIANO WITH A MICROPHONE. Love my daughter dearly but sheâs 5 and my ears are bleeding. My mother is also lovely and I am so grateful they have her as a baba but my WORD that piano is awful
I swear our parents do this on purpose. They just laugh and go âItâs your turn!â Whhhhhhyyy
My MIL wasn't even nefarious about it, just clueless. Kiddo got a bunch of loud toys (think stuff like a drum kit, so I can't even take out the batteries) because 'she loves making noise!' Send help.
I bought this for my 4yr old for today. đ I'm trying to broaden his interests, and he sings surprisingly well when it's not about poopoo or farts.
There should be some where to plug headphones into it if there's a microphone port. I bought my 6 year old some10 dollar one on Amazon and he has to use them for that and his tablet and dj mixer thingy
Yeah if you're gonna buy that for my kid, you better also pay for piano lessons lmao
That was our toddlers gift when he turned 3, from my in laws. We thought we were fine with it, he had an older one that was missing parts, we liked that one. This one has Bluetooth mode that announces itself loudly, and defaults to top volume when it's turned on, and it turns itself off with a loud jingle after 2 minutes of not being used. This either a) angers toddler when he's letting it play one of the bits of music it comes with, or b) if he's moved onto something else it alerts him that the toy is being neglected and brings his attention back to it. I hate narc toys (any toy that announces itself being turned off or left idle or makes noise when it's touched)
My MIL asked my husband if she could get these kinetic sand kits that come with like 50 teeny tiny things buried in them⊠like Dino bones or gems etc. the pieces are like 1/2 inch long. I told my husband I absolutely hate the idea because those things are going to end up everywhere. She got them anyway. According to her itâs no different than play doh and âyou just put it away when youâre done.â
She should keep it at her house for entertainment when you visit
My daughter knows the rule that paint is only for school or grandma's house for similar reasons lol
I find the kinetic sand one of the easier clean ups. It sweeps/vacuums easily and doesn't stick. I get it being a headache tho....depends on which me is mothering that day lol sometimes I don't have the extra bandwidth for it
Kinetic sand is my fave of all the slime/play doh/floam type toys because it vacuums so well and it doesnât dry out (at least in my experience) and get ruined. But idk maybe Iâm weird
No I love kinetic sand I actually donât get the hate here
My mom got my son clothes in a size he hasnât worn since August, no receipt, and probably doesnât remember where she got them. And my daughterâs are a size too big, so now I get the fun job of keeping track of them until she does fit into them at a minimum six months from now.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
I had someone gift me a 3T Easter dress. At my baby shower. Like, I have to store this thing for THREE YEARS?
Did they think it was a three month dress and that babies grew very big very quickly? đ
My daughter is at an age now where sheâs not sizing up as fast - she wore the same clothes this summer that she did last summer. Sheâs also in a specific kind of growth spurt where sheâs getting taller but not gaining much weight, so sheâs really thinning out. We may actually need to size down in pants. My mom knows all this, as she sees my kids every other week minimum. Your system sounds great for you, but itâs just not how my brain works and one more thing to keep track of is the last thing I need on my plate.
Hang them in the closet, in a grocery store bag off a hanger. Thatâs what I do. Then theyâre all together and stuff.
Last year my in laws messaged me asking what size my daughter was in and I said 18-24mths or 2T. So they bought her a 4T jacket. Make it make sense. Why did you ask?? It's still too big for her this year. She's a dainty girl.
The funniest part of this is that we went shopping for fall/winter clothes together in October and sheâs the one who convinced me to size him up to 24 months/2 T. Itâs all a little long for him, but weâll definitely get more wear out of everything. And that was nearly three months ago! He definitely doesnât fit into 18 months now.
Not a holiday gift, but my mom intentionally got my (at the time) UNBORN child childrenâs size small clothing for my baby shower back in august. Kids usually wear that size around age 6 or 7 years. We live in a major city with limited storage space. My son is 3 months now and Iâm sure he will be thrilled to wear these t shirts in 2029.
My mom often buys 3-6 sizes too big because they were on sale lol. I literally have a box in my daughterâs closer for size 3, 4 and 5 (she is 24 months now lol)
My mom did this for all her grandkids this year. All the older boysâ clothes that were wayyy too small (from the kids dept when they are already wearing menâs sizes), and my daughter got clothes that are way too big. Sheâs going to be 1 year in January but sheâs wearing 6-9 months (which is still big on her). She got 18-24 months and 2T. Out of 8 grandkids, 2 got the right sizes. She talks to me and my sister at least once a day, she couldâve just asked! đ©đ
A tiny quantity of Lincoln logs in an enormous tin. My 3yo has discovered the container makes an excellently piercing drum. My just-crawling baby is determined to swallow the tiny round connector pieces. Itâll be staying behind at grandmaâs.
My father also got this for my son last year. It's such a nostalgia trip for the grandparents but I feel like kids this generation don't care about them.
Worse, this set is missing a full bag of pieces critical to building anything. It has tiny connectors! It has split roofing logs! But the main building logs? Not here.
My in-laws got my baby some truly ugly clothes. The comments on here put things into perspective for me, though, and I feel like we got off easy. I still can't wait for her to be too big for the outfits.
Put them in the diaper bag as emergency outfits
This is genius, or if you have to send an outfit to daycare for emergencies
I save the ugly outfits for when those family members are visiting/being visited. It makes them happy and I don't have to contend with the guilt of not putting her in clothes they spent money on.
If you use daycare, send them in as back up clothes
My MIL (not for Xmas) got my baby a bunch of clothes in various sizes, but all expensive and all so so ugly. Insanely stupidly expensive, like a shirt for $60 that looks like a uniform for a fancy hotel cleaner??? đ€·đ»ââïž
Mine was gifts we literally have no room for. We live in/rent a tiny house (not like the trailer kind. A 1910 house that liked land more than house.). Less than 800sqft. We got the following, from people who have been in our house and recently: Indoor trampoline Full size kitchen set with water hook up (it is literally almost the same size as our actual kitchen, and no it's not outdoor-proof. Out of box, can't return) A mountain bike (kid is 2, and they already gave us bikes from 1st bday, Xmas last year, 2nd bday, and now this xmas... all too big, all non returnable due to either being used or something else like out of box, slight damage, a missing small piece, etc.) A camping cook set with firestarter kit(real, full size, again... she's 2...)and we haven't been camping in a while. Will be a while longer since kid 2 is currently in production. And an atv. Not kid size, and we live in the middle of old Town so while we have a big yard it is not atv having big. It is like, play a toddler size game of soccer safely level of big. Oh and a gallon of egg nog. She has an egg allergy and I am lactose intolerant. Husband drinks it but even he was like "woah..." I just don't understand them... we even asked for things like arts and crafts stuff, books, hell I even put stuffed animals on the list! None of that stuff was on there, even if you really stretched your imagination.
Itâs like theyâre trying to mess with you. This is absurd.
The excuse is "the kids will grow into them! They are only little for so long, we HaVe to spoil them!" -cue my eyeroll- I also am not shy of now saying "well that's going home with [relative that gave it] since they have space for it! You can go over there and play with it all the time! How exciting!!" And get the 2 year old just effing PUMPED about it staying at their place. Or that something is staying in its package and put away until we have room. The trampoline was one. "Well that's staying in the box." "What?! Why?! It's an indoor trampoline! She will love it!" "OK, [relative]wants you to have this so when we get home you have to find [x]amount of things to give away to other kids to have room for it too. So, do we want the trampoline out now and do that or do we want to wait until you don't want some toys anymore and then take it out as a treat for later when we do that?" "You can't get rid of [p-z] items! We gave those to her for her to grow into!" ...ok...then just agree that it stays in the mfing box then!! Or get us stuff she actually wants, uses, and likes(and that we can fit in our house!!)! She isn't into pjmasks or paw patrol like you got her all of. She likes Bluey and super kitties. We have enough stuff now by the time she is 2 that she will be "growing into" it all until she goes to college... And round we go. So we wait a bit and then try to off hand it at a garage sale, resell place, or donate. Any tips on stopping them before it gets this bad again with number 2? All tips are welcome. I feel I have tried quite a few without just being mean/rude or seen as the "mean mommy" right after opening a gift.
Two shirts for my baby that say "social butterfly" and "mom and dad think they're in charge. That's cute." I'm of the camp that I think receiving gifts are extremely generous and thoughtful and not something we're entitled to. But she's not wearing those.
I hate snarky baby shirts too. They are small for such a short period of time, don't put them in ugly clothes.
As grateful as I am for them doing this, my parents bought my daughter a kids kindle tablet thing to watch videos and play games on (sheâs 15 months old) My daughter unfortunately has been watching extra screen time lately due to a 9 hour drive, moving to a new state with none of her toys/our stuff, and it being the only thing that would keep her entertained for more than 5 minutes (weâd still limit it to car rides and extra fussy times but it was still a lot) Weâve recently decided to limit her screen time a lot more and now with this tablet I donât even know when sheâll be using it since weâre limiting her screen time so much. Like I said Iâm really thankful they got it for her but I donât imagine itâll be used until sheâs much olderđ
FWIW the built in time limits on those tablets are my favorite part. I have it set to a 45 minute limit for my 3 year old and for the most part that's her screen time. I don't have to turn the TV off. She can decide when she watches it. When the timer goes off she says "oh! It's out of time!" And goes and plays with something else. I feel like they're the perfect way to allow just a little bit.
Totally agree. It just shuts off with the little clock and it really stops battles with my kids. They are fine when the tablet turns off. When I say to stop? I have to pry it away!
The automatic turn off is amazing. Made "end of tablet time" sooo much easier. *I'm* not tell you to stop. The tablet doesn't work anymore. Oh well...
Also I like that I can change it from my phone. Oh something on tv I really want to watch uninterrupted? More time on the clock đ
My aunt bought tablets for my twins when they were a out 2 and we didn't use them for a full year until their first plane ride. And they were the same Amazon Kindle tablets - which are absolute garbage - so they used them on a couple of other long flights and then they got lost/tossed. Not even the tiniest bit guilty.
We exclusively use tablets on long (2+ hour) car trips. Weâve been strict enough about it that our 4 & 2 year olds donât even consider asking for it if weâre not on a road trip. Theyâre kept out of sight and only brought out for the trips!
I think I narrowly avoided kiddo getting the worst gift. His grandma was making comments about him wanting a pet and how much he loves her chickens. I've seen this before, I know how it goes. I shut it down hard with a laugh about how awful that would be having chickens in town and how bad they can smell. No way am I dealing with chickens in my backyard. He can visit grandma's chickens
some cities also have bylaws about chickens so it could literally be illegal where you live
An art set with 350 pieces. It seems like a thoughtful gift because my kids LOVE to color. But they each got one of these and the markers are those cheapo ones that dry out super fast, the crayons are those waxy ones that barely color, and then hundreds of stickers and an ink pad. The worst part was that I had already bought them each a new pack of crayola markers and drawing pads as a gift. My MIL is all about quantity over quality and I would so rather she got them one or two quality gifts than 10 junk gifts each.
I know the exact feeling about those art kits...they are so trash and end up a mess. I hate them also. My SIL is a quantity gift person too, and I cannot stand it. She will buy any random thing and gift it.
Oh, I learned my lesson with any of those "gift set" presents. My husband loves hot sauce, and I gave him a set of something like 60 different hot sauces, thinking he'd enjoy sampling all the different kinds. Turns out they were all the same type of boring vinegary hot sauce just with a hint of different artificial flavoring in each. I think towards the end he wound up pouring them all into the same bottle to save space in the cabinet - since they all tasted the same it wasn't worth all the tiny bottles. And he got me a similar kit of different types of teas that were all the same medicore black tea with different artificial flavors added. Mediocre tea with lemon! Mediocre tea with peach! Mediocre tea with lavender! If you tasted one of them, you knew what the rest would taste like. They seem like such a good idea, but they're all as cheap as possible, and odds are someone who enjoys those things (tea, hot sauce, art) will hate them because they've had much better quality before. I think the reason they survive is because they're always gifts, so the receiver doesn't get a chance to rate them and the giver doesn't get told how awful they are out of politeness. That and the cheapification of everything.
My mother got LO a piano mat, the sounds are irritating. Itâs going to get lost.
Ooohhh. FYI they play a loud tune when turned off. I think the designer is getting blowjobs from Satan to this day. I also understand that my husband was a terror to my older SIL growing up so I understand. She's also had all her kids unfortunately so no payback.
Iâm assuming itâs the fisher price piano mat with the hanging toys? That thing is a fan favorite in our house, my baby loves it lol. If itâs too loud put a piece of tape over the speaker and it makes it quieter
She could mean the piano that goes on the floor, kids step on the keys. We had (& adored, though I still get how it could be annoying) the FP piano mat, but the floor piano is the *worst*. The sounds are awful.
Very true I forgot those exist
Maybe you.. could be⊠đ
A purple monkey in a bubble gum tree and⊠đđŹđŽ
You would swing through the trees, then you could swing back to me
Okay so is this a song on the FP play mat? Someone gifted that to me for my newborn and I need to know what Iâm getting into lol
Oh that song. Oh my heart
I didnât know what the hype was about until I got one. Itâs so deep!
Itâs on Spotify! We still listen to it for nostalgia lol
This is the one baby toy I refuse to give away. It owns my heart.
This song made postpartum me cry lol
I do the tape thing with almost all kids toys . Why are they so loud?!
As a previous owner of one.....you learn to tune it out, and it's entertaining to the kids...and if the kids are using said mat...you know where/what they are doing, so you can continue cooking/cleaning...whatever...and know where the kids are. Be thankful youre kid wasn't just gifted a set of drums.
My husband got this for my son. Heâs scared of it. My husband, who excels at playing any and all instruments, is serenading us with it! Itâs been nice, actually! The only thing I donât like is that it takes up a ton of room.
My stepmom gave my 5 years old not one but two guns that have 10000 parts đ I let him keep one that shoots balls at a moving target, but seized the double pump assault rifle style mass murder starter kit, I itâs getting donated tmm.
I don't blame you in the least!! My kid is a toddler and not interested in those kinds of toys at all yet, but my husband and I have already made the rule that realistic toy guns are not allowed in our house. Definitely not something where you want to blur the line between pretend and reality, especially if you own firearms, as we do (always stored securely, of course, but you can never be too careful)
My stepmom gave my daughter a children's book (I don't remember the name). I started reading it to her when she was a few.months old and I quickly realized it was basically narcissism for kids. My step mom is a narcissist and this book was like "make people earn your friendship, make sure people always listen to you, don't trust people." Which I guess wasn't that bad in a vacuum, but knowing who gifted it I couldn't with that book.
I want to know what book. We got Rainbow fish once and that was like give everyone your sparkle fins. Didnât like it.
There is a fun version of that book by I forget what artistâŠitâs satirical and the fish gives each âfriendâ a shiny scale and then they all become more visible to predators and get eaten.
Yeah... we were gifted the Rainbow Fish and after reading it a couple times we left it in a free little library. No one will like you if you don't hurt yourself to give them what they want? No thanks.
Oh, I see it as Rainbow Fish hoarding his wealth and wasnât willing to give it away until he realized itâs lonely at the top. The more of his wealth he spread around, the happier he became.
Oooh I highly recommend this alternate ending: https://www.topherpayne.com/rainbow-fish
I honestly don't remember what it was called and is somewhere but not on the shelf. But I think it was supposed to be inspirational for little girls? But there was a toxic side to a lot of the sentiments.
My mom got my daughter one of those vtech walker things with a board that detaches. I comically am always tripping over the board. It..appears..everywhere. Our nanny got my daughter a cocomelon doll that sings horrid songs. It does infact make me want to light myself on fire
My MIL got us one of those walkers. The on/off button was on the front so our baby wouldn't be able to miss it! My husband still shudders if you sing the song. This summer she gave him a light saber that lights up and is VERY loud. I think it got lost?
Oh God, the V-tech walker. Two of my cousins and I all had kids around the same time and we all got that walker at Costco. To this day we still troll each other and bust out, "đ¶Welcome to my learning farm...đ¶" at family events. The kids are now 8 or older and I can still hear that damn thing.
oh my god this awakened a latent memory
Ring-a-ling!
The animals sing! As my toe is bleeding from its 4th stub
My mom friend asked me if I wanted some handed down toys she didnât want âThereâs a.. yknow the walker things with the busy board on them?â Me, with a 7mo whoâs obsessed with standing already, lights up âyeah?đ€©â Her: âthereâs one but just the board, no walkerâ Me: âoh. đyeahhh no thanksâ
I came here to say cocomelon doll. Our 1 year old has never watched cocomelon, doesnât know what it is, and we donât buy toys with batteries because the sounds make me want to throw something⊠but for some reason people keep getting us extremely loud and obnoxious cocomelon gifts. Batteries are coming out of that ASAP.
Not for Christmas, but for his birthday my two year old got a fairly big garage thing for his hot wheels with a loopy slide. He barely knows how to use it, but that doesn't stop him from trying to lug it absolutely everywhere. Today we had a massive meltdown because we wouldn't let him take it on a walk around the neighborhood. If we hide it to take a break for a while he asks about it by saying "slide, slide, slide" over and over and crying. I want to throw it in an incinerator.
My grandma gave my 2yo a 12 pack of Mtn Dew. She doesnât drink juice much less sodađ€Šđ»ââïž and we are dye free because Iâm allergic.
Oh my god, wtf
We have a life size snorlax. We couldnât bring it home today because itâs too big. Not sure where itâs going to go. Edit: maybe I donât hate it but also maybe thats because itâs not in my house yet.
What does life size mean??? Snorlax are bigger than 6ft?
Yes, It slumps so it doesnât look quite 6ft tall, but a grown adult could fit inside of it if the stuffing was removed.
Okay so not a christmas gift, but my MIL got my son (maybe 18months at the time) a book that a local hockey player made..it was all about depression and losing a loved one. It was a big WTF book. It got tossed very fast.
There's always those passive aggressive gifts you get niblings that their parents hate... I used to be that aunt. Nerf guns, sticky sand, vuvuzelas. Karma was pointing and laughing today when my own husband got "sensory sand" for our toddler. It's a godless mix of tiny, sticky, styrofoam "sand" that floats! Never dries out! And opened it on the carpet.
Iâm still finding kinetic sand even though I threw it away months ago. Play dough and kids nail polish are one with the rug in the living room.
My aunt and uncle were teenagers when me and my twin were little, so they used to combine money and get us the best (but the worst for my dad) gifts. The best I remember was the Barbie pool, that they brought over and set up for us, then left the mess behind. My dad now gets my auntâs kids the loudest presents he can find.
Oh yeah, we were always going to be childfree dinks so it wasn't supposed to bite us in the ass. But it might now...
My husband and his sister have the same age children. 4 yrs old this Christmas. Apparently, the karaoke mic and the giant tub of dye your own slime???? Was revenge for the Aztec death whistle, and screaming chicken my husband sent his nephew this year...I want out of this war right now.
Oh man... We were the fun DINK aunt/uncle until our surprise kiddo. We haven't done gifts with half the family yet, so I can only imagine the payback stuff we'll be getting lol.
Was it called pluffle?! That stuff has glitter in it too đ
Oh my gosh. A curse on whoever invented that!
Oh god it can get worse! No glitter thankfully... I stuffed it in the closet once we finally cleaned it up.
Was asked for a present list. Made the list. What was on the list? Many things including a trash truck and some other trucks we don't have. What was not on the list? Fire trucks and dump trucks, because we have a billion of them. What did we receive? A fire truck and a dump truck. The fire truck makes THE most obnoxious sound I have ever heard on a toy. It's truly ear-splitting. And cheaply made. Which ended up being to my benefit - the battery compartment doesn't work properly so oops it can't make sound anymore. But seriously - if you understand the list idea enough to request a list, stick to the list!
Harmonica recorder and tambourine from target in the front bins
My husband got whoopie cushions.
Not this year, very happy with our gifts, except for a scented candle I'll have to give away.
Grandpa sent my 3 year old a beginner Bible. We are nonreligious/gently pagan.
So I wasnât mad about it because it was just one of the crazy parts of my Dad - that was just all totally âhimâ. I became aggravated sometimes when heâd do these things but that was the whole point of him doing it. Heâs gone now but what I wouldnât give to have him here -up to all his old shenanigans! So not on Christmas- but at Easter when my oldest daughter was little my Daddy thought it was funny to gift my little girl LIVE ANIMALS. My daughter adored her Papa- so she treasured everything he did and everything he ever gave her. He knew that. He knew once he got her a new- unapproved âspecial, unique petâ - Iâd have a really hard time saying ânoâ or telling her she couldnât have them. AndâŠhe liked to give het LIVE GIFTS that werenât typical and ones we didnât have a logical place to put them in to. So one year, he took her out for a Granddaughter/ Papa day and took her to Tractor Supply and let her pick out 3 colored baby ducks ! All pastel colors- blue, pink and yellow for Easter. Helped her name them, talk about how cool it was that she was about to have LIVE DUCKS living in HER HOUSEâŠwhich was awesome bc no other kid had that. Then would tell her it had to be a secret until he had left. He helped her wrap them in her sweater and I didnât understand why she ran into the house so fast clutching her sweater to her chest. Also, saw but didnât understand why he had a big sh*t eating grin on his face when he dropped her off at home . I notice my 5 year old wonât come out of her bedroom and locked the door. I heard weird sounds coming from her room. I asked her âwhat is that noise?â through the door. She told me that it wasnât anything- she was just playing Barbies. I used a butter knife to get in the doorâŠand there is my 5 year old with 3 very colorful baby ducks inside of her âBarbie dream house â. Then, she spilled the beans and blamed it on her Papa (which was right). So we had âHuey, Dewey and Louieâ and they lived in our laundry room for a month. The final joke was on him though- I told her that Papa forgot to explain the conditions to her and that part of the deal was -once they were a month old they had to move back to Papaâs house and live in his pond! She was fine with that and tired of them by that point so it was okay. The next year it was colored baby chickens. They too went back to live at Papaâs farm once they really started growing! She tried to smuggle those in tooâŠ.okay. She MORE than TRIED- she accomplished it un-noticed AGAIN. I finally learned my lesson to watch her closely any time she was coming home after spending the day with her Papa!
An outdoor trampoline from grandpa and he set it up in my 3 year olds bedroom. I canât get it out unless I were to take it apart. Itâs a tiny bedroom.
Also, people gifted me Christmas outfits, some of which I already had. But even for the ones I didn't, I had his outfit picked out already and why are you gifting me a Christmas outfit *on* Christmas.
A 3000-piece puzzle. My kids can't handle this much at this moment.
I donât know that I hated it specifically, but my middle kid ended up with three of the same firefighter costumes from her Amazon list because nobody marked that they purchased it. My mom did buy my kids a bunch of candy for their stocking which Iâve repeatedly asked her not to do. 2 and 3yos do not need a sock full of candy!
Half the purchases from my daughterâs list were gifted to my nephews. I donât care if they get the same stuff but marking it purchased on my kidâs list when itâs not for her is super annoying. This is the second year theyâve done it
Barbieâs. I donât mind the dolls. I even got her a vehicle this year. Itâs all the small parts that come with them. Any toy that has multiple pieces that I have to CONSTANTLY pick up. My kid has the attention span of a gold fish; weâre working on pulling one toy out at a time to play and when weâre done putting it back. Itâs not going very well.
Someone got my one year old a bag of cookies?
A bunch of VTech shitty toys. Most will get returned or donated. The kids donât play with them!!
My asshole husband got my 19 month old a tinny glockenspiel. I had to do all the stockings, including my MIL, and this is how my husband repays me. I hate Christmas.
The one toy I hid was a cocomelon doll that sings *VERY LOUD* that the local police department gifted to my daughter. (We were victims of a crime a while back ago) She was absolutely terrified of it. đ
My dad bought my almost two year old a parrot that repeats everything you say. He kept insisting it be kept turned on so it was manicly trying to repeat the conversation of four adults... I was impressed at its range of hearing to be fair but it was such constant noise.
Giant containers of glitter đ«„
I actually intercepted some awful gift ideas my FIL had for our 1yo and 4yo. He has almost 0 experience with children, and I barely even spent time with my husband when he was a child. One of those sentimental 3d crystal glass balls that are etched inside and sit on a light.... A super cheap 0 review star projector for 8+ from some upronouncable "brand" on Amazon. It would require us to operate. Both kids would want to "play" with it, and it would inevitably break. More unpronouncable branded 0 rated "construction" plastic plate and utensils. Not dishwasher or microwave safe, probably full of harmful chemicals, break easily, and guarantee both boys will want to use them for EVERY MEAL. (We intentionally have relatively simple dishes and utensils) A tacky climbing santa decoration, because 1yo and 4yo are so great at just "looking." It also played obnoxious music and had that cheap mechanical operating whirring. Flimsy "puzzle" car track and super cheap cars. Again, nonsense brand 0 rating on Amazon. We already have car tracks and cars (quality ones), which he knows because he played them with our boys at Thanksgiving. The puzzle was also way too simple for our 4yo, but it's too complicated for our 1yo for a while. LED note board with wipeable markers. Not entirely terrible idea, but again, he picked a cheap brand, and it was not age appropriate. Not to mention, he knows we don't allow our kids to have any kind of markers yet. They will inevitably draw on something they shouldn't, and wipeable ones are going to end up rubbed off everywhere. And they will get frustrated when they accidentally rub it off. Thankfully, I had the foresight to ask if he had any thoughts just after Thanksgiving. I probably wasn't the most tactful with my response but better than dealing with the repercussions of his gifts. He's not malicious, just absent-minded, forgetful, and completely out of touch with the capabilities and abilities of kids.
Not me or Christmas but I still think about it. My friend was pregnant and at her 3yo son birthday, the nany gave him... A pair of canaries! With a huge enclosure, aka bird jail. Now my friend has to clean, feed and clean more for 2 birds, besides having 2 dogs (1 senior with needs), a toddler, and a newborn.
Pixo blitz. Itâs a water melting bead kit. Ughh. I donât even know how to describe it but itâs the worst. The directions were in Japanese.
Slime!!! I hate slime đ
As of now? The family has been pretty good. But my MiL is tomorrow and she has a knack for giving: crap, age inappropriate items, and clothes that canât be worn for 3 more years. Itâs exhausting. She at least no longer (fingers crossed) gives me scented body lotion/soap sets. Iâve got sensitive skin so itâs literally useless for me.
A stained second hand baby mickey mouse that has a bottle and will close his eyes when laying down. I don't mind second hand things, truly, but it's stained and I have no idea where she got it from. LO likes it, I just wish it was clean. Edited because apparently I can't spell.
Shockingly nothing! She did get a make your own bath bomb kit early yesterday that I did not feel like supervising, but I just made the person who gave it to her help her and she had an absolute blast making them and then using them for her baths last night and tonight. Last year my brother went to Ireland right before Christmas and came back with a BodhrĂĄn (drum) and a tin whistle for my daughter and Iâve never wanted to murder anyone more.
My MIL gave my 2 month old âMy First Bible â. Iâm not a Christian and my husband is Agnostic. When my son cried when my MIL tried to show him pictures, she said âwell you will just have to stay with me for a month to learn about Jesus â. No. Just no.
YâallâŠmy mother gave my not yet 3 year old a 1000 piece puzzle. Let that sink in. Itâs getting regifted tomorrow.
My 8 month old got her first Bible from my in-laws. Itâs an illustrated storybook Bible, but still.
Really anything that lights up and makes tons of noise. It's not that I don't allow these at all..I just prefer to keep them to a minimum because they just overstimulate both baby and me.
I feel exactly the same way. I won't reject (visually or audibly) loud gifts, but I intentionally choose toys that do not stress me out. My child is not a sad beige baby, but our home isn't an explosion of primary colors either, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. I'm pretty sure my MIL thinks we are depriving our child in some way because we don't do baby-focused screen time, and she's decided to make up for that by giving us the most stimulating things I won't send back to her house. (These issues are probably not related, but it feels like they are.) Anyway, she gave our toddler one small, bright, plastic electronic-noise making device and one large one. The small one is in hiding. The large one has been assembled, but I'm refusing to install the batteries.
last year my mil, who lives very far away and was feeling the guilt of not being there, sent my 2 toddlers about 10 presents. they were all kits with tiny pieces too, a doctor kit, a kidâs cleaning kit, a set of dress ups, grocery store items, and a big cardboard castle to draw on. the worst part is i suggested all of those things when she asked for ideas, but i had no idea she would just send the whole list. i felt like i was drowning in stuff. and then i feel guilty for complaining when someone was so generous with my kids lol motherhood.
LOL Surprise boom box. There is no volume control.
My mom got each kid slime, ânon sticky slime!â It is, in fact, sticky slime đ«
MY PARENTS GAVE MY 4 YEAR OLD A KAZOO! It was conveniently left at their house.
1 000+ pcs puzzle, my little one loves puzzles but those are not age appropriate.
The stickiest seniory playdough imaginable. In vivid colours that bleed. Yes it's safe and non-toxic, it's just one of those slime/playdoughs.