To think no one does this - Christmas toys related

Any snideyness is on the part of the MIL.
Ignore her OP.
She's playing one up manship.

This can't be true, you lost me at plays the computer games in advance.

However I feel sad for all the kids that never had the joy of carefully putting the stickers on new toys and getting to open sealed packets and taking all the bits out themselves, that's half the fun surely and as a pp said, stretches the day out.

Travellingheavily

but you could’nt open Santa toys with them there! And it was the tone- the usual ‘you've time to waste as a sahm’

For small children, we take the toys out of the box and put batteries in. Then wrap. We don't put it back in it's original box as it will just mean that instead of enjoying play, the kids then have to go and get help from someone to open the boxes. Unnecessary faff we all like to avoid on a Christmas day. Out teen, on the other hand, is fine to just get things as is and sort herself out with batteries out of the "man drawer".

I didn’t do anything like that other than make sure I had lots of batteries.

With relief the bastarding boxes with the endless cable ties and the things that needed screw drivers were passed to exH. It’s the first time he’d ever seen or heard of these things so nice for him to get involved in the tricky bit 😜

The only person I ever knew who thought of checking kids toys worked before giving them was my exBiL who was VERY detailed oriented (and childless). He’d ask me if stuff he’d sent for kids on Amazon was all working etc. Eh no idea mate. And no way am I checking. Better things to do.

I def did some of it-always made sure things were charged/set up etc.

Put together things like enormous Thomas the Tank engine tracks-not the brio ones. It was blue and the trains were battery operated-can't remember what they were called but took hours.

Wanted things to be playable straightaway but never pre-played the games. 😂

I also have one of those in-laws who loves to tell me all the things she did for her sons that are so superior as to how we chose to do them, or how much they used to do this or that. How her sons had so many experiences.
I’d also love to bite back that both her sons feel like they were emotionally neglected and were dragged around places that their parents wanted to go, or for the kids. And that one of her two sons is having thedapy as a direct result of the lack of affection he felt from her. But I don’t, because life is too short for that battle and I know my son will never feel that way from either of his parents. But it is really fucking annoying.

Oh give over, as a SAHM with 3 under 5 I could still get shit done that I couldn’t get done whilst I’m in an office.

Plug in the console and it will give you instructions on what info it needs eg your wifi password. You said you’ve bought a Wii so you’ll need to create a Nintendo account. If any of the games are going to be played online then you’ll need to pay for that on top. When you register it will probably ask you if you want that.
The machine will automatically download the software updates.

Once that’s all done you’ll need to put in each game and download the updates for those. The console will give you prompts for what to do.

If your internet isn’t very fast then you’ll be saving lots of time on Christmas Day because some updates can be massive.

I'd guess that she's very aware that she let her family down massively when they were young, and feels guilty about that, so tries to remind them of the times she feels she was a good mum too.

Either you've made this up (which is what I suspect), or she is absolutely batshit.

I always did the unbox, batteries and build. Several Xmas Eves spent building a dolls house, a play kitchen, the Playmobile castle. And I work ft. Tech stuff likewise, you need to create an account, register..the Switch has a parental controls app to download and set up also. It's not about avoiding any discomfort but why wants to spend Xmas day doing battle with recalcitrant apps and tricky bits of plastic with impatient kids hanging off you.

Santa never gave boxes to me, only assembled toys. I do the same especially when kids were small. I would put it back in the box if it fitted or in front of the box under the tree. No point in a small kid getting a present they can't immediately play with. I never thought to check games on consoles though.

Not the point of the thread at all, but I’d be livid if someone played animal crossing before me. You can only set up one main user per cartridge so you’d never be able to wipe the evidence that you’d played it

I always made sure we had the right batteries for toys and DH once put together a dolls house but your mil went above and beyond. I’m not sure if she’s commendable or nuts.

I pointed out that as a SAHM she probably had more time to do stuff like that than I do, and that if a toy doesn’t work I’ll replace it at the earliest opportunity

ah OP, don't be such a judgypants.

As for me: i worked an average of 50 hours per week since my DC were 2. I ALWAYS took time to test their toys and make sure i had batteries etc. I read their books too just to make sure if there were going to be issues raised i was prepared. I'd have hated to have disappointed DCs at Christmas and having to wait until the shops opened again so they could play with their presents (see - we can all play that game)

I’ve often read on here to build Playmobil beforehand because it takes a while and is very fiddly.

With batteries I note what it takes and make sure I have it in. The kids are happy to put the batteries in themselves.

The only thing we ever did was set up consoles and prepare them as sometimes it’s a pain and the children just want to crack on with the games . I knew a school mum who always built all the playmobil type stuff in advance , my kids were the type that wanted to do the building so we didn’t .

Tell her she's welcome to come round and do all that for her grandkids since she's practically one of Santa's elves then...
Honestly, sounds like she's trying to justify her motherliness to alleviate her guilt from her big fuck up. Ignore her. You're doing fine x

You should register gaming consoles before Christmas Day. Registration takes a while as does the downloading of software and hardware updates because the servers are busy on Christmas Day. Don’t forget to put the games discs into the machine too because games often have updates.

There’s no need to play the games though. YouTube will have videos of tricky levels.

We've downloaded the software updates (that took several hours) so consoles of various types could be played on Christmas Day when the children were young, but the rest is just madness.