To think no one does this - Christmas toys related

This 'holier than thou' parenting advice would be pretty hard to take from someone who abandoned their kids. She obviously had a lot of time on her hands if she could put the batteries in, test all the toys, play the computer games, learn how to put the lego together and have an affair. A veritable multi-tasker.

They can but why would you want them to? I would rather see their little eyes light up and them have the thrill of playing with their cherished item immediately (and it keep them busily occupied) while we got dresser and sorted lunch.

Yes we have built football tables (bastard took us 4 hours for 3 adults so good job we did), built garages and put stickers on etc ahead of Christmas morning so that they could be played with immediately and not have to be put away until we had time to do it because of getting Christmas lunch etc. I would actually have thought that was more of a normal thing to do than make a kid sit around looking at something they wanted and they now had to wait another few hours for.

I think there's a big difference between opening boxes to make sure there is nothing missing or broken and putting batteries in and building a toy or adding stickers, which the child might want to do themselves. It would be really disappointing if a present has to be sent back to the shop because it's damaged, and just opening the box carefully to check the contents and then sealing it up again on my takes a few minutes.

It wasn't such as issue when I was a child because my Mum made all of my main Christmas and birthday presents but I always checked that the presents I bought for my daughter were complete and I damaged before I gave them to her.

Just make sure you have batteries ready. Building something up can be done by another adult if you're cooking the Xmas lunch. My 8 year old dgc is tech savvy already & can download games himself, or another adult can help. Easy. No fuss needed!

People really overthink Christmas planning these days. Talk about making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself.

I have never done this - my kids are 9 and 6 but Christmas is utterly magical and wonderful for them even so! A few years ago we gave DD a wooden barbie princess castle type thing that was unbuilt. It was fine - built it in 'twixtmas'. There were no tears. Not once has she complained. (And she would have!)

Our kids aren't hyped up to the max, calm low key Christmas is the way.

But yes, they can wait ...

Yes they can wait more. They'll more than likely have something else new to play with whilst setting stuff up.

Never did this. What a waste of time. we just set things up on the day.

I check all the toys/presents, but I don't put them back in the box unless it's something like a board game. A big part of why I do it is to get rid of the packaging before the birthday/holiday. Also some of those shrinkwrapped plushies need time to expand out and look terrifying still in their packaging.

We've never bought that much so it doesn't take that long to check & I often buy secondhand so there is somewhat more of a need to check condition.

I understand why many don't, it's similar to why I don't wrap presents, haven't in a long time. All my kids have a large zip up gift bag, each with its own pattern so back when they couldn't read they knew which theirs was (used to do different wrapping paper), and all their presents go in there. For birthdays and gift giving holidays, I have all bags in my bedroom and just check the item and put things in their bag when they come into the house/I go through parcels. It takes my husband or I very little time to check and sort it out, far less than when we were wrapping things. It came about to be easier on us and less time consuming with four kids, not anything special.

I never checked instructions for legos or played through their video games though. We do download digital video games before so they're "opened" when the child uses the device (they do get excited spotting new things), and do the same with ebooks, but that's also when we're buying them so to me it's the same 'sorting it when it comes in' thing.

And do you not think patiently waiting for Santa, counting down days to advent calendars and then actual advent calendar is being patient enough?

You want them to be even more patient on Christmas morning when everyone has got them hyped up to the absolute max?

I think this is ott. Kids need to learn patience like waiting for batteries etc. I might set up a laptop or phone in advance, but if they are old enough to have them, they are old enough to wait.

I think doing it or not doing it is fine.

Judging from either side is not fine.

I make sure we have the right batteries for everything and if it's something that needs properly setting up, we might do that then sort of half wrap it but already put together (looking at you, mario kart hot wheels racing track). I only do this to save myself agro on the actual day and to lessen the chance of my kids hearing a whole host of new swear words as things can't just be simple.

I would feel guilty playing their computer games first! There is something special about removing the plastic wrapper from a fresh game box 🤣.

She knows she was a failure as a mother, and is just grasping at straws. Ignore it, it's not even worth trying to think of a reply.

I never even had time to wrap until midnight Xmas eve when my kids were young. Never crossed my mind to test the toys. Pointless Stealth bragging! Imo.

All these people spitting feathers at the op saying mil had more time on her hands as a sahm, just calm down. You're all talking about how time consuming having toddlers is. If you bother to read the post properly you'll see she is referring to toys that older, school age children would have. Nobody is disputing that babies & toddlers take up all of your time. However, and I speak from experience, that once they're at school most mothers do have more time on their hands. Doing the housework, cooking & shopping does not take all day every day. I used to do all of that as well as go to the gym & PTA activities. You all just love to be offended don't you 🤣🤣

@stayathomer & @LochNessy get over yourselves. You sound like people who are professionally offended at everything. Op wasn't having a go at sahm, she's just stating a fact that her mil had more time to do these things as her time wasn't taken up with going out to a paid job too; and I say this as I myself was a sahm for years. Once the children are at school I found that there was more time to do these extra jobs.
No one's having a dig, the thread is not even about how much time on her hands a sahm has 🙄

I've been a married sahm to one child with complex special needs, and a single working mom to one child with complex special needs.

Working is sooooo much more relaxing!
Also we are out of the house all day so it is always tidy. Way less housework!

The problem here is why you let it bother you.

Thiszebraiscrossing

i left work the first time because the cost of childcare for three kids was way more than my wage and the next time because my childcare fell through and my only option was putting my kids in two different childcare settings because they didn’t have room for all of them. We were juggling like crazy with both of our managers giving us warnings in work.

Pipconkermash

I read the post,I’m just saying she lost me at her sahp comment

I came from a 'second hand where possible' family (and I have willingly kept the habit to be fair, I'm not complaining about it) but it did mean that when something was in a box and sealed etc, it was that extra bit more special because it was new. So I'd have been quite upset if a brand new present had been opened and set up already. It would make it feel as second hand as the rest of them.