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Original poster

Things other people buy your kids that you really wish they wouldn’t...

125 replies

TallTilly · 26/08/2018 11:00

Yes yes I know it’s so ungrateful but I’m going to vent anyway. I really do appreciate that people want to spoil my girls but sometimes....😬😬

Top of my list is bubbles. I fucking hate bubbles. Stain the washing. Kids are obsessed with them and yet too young to do them by themselves and just spill the mixture so I need to stand there blowing bubbles with a soaking wet hand. Yet my mum seems to buy them bubbles every time she enters a shop. Rage. I sneak them into the bin.

In laws are terrible for buying large and lavish (usually expensive) gifts which stress me out as to where to put them. Our house is tiny and in desperately trying to rid it of clutter. We do not need an easel/pop tent/ball pit/bean bag etc etc.

Anyone else?

OP posts:
RandomMess · 26/08/2018 13:45

@TallTilly I came on to share what @Trumpton already has Grin

KindergartenKop · 26/08/2018 13:52

Here it's not so much the specific toys but the quantity of them. My brother will buy my two sons about 15 large gifts each at Xmas. Mostly toys he wants for himself (no kids of his own). In fact our kids are the only in the family on both sides so they are spoilt by everyone and our house is stuffed to the seams with stuff!

YBR · 26/08/2018 13:56

Soft toys and plastic tat (esp. that which comes from magazines).

But I have a routine in my house where all the soft toys are gathered and the kids choose 3 to keep and one to pass on (Charity shop usually). I will need to do this with other things at some point but we do manage to loose 25% of soft toys at intervals (once or twice a year).

Plastic tat, broken things and (on occasion) things the DDs ought to have grown out of are liable to disappear if left in a mess and not put away. Cruel mummy!

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MagicMix · 26/08/2018 13:58

My children have an aunt who I'm pretty sure is trying to irritate us with the stuff she gets for them.
Her 'best' effort so far was a teddy that was large enough to completely fill a single bed. There was no way we could keep it, there is just nowhere we could put it. We had to return it and then DD was of course upset. I don't know what the aunt was thinking. It's certainly not malicious as we all get on very well. Maybe she finds it funny.
Usually it's just noisy battery toys that she knows I don't want them to have. I don't mind the children being noisy and I like them to have toy instruments but I hate battery toys that make the same inane noises over and over with just pressing a button. Nobody else buys them battery toys except this one aunt. Her only child is an adult so no chance for revenge.

woodfires · 26/08/2018 13:58

Slime, I hate it.

lynmilne65 · 26/08/2018 14:00

'Tasteful ' wooden toys ! Really 🙄

Haworthia · 26/08/2018 14:01

As soon as I read the thread title my first thought was BUBBLES.

I’m so glad I’m not the only one, OP Grin

I fucking hate them. Both grandmothers buy them all the time. My mum gave us a four pack the other week. I only have two children, and one can’t even blow them himself.

Cue me trying to make lunch / unload the dishwasher / peg out washing with a 3yo hanging off my leg screaming “BUBBLES”.

I have poured a lot down the sink over the years.

FrangipaniBlue · 26/08/2018 14:32

Lego.

I hate it, in fact have a bit of an irrational fear/loathing of it.

All those little tiny pieces EVERYWHERE

I was uncomfortable watching that programme on C4 a while back about the Lego championships, I had to leave the room Confused

Isentthesignal · 26/08/2018 14:35

Two big thick fleecy blankets, that look like shit in my living room and are so big I struggle to hide them - hideous things!

myusernameisnotmyusername · 26/08/2018 14:40

Play doh! My fil buys it for dd and it only comes out when she can play outside!

PhilomenaButterfly · 26/08/2018 14:43

I want a Minions fart gun! 😂

Talith · 26/08/2018 14:45

Complicated craft sets or experiment sets/build a dinosaur/create a radio/sodding airfix

Of course they love them but you invariably have to supervise/figure it out/ end up doing it for them as attention wanes

Also anything you can "decorate yourself" the pens paints or whatever are invariably crap and not in sufficient quantities.

Sarahandduck18 · 26/08/2018 14:47

Guns
Consoles
Sweets
Pink tat/anything Disney princess
Designer clothes
Tracksuit bottoms

TitsalinaBumSquash · 26/08/2018 14:56

I'll admit to throwing a real strop one Christmas. I had politely asked all relatives to please stick to one small gift for the DCs as we're really overcrowded at home, this followed the previous year where they turned up with heaving bin bags full for each child. Shock

They thought it was hilarious when they walked in Christmas Day with even more than the previous year. I actually cried. Blush

Those bastard Christmas themed musical books are the work of the devil, they get pressed all year round. I don't want a tinny version of Jingle Bells playing for the 6th hundred time at 3am in JUNE!

allthegoodusernameshavegone · 26/08/2018 14:58

This thread is fantastic, I have been doing it correctly for years then. I never buy family kids any shit or spend loads on them or give them a gift on every visit and I thought the parents were disappointed with me.

TitsalinaBumSquash · 26/08/2018 15:01

Yes! The best way is to ask the parents if they can't think of anything, ask if they'd prefer a voucher. That is the correct way.

Touchnotthiscat · 26/08/2018 15:03

My SIL buys my kids clothes - think neon/black/grey for my DD and ugly weird onesies for DS. They are always from ASDA and always from an old sale rail so that if I try to return them they’re only worth 99p anyway!
It is not that they’re short of money as they’re always lording it above us about expensive holidays and cars etc... We dread it every year!

campion · 26/08/2018 15:03

Swiss army knife with his name on. For a 7 yr old. Thanks dsil.
I took it off him.Don't think he even noticed but the corkscrew has come in v handy!

w4ytoomuch · 26/08/2018 15:04

A fucking drum kit.

PixieMiss · 26/08/2018 15:08

Toys that are so big they are like pieces of furniture in my front room! Thats the bloody desk and huuuge table for a train track I'm referring to...

abitoflight · 26/08/2018 15:09

Bead sets!!!
No way am I treading on them or picking them up
When we moved house, found 4 bead sets I'd pushed under the sofa on various Xmas days 🤣

abitoflight · 26/08/2018 15:10

Ooh and magic sand!!
Takes the finish off the floor
Only for your worst enemy

Clutterfreeintraining · 26/08/2018 15:29

My ds is 16 now so presents are considerably smaller than they used to be!
However, when he was little, my family used to make me feel like such a killjoy because I put a 3 present rule in place (they still take the piss out of me over it!). Also, if a present was larger than a shoe box, present would have to live at the giver’s house - that helped a little bit, though was mostly ignored.
Ds was (and still is) the only child in the family so has many, many generous gift-givers - for which I am grateful but at the same time, no one ever considered we live in a small flat with little room for anything.
It’s much easier now he’s older so hang on in there...the novelty wears off Grin

SinkGirl · 26/08/2018 15:39

MIL bought my under-2 daredevil twins a bloody trampette with handlebars. Within 60 seconds one did a flip over the bars and landed on his head.

Toyboysrus · 26/08/2018 16:00

Lol at pushing the bead sets under the sofas, that's where i used to hide the dreaded board games!

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