What was the most impractical baby gift you were given?

[LolaNova]

Was just in the kids bedroom looking at a blanket DS was given shortly after he was born by a friend of my mum’s. It’s absolutely stunning. White, hand crocheted, really intricate, very fine yarn, took hundreds of hours to make. It’s also massive, heavy, and wholly impractical for use as a blanket by anyone, let alone an infant! You could probably use it as a gorgeous beach cover up or a christening shawl for photos. It’s hung on the bannisters in DS’ room for the last 2 years.

What gifts were you given that never got used?

My brother brought a white £120 Moncler dress for a baby shower.

Teeny tiny baby shoes - lovely but they never would have fit.

Some skinny jeans in 0-3m - never managed to get them on him.

My mil knitted 22 hats. Well I say hats the majority were horrendous bonnet type things like something out of a quality street advert with big bows . We didn’t know the sex of our baby ( it was a boy) and my husband said “no son of mine is wearing a bonnet! “As it was his mother who had knitted them I didn’t feel so bad. One of my neighbors had 2 little girls with baby dolls who loved the bonnets all 22 of them

I’ve got a very rich friend. This is important. But she got me some £900 baby dress. Which was bloody stunning. But very fine lace. With so many buttons. I’ve never ever unboxed it. It was just wow and I was so overwhelmed. But incredibly badly designed for a baby.

O dear...

I recently bought an utterly impractical but very pretty sailor dress age 3-6m and early soft leather shoes for a friend and her baby.

Clearly she's soon going to soon be cursing my name forever more

I started knitting last year and am midway through a blanket and and booties for a different friend.

This is so hard!!

All baby prezzies ought to come with a gift receipt!

Not me, but a friend's nan gave her new great-grandchild a jar of boiled sweets. It's the thought that counts.

I found dresses really practical on my babies (summer babies), o guess we are all different.

My least useful gifts:

1. The beautiful, lovingly made, homemade knitted cardigans made by both sets of parents, for our summer born baby. They had grown out of them by the time the weather turned (and it was a very hot summer that year). We didn't get any for winter, I guess as we hadn't used the first lot much...

2. scratch mittens. They fell off too easily, and I preferred the fold over sleeve ones.

3. Muslins. I didn't have sicky babies, so didn't use them much. I ended up with about 60 of them.

4. Not birth, but first Christmas for said summer baby. Baby was 6m old and very average sized. We got given a 12-18m 'my first Christmas' sleepsuit. MIL said she bought it big so she could grow into it... Well she did, that SUMMER, and it was not Christmas any more, and was fleecey, so too warm to wear anyway.

Perfect prep and bottles. I had breastfed previous two and told family member I was breastfeeding baby 3. Still they bought the full set,steriliser ,bottles and the prep machine . I ended up gifting them to my friend

2) scratch mittens. They fell off too easily, and I preferred the fold over sleeve ones

Not a gift, but DH was trying to stretch a scratch mitt with two of his fingers to get it over our PFBs hand. DH hand slipped resulting in him hitting PFB on the face with the back of his hand.

Our of season clothes definitely. My mum was/is the queen of this, she'd buy whatever she thought was nice and was on sale in the supermarket in whatever sizes for my children to 'grow into' regardless of seasons! It's not so bad now they're older and the ages go up in years, but when they were under 2 it was ridiculous. When I emptied my attic of the baby clothes I had eight big vacuum bags of stuff to bin/donate/sell. I reckon the equivalent of a whole one was full of stuff that my mum had bought and that they'd never worn. There's everything, even bigger things like coats. Such a waste.

And yes, I have told her many times to stop it.

Soft toys - yes, most pointless thing ever. Dust collectors

All of the silver tat you get for christenings and you're going to buy cup/bowl/plate sets just get a really nice melamine one. They're are some lovely ones in places like John Lewis or Sophie Allport.

Noisy gifts. I'm looking at you child free DBro and DSIL who oh so kindly - and with their hearts firmly in the right place - bought my toddler a huge, deafeningly loud piano dance mat thing as a big sister present when her sibling was born. Same individuals bought my eldest a four foot teddy when she was born. I'm saving them for when they have children and then I will gift them right back

@EssentialHummus

Clothes from the COS baby range. Did you know that COS made baby clothes? Nope, me neither. Thanks mum. DD has several photos where she resembles Tilda Swinson.

This is hilarious 😂

Someone bought my ds (3 months at the time) a pair of silver monogrammed cufflinks.....
Holding onto something so small for about 18 years will be nothing short of a miracle.

Clothes that were too small. In fact still have it now with my oldest who is 5. Both Dd's were given 0-3 month clothes when they were 3 months old. My oldest DD was born between Christmas and New year and was given a 9-12month sleep suit for her first Christmas (even though she would be 12months in a few days time). Worse still she was a tall baby and had outgrown 9-12 months 3 months earlier. She is still on the tall side. I have lost count of the times I've said if in doubt size up. Even when family members have been told the exact size they have still bought clothes a size too small. On one occasion a family member bought her a dress and sized down she said 'because it looked big', it didn't it looked like it would be a top on her. Youngest Dd is short so thankfully haven't had so many problems.

Yes to the seasonal wrong sizes. Baby was born in late November and was small. Got given Xmas dress and tights in up to 3 months. When was she ever going to wear it?

I've still got my Bunnykins bowl...I am remember the day, as a small child, where the cup got broken, can't recall who was more upset out of me and mum!

We were really lucky and had really practical gifts for DD, just maybe a few too blankets for a summer baby but they were all lovely gifts from different friends. I'm pregnant with DC2 and I'm kind of hoping this one is a girl too so we can get more use of the mountain of pretty clothes we have I'm the loft, she was given so many that most have only had one or two outings! But we had lots of unisex stuff and some very boyish things as we didn't know her sex before she arrived. Either way a local charity will be getting some nice donations come October when we know what we've got!

A pair of knitting needles for the .... baby 😱not me. A copy of war and peace for the baby. Shoes for the baby. And a huge toy drum kit and xylophone - that DC never had. Best present was a lovely lovely rocking horse.

I got a build a bear complete with various outfits, pjs, a passport, various shoes, sunglasses etc! It must have cost a fortune. My DS is now 20 months old and the build a bear has still never had his outfit changed. Perhaps when Dd is older he will take an interest!

a copy of war and peace for the baby
😆😆😆

I was given a hand/feet casting kit. Had to keep baby still for something like 30 seconds. Tried when she was asleep, obviously she decided to move in her sleep. Gunk everywhere, stuck to her sleeves etc. Gave up after trying one hand and chucked the rest.

Little leather shoes, size 0-3 months. Cute as anything, but what newborn wears shoes?!

Yes to anything that needs to be hand washed / dry cleaned / lots of ironing. This was definitely worse with dd than either ds.
I will confess to gifting hand crocheted blankets and hats, but I always use a brand of soft acrylic for babies, so it’s very machine washable. So hopefully I get a pass!

A homemade nappy cake. So nappies out of the packet with a bit of ribbon wrapped round them. A nice idea but by the time we came around to using that size, they were all floppy and dusty. I would have honestly been happy with the nappies in an unopened packet!

Dresses for newborns with a sash which ties at the back - it must be so uncomfortable to lie on a knot!

Best things we were given was books and hand me down clothes. We were the last of our friends to have a baby so we were given loads of second hand clothes ranging from newborn to about 8 years old. It's been great!

MIL in England sent us a very warm snowsuit. We were living in the tropics when we had the baby! Hot, all year round, even at night. We could never have used it without making the baby seriously ill! I sent it back to England as a gift for a friend who had a newborn and was planning to visit family in Russia, she found it useful.

Size small outfits by my in laws all this time even though they know how many months old DS is. DS would be six months and is a big long baby, inlaws would buy 3-6 months clothes which wouldn't fit. Any clothes they have ever brought have never fitted him and my inlaws would wash it and take the tags off before giving it to me so you can't return them for a bigger size or they will get a 1 year old coat but DS would be 16 months in winter so it would be too small for him. They have a problem of thinking ahead which annoys me as they are lovely clothes and a waste of money.