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?

@GreenLeafTurnip

Baby grows with buttons down the back. Awful inventions. Anything that wasn't a baby grow for his first few months. My friend sent a gorgeous trouser and jumper set which I put him in for a photo and then changed back to a baby grow. Babies don't need outfits!!

I hate seeing babies in babygrows for weeks. I just think it looks like lazy parenting. What’s wrong with soft cotton leggings, t-shirts, long sleeved tops etc. At least they look like clothes and they’re comfy. I totally agree about the buttons things. And jeans on babies. Very uncomfortable.

Winter clothes for baby born in a heatwave

Teddies and comforters. DS1 has a chair full of them and Ds2's pile isn't far behind.

Sleepsuits without poppers at the front

We received a COOK voucher and actually found it quite handy. Definitely not worth the money and not something I would pay for myself but it was nice having a week off of cooking

@Chooseausernamenow it's not lazy parenting. my baby still mainly wears them as had eczema till 6 months. It was aggravated by leggings. Sleepsuits were nice and loose around her legs and ankles. Also much easier to apply the emoilent many many times a day.

She's just growing out of this lot now and we'll try leggings again.

Am surprised people hate soft toys so much - obv they don’t use them as newborns but mine love their masses of stuffed toys now they’re a bit bigger

And re snowsuits - I always used 6-9mo snowsuits on small babies as you could just lie them down in them - like a sort of babygro duvet.

My most useless gift was a solid silver set of tiny tins for baby’s first bodily part cast offs - baby’s first tooth, lock of baby’s hair. Weird and creepy. Sold them on eBay for a fortune.

I agree with champagne, flowers. Also bubble bath and "things for you" - I really was only interested in baby things. Flowers took up too much space in our small house, champagne - neither of us really like it and the thought of making myself feel even more exhausted by drinking alcohol was horrific. Bubble bath - no thanks, I'm a shower person. Luckily Cook vouchers weren't a thing back then, we'd have had to drive a long way to use them or pay delivery (wouldn't have had room for £50 worth of ready meals in the freezer. I must admit I wouldn't have minded a Dominos gift card though.

Laughing my arse off at lazy parenting.

A dry clean only cashmere baby blanket from White Company.

Yup babygros are not lazy parenting. The rate at which my son is growing I’d be absolutely gutted if I’d spent more money on wee outfits he’d barely get any wear out of. Second child obviously! First had all the cute faffy outfits under the sun.

Denim jacket with diamanté’s and matching jeans. Really stiff hard denim. For a newborn. Worn for the thank you photo. Feel bad about that one.

I started a thread about this earlier but I’ve received a load of dresses and tights in 0-3 months. Will hardly be worn.

Tiny babies don't have a waist so waistbands are potentially uncomfy for them.

I do switch to leggings/joggers and tops when they are starting to push themselves around with their legs but before that, stick to comfort! They're babies!

Some beautiful and pricey outfits for my DD but the friend said she wanted to give them to me in person rather than send them, by which time she was six months too old for them. SO kind but unfortunately ...

Also a lovely, hand knitted dress from my stepmum. It was such a thoughtful gesture and I know how long she must have taken but it was too small. So I quietly unravelled it and knitted a cardigan for DD out of it (never told stepmum).

Horrendous ceramic money box from Tiffany's from DSIL. Hate the bloody thing, and such a tragic waste of money - I found it genuinely upsetting at the time! Felt like such a poser present rather than something useful or considered.

Matching bikinis for me and my newborn.
Looked great with her nappy and my maternity pads poking out.

A silver tube to store the birth certificate in.

About £500 worth of designer clothing for my first, from my great, great aunt. Bought from a boutique allegedly frequented by celebrities, unfortunately at the other side of the country to where I live so I couldn't return.
I was a teenager, very skint sleeping on a mattress on the floor but my baby was dressed like a millionaire!

Oh my - DSis had her first baby today by c section and I have posted her some baby swaddles, is it a useful gift or will she be posting on here in disgust? 🙈

@RiderGirl depends, some people love them and others don't. We never really swaddled DD.

@Graphista

Seconding ANY clothes that do up at the back, totally impractical.

Ditto "hand wash only" the only new mums who have time for that shit are the very wealthy - who pay someone else to wash em! Machine washable at 40°c and tumble dry-able are the most practical

Agree on clothes for wrong season too, I took advantage of this quirk of retail to buy dds winter coats until she was well into teens (and therefore more picky) to buy her winter coats a year in advance every year, also wellies! I got very good at knowing what size to get

We were also give one of those door bouncer things, i never thought it looked safe and we never used it anyway, but if we had wanted to use it the layout of our home meant we'd have been constantly putting the damn thing up and taking it down again!

Slings I never got along with but agree these are a very personal thing due to fit for mother and baby etc and shouldn't be chosen by others.

In my case the breast pump I was given proved pointless as while I managed bf ok for several months I was never able to express more than a few drops, just didn't work for me

Baby grows that button up the back for older babies are really handy for those who like to strip and take off dirty nappies 😱

@StoneColdBitch

We were given a COOK voucher. I cringe when I see it recommended on here as an ideal present for new parents. The voucher wasn't enough to make an order which qualified for free postage, and we couldn't easily afford to pay the extra for this. So we collected the order from our nearest shop, which was a 45-minute drive away. The actual food was fairly nice but in no way worth the price. Terrible present IMO.

One person’s trash is another one’s treasure. We live 5 minutes’ walk from a Cook shop so we’d have loved it! But I am biased, because I did buy Cook food as a gift for a friend. I ordered the actual food though and paid for delivery.

All the elderly ladies of the area knitted beautiful jumpers, suits, jackets etc for ds, as he was the first baby born in our neighbourhood for years so there was much excitement...
There was also much hand washing of lovely knitted items, and much tiresome effort in getting them dried in the cold January, February and March of his birth... Such a shame, as these were truly lovely things, just so impractical. My DDad probably bought us the best present... a huge box of Mothercare nappies, delivered as and when needed, bless him! He never bought anything fancy, always practical and it ensured we NEVER ran out of nappies!
He only slipped up once... he bought ds a drum-kit... we don’t mention that though...

Skinny black jeans and a (fake) leather biker jacket in size 0-3 months. Also SO much personalised things. Some more useful than others (like cutlery sets, or a backpack) but each child got several frames with their full names, date of birth, time of birth and weight on them... not entirely sure where you’d display them tbh.

On the COOK point, we got a week's worth of food actually delivered from them from a lovely friend. She knew my freezer would be empty as I'm not a cooking person and my nesting did not involve batch cooking. I really appreciated it when my partner went back to work! The soft toys are also beloved by my toddler. All the little rabbit comforters she got as a newborn have names now and get tucked in bed with her so they're much appreciated now!

I suppose the best gifts are from people who actually know you and think of your circumstances.

'I suppose the best gifts are from people who actually know you and think of your circumstances.'

You would hope.

Flowers sent to the hosp ward 24 hours after. A boquet so stuffed in a vase then wilted quickly due to heat....waste of money

@RiderGirl

Oh my - DSis had her first baby today by c section and I have posted her some baby swaddles, is it a useful gift or will she be posting on here in disgust? 🙈

I'd have loved a swaddle! Found them really useful,