Please don’t ever buy my kids..?

[Kibble19]

Lighthearted, before anyone gets upset about people being ungrateful.

What gifts would you stick on the banned list?

For me, it’s the classic glitter and slime-based toys. Special mention to toys with 4000 loose parts too.

This plus;

-Plastic toys (doesn’t play with them, they mostly end up at the charity shop)
-Soft toys (there’s a build a bear obsession in my house, we’d much prefer the clothes to a new bear though- they’re taking over!)
-Squishys and other plastic fidgets (last about two seconds, breaks and then goes in the bin)

On the other hand we’re super happy to receive arts and crafts, messy science kits, slime or kinetic sand, musical instruments, play makeup etc. I don’t mind mess or noise but I don’t like pointless ‘stuff’.

I had an uncle in the 1960s who specialized in no-notice unsuitable gifts.

One Christmas present was goldfish in a leaking tank (meaning my dad had to drive miles around trying to find a shop with pet supplies open on a bank holiday - a rarity in the 60s - and the "gift" cost him a lot more)

The most memorable was when my grandad started screaming about "rats" on the landing. Turns out they'd bought hamsters as a surprise gift.... in a cardboard box (no cage or anything). The hamsters duly escaped and got under the floorboards and uncle and dad spent the rest of Christmas lifting floorboards to locate them.

Old soft toys from the charity shop. Late ex mil I’m looking at you. Or at least I would if you were still alive.

Brightly-coloured bath bombs. They stain your bath for weeks. The ones with glitter in are even worse.

Anything remotely resembling a toy gun.

A 'make your own perfume' kit. Kids can produce god-awful smells all on their own, they don't need assistance.

Cheap colouring pencils. No matter how carefully you sharpen them, the leads break off.

Crap quality coloured pencils
Same for cheap crayons or felt tips
Fake Barbies
Anything that smell of nasty chemically plastic/rubber (think playsets with lots of small pieces)

I don't mind noisy toys - I once bought my son a hunting horn for a prezzie - like this.
And my daughter used to have a drum kit.
(We live in a big house miles from any neighbours 😁)

Sticky Lizards/people that climb down windows and walls. Leave greasy marks it’s impossible to remove.

Sweets. One of my kids is celiac, and another one is allergic to nuts.

I hated receiving sweet gifts and telling my kids they couldn't eat them.

Slime.

Anything which might cause a parenting boundaries row, e.g. make up for a tween

Anymore nerf guns!

Anything crafty containing glitter or sand.

Any toys from Temu/shein/ Ali Express ECT. Same with glitter tattoos/ face paint off Temu/shein ect.
LEGO sets with lots of fiddly pieces and requiring extensive adult input and lengthy concentration levels in order to build it below age 8. I did quite enjoy helping my 13 year old nephew at Christmas with his Lego technic for an hour or so.
Musical instruments.

Anything which requires adult assembly and constant supervision such as a budget-end telescope - which will never work properly anyway.

Random 'educational' board games that no-one's ever heard of that you saw advertised in the Telegraph supplement.

Twaddle-filled books. Anything by David Walliams or books like Diary of A Wimpy Kid will get thrown in the bin. Life's too short to read rubbish.

A cutesy pink ballet bag for a teen dancer. It will be received with utter horror. If you must buy one, go for a large plain black holdall.

My sister bought my daughter a candy floss machine a few years ago . Haven’t quite forgiven her for it 🤣

A loom band kit. Great fun to make but those things get everywhere. I was the one stupid enough to buy it though.

Any Huge bag of hard boíled sweets

Pretty much all toys, especially anything battery powered and soft toys.

Also very specific to my car obsessed child, anything with wheels. He has a truly insane amount of vehicles, everyone knows he loves them and keeps buying more. But then they become just another car after maybe a day of playing😩

See, I hate this too but my kids love looking like Paw Patrol / Frozen / Lilo and Stitch have thrown up on them!

Gift vouchers unless they have been asked for. If you want to gift money then cash is much better. It’s annoying being tied to particular shops, Love 2 Shop and similar are a headache and you can guarantee whatever Dc want to buy isn’t in a shop that’s included. Then there’s the keeping tabs on expiry dates and being forced to buy something within a timeframe.
Also nothing from Poundland, no cheap nasty dupes and nothing huge.

I want that croaking frog. It would make a great conversation piece at dinner parties.

Plastic tat - I can't stand it and stuff usually breaks or gets stuck in the vacuum.
Tiny beads, paints and messy stuff
Cheap musical instruments that sound tinny or even worse are toys that make noises.
Cheap stuffed toys that fall apart and are potentially dangerous to young children.

Oh wow! I just remembered my son got one of those with a dinosaur in - it was a nightmare!
I will add 'Sand Art' to the list (a 90's horror), whoever thought that was a good idea wasn't thinking straight (I'm looking at you Auntie Magaret).

I'm agog at the hatred for Lego and Play doh, classic excellent toys surely?

The only things that I dislike are those sticky things you throw at walls, and the fake Lego that is always too fiddly and small.

Anything from Temu/Ali express like places.