Worst presents (lighthearted)

[TheMonkeyMummy]

Up until recently, I thought the worst gift my kids had ever received was a (beautifully decorated) recorder.

Until DD received this electric drum set a few weeks ago.

The mum who gifted it isn't exactly my biggest fan (well played!) but our daughters are besties at school, so I can't really moan or make jokes about it IRL.

But it's just so bloody annoying! And noisy! And the kids (esp the 3 year old) love it!

What's the best gift your kids have ever received that you have hated?

My DM falls into the category of person who decided they have a set amount to spend on each individual and who will then come hell or high water spend that amount to the penny even if it means buying absolute rubbish. I would so much rather she saved her money, asked us if there's anything we'd like etc.

I am 33 and DH is 35. She still does us a sack of gifts each, despite the fact that I've said she doesn't need to, we don't need anything, etc etc.

From her a few years ago DH received (as well as some very nice gifts) a selection of DVDs including Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Muppets Christmas Carol and Mr Beans Holiday. This was before we had children, so no mistake!

Same year I received an electric boiled egg cooker. I do not, and have not ever eaten boiled eggs. DM know this!

It's very odd.

I'm another who's dd received a half filled in activity pack for Christmas. The pack was also too advanced for her (lots of spot the difference type games - she was 2) and all the easy colouring in which she was desperate to do (it was her favourite TV character) had been completed.

I'm sure the person who gave us this bought it from a charity shop and I don't begrudge this (I buy plenty of presents from charity shops) but as it wasn't sealed they could have checked first before giving it to her. Also, Laura's parent's - you are bad people for giving half used items to charity shops

My partners Dad and stepmum always seem to get us charity shop gifts, which is fine but I'm sure she goes out of her way to find the tattiest things. Some favourites over the years were a notebook with some pages ripped out, a smellies gift set in a really battered old box, some earrings in a paper gift bag that had been opened up (recycled gift) some and some weird instrument (partner doesn't play any instruments and has never expressed any interest in doing so) in a completely yellow, cellotaped up box with the year '1993' on it. We're not grabby but what annoys me is that we've always put thought into gifts and sometimes spent more than we should cos we know it's something they'd like but in the last year or so we've been doing the same as them for them.

The picture is not of my husband to be clear and the game he received came with a mini pool you put water in.

You could just sit the other way on the seat and fish in the cistern.

I'm smiling so much with these as I'm now remembering all the shite I've received... board games for 4 players plus from my nan (I'm an only child), sherry from same nan when I hit 18 (for every single year til my mum took over), vanilla body sets (I'm allergic to vanilla), hair rollers and my hair has been short for years but the best goes to my exBF 'D'M a set of jump leads!!! I didn't even have a license let alone a car!

My DM falls into the category of person who decided they have a set amount to spend on each individual and who will then come hell or high water spend that amount to the penny even if it means buying absolute rubbish.

Oh God, mine does this too. I wanted some jeans for my last birthday. We went shopping together and I found the exact ones I wanted. She complained they were ‘only £30’ because she’d been planning to spend about £40. She desperately tried to persuade me I wanted a plain dark blue top (I like prints and bright colours) because it was £12 and would ‘make up the money perfectly’. I showed her a printed one I liked and she rolled her eyes and said ‘But you’ve got loads of things like that!’ Almost as if I like them...

I got a box of blank vhs's for my 9th birthday. 🤔

My grandma made me a Dusty Bin out of fuzzy felt when I was 12. (No-one under 45 will know what this is I realise).

I remember this and I'm 37. I also had a dusty bin bin, complete with a hat as a lid!

Last Christmas, we went to visit at MIL's. She gave us tuna sandwiches for lunch and dished up beef stew for evening meal. Then presented the children their gifts. Tin trains filled with jelly (gelatine) sweets and Disney Princess card games - snap and happy families.

My DC are 19 & 22 year old boys and we have been vegetarian 20+ years. She said we could pick the meat out of the stew, she didn't mind. We said we don't eat meat, she said I do, thats why there is meat in it.

The abomination that is Swirling Glitterstorm! Wtf! Thankfully DD said it doesn't work properly and it's sat in the box. The one and only time she did use it, DH made her do it in the garden .

My friend, who is lovely, bought DD a knitting set. She is too young to do it. I loathe any sort of knitting/sewing crafts. Friend didn't know this and thought it would be fun, um no friend, no it won't be .

@IceBearRocks unfortunately they are long gone by a few decades. But I still remember them.

@clairethewitch70 that made me laugh. Like in the royal family 'give her the wafer thin ham then...'

A friend gave DD1 (19 ) and myself a packet of cable ties each for Christmas. Still trying to work out why? DD2 got expensive make-up and DH alcohol. Mind you they weren't just any old cable ties, they were up market John Lewis ones!

When ds was born some friends bought us a nearly dead plant. I’ve spent four months trying to revive it to no avail, but it’d still not dead enough to give up on without feeling guilty.

Not for our dc (thankfully!), but we got given a shisha pipe as a wedding gift. We do not smoke shisha and in fact I’m asthmatic.

Ex H bought me some stuff from Lush. Now I actually quite Lush products, but it was the way he did it that was funny. Instead of buying a gift box or a set, he got a random assortment of single bath bombs and bubble bars and individually wrapped them all. My xmas presents looked like a pile of rubble under the tree. He must have spent his entire gift budget, as that was all he bought, oh and he also bought some soap - but instead of a small piece (or asking a staff member to cut a small piece) there was a huge wedge about six inches high by about eight inches wide. So a pile of rubble, and what looked like a wedge of dutch cheese sat under the tree.

Set of steak knives in a wooden holder.........DH and I are vegetarian as MIL knows full well

He also bought our newborn baby daughter this toy. I have no idea why - it was the first thing he bought after she was born Even more oddly, she liked it.

Gifts from my mil....
My dd got a plastic crown with half he jewels missing and a bit broken off (this was the only present she got)
My ds got a book with "withdrawn from blah blah library" written in the front
Wedding present we got a bread maker with writing in the instruction booklet.

@CoughLaughFart Why do they do it?!? Ive said to my DM (nicely!) does she really think I mind (or would even know) if she spends £10 more on DB or DH than me? Especially as we've got children now, I'd rather she spent it on them. But nope, she will take 'my' £10 and darn well make sure she buys me something with it... even if it is an electronic egg cooker or a top that doesn't fit, or a cheap make up set that I can't use on my horribly sensitive skin....

My mother is a law unto herself. Bless her.

Tongue scraper

Christmas card from my grandma: "Dear Grandma MyName", Happy Christmas from ANOther Grandma". She had recycled a card she'd received from someone else and just crossed the names out. The card had a square communion wafer in it with the corner broken off (and presumably eaten)!

She fully recognised how completely shit it was - when she handed it over with the envelope with her own name crossed out and mine written above she was laughing so hard she was crying and I thought she was going to expire with mirth when I opened it. Luckily I saw the funny side too

My bil was know for.....eccentric gifts. One year was wine glasses which fit an entire bottle, I mean wtf?! Recycled.

Another year, absolute classic, he bought a 2 foot high extremely heavy plant pot full of compost. There were crocus bulbs planted, apparently. We met up at the pil’s house in the West country and somehow wrestled it into the boot to bring home to London. It’s been in the same spot in the garden ever since, now containing lavender and a peony.

Re Dusty Bin one of my DC was born on 03.02.01 so we nicknamed them Dusty. It's stuck so much other people must think it's their actual name

Packet of pocket tissues (passive aggressive mil). And she bothered to wrap them as well.