To tell them to keep the big robot at their house

[ShitBot]

My parents have got my nine year old a rolling ball robot thing for Christmas, it is apparently a bit over a metre tall, cost around £80 and is somewhat fragile.

She saw something similar when we went to Disneyland in the summer and wanted it, but hasn’t mentioned it at all since.
My mum said they wanted to get her one, apparently there are similar things of different sizes, I said it’d be good if it could fit in one of our 30x30cm storage cupboards as we are really short for space. The kids’ room (she shares with her sister atm) is often really messy, something my mum knows, but they each have a few of these storage boxes/cupboards which is the size new toys need to fit in or they’ll inevitable get lost or broken. I also have a 6 year old and a toddler so toys WILL get taken and broken if they’re not kept safe but we have no spare safe places other than the storage boxes.

Their room is often a death trap, if it’s plonked on the floor it will get broken or someone will trip over it and it’s unfair to keep it downstairs and not let the other children play with it.

We’ll be getting a lot of building work done starting in January so things are going to be hectic and even more crowded around here so it really is a PITA to have new big things to trip over.

I have been moaning to her for ages about our lack of space and that big toys are not appreciated. In her defence she’s been quite good at just buying mountains of small plastic shit instead, at least that can be stuffed in boxes. So why now, at the worst possible time, do they decide to ignore my pleads and get a massive fucking expensive thing that we can’t safely or conveniently store?! And would I be unreasonable to take it back to their house on Boxing day and say “sorry, nowhere safe to put it where the other little ones can’t get to it, we’ll have to keep it here until spring when 9 year old has her own room to safely store it in” ?

It apparently also randomly makes noises and can’t be turned off without dissembling it and it’s a faff to put back together. She’s also announced that she needs to get 9 year old “just one more thing”, to ‘keep it even’ I suppose. I’m really dreading the mountain of crap at every birthday/Christmas and I find I have to limit what I can get my own children because the grandparents buy so much.

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would I be unreasonable to take it back to their house on Boxing day and say “sorry, nowhere safe to put it where the other little ones can’t get to it, we’ll have to keep it here until spring when 9 year old has her own room to safely store it in” ?

Not unreasonable at all. Hopefully your 9yr old will get to play with it a few times at GPs between now and spring and should understand if you explain.

Can't you ask them to exchange it for some thing smaller? And say if you can't it will have to stay at your house. Give prior warning.

By ‘rolling ball robot thing’ do you mean a BB8? If its over a metre high then I can’t imagine it only being £80! Are you sure it’s that big?

I don't know what it is exactly, lisasimpson it's a star wars thing, but yes it's 100 and something cm apparently. I stupidly told them when the Disney store had a 25% off thing, so maybe that's why it's cheaper? I thought she'd bloody listen when I said our storage was limited to the recently cleared out 30cm squared cupboards, but she texted me the brief details just a couple of days after we had the conversation about limited space with a "whoops, it's massive, lol" kind of text. Thanks, mother.

I've already told them we'll have no space for big stuff until our extension is finished and they went ahead anyway so it's pointless asking them to exchange really. Anyway, it's been assembled apparently so don't think that's an option.

She'd get to play with it loads at theirs, we visit at least once per week. I don't know why I feel guilty about it cluttering up their house or acting ungrateful when they decided to disregard my requests.
I feel bad because it's thoughtful and they just want to make her happy. But it will most likely get broken or banished to the loft here and I'm working really hard to declutter in preparation for the building works and she bloody knows this.

It’s not pointless asking t to exchange, she hasn’t listened up till now, but if you sit her down and tell her clearly that it needs to go back, you’re in with a chance

Is it really over a metre high? DH got a BB8 (rolling star wars robot) last Xmas and it cost about £100 in a sale online. It's about 20x15cm and is dead easy to assemble/disable because the head sticks on with a magnet. Maybe check online and see if you can find what the gps are going about. She may have completely mistold you what they're actually brought or not quite know herself. PILs have previously brought DSS and cousin's kids drumkits so I've always maintained that anything stupidly loud can live at their house. It's not fair to buy a really big or inconvenient toy and dump it on you.

I'd say she's either got the wrong thing or she's got the measurements wrong. Even the one that's £100 to buy new is only about 40cm high. Still big but not as bad.

Either way, YANBU. I'd just say it ai have to stay there until you've got space to prevent it being broken.

Itll be a bb8 and for that price i have the same one ill attach a picture so you can see the size (ive lost the little head and i have the same size hands as my 11 year old) shes gotten the size wrong its tiny.

Maybe she meant mm instead of cm?

Why would she think it's massive if it was the one in the photo though? The box wouldn't be that big...

Unless there was a display thing that was massive and she thought she was buying that and thinks it is flat packed inside?!! I feel I'm clutching here though

YANBU

No it's been assembled and is definitely massive, she gestured its size but I've not actually seen it as I always have my children with me.
Maybe she said it cost less than it did as she knows I think they spend excessively on gits, she does often lie about 'little' things. Even more reason not to break it…

If it was that size, Pretend, that would be perfect! It could be kept safely away from her siblings' destructive hands and clumsy feet!
Why must they always go OTT!?

YWBU to wait until boxing Day to say so this. Tell her now, well in advance!

Even the new "giant" life-sized BB8 is less than half a metre tall. I think you have the size wrong.

This is the biggest one I could find online, it looks to be about 60cm tall. So smaller than she says, but still too big for your storage boxes by the sounds of it. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Disney-Star-War-BB8-Remote-Control-Large-Voice-Activated-Interactive-Droid-NEW-/183506502964?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c1

I also think you have the size wrong, or she spent significantly moer than she is letting on, I would maybe just wait and see. BB-8s for £80 or even £100 are really quite small. I cannot find a one metre high BB-8.

My son has a BB8 from the Disney shop - it's about a foot tall.

OK, thanks, hopefully she's just exaggerated the size then, it's still bigger than I asked for but maybe it can be squeezed into a wardrobe or something.

Even a life size bb-8 stands about 67cm high so I'm wondering if she's got what you expected at all.

Did they actually purchase R2-D2? https://150 odd cm high