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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what's the strangest/funniest gift you have ever received.

56 replies

seaclaidte · 03/07/2020 00:33

Someone gave me baby clothes as a wedding gift.
I wasn't pregnant. I didn't have any DC.

I didn't have DC till many years later.

OP posts:
DimplesToadfoot · 03/07/2020 07:37

I got a guinea pig, in a large brown box with straw and everything.... it was dead

MyNameHasBeenTaken · 03/07/2020 08:24

Dimples.
You win!
That's awful.

MinnieJackson · 03/07/2020 09:37

@DimplesToadfoot omg! Grin

Coffeeisnecessary · 03/07/2020 09:39

A dead Guinea pig?! Was it meant to be alive?

MinnieJackson · 03/07/2020 09:42

My husband gets random gifts from his mum for birthdays and christmas. For his 40th he got a lint roller, a pack of three tea towels and a tiny bongo drum Confused he gets cross as I always get nice slippers or bubble bath Grin once for Xmas me, husband and BIL all got the same...flashing whistles, wind up frogs, a bag of chocolate coins and a ten pack of serviettes Grin

katscamel · 03/07/2020 10:43

I received a hamster from a student when I worked in Turkey and in a different overseas posting I was given a pretty hideous, several sizes too big nightie from a 9 year old student.

AlexandPea · 03/07/2020 10:47

I got a plastic bag full of my MIL’s old bras. Grin

Apparently they were too good to throw away.

ExhaustedGrinch · 03/07/2020 10:51

My nan gave my then 5 month old boy a My Little Pony hat and gloves set, aged 6 - 7 yrs for Christmas. Fucking bonkers. She's not poor but extremely tight, she likely picked up in a charity shop for 50p and thought 'that'll do'. There's no girl of that age that my nan would be buying for either so it's not like she gave him the wrong gift by mistake.

ExhaustedGrinch · 03/07/2020 10:54

@AlexandPea

I got a plastic bag full of my MIL’s old bras. Grin

Apparently they were too good to throw away.

Noooo! That's awful!

My dads wife (they've now separated) can't see anything thrown out by other people, if someone is throwing something out she'll have it. Usually she doesn't need/want what she's scavenged but instead will pass those items on to other family members. I think she does this because she's broke but still likes to give people things.

However, my sister was mortified when my dads wife gave her a load of second hand knickers that someone else was throwing out. She was even more mortified when dads wife had said "Yes I told her daughter would like those" ... I laughed until I realised I'm also daughter and they might think it was me wanting them! Blush

VenusOfWillendorf · 03/07/2020 11:01

A cast iron 3ft high statue of a rabbit. I got a lot of looks bringing it home on the bus, as I couldn't get back into the box it was presented to me in.
I don't have a garden, just a small balcony. I've put it on the window sill (its wide for plant pots) - and it sits there looking in the window of my living room at me.
I've become used to it - fond even, but it frightens the life out of anyone who comes to visit Grin

DimplesToadfoot · 03/07/2020 11:03

I'm told the guinea pig was alive when it was put in the box and it died through the night, then I get up all excited, open the box and err oops 😬

I'm going straight to hell as I look back and laugh. It was horrific at the time 😢

reinacorriendo · 03/07/2020 11:05

My mum for my birthday this year got me a first aid kit, 2 air fresheners and a pack of tea towels.

Christmas oven gloves and a tube of smarties

AdaColeman · 03/07/2020 11:13

OMG @DimplesToadfoot, that’s just awful!

Waiting42021 · 03/07/2020 11:17

When I was with my ex, his notoriously tight dad got me a big box of Thornton’s chocolates for Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised as he was a real door hinge.

That’s until he said “I originally bought these for Jane, but her and Jim split up last month so I thought you might as well have them.”

Erm, thanks?!

That same Christmas, he bought my ex (his own son!!) a single pair of thermal long johns.

vodkaredbullgirl · 03/07/2020 11:19

Got a brain, yes you read that right. It was a secret santa present from a co worker. It was a rubber 1, the jokes I made with that brain were so corny.

rosegoldwatcher · 03/07/2020 11:24

Not necessarily strange just hideous...
My son likes to think 'out of the box' for presents. He knows that my two passions are wine and shoes so he gave me a shoe wine holder, similar to this
www.amazon.co.uk/VERDUGO-GIFT-CO-Holder-Black/dp/B0128EV1S0?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

It was 'on display' for a while (to save his feelings) but sadly was pushed fell to its death.

AdaColeman · 03/07/2020 11:28

I was once given an evening stole made of platelets of mother of pearl type shell on a fabric backing, it looked a bit like a flattened armadillo. Not only am I the least likely person to ever need an evening stole, but it completely reeked of cigarette smoke and some of the platelets were missing.

My wealthy relative must have sent it to me instead of to the charity shop! Hmm

Somethingsnappy · 03/07/2020 11:28

A vintage style candy-floss machine. It looks quite retro and pretty, but has never been used in five years!

YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan · 03/07/2020 11:29

I use a digital alarm clock with big numbers on so I can see the time without putting my glasses on if I wake during the night.

I'd recently redecorated my bedroom with a light green colour scheme. Ex-MIL had seen it and admired it.

On my birthday, she presented me with a clock and said it was to replace the ugly digital clock she'd noticed on the bedside table.

It was more like an ornament than a clock. It was like a pile of pink flowers with a tiny analogue clock in the middle. It didn't match the colour scheme, had no alarm function and I could barely read the time during the day never mind at night.

I just said thank you and never used it Blush

Spied · 03/07/2020 11:29

As a teen my mum gave me a bottle of flex shampoo.
As a chid my grandparents wrapped me up two kitchen rolls because they had 'The Snowman' on them . Bless them.
Last Christmas PIL's arrived with a mouldy smelling present for me. It was a pair if cheap PJ's that were covered in mould and had obviously been stored in an outside shed.

Sunnydayshereatlast · 03/07/2020 11:32

After 6 dgs mil was apparently over the moon we were expecting a dd!!
She was already at our house when I came home from hospital.. She sent me to her car for the special gift she had bought..
Just to clarify I am not grabby....
It was a Tefal frying pan.

Fantasmic143 · 03/07/2020 11:33

My MIL gave me a book about removing stains.

It caused a row.

TheSherbetTurbot · 03/07/2020 11:38

Husbands father got him a very expensive shooting jacket one year. He's never been shooting in hi life.

shinynewapple2020 · 03/07/2020 11:40

@DimplesToadfoot

I'm told the guinea pig was alive when it was put in the box and it died through the night, then I get up all excited, open the box and err oops 😬

I'm going straight to hell as I look back and laugh. It was horrific at the time 😢

Who on earth gave it to you? I can't get over someone thinking it OK to put a live animal in a box as a present for someone and not say when they handed it over
ElsieMc · 03/07/2020 11:44

Received some cheap nylon underwear set, sort of porn style in black and red and the knickers were thongs. They were from the Elbeo factory from my aunt and uncle. I was ten.

My MIL always wanted to keep me on my toes present wise; she was a real game player. Sometimes I would get a fabulous gift like Coco by Chanel. Another time I received out of date toffee with nuts. I was allergic to nuts but she told me to spit them out as I ate the toffees.