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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What was the shittest present you ever received?

850 replies

BrightonOrLancaster · 11/12/2021 22:52

Christmas I was 13, got a lacy training bra from an aunt I wasnt close to. WTF? I had to open it in front of family, was fucking mortified.

Birthday present from ex: dumbbells with flashing colour changing lights from ALDI. Lol. No comment

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
maddening · 14/12/2021 19:38

A present I had got for my friend regifted back to me!

ColdTattyWaitingForSummer · 14/12/2021 22:23

I remember verily happily receiving blank VHS tapes in circa 1989 Xmas Blush

TeaAndBiscuitsAndWine · 14/12/2021 23:56

@Whatamess582

My husbands best friend (woman) gives me shit gifts. She has given me a range over the years but I think the worst was that when she bought me musical flashing Christmas earrings….. I might not have minded but we had spent a fortune on hers and I was mortified. My husband always defends her saying she may not know what to get me as she doesn’t know me very well but that particular year he was gobsmacked at how shit her gift to me was. He was standing there with a present of about €100 Sha had bought ‘him not us’ and she was standing there with €150 of a gift for the two of them and I was standing there with Father Christmas earrings beeping ‘jingle bells’ from Claire’s Accessories.
Does she have a crush on him and resent you?
TeaAndBiscuitsAndWine · 14/12/2021 23:58

@Schooldilemma2345 if you tear open the teabags that have plastic in them, you can tip out and compost the leaves. If they are the type where the bags don’t have plastic, the whole lot can go in the food waste. My mum uses the ‘used teabag plate’ because she is worried the teabag will be too hot and will melt the plastic bag in the food waste bin!

LetHimHaveIt · 15/12/2021 04:14

@ColdTattyWaitingForSummer

I remember verily happily receiving blank VHS tapes in circa 1989 Xmas Blush
I agree! I'd've been well chuffed!
CharityDingle · 15/12/2021 07:06

@ColdTattyWaitingForSummer

I remember verily happily receiving blank VHS tapes in circa 1989 Xmas Blush
Oh definitely!
CharityDingle · 15/12/2021 07:10

@Whatamess582

My husbands best friend (woman) gives me shit gifts. She has given me a range over the years but I think the worst was that when she bought me musical flashing Christmas earrings….. I might not have minded but we had spent a fortune on hers and I was mortified. My husband always defends her saying she may not know what to get me as she doesn’t know me very well but that particular year he was gobsmacked at how shit her gift to me was. He was standing there with a present of about €100 Sha had bought ‘him not us’ and she was standing there with €150 of a gift for the two of them and I was standing there with Father Christmas earrings beeping ‘jingle bells’ from Claire’s Accessories.
Um, I think that would have been the last year I would have engaged with their gift giving.

She is the one who should have been mortified at her meanness, not you.

Sundancerintherain · 15/12/2021 07:27

Dfriend reminded me last night about my abusive exP who told everyone that he was giving me £100 for Xmas but on the dad just.....didn't. He has supposedly lent it to his best mate so HE could get HIS girlfriend a present and I was a selfish bitch for expecting anything .
Not the worst thing he did by a long shot but totally humiliating all the same.
DH once got me a pan set, but only because I'd asked for them.Smile

sashh · 15/12/2021 07:41

@itiswhat

MIL buys DH a box of Pringles every year. At 34 he asked her to stop this year as he actually doesn't like Pringles Hmm
Yey, I thought I was the only person in the world who doesn't like Pringles, it really plays with the head of one of my friends.

I dread opening my present from my brother. I have arthritis in every joint in my body, my ESA assessment states that I am 'not realistically capable of work'.

I used to do lots of crafts and art and I really miss it, but my hands are just not up to it.

So every year I get something from my brother that I cannot use /do / make.

Sewing kit, ukulele, fimo...

I really would rather get nothing because it upsets me.

As a child I wanted a silver locket, one I could open. I actually went to the shops with my parents, looked at some and found one I loved. I knew it would be wrapped up and that I'd not see it until Xmas day.

My mum had a conversation with a neighbour who said, "I've got locket she can have" so my mum took my locket back tot he shop, my lovely oval locket and then she told me she'd done that and that I'd get a different locket.

So I got a love heart shaped, old locket that I couldn't open and was horrible. Thankfully there was no chain so I didn't have to wear it.

Another year, when I was older, 14/15 ish my aunt phoned my mum to see what I'd like. They were considering a CD rack and my mum said I'd love it.

I didn't own a CD player or any CDs, I was told beforehand what I would get so I could pretend to be thrilled.

Why would you do that? Surely if a relative phones a parent and says they are thinking of buying X, Y or Z and you know it isn't suitable, they already have or they don't have something you need to go with it you say something.

Holothane · 15/12/2021 07:49

I feel your pain with the arthritis it too has robbed me of hobbies.

CharityDingle · 15/12/2021 08:21

@stormysort

One year my MIL gifted me a half-used bottle of essential oil. The year after that it was a "buy one get one half off" coupon...
Please tell me you handed back these 'gifts' @stormysort and told her not to go to such trouble in future Hmm
CharityDingle · 15/12/2021 08:24

My mum had a conversation with a neighbour who said, "I've got locket she can have" so my mum took my locket back tot he shop, my lovely oval locket and then she told me she'd done that and that I'd get a different locket.

So I got a love heart shaped, old locket that I couldn't open and was horrible.

That's just downright cruel. I remember a friend of a friend buying a lovely doll for her daughter, for Christmas, years ago. Then returning it and buying a really crappy replacement. The child was heartbroken. She wanted the lovely doll, and had been promised it.

sashh · 15/12/2021 08:40

@CharityDingle

You know that had not occurred to me, I was already well trained to feign delight.

When I was in my teens she actually forgot to buy for me, I once said this when I was at uni and another mature student actually cried. I thought it was a funny tale of daft things my mother did, but she was really upset.

@Holothane I feel your pain too, there really isn't anything quite like it.

RedFlagsAllOver · 15/12/2021 09:06

A massive dildo from a narcissist he expected me to use. He never bought any gifts for me. No card on my birthday.

flashpaper · 15/12/2021 11:47

@RalphLaurenG

A box of chocolates from a family friend, Mintos or Mentos, something like that. Not only had they expired the year before, they weren't even IN PRODUCTION when she gave them to me.

She has a reputation for being tight - ironing wrapping paper to use it again, that sort of thing. Oh, and they are not short of money either.

We call her Meano Mary 😆😆

Were they Mingles??! Mingles were great, I loved them as a kid!
WellLarDeDar · 15/12/2021 12:58

Don't remember how old we were but me and my siblings got pack of red biros from the pound shop. Most of them fell apart or didn't work. Such a ?? present. We still laugh about it but we are NC with her now. She was not very nice to my family but showered our cousin's side with adoration so we collectively decided to cut our losses.

WellLarDeDar · 15/12/2021 12:59

*forgot to say from my 'grandma'

AntsInPenzance · 15/12/2021 16:01

My FIL once bought me a luggage padlock.

I once received a batman mug for a work secret Santa gift. I had never expressed any opinion on batman in the office.

Holothane · 15/12/2021 18:08

@sassh oh it’s vicious at times it really is.

Xion · 15/12/2021 19:43

I have received some terrible presents from my mil. These include:

A top with a large shoe design pattern all over
Some "onion" glasses - apparently for cutting onions
The dowdiest pyjamas you can imagine

AMerryNickelChristmas · 15/12/2021 20:37

@playmelikeasymphony

I’m a lifelong wheelchair user. I can’t physically get in a bath and there isn’t a bath in my flat.

My friend, who I’ve known since I was 11, who is also disabled and who has visited my flat several times, bought me bubble bath.

A few months later she asked if it was any good so I said “um, not used, it.” She claimed she’d thought I could use it when I go and stay with my parents.

My parents live five minutes walk from me, she knows this, she’s been to their house. I don’t go and stay. And even if I did, I still can’t get in a bath.

Shower gel is basically the same as bubble bath. you can use the bubble bath as shower gel, or even as liquid hand soap. We always buy bubble bath to refill our handsoap because it's cheaper
Catra · 15/12/2021 23:54

This ginger cat bog roll holder.

What was the shittest present you ever received?
BobISMyUncle · 16/12/2021 03:58

My very worstest was from my muvver. You have no idea. A lime green bra. Wrong size completely. I had no boobs, at all. Not only was it lime fucking green, it was also grubby. I do not know, or want to know, if it was her cast off, or bought from a charity shop. Whatever. She handed it to me, in a brown paper bag, and said "Happy Birthday". I can only imagine the amount of thought that went into that gift. About 2 years later, I took her husband to court for child sexual abuse, sexual assault and molestation. No more fucking lime green bra shit for me, thank you! The funniest thing? After the court case, after he had finally been sentenced, she rang me, with a tirade of abuse. She was a nice lady. Not. Thankfully, she's dead now. So is he. It's a horrid thing to say, but I'm glad they're dead. No more misery and unhappiness is being inflicted. Thank bloody goodness for that.

BobISMyUncle · 16/12/2021 04:20

OH! American tan tights. 20 denier. From Mother in law.
If you can imagine, Hyacinth Bouquet, that was Mother in law. Exactly. I was told (TOLD!) that she was ariving on Christmas Eve. This woman expected 3 cooked meals a day. Cooked breakfast. Cooked lunch and a cooked evening meal. I refused. Hence, (I think) the American tan tights. The first thing I did, when I learned of her impending visit, was to buy the biggest freezer I could find. A huge chest freezer. She would fit, exactly, inside that. She only needed to bend her knees! I didn't think it was so much to ask.
She arrived, minus her husband. I hasten to say, that he was a lovely man. So kind, so gentle, and had such a lovely nature. MIL did not.
She is also a deader. So, sadly, is her husband. Nothing to do with me, honest My L'ud. American tan tights indeed. Apparently, the poor old bitch was short of money, but found out that there was an antique show and we had to drive her there.
We didn't have to, I wouldn't have. She spent over £200 there. And I got American Tan fucking tights. From somewhere bloody crumpled. I don't care if I sound unkind. I'm glad they're dead. Not the father in law. The unkindness of people. That awful woman used to inspect my plug holes, in every sink. She used to sit at my dining table and slag me off, in front of everyone, including my husband, and when I asked why he didn't support me, it was actually sad and funny at the same time. It was just sad really. No support, at all.

AliTheMinx · 16/12/2021 07:54

A new toilet flush
Shampoo for Extra Greasy Hair
Mama Mia on DVD...