Presents that are more hassle than fun

[Bex5490]

Now before everyone jumps at me for how grateful I should be to anyone who buys my child gifts…I know this. I always send the thank you videos of DS gleefully opening said gifts and I’m more than grateful for the love and sentiment behind them. However…

Today I spent my one day off work trying to simplify a science experiment made for an 8 year olds for my 4 year old son! There is now rainbow food colouring on my carpets and a grumpy DS who is sulking because he wasn’t allowed to rub the chemicals on his face 😂

Over the years I’ve had a professional painting kit, a huge blackboard easel meant for a classroom and a second hand trampoline with no garden!

What were your (if any) most inconvenient gifts?

It’s the cat’s house.

What are slim kits?

Anything where people give vouchers or whatever for 'experiences' - a cream tea miles away or whatever. I never bother with those.

It was clarified up thread it's a typo - slime

Toys should prevent my beautiful child from wanting to talk to me or make eye contact.

This made me laugh 😂 I've had that kind of a week....

FIL gave my 12yo an iPhone14- his cast off because the newer one had just come out. It’s a wildly expensive gift which was accompanied by other gifts from him. Worse still he gave her them in front of her brother and cousins, who are not getting remotely as expensive gifts on their Birthdays.
he actually gave her a phone a few years previous after I’d explicitly said I didn’t want her to have one yet.

Bloody goldfish from my dad. I was out and got a message from my sister saying dad is dropping something off at your house for DD. I assumed this was her sending hand me down clothes from my niece as she often does so I said ok.
Got home to a tank with goldfish in the kitchen and a confused DH telling me 'he said you said it was ok'. It's been 3 years they're still alive and of course I am the only one to feed them or clean the tank.

I did that to BIL and SIL. Because I loathe the pair of them 😁

My house is too small to have a room my cat isn’t allowed in, lol. Also, the cat didn’t ‘defecate randomly’ in the pit, she popped it by walking through it- that’s why I specified that it was a blow up pit!

Like so many on here, the experience vouchers. I got one for a hot air balloon flight. It's one of my must do things. But the nearest was hundreds of miles away. I didnt drive, an expensive pain to get to on public transport and still taxis either end and a hotel for one night. I never used it, sorry cathy if your on here.
I swear voucher companies are making a fortune.

DPs family swap money (most of the time) it's truly up to them but seems pointless that DP will hand over £100 to each adult and then gets back a lower amount from each person. Children under 18 get a gift, whatever the parent deems wise. Over 18 it's just money unless they ask for a specific item.
I want to say, just stop. This is pointless.

And my sil who bought my tiny son a record player (age appropriate one, like tomy or similar) jesus the noise that thing made. Those batteries were indestructible. Months and months they went on. When they finally died I said to my son, I don't have those kinds of batteries, let's put it up here until i get some. Somehow this thing went missing months later. I still wonder what happened to it.

Did they ever work? I recall buying one for one of our daughters and it was useless.

Yes, I get that, I read the posts.

But seriously, if you can’t even give money without offending someone then you can’t win. I do suspect that both those cases were more to do with disliking the gift giver, and that anything that had been given would have caused some offence.

A small snooker table! We’d moved from a 2 bed to a 3 bed and because we had room, that’s what mil bought! Only, it’s a normal 3 bed so we didn’t have spare room. Was by the kitchen table for one week and when the cue nearly went through the window, it disappeared into the garage never to be seen again!

When DD1 was born, we lived in a very small flat. We got given some giant plastic car for her.

It was half the size of her room, she was a newborn baby, we lived up a flight of stairs, she wouldn't have been able to use it for at least a couple of years...

I swear voucher companies are making a fortune.

Its estimated something like 10% of all gift vouchers are never used. And that must include shop vouchers that people will give away.

I imagine the 'experience' type are even higher.

From the 70s Shaker Maker. The Potters Wheel. Don’t know how my mum put up with the mess x

Years ago mil bought ds 1yr ,a huge, I mean massive white bear thing. .. Loft!!
When he was 3, she bought him a big drum set thing... Loft!!
He is now 26 and they are still there, 😆

The most that DD ever got from it was a small cup of flavoured Ice.

I just remembered that we also bought DD a candy floss machine
Another mistake.
It DID make candyfloss but the amount of sugar you had to use. . LOL

Bloody hell, on the nose but how was that 2015! Feels like yesterday that ad.

My BIL is classic for this he has pretty much no relationship with my son, only sees him on his birthday and Christmas when his mum organises him and drives him around (separate thread entirely).

This year, he got my 2 year old a 4 ft cuddly dinosaur, which now lives in our dining room. My son is not particularly cuddly or interested in teddies, nor has he ever shown an interest in dinosaurs. I've given the bloody thing 3 months.

🤣🤣🤣 this!!

This is hilarious askng as you're all in on it.

I had to Google what a trebuchet even was! 🤦🏼‍♀️

Bloody hell that is awful and thoughtless! "Just buy him an iPad" ffs!?

I’ll buy it off you and use it to fire my annoying neighbour to the sun 🤣