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?

Tbf if she was ever going to go anyway then presumably you'd need to pay for at least two tickets and now hers is covered so you're still saving compared to what you would've paid?

As someone without kids I have a lot of fun buying the loudest, glitteryest, messiest, and most involved presents for kids as possible. I'm a big fan of Nerf guns because of the bullets everywhere for months.

My latest were pairs of reindeer antler headbands with the loudest jingly bells you've ever heard in your life, which I sent out before Christmas and insisted all the kids opened pre-Christmas for maximum enjoyment.

We have a family member who didn't do slime / glitter / messy play etc for their DC yet all their gifts were always things that caused a lot of mess.

When I used to have their DC for sleepovers they'd send shit like (cheap) slime making kits and "dig up" sets over so 'all the kids could do them'

I know someone who was gifted a massive trampoline by their parents in lockdown. They only had a small roof terrace!! There was nowhere for it to be used.

That's one hell of a level of petty, taking out teenage gripes in adulthood 😬

I have been bought 2 experience gifts from my dad. One was a glider trip. I have never recorded any interest in gliding. It took me 3 hours on several trains and buses to get to the place. Also very complicated , and many years ago, before phone/ easy internet. I did approximately 45 mins experiencing the glider, which I felt broadly indifferent to, then had to set off straight back for the long trip back home. A complete pain.

the other experience was a (v expensive) weeks course in subject that he loves and I don’t like, but have a vague connection to ( eg say I like hip hop dancing and it’s a course to learn to waltz). This course was on a very specific date and in a remote location abroad. I would have had to pay flights and accommodation. And also use a quarter of my annual leave allowance. I said nice idea (!) but no thanks it’s not practical, but as he had already paid, he did the course himself and loved it. No alternative gift was forthcoming. So my present that year was him buying himself a gift he loved…

Mine's uncle got him a tablet last year with a download of his favorite game "red ball". Forgetting that my autistic, ADHD spawn threw his last tablet at the wall when he raged playing red ball 😩That was a fun week 😂

Wow!

A year's pass to an amusement park that is a 6+ hour drive from my home. We had to go at least once because my MIL spent so much money but it was such a hassle. Plus, my kid was only 3 so he couldn't even ride most of the rides.

This MIL paid for a family photo shoot. It included one free photograph buying more for the family cost a mint. Not only that the studio set was totally not the kind of setting we would want to be photographed in; quite opulent but just not us.

Missing the point of the thread but I've had a lot of £50 notes due to a job I used to do and never once had a problem spending them anywhere.

Nerf guns 😫 yes several relatives have though a great idea to buy something guaranteed to end in tears when combined with several hyped up siblings, I’ve taking to disposing of the bullets as I find them (not least as always been terrified the toddlers will choke on them) Will have a satisfying tip run of our armoury one day 😁

Why?
You realise many of those toys will go straight to landfill?
There are things that I wouldn't even subject another family to via the charity shop!

They don't go straight to landfill, the kids like them. Because that's the whole point, buying presents the kids will like 🙄

They get enough boring stuff they have to pretend to like from people like you.

When I was in hospital having my youngest, my mother-in-law bought me not one but TWO bunches of garage forecourt flowers and... Just left them next to the sink getting slimy and stinky.

She has form for shit gifts, but that's probably the worst.

My MIL bought my DD an elf on the shelf about 4 years ago when DD was seven. I really could not be arsed with it so it never appeared.

My sister once gave me a voucher for plants for a "container kitchen garden". It involved registering and waiting to be sent around a hundred seedlings, pretty much all at once. And included things like "ten lettuces", "six courgette plants", "ten radishes" etc.

It required 15-20 medium to large planters that I would have to buy (even at £5 each that's insane, but I'd expect them to cost more than that) not to mention all the potting compost I would need.
Then I would have to pot them all up, tend to them, water them and then pick and eat stuff like ten lettuces at once.

I have a very small garden, with NO beds, just lawn, and it's on a slight slope, plus it's open to a public footpath behind so there's no point putting anything in it really. I do have a couple of roses, a lavender and a rosemary bush just at the edges. But definitely no room for fifteen fucking planters!

I did look into sharing an allotment with someone to plant it all but it's the other end of the village, I'd have to pay a weekly fee and I just don't have time to be trekking about the village with hoes when I can make the very short walk to the Coop if I want a lettuce!

I asked the company to change it to a general voucher and gave it to the local old people's home.

I’ve complained about this before, but yes to any gift requiring you to put work into it or add to it before you can use it.

Many years ago my SIL sent us a cross stitch picture she had made. Because we lived overseas she sent it just on a cardboard and sewn on to that to keep it flat. It was not a standard size so we couldn’t just pick up a frame for it. So off we went to a framing shop. Picked out a frame which matched our decor and the matting. The cost was eye watering! Even now, and it must be coming up to 30 years, I think it was a hell of a lot of money…

I bet she didn't know what you were meant to do with it. I got given an Elf countdown thing, I have no interest in Elf in the Shelf and have no intention of doing it.
It looks like fun the first and a PITA beyond that

Not sure if anyone has already said :

Mousetrap, the game. Too many pieces. Other toys with lots of pieces they a hard to build/retain all the pieces.

Make your own gingerbread house. Impossible to do. Make your own chocolate house, similar.

In her defence I assume she thought he’d already have an iPad. But it’s the checking. If she’d just checked first we could have told her to get the thing that was compatible with the tablet he has.

also if she’d be willing to return her gift. That would also help.

Lovetoshop voucher nightmare. had one years ago and it would never work in shops where it said it was taken but I did read at the time it was a common problem with them.
so my heart sank when I received one for my birthday last year. I now don't live near any biggish shops so would involve a very long trip with a grumpy partner so I was delighted when I saw it would be ok to put to a magazine subscription. don't know if anyone has ever tried it but I went round and round in circles and gave up in the end. chucked the voucher in a draw and that's where it still is.
one footnote if you wish to buy vouchers for something like a pub chain please check it is near the recipitent. we received a generous voucher for a pub chain that was near the person but nowhere near us. In the end, again it involved a long trip and not much choice for vegetarians/vegans. nice thought but ....

I appear to be the only person here who would be thrilled to be given a gift experience/voucher 🫣
but I have had a thoroughly entertaining time reading all the responses on this thread.

O.M.G

It's not just about not wanting an experience voucher, it's about an experience that causes more inconvenience than it's worth as people have explained.

An activity miles away meaning extra cost on fuel, hotel stay, train tickets, childcare etc.

There are some lovely experience gifts. Exchanged one for The Shard which we enjoyed even if it meant topping up.

It's also the time and effort it takes to search and change for a suitable one.

Most are valid for random days/times and seems like a deliberate tactic from the companies selling them.

My kids are past this now but I always used to think 'shit, that parent must hate me' when we got a gift that was to make something 🤣