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?

Experience vouchers. The Christmas prior to COVID, I was given a virgin photoshoot voucher, I couldn't even work out how to claim it, then covid came and I forgot about it.
The same person gave me a tea for two voucher, the Christmas of covid, that also never got used.
I found them both, expired in the cupboard I was clearing out recently. What a waste of money.
When my daughter was little and Polly pocket was all the rage. She loved them, my hoover not so much!

😆

What on earth is a virgin photoshoot?

My MIL insists on buying both of my kids SOO much stuff. She wanted to get them 18 Christmas presents each for Christmas. I didn’t want more stuff, she would spend too much, the kids wouldn’t appreciate it.

We agreed on 3 presents for each child with an absolute limit of £100 each child. I still thought this was too much and suggested several times the budget was £50 for each child.

Turns out on Christmas Day there were what appeared to be 3 presents but one present had lots of other presents inside it. One present for each child was a build a bear with several outfits. Which I know must have cost a fortune.

It is wasteful and expensive.

@Whataretheodds it's a photo shoot arranged via the virgin company. The Richard Branson company.

@Tare where did the ant farm with ants come from? I have an (adult) friend who has always wanted one but didn't want to dig up wild ants as suggested by the maker (some years ago). She is a responsible person over 40 who would definitely look after them though not a wee one...

@CalMeKate 18 things from one person what on earth was she planning to buy?

I struggle every year to come up with 18 decent ideas for birthday and Christmas combined.

@Outthedoor24 some of it helpful stuff like a funky bath sponge and bubble bath.

Another present was a dice paperweight that is glass and ridiculously heavy. (For a 3 & 6 year old). They are on the top shelf.

Another was a bath bomb making set which is fine in theory but it wasn’t a kids one it had lots of different chemicals in plastic bags and I didn’t know what they were and if they were safe for kids. There were lots of warning labels for eye damage risk.

Another was a pencil case, which is a great present, but she had filled it with blow pens. Which my daughter immediately used on the kitchen table and I can’t get ink off.

Another was a sticker machine that you load stickers in to and press a button and it “delivers” the sticker to where you want it. It is literally more complicated to load the stickers than it is to just peel the sticker and place it where you want.

Another was a pogo stick.

The worst one was a “Party Bag” which was full of the plastic stuff that is typically in a party bags like the soldiers with plastic parachute, things than fall down the wall, a bouncy ball, a fish that turns over, a sticky thing that you throw at the ceiling, a snap bracelet. I can’t stand that stuff in part bags anyway. Let alone a present that is a “Party Bag”!!

She must hate me.

@Latenightreader no it begins with N, it looks like it came from a museum so it’s probably the same one!

Someone upthread has said her children have been given too many books. I can think of much worse presents than books - they go in a bookshelf and don’t take up much much, they don’t flash or make noise (unless it’s that Spot one with the animal noises). I wanted books can be passed on to a nursery.

When I had DD my work sent an enormous bouquet of wildflowers, it was absolutely beautiful but set my hayfever off like nothing ever before and lingered long after the flowers were banished to the patio. I'd had a forceps delivery and my undercarriage was held together with a spiderweb of stitches and blind hope. Days of constant sneezing with each one praying I wouldn't burst at the seams 😖

The ants came with a business card for a place called Ants R Us...

Such stupidity. Generally, ( yes, I know not always) you pay more for better quality whether it’s an appliance, a toy or sausages.
we have friends like this. They are very nice people but everything is done on the cheap. We go for a meal and it’s stews with tiny bits of meat, they never have ice for the drinks, puddings are made with margarine not butter etc. It’s just depressing.

I cannot bear presents with ‘inspirational’ messages ( ‘ dancing in the rain’ crap 🤮)
So I made one of my own with Billy Mack’s first line in Love Actually: Oh, shit fuck wank bugger arse head and holes 🤣🤣🤣.
I hide it when visitors come…

@CalMeKate some of that stuff is such a waste. Surely she should know kids don't need or want glass paperweights.

I can't stand a lot of party bag tat either. I know kids look for the goodies bag at the end of a party but why you'd give that stuff as a gift is beyond me.

I agree with small amount vouchers to use in expensive shops. Ends up costing a fortune or buying stuff you don’t want.

Re vouchers, I'm always concerned that the company may go bust so if I want to give an "experience" I just design an IOU type thing and offer to pay when they book.

Or another variation, I wanted to give my grown up nephew and niece and their respective families a present but knew they wouldn't want tat. But again was wary of vouchers for the reasons others have pointed out in this thread but neither did I want to simply give them impersonal money. So I researched some local to them, family-friendly days out, gave them the equivalent amount of money to cover the entrance fee and designed and printed out the details as a suggestion that they could spend the money on this. I wouldn't have minded in the slightest if they spent the money on something else completely and I didn't ask. But about six months later, I got a photo sent to me of them at the suggested outing thanking me!

@alibongo5 giving them the cash with an idea is certainly much easier than saying - I'll pay for an experience when you book it.

We had a wedding gift like that, You can have a weekend in our caravan and we'll pay for you to do a local activity. Just get in touch when you want to book!

How awkward, I hate asking anyone for anything, 😬

Sorry should have been clearer - I only did the "I'll pay when you book" thing with immediate family in my household.

Yes certainly makes sense to do pay when you book for people in your own house. But not outwith the house.

talking of flowers for a significant birthday I had a gorgeous bunch of flowers from a local florist delivered then I had one of those you receive through the post. the bouquet same amount spent as the local florist but it was mingy half dead and tatty did not last long. I have looked at flowers through the post myself and if this is a sample I would not waste my money, most are highly inflated