To think no one does this - Christmas toys related

[EvilsElsasPetSnowman]

So MIL once did a judgy shock-face at me when, after asking if I take all the toys out the boxes and test them before Christmas Day, before wrapping them, i said “No of course not!”. She said “Oh I did with all of my kids’ toys! I made sure they had batteries in and that they worked because there’s nothing sadder than if a child can’t enjoy their present on Christmas Day”.

I pointed out that as a SAHM she probably had more time to do stuff like that than I do, and that if a toy doesn’t work I’ll replace it at the earliest opportunity, and the kids will have to live with the disappointment and that it won’t kill them, that’s life.

Anyway she went on to say that not only did she un box and then re box the toys, she would also read Lego instructions so she knew how to build the sets, and get this - if they were getting a computer game she’d set up their consoles and play the game so that if they needed help on a level she’d know what to do to help

She just kept (rather smugly) saying “I always made sure I was prepared when it came to Christmas and that my kids knew I was always there for them if they needed my help with something”. I REALLY felt like saying “Funny how you weren’t there for them when you left their dad and moved in with your new fella and his kids for a year, completely ignoring their existence and not even turning up to parents evening or their sports matches, emotionally scarring all 4 of them, but the real failure as a mother is me as I don’t play Animal Crossing before my son gets to”. But I didn’t.

I think this is totally bonkers? Does anyone actually do this?

Also how in the actual fuck would you ever get toys back in the box?! I asked this and she says “it’s easy they just go in the same as they came out”. She clearly hasn’t met vacuumed toy packaging of the 2020’s some of which needs a hacksaw to even open

YABU = Yep I do this you slovenly woman
YANBU = that’s bat shit crazy and no one does it.

I pointed out that as a SAHM she probably had more time to do stuff like that than I do, and that if a toy doesn’t work I’ll replace it at the earliest opportunity

ah OP, don't be such a judgypants.

As for me: i worked an average of 50 hours per week since my DC were 2. I ALWAYS took time to test their toys and make sure i had batteries etc. I read their books too just to make sure if there were going to be issues raised i was prepared. I'd have hated to have disappointed DCs at Christmas and having to wait until the shops opened again so they could play with their presents (see - we can all play that game)

I always made sure we had the right batteries for toys and DH once put together a dolls house but your mil went above and beyond. I’m not sure if she’s commendable or nuts.

Not the point of the thread at all, but I’d be livid if someone played animal crossing before me. You can only set up one main user per cartridge so you’d never be able to wipe the evidence that you’d played it

Santa never gave boxes to me, only assembled toys. I do the same especially when kids were small. I would put it back in the box if it fitted or in front of the box under the tree. No point in a small kid getting a present they can't immediately play with. I never thought to check games on consoles though.

I always did the unbox, batteries and build. Several Xmas Eves spent building a dolls house, a play kitchen, the Playmobile castle. And I work ft. Tech stuff likewise, you need to create an account, register..the Switch has a parental controls app to download and set up also. It's not about avoiding any discomfort but why wants to spend Xmas day doing battle with recalcitrant apps and tricky bits of plastic with impatient kids hanging off you.

Either you've made this up (which is what I suspect), or she is absolutely batshit.

I'd guess that she's very aware that she let her family down massively when they were young, and feels guilty about that, so tries to remind them of the times she feels she was a good mum too.

Plug in the console and it will give you instructions on what info it needs eg your wifi password. You said you’ve bought a Wii so you’ll need to create a Nintendo account. If any of the games are going to be played online then you’ll need to pay for that on top. When you register it will probably ask you if you want that.
The machine will automatically download the software updates.

Once that’s all done you’ll need to put in each game and download the updates for those. The console will give you prompts for what to do.

If your internet isn’t very fast then you’ll be saving lots of time on Christmas Day because some updates can be massive.

Oh give over, as a SAHM with 3 under 5 I could still get shit done that I couldn’t get done whilst I’m in an office.

I also have one of those in-laws who loves to tell me all the things she did for her sons that are so superior as to how we chose to do them, or how much they used to do this or that. How her sons had so many experiences.
I’d also love to bite back that both her sons feel like they were emotionally neglected and were dragged around places that their parents wanted to go, or for the kids. And that one of her two sons is having thedapy as a direct result of the lack of affection he felt from her. But I don’t, because life is too short for that battle and I know my son will never feel that way from either of his parents. But it is really fucking annoying.

I def did some of it-always made sure things were charged/set up etc.

Put together things like enormous Thomas the Tank engine tracks-not the brio ones. It was blue and the trains were battery operated-can't remember what they were called but took hours.

Wanted things to be playable straightaway but never pre-played the games. 😂

Were they unwrapped??

If you think I’m a troll report me.

But sadly it’s true and she is indeed nuts (I do still like her FWIW she just says stupid stuff sometimes)

I didn’t do anything like that other than make sure I had lots of batteries.

With relief the bastarding boxes with the endless cable ties and the things that needed screw drivers were passed to exH. It’s the first time he’d ever seen or heard of these things so nice for him to get involved in the tricky bit 😜

The only person I ever knew who thought of checking kids toys worked before giving them was my exBiL who was VERY detailed oriented (and childless). He’d ask me if stuff he’d sent for kids on Amazon was all working etc. Eh no idea mate. And no way am I checking. Better things to do.

For small children, we take the toys out of the box and put batteries in. Then wrap. We don't put it back in it's original box as it will just mean that instead of enjoying play, the kids then have to go and get help from someone to open the boxes. Unnecessary faff we all like to avoid on a Christmas day. Out teen, on the other hand, is fine to just get things as is and sort herself out with batteries out of the "man drawer".

Travellingheavily

but you could’nt open Santa toys with them there! And it was the tone- the usual ‘you've time to waste as a sahm’

This can't be true, you lost me at plays the computer games in advance.

However I feel sad for all the kids that never had the joy of carefully putting the stickers on new toys and getting to open sealed packets and taking all the bits out themselves, that's half the fun surely and as a pp said, stretches the day out.

Any snideyness is on the part of the MIL.
Ignore her OP.
She's playing one up manship.

She sounds barking
although we did sort out sylvanians stuff and put stickers on and stuff cos it’s very fiddly and would have ended up being trash as kids outnumbered us, and we did get the kids out of the house and spent a day figuring out Xbox and getting subscription to an Xbox game stream thing and downloaded some games,took like 12 hours to download so was glad we’d done that
did similar with switch, sorted out a Nintendo account and stuff
we would be so rubbish at that stuff that Xmas day would be a disaster if we hadnt
but about the Lego? That is mad!!
Just try to make sure you have the right size batteries, whatever’s listed on the box, sort out consoles and you’ll be grand!
But I think toys usually come with some sort of cheap runs out quickly but means you can at least get going type of battery already installed these days?
also, I have never wrapped presents from Santa, never had them wrapped as a kid either, sounds like such a lot of hassle!

Howling at this because it's just unearthed a memory of one Christmas in the 90s or early 2000s when my 'main present' was a computer game (I think Lego harry potter!) that I'd been looking forward to for aaaages......and when I went to play it, our computer was too old to run it! The verdict being I just had to suck it up and wait until my dad upgraded the computer which wasn't straight away I'll tell you that for free

I have unboxed and put batteries in before wrapping, but for a limited amount of years when the kids were very small (2 year gap between twins and eldest.) Christmas morning was pretty brutal otherwise! Haven't done it for years though, and certainly don't think it was normal, we were just desperate 😅

Same here.

Batteries ✅
Check it includes everything needed for X to work ✅
Roughly know how X works ✅

No one does all that, and neither did she. It didn't happen. Playing all the games? What, all the way through, every level? Every game? Every toy? Testing every possible thing that could possibly go wrong? No. Didn't happen.

Agree I thought the same!!!
She’s clearly just a bit mad. Can’t see what in earth it has to do with being a SAHM. whenever there’s a thread suggesting a SAHM has loads of free time my first thought is the op clearly isn’t one because if they were they would know this is complete fiction 😂

Probably just an excuse for her to play with the toys before the children took them over!