The most unsuitable presents your dcs have ever received?

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

When dd1 was only 2, a BiL (quite a lot younger than dh) gave her a book entitled Cuba For Beginners.
It was all cartoon style, but quite obviously for politically-minded adults.
When I laughed he said, ‘Well, it does say for beginners…’

For years he gave dds nothing, but did finally make up for it when they were mid teens - with 2 x crisp £50 notes each. And that was ages ago, so to say they were delighted is putting it mildly.

One of my aunties gave my daughter a glittery blusher brush. You twisted the handle and it dispensed the powder into the brush so you could blush on the go.
Pretty cool... Except my daughter was 18 months old.

Any gift to my DS from his deadbeat "father". For his 40th birthday he was given 2 CDs, very old, old had been owned by him for years and without covers of the sound of music and Oliver, both musicals. DS loathes musicals and would rather listen to two cats yowling.
With them a note that said please return after watching and send two of your own I might enjoy 😡
I was fucking livid. He owes me 18 years of child support and that's all DS gets.
The year before it was a list of the dates of birth and death s of people in the IRA ........... no I have no idea either.
I think he is quite probably mentally unstable.

A board book called "A is for Activist". I think it was probably light hearted, but it irritates me every time I try to read it, because the content is just a weird mixture of slogans and abstract ideas that a baby at the age of board books will not understand at all. Some examples attached.

OMG. She sounds like the granny out of hell.

Ahhh now I think this is awesome

I think that's a brilliant gift 😅 My little one enjoyed hers. She's 11 now and asked for the Shakespeare graphic novels this Christmas. A good story is a good story.

She's a narcissist

She did it because I couldn't win either way-i either allowed the kids to wear her unsuitable clothing-she could then deny she bought it but was an unsuitable mother for allowing dc to wear unsuitable stuff or I gave it back (I did) and I was ungrateful as she's nothing more than a loving nanna and I rejected her loving gifts for no reason

Ditto with toys-i was the nasty bitch who gave up all back to her (I don't drive so couldn't give the better stuff to the charity shop and I'm damned if I was filling my bin up with her crap-i didn't have the bin space)

Either way I took the flack so couldn't win either way-the kids where just collateral damage in her games

My Mother bought my DD a pair of trainers when she was 5 or 6. They were cute, but odd sizes (which she was aware of when buying them!). They'll be fine for playing in the garden, apparently. 🙄 I binned them.

DDad's wife split a set of table mats between her step children. We got 2 each.

MIL matched grandkids to birth order across families

My eldest, 5year old got a ton of pre schooler toddler stuff to match eldest three year old cousin.
My youngest, 3year old got a second hand chewed board book from a TV show we didn't watch, to match the youngest newly born cousin.

Try explaining to siblings why granny gives a huge quantity to one and not another. Apparently Granny thought the younger one wouldn't care and it was 'fair' across families l. My five year old cared, spent the whole day telling the younger one not to worry in a confident, but slightly wavering tone.

When my ds was 6 my mil gave him a monogrammed hand towel. It was a used towel and she had sown on letters that she had cut from felt (without a template). As his birthday is shortly before Christmas I joked with dh that she would give him the matching bath towel for Christmas, she did!

a couple of years later she gave him a ’used to the point it should have thrown away years ago’ dinosaur shaped nail brush. It had been bought for his cousin who is 10yrs older to use when he was at her house and for some mad reason she gifted it to ds rather than throw it away.

She also insists on buying a dark chocolate orange every year, ds refuses to eat dark chocolate!

Someone bought my grand daughter a baby doll dressed in a pretty pink dress and frilly pants also a couple of different dresses , she decided to change its outfit. It was a boy doll with all its bits !!! 😂

Ha ha. On a similar vein, I had a friend who collected intentionally tacky souvenirs. It became a bit of a competition amongst our other friends to find the tackiest things we could for her. A couple of us (in our early 20s) went on a coach trop to the pyramids (whilst on holiday) and spotted someone selling plastic pyramid shaped showstorm/pen holders. They were truly awful- the pen included was a cheap bic type biro and they even had 'maid in china' stamped on the bottom. As we were young and a bit giddy we made quite a fuss about how wonderful they were, and seemingly (based on discussions overheard on afterwards) this was enough to make some of the older ladies in the tour buy them for their grandchildren. We felt slightly guilty but also very amused at the thought of teenagers being handed the world's tackiest gift by gran who was convinced it must be really popular with the young people!

For DD’s first birthday a friend ‘had a build a bear made for them especially’. Came with a receipt in the bottom of the bag from Sue Ryder and had a lump of chewing gum stuck in its fur.

In my first real ‘big girl’ job at 18, some prat bought me 2 farm animals from ELC in the secret Santa that year. I opened them during the company-wide Christmas lunch and was totally humiliated.

Before I had kids when I was about 24, I bought for a sporty and very shy 8 year old, a pop up theatre set that you had to put together. It had characters/figures and various props and backgrounds, and the child could devise plays and put them on. It was about two/three feet high when built. It was a nice item but completely unsuited to a very reserved child whose life revolved around golf and football. He’d never shown any interest in drama or music. To this day I wonder if the item was ever removed from its box 🙈

I bought it from the toy shop in Covent Garden that was owned by the fella who played Derek Wilton in Corrie.

My dad had been taking DS (9) fishing a few times. For Christmas he got a massive encyclopedia of fish. Not designed for kids or anything, just a big fish textbook.

I think I would have sold them on your DS's behalf and given him the money at this point 😂.

He sold them himself when he decided that was what he wanted to do. Needless to say his dad was not happy about that either. But it was DSs decision.

Good on him!

Funny how some parents can't deal with kids growing up and having a mind of their own.

An very gory alphabet book for my DS then aged 4
A is for Amy who fell down the stairs
B is for Basil, assaulted by bears. Get the drift
.... oh and his name included
..George smothered under a rug

I love Edward Gorey @Milkasheika I bought that for my very own children. More merch is available if you need a matching packed lunch box.

from my awsome Nan when we were kids
A nightshirt (large mans tshirt) covered in smiling cartoon penises (to be fair she didnt realise) for me at 11
Colouring books for toddlers for my 10 year old brother
Giant bridget Jones Knickers for me at age 8 - they would fit me now and I am 50 and fat
And legendary Nan Sweets. She would buy a huge gift box of jelly babies etc and when wrapping always thought - ooh in fancy a few of those! She would open the pack, take a few, then wrap it up. It got to be a sign of affection - if you got an unopened pack of sweets - she didnt like you! She was awesome and I miss her a lot.

This has made me really sad. There are some hilarious and mind boggling posts on here but this one has brought home why when there are kids around you really don't fuck about with gift giving. It's so unfair

AIBUUsually
We are a slightly macabre family so it's been read a fair few time .Will look into the merche , could be a book day costume !!!

I was about 8 when I got a full set of make up from an aunt including mascara and foundation. I was thrilled but my mum was horrified!