Worst present anyone ever gave your child? And the best?

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 2025-12-21T13:15:02+00:00

I’ll start - youngest BiL gave dd1 a book of cartoon strips entitled Cuba for Beginners. Dd was 2! So luckily too young even to be disappointed. I did ask BiL why on earth he’d thought a political book for adults was suitable for a 2 year old. He said, ‘Well, it does say for beginners…’. Many years later (dd were mid teens) same BiL did redeem himself by giving them each 2 x £50 notes. That was over 20 years ago now, so it was a lot.

ShortColdandGrey · 21/12/2025 13:49

Best is a toy from the 80s that they have been obsessed about for years. It is now their most prized possession. Worst but only for me was a harmonica 🤣

GiddyDog · 21/12/2025 13:50

DD got a minions fart blaster gun from DH cousin when she was a toddler. I cannot tell you how many times I tried to slip that damn thing into the charity bag only for it to be reclaimed.

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 21/12/2025 14:14

A huge drum set for 3yr old ds from mil, it was in the loft on boxing day and there it still remains 24yrs later.

Meceme · 21/12/2025 14:29

BIL/SIL gave our DD a teatowel and a bar of soap. She was 4!
We gave their DD a huge lego set that our daughter had loved (new, not her's). We found out later they refused to give it to her as it said 4+ (She was 3 years 11 months). They gave it to her older sister so she had 2 presents and the younger one none.
We stopped sending presents the next year.

ScottyandWestie · 21/12/2025 14:30

Worst gift was a joint one for my kids many years ago - a set of ten counterfeit Disney films. I was so cross.

ilovepixie · 21/12/2025 14:35

For me Best present was a game boy. I was in my early 20’s but loved it, it started my love of gaming.
Worst a pair of raspberry coloured tights when I was 10 from a mad Aunt. They were adult size as well!

Whichone2024 · 21/12/2025 16:07

GiddyDog · 21/12/2025 13:50

DD got a minions fart blaster gun from DH cousin when she was a toddler. I cannot tell you how many times I tried to slip that damn thing into the charity bag only for it to be reclaimed.

Oops I got one for my nephew 😬

Mollywasasinger · 21/12/2025 16:11

Best - generous child free godfather designed a bespoke Lego model of their favourite cartoon characters and their spaceship, worked out how to build it, then gave them all the pieces with illustrated instructions and came over to help them build it.

Worst - literally a large cardboard box full of loose glitter. The glitter was not in bags or covered in any way, and she gave the box to the toddler while I was out of the room and encouraged him to “make the whole room pretty!” by flinging handfuls of it everywhere. This was 9 years ago and I’m still angry.

Whichone2024 · 21/12/2025 16:12

when I was a teenager an aunt gave me a book for toddlers about a kitty who’s looking for her mama 😂
worst gift for my LO 2nd birthday - symbols!
best - duplo/LEGO -3.5 yrs now and been the most played toy since first birthday amd can actually focus with it for several
hours! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

Whichone2024 · 21/12/2025 16:15

Mollywasasinger · 21/12/2025 16:11

Best - generous child free godfather designed a bespoke Lego model of their favourite cartoon characters and their spaceship, worked out how to build it, then gave them all the pieces with illustrated instructions and came over to help them build it.

Worst - literally a large cardboard box full of loose glitter. The glitter was not in bags or covered in any way, and she gave the box to the toddler while I was out of the room and encouraged him to “make the whole room pretty!” by flinging handfuls of it everywhere. This was 9 years ago and I’m still angry.

Omg that’s amazing what the godfather did.
and I hate glitter with a passion!
your worst and best gifts literally are the best and worst!!!

ridl14 · 21/12/2025 16:16

Mollywasasinger · 21/12/2025 16:11

Best - generous child free godfather designed a bespoke Lego model of their favourite cartoon characters and their spaceship, worked out how to build it, then gave them all the pieces with illustrated instructions and came over to help them build it.

Worst - literally a large cardboard box full of loose glitter. The glitter was not in bags or covered in any way, and she gave the box to the toddler while I was out of the room and encouraged him to “make the whole room pretty!” by flinging handfuls of it everywhere. This was 9 years ago and I’m still angry.

Omg did you do something to the glitter bomber 😂😂

alloutofcareunits · 21/12/2025 16:19

Worst was when my brother bought my 3 year old a bouncy castle. I had to put the conservatory furniture into the garage, bouncy castle filled the entire (small) conservatory! And I had to blow the thing up! Best for her was probably our golden retriever puppy for her 10th birthday, we were getting her anyway but planned it so we could collect on her birthday

Popworks · 21/12/2025 16:20

A nerf gun and bullets. Not a bad present for an older child or teen but it was for my 8 WEEK old! Same person for her first birthday gave her a block of toffee and a toffee hammer.

Mollywasasinger · 21/12/2025 16:47

ridl14 · 21/12/2025 16:16

Omg did you do something to the glitter bomber 😂😂

Show quote history

I assume I had angered her in some way, but she still refuses to admit that and claims she just thought DS would enjoy it and didn’t know glitter was hard to clean up.

Mollywasasinger · 21/12/2025 16:47

Popworks · 21/12/2025 16:20

A nerf gun and bullets. Not a bad present for an older child or teen but it was for my 8 WEEK old! Same person for her first birthday gave her a block of toffee and a toffee hammer.

Amazing

WonderfulSmith · 21/12/2025 16:48

Not me or children but a friends mother in law gave her a sheet of first class stamps.

Newsenmum · 21/12/2025 16:52

Worst - pack of really cheap bath toys. 30 of the same thing. Im guessing an accidental over order on amazon.

Best - weve been given so many lovely things it’s hard to choose!

Unicornsatonalilo · 21/12/2025 16:55

My narcissistic mother was the queen of buying crap presents

The shitter the present,the better

It didnt matter if you wanted it/was into it or not,if she wanted it give it to you,that was it and God help you if you didnt act grateful enough

She bought mine many shit toys but the worse was some game that was based on mousetrap

You set it up like you would mousetrap but instead of moving the mouse round,you had to make some slime bears (this bit wasn't made clear) so you could squash them at the end (so you could only play with it once)

Fuck me,these things where impossible to make-they just refused to mix/set and kept melting when you took them out of the molds (and I tried for over a week)

And they stank

Many tears later (and not all the tears where by the kids) i binned it

Of course she went through my outside bin (she did this at least once a week just to check up on me) and found it-cue screaming at me that I hadn't done it properly and how ungrateful I was

This ended with me pulling it out of the bin and throwing at her,screaming that if she was so fucking bothered,she could do it at her house

Oddly she didn't bother but slagged me off for months to anyone who would listen

She also bought my then 7 year old dd a tiny crop top with 'dont touch my tits!' written across the chest

She also bought 6 year old ds a pair of gloves with cannabis leaf prints all over them

Another shit fit when I gave them back to her

God only knows where she got them from

I'm so glad I'm nc now and will never have to fake a huge smile and trying my best to act like whatever crap she gave me is the bestest present ever

blankcanvas3 · 21/12/2025 17:00

A great aunt once gave us a scarf…between four. One scarf between my brother, my two cousins and I. Totally bizarre. Can’t remember what we did with it

KilkennyCats · 21/12/2025 17:51

Mollywasasinger · 21/12/2025 16:11

Best - generous child free godfather designed a bespoke Lego model of their favourite cartoon characters and their spaceship, worked out how to build it, then gave them all the pieces with illustrated instructions and came over to help them build it.

Worst - literally a large cardboard box full of loose glitter. The glitter was not in bags or covered in any way, and she gave the box to the toddler while I was out of the room and encouraged him to “make the whole room pretty!” by flinging handfuls of it everywhere. This was 9 years ago and I’m still angry.

😮
I think I’d have shoved her idiotic head into the box and held it there.

KilkennyCats · 21/12/2025 17:53

alloutofcareunits · 21/12/2025 16:19

Worst was when my brother bought my 3 year old a bouncy castle. I had to put the conservatory furniture into the garage, bouncy castle filled the entire (small) conservatory! And I had to blow the thing up! Best for her was probably our golden retriever puppy for her 10th birthday, we were getting her anyway but planned it so we could collect on her birthday

Why didn’t you put it in the garden?

Snipples · 21/12/2025 17:54

“Don’t touch my tits” has killed me off 😆

awrbc81 · 21/12/2025 17:54

Worst was probably a massive pack of knock off my little ponies when DD was about 3 - the type
you get in B&M - must have been about 30
of them! Of course she loved them but we sneakily hid about half of them and she didn’t notice, kept finding them in drawers and toy boxes for years.
Best was my grandad, sadly no longer with us, but he used to give everyone children and adults a £50 note!
DH famously gave his sister an opened and half eaten box of chocolates once when they were teenagers (he thought she might not notice he’d eaten half!)

cloudjumper · 21/12/2025 17:58

Worst - DD got a karaoke microphone from her friend. She still has it, years later. She’s only allowed to use it in her room, with the door closed

Best - DH hand-built a Nimbus 2000 broom for DS, it was awesome, and was DS’s greatest treasure for years.

firstofallimadelight · 21/12/2025 18:04

Worst was this swing ball thing that turned out was an extension and you had to have a regular swing ball already. Best was mil and fil a weekend at Alton towers - tickets and hotel we had the best time.