A few months ago, my MIL said she wanted to buy the kids a trampoline for Christmas and she wanted my mom to go in on it with her. Fine, the kids would love that. Then my mom decided that she didn't want to get them a trampoline for Christmas because it would kind of suck to have this cool new toy but be unable to play with it for several months until it got warm enough to be outside. Fine that makes sense. My MIL asked what they would like for Christams since she wasn't getting the trampoline anymore. I told her that The Boy would like to have a Star Wars, The Clone Wars, Elctronic Battleship game. I even sent her a picture of the one we found at Toys R Us so she would know exactly what to look for. She called me a few days later and told me that she wasn't getting him that, she was getting him a remote control helicopter. I told her that was a VERY bad idea, that I wouldn't let him fly it in the house and that she should pass and get what I suggested. It was then that she told that she had already bought and I pointed out that stores accept returns because it was NOT A GOOD CHOICE for a gift.
So today was Christmas with the ILs and it went about as predicted. The kids ran around and made grandma and grandpa quite crazy. BIL and SIL were grumpy that they even had to be there and I was ready to tear all the freaking heads off. Of course, they insist on eating before opening presents, which is practically a hanging offense in our house. The kids refused to eat and then my MIL told them they couldn't have their presents if they didn't eat. That was when I stepped in and told her to back off, that wasn't going to happen. So eventually, everyone got done eating and the kids opened their presents. TB got a helicopter and MT got a "bounce back" remote control car. You run it forward, it runs into the wall, flips over and comes back. Whatever, not driving it in my house. H (RF's niece) a zero gravity car that runs up the walls. None of the toys were charged and the kid whose toy just took AA batteries was told she could drive her because it wouldn't be fair to the older kids who couldn't play with their toys. Good call, get kids toys with batteries, don't charge them and then don't let them play with them either. Super fun Christmas all around, thanks for playing!
The worst toy EVER award goes the helicopter that TB got. First of all, it is tiny, probably not bigger than the palm of my hand. Second, you put 6 AA in the control and hook the heli up to it to charge. You have to let it charge between 30 and 40 minutes and then let it cool for 10-15, so you are looking at nearly as hour of charging time. That's fine, you probably get a couple of days use out of like with the DS and the portable DVD players, right? WRONG! Way wrong, as a matter of fact. For every hour that you charge it, you get 5-6 minutes of flight time!! What a waste of $50! He was bitching and whining about how long it was going to take before it ever got plugged in. After about the second time, I'm going to be done with listening to that crap and I'm going to throw the whole toy in the garbage. Way to get a great a toy, grandma!
I told RF next I'm telling his mom buy only the gifts that I tell you to buy or don't bother buying anything. She can't make good choices on her own so I will give a list of approved items and that will be it. I will not have another year of this!
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3 comments:
Most of MacTroll's family is notoriously bad for gift giving. But X-man has two wish lists (one linked to mine and the other to MacTroll's) on Amazon. So there's really no excuse for making shitty choices. I mean, you can even get the gist of what he's into by going there.
But the trick is -- especially of the worst offender -- is that they only want to buy what THEY like. It's not about the giving. It's about what they think they want to buy with their money for you that they like -- so why wouldn't you?
It's that kind of insensitivity that drove me nuts and got me not to exchange gifts on the adult level. Except now I have a kid -- and I get more annoyed than when it was just stuff for me or Joel (Did I tell you about the Cheese log they sent us media rate, so it arrived all green and moldy?). How about the Christmas where we got a can of air and two wind up toys? Or the window gel decorations that clearly state that they're toxic to animals and children.
There's just a lack of sense there that I never understood.
Therefore we always open those gifts before Christmas. So by the time we get to Christmas morning, I'm not thinking about them any more. And his Christmas morning experience is filled with more thoughtful and appropriate gifts.
Oh, to explain. They cut the cheese log and sausage log from one of those places in half... and sent half of the stuff to us (open and unrefrigerated) and half to another one of MacTroll's brothers.
Ugh! That does suck!
I mean half of what my kids get they either don't play with or it gets broken. If you're going to spend $50 at least get something they will like and can play with!!
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