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View Full Version : Grandparents and their cheap toys for X-mas



ha98ed14
01-01-2010, 11:58 PM
There are a lot of nice things about MIL, but her gift choices are not one of them. She buys the cheapest version of a toy that is out there and sure enough the d@mn thing broke by New Year's! So, now I am faced with what to do with the POS...

MMMommy
01-02-2010, 12:15 AM
I hear you. Not to mention, MIL picks questionable clothing for DDs as well. Questionable clothing and questionable toys. Sigh. But I say "thank you" with a smile while cringing inside. And NEVER a gift receipt in sight.

infocrazy
01-02-2010, 12:16 AM
I can relate...but with my mom. She is a believer of quantity vs quality. I swear half the stuff that she gave us she got free and just wrapped up to give them something else to open. She got some Xmas books, that are single word pages. Even DS2 is too old for those! I wouldn't be surprised if most of the gifts came from the dollar store. Most of these things will not make it past the purge of outgrown/broken toys.

It's sort of sad though too, because she is HONESTLY excited about what she gets them...????? Go figure.

Sorry to hijack.

tnrnchick74
01-02-2010, 08:28 AM
I'm very happy that my Mom LISTENS to what the quality toys are. She does buy plastic stuff, but not the cheap crap. MY only complaint is when DS LOVES a toy, she insists on it being a "her house" toy...which means I end up buying another one to keep at my house...

Melbel
01-02-2010, 09:20 AM
I would settle for ANY effort at this point. We had another year where my mom claims she could not even afford to send a card, even though she should have plenty of money to get by each month plus an extra few hundred dollars. Even worse, she apparently is retaining an attorney to try and get around the provisions of my grandmother's trust (which means that she would essentially be suing me as the trustee). Each year I wrap gifts from "grandma" to place under the tree because I do not want my kids to think grandma does not care. Sigh. Sorry, I did not mean to hijack.

jenandahalf
01-02-2010, 09:51 AM
Oh yes my MIL is terrible for that. And my mom never sends anything like Melbel's. Kiki just thinks she has one grandma and one grandad and that's fine with me.

When the toys break I just throw them out, if they ask where it is I tell them that it must have been defective or something. They know it was cheap, they can't expect much more!

hellokitty
01-02-2010, 10:03 AM
My dad does that. The only reason DS1 and DS2 got good gifts from my parents is b/c my mom had me help her pick out toys for my older boys. She let my dad pick out a toy for DS3. What a POS! He got some obnoxious fisher price baby toy that is super annoying. It is a heavy ball with blunt spikes sticking out of it that makes music and vibrates. It is stupid, b/c you have to push so hard on the nose to activate it, I don't think most babies would be able to do it. When we opened the toy, I actually commented to my mom, should I just keep this toy here? My mom was like, "why?" I was like, "B/c once again dad picked out a really annoying and useless toy." It will probably be donated within this yr, b/c I refuse to feed a dumb toy like that batteries too.

daphne
01-02-2010, 10:28 AM
My mother is guilty of buying cheap things from the dollar store, like another poster's mother, she is a believer in quantity over quality. I appreciate her efforts, though, and try to not make her feel badly about her choices.

jenandahalf
01-02-2010, 11:09 AM
Mine just doesn't understand about small pieces and lead and age appropriateness and all those kinds of things. She has sent illegally copied DVDs before, she is just of the mindset that it's the same, just cheaper. As someone else said I know it's not coming from a malicious place, she just doesn't get it.

vludmilla
01-02-2010, 11:45 AM
Ugh, I understand. My grandmother bough DD (3 years and 4months) a BIB for Christmas. It was made for her in the ugliest fabric with the scratchiest terry cloth I've ever encountered. And there were threads hanging off. A real POS and she doesn't use bibs anymore. Duh. I also get various BABY toys for her. Poor woman is actually spending her money on these things. What a waste of money, effort and time.

pinay
01-02-2010, 02:14 PM
You're describing my SIL to a tee- DD got a ridiculous amount of cr@p for Christmas from her. Apparently the woman collects random cheap stuff for her throughout the year and then it gets dumped on us at Christmas. I think it took us 2 days to find a place for all the stuff she gave DD! We told her and BIL that there was going to be a limit on gifts next year b/c it was ridiculously obnoxious and DD just gets overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff.

sunshine873
01-02-2010, 02:21 PM
My MIL had been asking for over a month about what kinds of things DD would like for Christmas. I gave her a bunch of ideas. The day before Christmas we got a card in the mail with a $25 check. She specified that we should use it towards a nice homemade meal. Really? Gee, thanks. So for Christmas you gave me the right to cook a big fancy meal for my family. Essentially - I get to spend a little more time on dinner than I do every other night? Wow - how generous! It's not the amount of $$. $25 would have been fine. Heck, $10 would have been fine - you could have just bought DD a book and/or a small toy, skipping DH and I - we would have been fine with that. But instead, we as a family get dinner (which we would have had anyway, thank you.) And DD, your only grandchild gets essentially nothing? Nice.

ha98ed14
01-02-2010, 02:22 PM
I am grateful to have two interested grandmas. I know that is fortunate. I just get frustrated because the $9.99 she spent on something that broke ON NEW YEAR'S DAY could have been spent on crayons and coloring books. Or put in her college fund.

kozachka
01-02-2010, 04:52 PM
My family gave NOTHING to DS for his birthday around Thanksgiving and for New Year's. They have much less money than we do, and for years they were having financial issues since my mom had a tiny pension (not enough even for food) and dad's salary was small, too, while they supported my brother in college. This year they finally make decent money, thanks in part to me getting my dad a job, and could have at least have sent DS a card, called or e-mailed. I have sent them gifts, but have not called. I am just too upset for DS. Thankfully, he never asked about it.

Melaine
01-02-2010, 05:17 PM
My Inlaws live in China, so you can imagine the stuff they bring. (Although, truthfully, it's really not so bad because they bring trinkets that cost pennies as opposed to those MIC and sold here that are way over-priced). My kids are still little and don't understand quality at all so anytime something breaks they are upset. Plus, there is the added bonus of having twins and when one toy breaks the other one usually has to mysteriously disappear to preserve peace in the home.

MamaMolly
01-02-2010, 11:31 PM
Oh, this is my mom and stepmother. Only my mom will spend $$$ on something that DD will never play with. Like the $80 babydoll that is a collector's doll. Says 'not for children' on the website. :banghead: Or I'll ask for something like the cheap BRU $8 doll stroller and she'll get the $30 day-glo pink satin Disney Princess version. Makes me nuts.

Stepmom is a compulsive shopper and uses DD as an excuse to rack up credit card bills. She lives at Kohls. Absolutely loves their sales. Which means when I return stuff I get about 60 cents back for each item. Ugh. This Christmas she sent (among other weird stuff) black shorts for DD, and green t-shirt. I'm giving it all to charity.

AshleyAnn
01-03-2010, 04:03 AM
DH's stepgrandmother seems to have a gift closet stocked with crap from the 70's. Every holiday brings new wierd junk that I give to goodwill or just throw away. Its always extremely low quality - below dollar store quality.

She also has an endless roll of wrapping paper that is one solid color (not that the paper matters) she bought it at a going out of biz sale from a paper factory and its HUGE. She's used it for every gift she's given for over a decade.

elliput
01-03-2010, 10:26 AM
She also has an endless roll of wrapping paper that is one solid color (not that the paper matters) she bought it at a going out of biz sale from a paper factory and its HUGE. She's used it for every gift she's given for over a decade.
:ROTFLMAO: If the card gets lost, there is no question who the gift is from!