Toys- some assembly required

jf198400

The SAHM board had a post about this and it cracked me up. Share your horror stories here. What do you have to assemble this Christmas? Who does it, you or DH?

jf198400

We have gotten off lucky so far, no disasters here. We did have trouble putting DDs tricycle together for her 2nd birthday, but it turned out we were missing an important piece. My parents assembled the play kitchen for us last year, and this year the kids are just getting a bunch of small toys. Now furniture on the other hand, that drives me crazyyyy...

financialdiva

For DS1's very first Christmas, we got him one of those tricycles with the polo that you push them on. Well, as DH was assembling it Christmas Eve, he kept complaining how he felt awful. I kept rolling my eyes, thinking he was just trying to get out of putting it together.

He ended up getting violently ill, and puked all over the bike. He subsequently spent all of Christmas Day in the bathroom or in bed with some sort of 24 hour stomach bug.

Thankfully DS1 and I did not catch that bug. Oh, and we still have the bike.

ETA- we got DS2 the Little tykes cozy
Coupe- it's still in the box- I should probably take a look at it and make sure it's not in too many pieces.

jf198400

financialdiva said:

For DS1's very first Christmas, we got him one of those tricycles with the polo that you push them on. Well, as DH was assembling it Christmas Eve, he kept complaining how he felt awful. I kept rolling my eyes, thinking he was just trying to get out of putting it together. He ended up getting violently ill, and puked all over the bike. He subsequently spent all of Christmas Day in the bathroom or in bed with some sort of 24 hour stomach bug. Thankfully DS1 and I did not catch that bug. Oh, and we still have the bike. ETA- we got DS2 the Little tykes cozy Coupe- it's still in the box- I should probably take a look at it and make sure it's not in too many pieces.

OMG thats awful, did you have to hose off the bike?

I've heard moms complaining about the cozy coupe- i would get a jump on that soon.

financialdiva

jf198400 said:

financialdiva said:

For DS1's very first Christmas, we got him one of those tricycles with the polo that you push them on. Well, as DH was assembling it Christmas Eve, he kept complaining how he felt awful. I kept rolling my eyes, thinking he was just trying to get out of putting it together. He ended up getting violently ill, and puked all over the bike. He subsequently spent all of Christmas Day in the bathroom or in bed with some sort of 24 hour stomach bug. Thankfully DS1 and I did not catch that bug. Oh, and we still have the bike. ETA- we got DS2 the Little tykes cozy Coupe- it's still in the box- I should probably take a look at it and make sure it's not in too many pieces.

OMG thats awful, did you have to hose off the bike?

I've heard moms complaining about the cozy coupe- i would get a jump on that soon.

Yea, my dad took it out back and hosed it off on Christmas Day with bleach and water, lol.

Thanks for the heads up on the coupe. I'll have to get started on that!

LoCarb

It took 5 of us to assemble a big wheel. I'm just not that tech/plastic/toy savvy. In the future, I will pay for assembly at all costs!

ss+el

All we have to assemble is a plasmacar. I will probably do it myself. DH will overthink it and get frustrated.

ss+el

financialdiva said:

 ETA- we got DS2 the Little tykes cozy Coupe- it's still in the box- I should probably take a look at it and make sure it's not in too many pieces.

Oh, yes, get it done now if you can. We never did get DS' assembled correctly. There were screws sticking out in the little open "trunk" area because no drill we had or borrowed would put them through all the way.

FemShep

DD1 is getting a bunk bed.  DD2 is getting a play kitchen.  Neither have been assembled yet.

You can imagine what we'll be doing during all nap and bed times between now and Christmas.

Leap08

jf198400 said:

financialdiva said:

For DS1's very first Christmas, we got him one of those tricycles with the polo that you push them on. Well, as DH was assembling it Christmas Eve, he kept complaining how he felt awful. I kept rolling my eyes, thinking he was just trying to get out of putting it together. He ended up getting violently ill, and puked all over the bike. He subsequently spent all of Christmas Day in the bathroom or in bed with some sort of 24 hour stomach bug. Thankfully DS1 and I did not catch that bug. Oh, and we still have the bike. ETA- we got DS2 the Little tykes cozy Coupe- it's still in the box- I should probably take a look at it and make sure it's not in too many pieces.

OMG thats awful, did you have to hose off the bike?

I've heard moms complaining about the cozy coupe- i would get a jump on that soon.

The cozy coupe is a PITA to put together. Give yourself plenty of time. The directions in the box are complete crap (or at least they were when I put it together). Use their website with videos. It helped a ton.

rubber_chicken

No horror stories yet, but we're putting her playkitchen together this weekend, so ask me again next week

rubber_chicken

also, can you link to the original SAHM post? i could use a laugh

jf198400

https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12199354/toy-assembly

PSU_Texan

We actually made something for both girls... but we're geeky engineers.  We made them both big magnet boards for their rooms to hang artwork, play with the letter magnets, etc.  We bought and painted 24x36 frames and 24x36 sheet metal.  Then we glued together.  They look pretty awesome!

We had the joy of the cozy coupe last christmas... not as hard as the darn exersaucer.

financialdiva

Oh no. Now I'm super scared of the cozy coupe.

wychets

We got lucky this year. The play kitchen was brought used so its already together. The only thing we have is the Barbie 4 wheeler Jeep and my Dad is putting it together for me. DH does not do well in that department, poor DD would sit in the jeep and the wheels would fall of lol

Mustardseed2007

rubber_chicken said:

No horror stories yet, but we're putting her playkitchen together this weekend, so ask me again next week

Same. I did put together a Fisher Price, Stand and Play Ramp Set for DS last weekend the night before his birthday party. For this reason DH is putting the Little Tikes Kitchen together.

rubber_chicken

There's a store right next to our Ikea that actually assembles their furniture and delivers it to your door - FANTASTIC business idea, especially since lots of city dwellers dont own cars.

ss265

Lol DH and I both have engineering backgrounds but I am the one who usually puts things together at our house. So far I have assembled all of DS's things - exersaucer, crib, pack n play etc. We got the Chicco PnP and I had to break it down when I was almost 9 months pregnant to move it into our bedroom. It would not fold up no matter what I did and it was a PITA! I enjoy it though - like a PP said, to me it is like a puzzle to solve.

Soon2BMrsN

We seem to end up with a gift needing assembly every single year. When ODS was 18m, we got him the Cozy Coupe for Christmas. I assembled it myself and don't remember it being too bad. The next year, we got him a train table that took DH nearly all day on Christmas Eve to put together. Last year, we got the boys a Power Wheels Jeep that also took all day and DH nearly lost his mind. We vowed to never spend another Christmas Eve assembling toys! Wouldn't you know, this year's big gift is a wooden fire station...I am going to assemble it tonight to spare DH this time. I looked at the directions and they don't look too bad. We'll see.

financialdiva

I am pleased to report the cozy coupe is assembled and no one was injured! DH did it in a little under 2 hours last night!

FemShep

We put together DD2's play kitchen last night (90 minutes, slightly distracted watching the Eagles game). DH took today as a personal day and we put together DD1's bunk bed-nearly 4 1/2 hours. Ugh! That was definitely a tough two-person job, but she's been asking for it for more than a year, so hopefully she'll love it.

Wufroggy79

Not for Christmas, but last year for her birthday we put together a swingset for her. Took almost 10 hours with three adult men working non stop on it! Learned my lesson last year having to put things together the night before, so this year, I assembled as we bought them since she will want to play ASAP on Christmas morning. Worst one was a Plan Toys dollhouse. Took us almost two hours.

SparkySharky

I'm far more savvy than my DH at putting things together, but I think we both like to doing it. That said, we didn't have anything major to put together this year. Just a pushtoy and a couple of those Vtech train station and airport toys. Took less than an hour in spite of my DH's tendency to screw/attach everything backward first. Poor guy. With 50/50 odds, he has a better shot at getting it right if he just guessed. Same thing with opening boxes - shipping boxes, graham crackers, cereal, etc. Nothing is fresh at our house.

groovygrl

Cozy coupe is evil & I had to put together 2 of them for my twins. I watched videos, read directions, googled,  it took me, my mom & MH hours to assemble those things- not b/c of all the pieces, but the fact that they don't actually fit together right & I believe we ended up having to drill new holes or something to get pieces to work.  I tell everyone I know to pay Walmart or whoever for assembly, it will be money well spent.

I usually try the assembly first b/c MH & I doing any kind of projects like that together really never ends well.  Thankfully this year all we had to assemble was a lego table & it was ridic easy, screw on the legs & poof.

I hate ikea for this very reason. Regret it every.single.time I buy something requiring assembly.

emberlee3

DH is terrible at assembling stuff. Fortunately, my parents assembled the Ikea play kitchen since they bought it. Nothing else required assembly, but DS and I will put his Lego stuff together at some point.

rubber_chicken

Update: DD had an asthma attack last weekend and ended up in the ER, so we didn't get a chance to assemble the play kitchen until 8pm Christmas Eve...didn't finish until 11:30pm.  But it's gorgeous and she loves it!!

RibbitGrl930

Jake is only 9 months old, so hardly any of hs toys required assembly. The one that did was just a plastic push cart that the main toy gets put on for pushing when he bets to walking. DH is very handy and I'm generally good at following instructions, so we both put it together easily.

ss+el

ss+el said:

All we have to assemble is a plasmacar. I will probably do it myself. DH will overthink it and get frustrated.

Didn't get around to assembling this until the morning of the 24th. The wheels were broken in the box. Yay. Fortunately, this was not something DS was expecting, so I just did a return request with amazon and the next largest gift we got him turned into his Santa gift.