Mikey had quite the haul this Christmas, and most of his gifts were awesome. My dad, however, missed the mark many times over.
Some of you may know of the issues I've had with my beloved dad as I've been known to whine on here in the past. His disdain for clean hands, inattention to where he walks and what he touches and inability to show M any boundaries, like when they go for a walk and Dad lets him grab dog turds in the park or run amok in the meat department at the grocery store.
Well, not to sound ungrateful, but here's a massive whine/vent/what have you about my dad's(and his GF's) presents for my Mikey this Christmas.
1. A toy cell phone that's so ratty it seems like it's just waiting to lose it's parts and make for sharp, pointy things to hurt M.
2. Toy cars, the kind boys love when they're 6, 7, 8??? IDK. But they have tons of removable, chokable parts.
3. A raver ring. The kind that blinks a rainbow. It was terrifying, and my dad loved it!!! The good news is that I think we've established the boy isn't prone to light-induced epileptic fits. The bad news is that it was falling apart by the time we got home, and the flashing lights were easily pulled out of their shell along with the battery, which was roughly size as M's wind pipe.
I mean, WTF? And he wonders why we haven't left them alone with Mikey.
Sorry for being so long and nonsensical.
Re: Bad gifts... for the LO's - long
I agree.. people who haven't been around children for a long time don't get the whole "age appropriate" thing. I mean really.. how hard is it to look at the box and skip it if it says for Age 8 and above!!
DD -- 5YO
DS -- 3YO
OMG, vent away. (turds in the park? wow!)
When Jason turned two my mom got him a tool kit which clearly said on it "ages 5+". It had a measuring tape, screw driver, various other things to potentially poke out an eye. That kit must have been on sale because Jason got the same thing for his 3rd birthday!
It's a wonder you and I are here today. Oy!
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To your dad's defense on the dog poop.. my oldest did that when we went for a walk - he thought it was wood.. oooops! Told him to hold is hand out the entire walk home & do not touch anything ; )
My mom is a lot like your dad - gets the kids stuff that we have to literally throw in the garbage after she leaves. This year she asked me to meet her at the store. My kids loved everything & it was age appropriate for the 1st time in 5 years!
LOL, you had me at dog turds.
Maybe you can offer to take him Christmas/bday shopping for M next time and suggest things that you feel are in his typical price range for gifts. You could possibly explain why you are pointing out the things as you go - or say, "see, this aisle is for the toddlers, see it says 12 to 24 months right there on the sign. Look, you know it will be greaet for M because it shows the appropriate age for this toy."
I know he will probably miss the hint, most guys do and the ones who need it the most are sadly the most likely the ones to miss it.
I'm late to this post, but we got a couple of things that I'm probably going to hide from Stella:
1. A remote controlled Barbie car. What!?! She's 2.5. Some days she can't even walk without bumping into the wall. How on earth is she going to steer a car with a remote control?
2. An electronic hamster thingy that makes lots of annoying sounds. I can't stand it.