Monday, January 8, 2018

It's the Thought that Counts


I don’t want to sound ungrateful, although I’m not sure I will succeed. The cold, hard truth is, I hate the present my parents got Love Bug for Christmas. Oh, he loves it! It’s the only thing he played with all day on Christmas. But, I despise the damn thing. It’s actually a lovely gift. They really put a lot of thought into it, I could tell. But, it requires an adult to set it up and it is HUGE. Even the box it came in was incredibly large. It is a huge toy train set, with a very realistic looking engine and cars. The track is hard to set up, meaning I need to do it for Love Bug. The engine makes all kinds of loud clanging, “All aboard!” chugging noise. And, you have to be very exact to get the engine and all the rail cars lined up perfectly in order for it to work. It also requires 4 big C batteries and a 9 volt in the remote control. I set it up three times before I finally got the engine and rail cars to run together on the track without falling off or getting stuck. I recorded the phenomenon on my phone and now Love Bug asks to watch the video of his train because he knows I am loathe to dig it out, move all the furniture in the kitchen (and sweep and mop the floor because let’s be honest, it always needs it), and set it up. My mom gleefully told me on Christmas Eve how big this train was and my first thought was, “but you know how small our house is!” I am not kidding or exaggerating when I say I have to render our kitchen unusable, our back door inaccessible, in order to set up this train. It would be lovely if we had a toy room or finished basement where we can set the train up and let it go, but we do not. We have 520 square feet that we all must share and the train eats up too much space. Even trying to store it in the box was a hassle. So, I reverted to stuffing it into an Ikea bag and shoving it under Chica Marie’s bed. I know it was a thoughtful gift, I know Love Bug is totally infatuated with it, but for the love of God, I cannot stand it! Have you ever had your child receive a gift you hate? What did you do about it?

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4 comments:

  1. My brother gave my daughter a talking tea set. She has never laid eyes on it. It was so squeaky I couldn't handle it. He then gave her something that sings with a crazy ass voice. She had that and the batteries went out and something must be wrong with it because the batteries never work. *innocent look*.

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  2. Oh dear. It's sad that they put so much thought into it, but didn't actually think about how it might work in the family/house situation.

    I will admit that I have given gifts that the parents might not have liked. I've bought cute clothes for nieces that might have been a nightmare to launder. And I've given noisy gifts too! I figure that's an aunt's prerogative. lol

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  3. I guess it was a nice idea but it sounds like there's just no room at your place for it! My mother in law always gives us knick knack type presents which I don't like! She's sweet and means well but I just hate all the clutter. And I don't know how to tell her.

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  4. Do you visit your parents much. Maybe they have a spot it can stay up and be used when you visit.

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