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Gifts That Drive Me Crazy

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Okay, okay, hold your judgement!  I know the title of this post makes me seem incredibly ungrateful and ungracious, BUT WAIT!  I just want to provide a mommy perspective to well-meaning friends and relatives who are eager to shop for little ones.  What follows is not necessarily a “DO NOT BUY” list, but more of a list with a red-sharpie sign that reads “BUY WITH CAUTION.”

1.  Glitter:  Glitter is pretty and innately holiday-esque.  It instantly evokes a festive mood.  But, please, consider where all that glitter will end up, especially if it’s not glued securely and then sealed with an overlay of something thick and tight.  For example, glitter inside a snow globe is fine, as long as the globe is out of kids’ reach.  But glitter on a toy means that the toy would be handled often and would be traveling all over the house.  That’s what kids do with a toy.  It’s not fun cleaning glitter out of one’s diaper bag, let alone bed linens, pets, tight carpet, and the family car.  (Have you tried cleaning glitter out of a cup holder?)  If you can manage to fight the temptation to buy that doll with the glitter-laden gown, you have done a huge favor for the parents.

2.  Puzzles:  Puzzles are popular in my home.  We have lots of them in various shapes, sizes, and counts.  My 4-year-old daughter is pretty adept at doing 30-40 piece puzzles, even the holographic ones that give me motion-sickness when I look at them for too long.  My 2-year-old is showing interest in the 12-piece ones that are (usually) neatly stored in their rightful boxes.  But eager gift-givers might think puzzles are puzzles.  And they’re easy to gift, right?  But not all puzzles are made equal.  Consider the child’s age, of course, when you’re shopping for puzzles.  Would a toddler be content with 50-piece puzzle of Dutch tulips?  Or Bengal tigers?  Would his little hands be able to handle the pieces without ruining them as he tries to fit them together?  Personally, I like wooden puzzles for my 2-year-old.  She tends to be a little too forceful in trying to fit pieces (esp. when they are clearly not the correct ones), but wooden puzzles hold up perfectly to her “enthusiasm.”  I don’t blame parents for throwing away puzzles that have missing pieces (what’s the point?)  or puzzles with pieces that are bent, torn, or otherwise warped out of shape.  Been there, done that.  No guilt here.

3.  Candy Canes:  Ugh.  I hardly ever give hard candies to my children.  Aside from all the dental hygiene reasons, I think candy canes create the slowest mess ever.  Which, of course, means the parent-in-charge must have a wipe on hand for the duration of the kid’s candy cane consumption.  Watch out — the kid may get some glitter stuck on his face, too, thanks to all that sticky mess.  I’ll pass.

4.  Extreme Crafts:  I’m not referring to crafts that you’d find in trade publications, ones that are meant for life-long crafters who carry crochet needles and scrabble tiles in their everyday bag.  Anything that requires 90% of the parent’s help is, in my book, an extreme craft (if the craft was a gift intended for the kid.)  I’m a nursing mom to a 6-month-old, so I’m a big fan of crafts because they can occupy my older kids happily.  But if the craft is so intricate or complicated that forces me to get up every 3 minutes (and inevitably makes the baby cry in utter protest), it is not really a gift at all.  It has become a chore, an extra job.  Additionally, if my hands were more involved in creating the final product, I can’t, in all honesty, praise my kids for doing such a wonderful job if all they did was pick the colors or swipe on the glue.  I’d rather they work on a puzzle together.

I’m curious to know if this all seems harsh and cold, like Mr. Scrooge.  I am grateful for gifts and even more so for people who think of my children at all.  In the frenzy of this gift-giving season, it’s so easy to have a pick-up-and-go routine of shopping, especially if the merchandise is nicely displayed and quickly accessible by the check-out line.  As a parent to three little ones, I make this plea to keep it simple, easy, and clean — for gifts and for everything else.  No one can complain about that.

The post Gifts That Drive Me Crazy appeared first on Parent Savers.


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