Stupid presents for grandchildren

As someone who is allergic to flowers, my gorgeous brothers all got me Lego flowers the year they were first released (independently), I now have something to put in the many beautiful vases I have, definitely not plastic tat! ??. My dyspraxic nephew ( and to be honest all my family from 2 to 76) would happily spend hours with Lego. Many if us have it on display.

A "gift" is something you hope the recipient will love, if you know there is something they would be excited to get, I see that as a win for both sides!!

We buy whatever our granddaughter asks us to buy her, within reason financially of course. She will be 15 this month and she has asked for another saddle pad for the horse she rides every week. As anyone with grandchildren into horse riding will know there are companies constantly bringing out new colours and I think right now the company we buy from has about 27 different colours! I had to laugh at the weekend when she said the horse she is riding at the moment 'suits' the colour Mulberry so she wants tons of stuff in that colour

Just ordered DiL the Lego Orchid to go in her Christmas Stocking.

Our Autistic GS finds pleasure in Lego, he has the whole Hogwarts Collection along with the replica sports cars, all pricey especially the cars. He has them on display on shelves in his bedroom, and takes them apart and reassembles when he feels the need.

It would seem the OP didn't like the answers to her post and has gone quiet. Seems to be a lot of us who have discovered Lego plants through this discussion and want one. Maybe post was a plant (do you see what I did there!) with subliminal advertising.

Not for you to judge or approve of what other people like. Life's short, buy the lego plant.

I tend to agree with you. We ought to be recommending sustainable gifts. I deplore the over consuming throw away give them what they want approach. The increasing cost of living will hit some grandparents very hard and it’s natural to be annoyed at picking the tab up for unnecessary designer gifts. A gift token should suffice and if it isn’t enough to cover the tat maybe it will help to make gift recipients realise that money doesn’t grow on trees.

Treetops05, wooden things are all very well when they’re very little, but later on, they things they want don’t often come in wood. For his 6th birthday my Gds specifically requested a Spinosaurus, to add to his already impressive dinosaur collection - all big, and all some sort of plastic, I’m afraid.

One person’s tat is another person’s joy.

When my grandchildren were little, I bought all wooden toys, our playroom is still full of them, and the youngest still plays with them all the time.

But as Witzend said. You can’t keep it up, we have loads of Paw Patrol stuff, all plastic, all reasonable quality, and has been passed down through the children.

Lego, as previously said, is not tat. We’ve got some Fischer Price toys, not as good as it was, but still not bad.

My real big dislike is playmobil which I do find rubbish.

I don’t want to fill the world with plastic, but it’s only a few years, and then it’ll be something else.

Haven't time to read through all this thread but just want to say I had my son and family visiting from New Zealand this week.
We visited my eldest sister who once bought one of her grand daughters a pirate ship she asked for (plastic) but which mum and dad wouldn't dream of buying. Said granddaughter loved it, plastic pirates, cannonballs and all. I wonder if she has the same memory of the educational toys her parents bought?
Anyway, I digress, my GS 9, on visit to great auntie remembered the suitcase of Lego kept upstairs and the box of Britains farm toys. Both him and his little sister had great fun with them. Their dad was exactly the same on his visits. He used to run in the house, shout hello and run upstairs to where he knew the toys were. Happy days.
Lego is never a bad buy.
Frivolous can be good.

Re plastic ‘tat’ we still have a little Fisher Price ‘school’ that was a present to dd1 on her first birthday.
She’s now 45.
Whenever they visit, Gdcs of 7,6 and 2 1/2 will always play with it.

My two grandkids are coming over tomorrow to get there ‘ice -cream money’ for their holiday with dad….surfing in cornwall. I give the 15 year old lad £50 for the week and same to his 10 year old sister. And make them swear NOT to spend it on anything sensible !! They’re kids …let them have it while you’ve got it. I’m glad to see the big smiles on those faces …won’t be able to see that with any money they might get when I’m dead!

Saggi
That is so true.

I got myself.a lego biuquet, s far haven't made it all yet but what u have made looks very nice. Have out it in the bedroom window no sure if it will live there forever but it is good there atm

We're a Lego family too. DS had the VW Camper Van a couple of Christmas's ago and enjoyed it so much he bought the Land Rover Defender too. I've just bought the GC's birthday and Christmas presents of Lego Jurassic Park and Lego Harry Potter book of spells. DDIL wants the ship in a bottle. The whole family gets involved; so what's not to like?

I never thought of Legos as unsustainable. Enthusiasts invest a lot of money in the sets so they typically build and display. There are groups designed just for the sale of used Legos and complete sets that have been taken down command high prices, especially if they sre limited edition.

As for other toys, my kids played with the toys from my childhood and I have a pile of toys from my kids that the grand nephews play with now. (For birthdays and holidays I buy them memberships so they can have experiences like zoo, museum, etc) If they are built well enough they will last a long time.

If one of my kids grandkids asked for something, even if I thought it was ridiculous, I would buy it. I would never want to be thought of as "the grandma who thinks the things I am interested in are stupid. "

Please god, whatever you get, please not loose glitter

When he was a child my son had all the Lego Technic sets, you couldn’t move in his bedroom for Lego creations.
Any wet Sunday would find him lying on the floor surrounded by Lego, happy times.

Why ask if you don’t want to buy them what they would like? Surely what you think of it has no bearing on the matter, and just as an aside the first Lego was sold in 1942, it has been going a remarkably long time for ‘tat’. I personally hate giving gifts that aren’t a surprise but it isn’t about me and I would much rather buy my kids something they really would like than something that is going to be thrown in the back of a cupboard never to be seen again so I buy them what they ask for then buy a smaller second cheaper present that I think they might like but if not it wasn’t expensive so it doesn’t matter.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

At least they tell you what they want!!! I'm brain racking as each birthday comes along [adults & grandchildren] but fortunately I seem to pick something they like - well I think they do!!!

watermeadow

I always ask my daughters what the children would like for birthdays and Christmas. Some suggestions have not been my idea of desirable, like the £25 “designer” deodorant. The latest daft request is Lego plants, which are marked 18+ and contain hundreds of tiny pieces. Once assembled you use this plastic tat as an ornament, it can’t be taken apart and reused.
My granddaughter who will be 11 wants this rubbish, which I consider a complete waste of money.
I’ve ordered it but very reluctantly. The old Lego gave years of fun.

My husband does a lot of lego and similar models. He bought me a lego bonsai tree. It was great fun assembling it and I can change it from leaves to blossoms whenever I want .

They all come to pieces so they could be used for other things. Although not sure thst we want to. Hours of fun assembling not like a lot of ornaments. My MIL collects cheap knock offs of lladro - I know which ormaments I prefer!!!

Saggi

My two grandkids are coming over tomorrow to get there ‘ice -cream money’ for their holiday with dad….surfing in cornwall. I give the 15 year old lad £50 for the week and same to his 10 year old sister. And make them swear NOT to spend it on anything sensible !! They’re kids …let them have it while you’ve got it. I’m glad to see the big smiles on those faces …won’t be able to see that with any money they might get when I’m dead!

Agreed, Saggi.
Last week we took the two elder Gdcs, 6 and 7, to London Zoo. Before leaving there was of course a visit to the shop - I’d thought of giving them each £10 to spend.
But Gdd instantly fell in love with a big cuddly polar bear, Gds ditto with a gorilla. Both way more than I’d intended, but sod it, they’re not little for very long.
And they were very happy.

For those who think I’m mean can I repeat:
Granddaughter is going to be 11 and she’s dyspraxic
Lego plants are marked 18+ For adults.

watermeadow

For those who think I’m mean can I repeat:
Granddaughter is going to be 11 and she’s dyspraxic
Lego plants are marked 18+ For adults.

Some of the Lego flowers are 8+. Sunflowers and Roses definitely are.