<p>I often have to buy gifts for young children where I find the mom is annoying. My favorite is sand art, but I am wondering as the holiday season approaches if there are others I haven’t thought of. Battery toys I would never buy, as I hate the waste in the environment.</p>
<p>Finger-painting kit? Tie-dye kit?</p>
<p>Play-doh :D</p>
<p>It seems incredibly childish to me to pick a gift for any child based on how you feel about the child’s parent.</p>
<p>Well, I have to admit I wonder if my sister-in-law hated me when she gave my kid a very loud, out of tune, plastic trombone. That thing was disappeared rather quickly!</p>
<p>Anything with sound…really obnoxious sound. A drum set, or xylophone would meet your no battery criteria.</p>
<p>I don’t do things like that, but an ant farm is one of those things. Battery toys can really be a pain. My brother bought a stupid remote control tank for my kids that blew up into pieces. It needed about 10 battries as the remote, the main part of the tank and each of the pieces needed batteries. I kept that thing for over 20 years in its box and was delighted to be able to present it to his son, my nephew, a few years ago, minus batteries. I do love mom, dad and kids in this sceanrio, but could not resist.</p>
<p>And, I agree, Emilybee, that it was incredible childish and petty for me to have done this, but I did so enjoy it.</p>
<p>Wow, do you mean buying a child’s gift to annoy the mom?</p>
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<p>Exactly, emilybee. Nothing says Christmas spirit like basing your decision on a child’s gift by the level of annoyance it will bring his/her mother.</p>
<p>I often buy books or some sort of hobby or craft kit.</p>
<p>If the mom is like me, she wouldn’t take the hint. Finger painting? Oh goody, so much fun my kid will have. This reminds me that I did get some fun finger paint to my niece once. There was something different about the set and I truly thought it would be so much fun. I had no intention/need to annoy the mom. Could that be why I didn’t get a thankyou note that year?</p>
<p>The key here is something that will delight the child, but annoy the mom. (This is one of those things that most of us will fantasize about, but not do. Don’t spoil the fun.)</p>
<p>How about something covered with glitter, or sequins?</p>
<p>One time I almost bought a gift for my sister’s son which could have annoyed her. She said he loved firetrucks, so I found a beautiful big red one which had sound effects. I headed towards the cashier and decided to see how obnoxious it was (sis had said it would be okay to have a siren). Well, boy was I surprised when it made loud siren noises, and then a big burly voice shouted, “Get out of the way you big jacka$$!”</p>
<p>Whoa. Back to the drawing board!</p>
<p>1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the child’s favorite action hero or disney character. One of those "at home"science experiment kits (spurting volcano or growing mold). But probably one of the most annoying “toys” out there is that mini archeological dig thing - it is a large block of hard sand and includes a small plastic chisel for the child to “unearth” little plastic objects that are contained in the block of sand. My children loved them and I hated them.</p>
<p>LOL, nrdsb4, I was just coming on the thread to post about the obnoxious fire truck given to my son by his childless aunt and uncle. Wow, that thing was annoying and lost its batteries very quickly. </p>
<p>I think they did it not to annoy, but because they were childless and didn’t get it.</p>
<p>My own worst self-inflicted wound was giving out kazoos as party favors. Never EVER give out kazoos as party favors! ;)</p>
<p>How about not giving a gift at all to annoy the mother, since that seems to be the primary focus?</p>
<p>I am also guilty of giving a volcano kit and archeology dig. It looks like I committed all possible sins.</p>
<p>Gooey Louie. The year that first came out, son #1 got 3 Gooey Louies, all from different uncles (big family).</p>
<p>The idea is to give a gift that delights the child and riles the mother! My kids loved their play dough, ant farms, sand sculptures, those light up picture makers, blow tanks and other remote control horrors, and I bought most of that stuff for them, not to begin with the noisythings like a locomotive that played the loudest tunes that could drive anyone nuts. As I said before, I’ve not done this, other than saving that tank for my nephew that I never thought was going to be, but the thougth is fun. Childish, as was laugh when my brother had to deal with his own gift, but fun.</p>
<p>I don’t think my brother gave the gift to my kids to annoy, but he was childless then and had no idea. He found out many years later what an obnoxious gift that was.</p>
<p>If you find the mom more than just annoying, then I would go for a parakeet or maybe even two.</p>