Grandparents that buy noisy presents for grandkids should be forced to keep the toys at their houses.
They can enjoy the many many many hours of relentless mind numbing noises said toys make.
Dang. I'm the Uncle who specifically looks for the noisy toys. And glitter - anything with glitter.
She gets stuff they'll let her keep, too, but my obligations as an older brother come before those as an uncle.
My wife and I were the first ones to have kids in her family. All of her siblings got the loudest, largest, and most obnoxious toys for my kids.
Ever since then I have extracted my revenge with glee and tons of malice.
Every Christmas and birthday since, I search out the perfect toy for them.
As my kids have gotten older I have donated their old, loud, and obnoxious toys to them randomly through the year if I am in the area. I am totally the favorite uncle because of it.
My house has slowly become almost toy free.
Some of the noisy electronic toys will randomly make sounds when they are not being played with, to draw the child back to them. Find one of those toys and hide it in Grandma and Grandpa's house.
I like it!
Is Dinosaur Train still a thing? My daughter had Dinosaur Train toys that would talk to each other if they were close enough to each other... except sometimes they would just randomly trigger.
Being woken up by a high-pitched voice yelling, "we're gonna riiiiiiiide the Dinosaur Train!" doesn't scare the shit out of you after third or fourth time.
I've not heard of them but we've definitely had a few moments where some toys will suddenly start singing in the middle of the night, it's quite creepy!
That was my parents rule. And it only makes sense as the grandparents are all fucking deaf anyways.
I recommend covering the speaker holes on the toy with a thick tape (we use gaffer tape, but masking tape or painters tape works too). It really dampens the sound and makes it much more tolerable.
It's revenge for how noisy you were as a kid.
My mother-in-law doesn't have that excuse because my wife was basically an angel child. Then she took up with me. 😈
I take it that the last two weeks have been cacophonous for you?
All in favour say "aye"
I'm not a grandparent but I have friends with young kids. They always get obnoxious toys that don't require batteries. Until they are old enough to tell what they want that is. I also like getting them fun children books like Marlon Bundo, Go the Fuck to Sleep, etc.
I don't put batteries in them if I have the choice.
I man parents are adults. They could stipulate this.
The issue is it seems a large percentage of grandparents don't listen or actively override your request. Family, I fucking swear. They get shameless when you have kids.
A good friend used to put those toys away and tell his kids “Those are your special toys for when grandma and grandpa come to babysit.”
Haha that's a really good solution :D