Getting a gift you don’t want can be so awkward. No matter how well-meaning the gift giver might have been, there’s very few of us who can hide the look of disappointment from our faces. That goes double when it comes to your baby shower — I mean, not everything is a keeper.
People on Reddit can definitely attest to this fact and recently shared the absolute worst baby shower gifts they’ve ever received.
The answers came flooding in after one user asked, "What is the worst baby shower gift you received?"
The Redditor asked the question in the r/BabyBumps forum, before sharing the questionable baby shower gift they themselves had recently gotten.
"Just got an activity book for 7-11 year olds from my sister," the original poster wrote. "She reserved an age appropriate activity mat from my registry, but it was out of stock so she got me the book."
But that was tame compared to some of the responses the OP received.
Some people got gifts that were downright cruel.
"First baby … A card from my sister-in-law, pretty much saying I'm not ready to be a parent and that she hopes I 'don't damage the child,'" one commenter shared. "It came with the 'What To Expect,' book series for birth through age 5. Lol. Also … She spent the entire party ragging on me to everybody. I had met her once prior to this. She was excused."
"My own mother gave me a notebook for my baby shower that was supposed to be filled with supportive messages from people who attended," someone else chimed in. "Except that her own message was so scathing and pretty much just repeated in different ways how much I was going to struggle as a mother. I got good mileage out of passing it around and laughing at it with my husband's family, who are well aware of how insane my parents are."
"I was super excited to find a turquoise pottery barn crib on craigslist for $75!!" another commenter shared. "Made a FB post and everything. Well for my shower my BIL and SIL decided to buy me a crib! Not so bad, but when I opened it she goes 'this is so that you don't have to use that street crib, cuz let's be honest, it's a street crib.' In front of everyone!! I grew up on second hand items and it was such a slap in the face, I wanted to just cry."
Other people got gifts that were sort of lackluster.
"My grandma got me a can of beans and canned enchilada sauce… pretty sure they were from her pantry and they were like 10 years old," wrote one person.
"Used and open items," someone else added. "Came from my SIL’s brother-in-law and his wife. I am all for hand-me-downs, but like … open containers of baby power and butt cream that are half used, as their present … lmao. Oh, and it was all packed in a dirty, used diaper backpack."
"My best friend got me a 50 cent machine ducky and five dollars," another person shared. "I wasn’t upset until she asked for the $5 back for gas money."
Other gifts were … strange.
"My friend’s BIL got them a giant abstract painting meant to personify the terror of a nightmare for their nursery," wrote one commenter. "… It was literally the scariest thing I’ve ever seen and he was not at all kidding. He really didn’t get why it freaked them out …"
"A cross…for my Jewish child," another commenter recalled. "Yes, they knew."
"A gift set of baby medicine that all expired before she was born," someone else wrote, "(They said, 'The US takes expiration dates too seriously')."
And then some gifts were admittedly sort of funny.
"I got a kids size 10 shirt … like, one that a big kid could wear," one person remembered. "We were really confused but said thank you and moved onto the next gift … the friend pulled me aside and apologized because he didn’t know anything about babies. We had a laugh about it and it’s still in my (almost) 4-year-old’s closet. We have him put it on around his birthday every year and send a picture of him to our friend who gifted it to us. It’s tradition now."
Another commenter wrote: "A onesie that says 'every dog needs a baby' and I have two cats. Zero dogs."
Another gift was very appropriate for the times we're living in.
"A onesie that said 'they did not stay 6 feet apart," a third commenter shared.
I don't know how any of these people managed to keep it together, but if there's anything to take away from this it's to always go by the registry — always.
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