Six years ago, a box showed up at my front door. It had my name and address on it, but no return address, no card inside and I had NO idea who sent the box from amazon.

I opened it up, and it was a gift for my kids – ages 2 and 4.

And it was the absolute WORST GIFT EVER. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, it was very kind of someone to send a gift to my kids, but this gift was more than I could handle. It was a box full of (what felt like a million) small plastic BALLS. It came with a collapsible mesh “tent” that was supposed to hold all of said balls.

Over the next 4 weeks I did two things:

1. Awkwardly reached out to people to see if they sent my children a gift so that I could say thank you.
2. Spent every waking hour putting every single one of those balls back into the mesh tent….over and over….ball after ball.

I finally figured out who sent the gift and sent a thank you. This person had good intentions. They remembered how much my sisters and I loved the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese when we were kids and wanted my kids to have fun with all those balls. And they did have fun…..they had fun throwing them all over our house.

I’d finally had enough. After the kids went to bed one night, I packed the balls into a black garbage bag and hid them in my garage. I listed the balls and mesh tent for a great price on craigslist. A couple of days later, someone came to pick them up. I discreetly handed the person the garbage bag.

George, who was 4 at this time, said: “Wait mom! They are forgetting something.” He ran to another room, found ONE MORE plastic ball…and handed it to the person holding the garbage bag!

I stood there dumb-founded.

How did George even know what was in the garbage bag?!?!?!?

Thankfully, the kids were NOT disappointed that I sold this gift (I put the cash in their piggy banks).

I was SO VERY HAPPY that every single ball (thanks to George) was out of my house. Well, actually, not every ball because 6 years later, I still come across those balls here and there! I seriously can’t get rid of them!!!

So please, DO NOT buy a child a gift with a million balls unless you are keeping it at YOUR house and YOU enjoy cleaning up messes all day long.

So….that is What NOT to buy.

I wasn’t very good at buying gifts for kids before I had my own children. I always wanted to buy them clothes. And clothes are fine, if you buy them something special to go WITH the clothes. I didn’t understand this until my young nephew would come over to me before he unwrapped my gift and say: “This isn’t another SHIRT gift, is it?” (Gotta love their honesty!)

Here are a couple of things I highly recommend buying for children in the 1-5 age range:

Luke – Age 1

The Plasma Car – my kids have spent countless hours riding this thing! I’ve ended up with 3 of them! My sons started using these about 18 months, and don’t really outgrow them – Ted and I even ride the Plasma Car occasionally!

Hot Dog Slicer –  Every time we eat hot dogs, my youngest son asks for this. It’s a hot dog slicer with a little cup for holding ketchup. This is a fun gift for children under 5.

GIVEAWAY!!! I will send a Hot Dog slicer (Seen in Pic above) if you:

• share this post,

• then comment and tell me that you shared the post and want the hot dog slicer.

• I have TWO to give away! Winners announced Sunday!

No Stress Chess – this game not only taught us how to play chess, but instilled a love for the game into my oldest two sons! It’s on sale right now for only $11.99!!

(The above links are Affiliate Links which means, if you click on the links and decide to make a purchase, I may make a few cents. Thanks in advance)

These gift suggestions were taken out of the Holiday Gift Guide. For the top ten gifts for kids ages 1-10, click here to get your Guide!

Thanks for reading this to the very end! Comment and tell me a wonderful or horrible gift you or your children have received!