Tamagotchi saved our sanity on a trip searching for furniture for our house. Kids wanted them and were SO good in order to get one then stayed entertained on a really boring trip for them.
Grew up on Candyland and Monopoly. We played tons of games.
Most of our baby-toddler toys were Fisher-price and old school type toys like blocks, push vehicles, sand box, dolls, stuffed animals. etc. Lots of books.
I had a friend whose brother worked for F-P in the research department to determine age ranges for their new products. She told me that the age range listed on their products is pretty dead on and don’t “over do” by buying toys beyond a child’s age. It certainly held true over the years. That advice saved me time and trouble (and probably money) over the years in guessing what type of toy to buy.
Guess the irritating toys were those that took up too much room in proportion to play value.
Hungry, Hungry Hippos. The marbles and the sound of the kids frantically pushing their hippo back and forth irritated me. It wasn’t until after we purchased that game that I noticed the commercial on tv was void of any noise from either the kids or the game. Lesson learned.
My dog has squeaky toys my D likes to buy to torment me! Does that count?
LOL—Y’all need ear plugs it appears!
I’ll admit that I’m pretty good at tuning things out.
Is it Tickle Me Elmo? or talking Elmo. The tickle me Elmo laughing is truly annoying. For us, I bought my nephew a train set, that made smoke. It was the smoke and not the noise that was annoying…probably a carcinogen.
I wasn’t too bothered by Candyland, I just found it kind of tedious and boring. Neither kid had tickle me elmo, luckily.
Oh god, stepping on legos was the worst! Those little things bring a lot of pain!
You know, after we brought that drum set from the grandparents along on a weekend visit, we got fewer presents, but the ones we got were quieter…
@preppedparent
It was the red, hard plastic version that came out in 2006. The child would flip the head and it would babble something or laugh. The high-pitched Elmo laughs were the worst.
My kids had a “musical” chicken limbo game. It clucked the limbo song in an incredibly loud screech.
Great. Now the “song” is stuck in my head. Cluck cluck cluck, cluck cluck.
I also was not a Monopoly fan. Took TOOOO long! We did Monopoly Junior as a compromise.
I do remember games of Monopoly when I was a kid though. Me and my sibs would keep the game set up somewhere and it might go on for weeks! Probably why I started hating it!
I don’t like games where I have to think too much.
Jenga. There was a reason we had to get granite top dining tables and keep our beaten up IKEA coffee table. 
OMG, the Furby. It would start randomly talking, even at night.
And Candyland. I loved it as a preschooler. Couldn’t believe how incredibly boring it was once I was a parent. I saw a Tweet the other day where someone had made up this whole Candyland underworld because they were bored playing. I applauded them.
My younger D figured out that Candy Land could be rigged. The game is horribly dull but I found it fun to watch her when she had stacked the deck against me.
Play-doh was my nemesis for awhile. Bits of dried doh in the most unlikely places, staining whatever it got stuck on.
Also think D had some toy that came on and made noise if it’s own accord, but I don’t recall what it was.
There used to be this magnetic football game. Place the players on the field and turn it on. They moved around randomly and never accomplished anything. It wasn’t annoying for parents. Kept me quiet trying figure out the point of it. I tried a lot of variations But for me as a kid at seven, I whispered to myself, “this is stupid”. Lol.
Oh… I don’t know if it counts as a toy. But glitter. ?
Bop It. Simon. Craft kits with millions of beads. Craft kits with glitter or sand. Not crazy about paint, either (lol–2 Ds are artists…)
I hate noise in general, but I didn’t mind the FP corn popper.
We love Jenga and wooden blocks and legos, though we have hardwood floors throughout our home.