Father-in-laws are a great source of gifts - unless of course they get completely the WRONG gift...

My daughter is only 20 months old, but has good dexterity and is good at amusing herself. She also loves Little Charley Bear - anything needs doing around the house and she will happilly sit and watch an episode or two, so we are grateful for it's invention!

Unfortunately, my father in law also knows that she loves Charley Bear, but hasn't got a clue about age ranges. We came home (after grandad had been babysitting) to find her happily chewing on peices of this Charley Bear Bedtime playset. When we looked at the box and saw that it was for aged 3+ we were angry at grandad, as the peices it came with were clearly going to be too tempting for Zoe not to put in her mouth at this age.

We then had the problem of getting it off her. The set comes with a Charlie bear figure, his toybox, a rocket, his bed and a ball. The ball has been 'lost' (in dad's draw) as it's a definite choke risk at this age, as has the rocket. The box is great for storing other items (such as grapes or raisins - apparently), so that is fun. My daughter also likes putting Charlie in his bed and practising going to sleep - we use it to say 'Charlie is tired' before putting her to bed - which has helped with the bedtime routine. Nothing broken so far either which is a good sign. My daughter could destroy an army if left alone with it for 20 minutes...

All in all this is quite fun - and definitely gets a thumbs up from my daughter - I would wait until they are a little older and have stopped trying to chew/eat everything not nailed down though - or at least make grandparents read the age range before buying gifts!