From obscure sizes to stealing from remote controls and sneaking batteries out of toys when kids aren’t looking, read on to find out more about the love/hate relationship between parents and batteries:

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We’ve all been there, the night before a special birthday, occasion or Christmas Eve and realised that the batteries have not been included or we don’t have the right batteries or have not re-charged the batteries for the present or camera.

Parents really do have a love/ hate relationship with batteries, here’s why!

#1. Relations Who Buy Noisy Toys

Aunts and Uncles have a lot to answer for! My brother went out of his way to find the loudest, most annoying toy in the toy shop for my girls every Christmas and birthday.

We have steering wheels that beep, play music and have reversing and driving sounds, computers with annoying voices, dance mats and even a car for dolls with a radio onboard! All loved by my girls but despised by me. I used to regularly turn the batteries the wrong way around to pretend that they were out of charge.

But don’t worry, now he has kids of his own, I can return the favour.

Top Parenting Tip: Turning the batteries around is a much better solution than taking them out of the annoying toy, as your children soon realise they are missing but it takes much longer to realise they are backwards! 

#2. Batteries Not Included

Christmas Eve is a classic example of the lengths we have to go to when we discover the shiny new toy does not have the batteries included. Why didn’t I read the box when I wedged it at the back of my wardrobe 6 months ago?

True story, a friend once arrived at my house at 11pm on Christmas Eve to collect batteries for a keyboard that she thought had them included!

#3. Recycling Batteries

Most annoying of all is when my children used to put old batteries into the battery drawer when they fetched new ones. Short of running a test on all the batteries in the drawer, it is a game of trial and error figuring out which ones are still working!

We have sorted that particular issue, by having a battery recycling box beside the battery drawer.

#4. Obscure Battery Sizes

And don’t you find it annoying when toys require an odd number of obscure sized batteries that only come in even pack sizes? So you have to fork out extra money to buy batteries you won’t need for ages.

#5. Remote Controls

No remote control in our home has the back anymore as we are constantly moving the batteries between controls for gaming devices, tv, dvd player and tv box!

#6. Battery Cheats

One of our team has admitted to using tinfoil to turn an AAA battery into an AA battery! Not sure how she managed that…

#7. It’s Not Just Parents….

And one father in law has admitted to turning off his hearing aid when younger children come to visit and pretending the battery has died. So you see, it is not just us parents who have a love/hate relationship with batteries.

#8. Battery Theft

I admit to stealing batteries from my kids’ toys to use in my mouse, which I regularly forget to turn off, and telling them that they must have played with the toy too much.

#9. Secret Gaming

I will also admit to having been once totally addicted to Brain Teasers on my girls DS and playing it until I had used up the battery life.

#10. Low Battery Warnings

Finally how annoying is it when the low battery warnings start flashing on toothbrushes, toys, games and controls, even when the batteries will work in other things, so they obviously still have power left in them!

What’s your view on batteries and parenting life? Please let us know in the comments box below.