Anyway, as a spoilt little lady, she received toys galore. I was her personal gift opener, when she couldn’t be bothered to unwrap. However, the unwrapping was the easy part. Actually getting into some of the boxes and detaching tangled wire took much longer, with spells of swearing heard.

Character (Peppa Pig) toys seem to be the worst, there is more wrapping than toy. I needed pliers to detach a car from it’s packaging and didn’t have a screw driver small enough to remove odd round plastic bits from the underneath. Why the need for this Houdini packaging?

Some mums I spoke to recently said that opening a toy should be fun, part of the experience instead of having to keep your child away due to the small sharp packaging parts and spiky wire.

My daughter received a Lego set and it was so much easier to open, the box is in itself a carrying case and she was diving into it in seconds with no left over bits to hastily pick up.

I know perhaps practicality of packaging is not on the forefront of toy makers minds but if it is too difficult to open it can put parents in a bad mood!