Baby gender reveal parties need to stop

[once_upon]

Michigan man killed by baby shower cannon was near explosion

Police say a Michigan man who was fatally injured when a cannon exploded in a backyard during a baby shower was within 15 feet of the device when the blast occurred

abcnews.go.com

How tragic.

I know there are thousands of parties held, but I don't get why elaborate plans and potential hazardous activities are necessary.

Wasn't there a CA fire that was traced back to a gender reveal activity?

 

[MsZem]

Michigan man killed by baby shower cannon was near explosion

Police say a Michigan man who was fatally injured when a cannon exploded in a backyard during a baby shower was within 15 feet of the device when the blast occurred

abcnews.go.com

How tragic.

This is indeed very sad. What a stupid way for someone to die. I understand wanting to celebrate a baby about to be born, but this can be done without putting the guests at risk of losing their lives.

Also, you can't reveal someone's gender before they're born. What if it turns out they're assigned female or male but are actually trans or genderfluid?

 

[skategal]

Whatever happened to just having a cake with pink or blue revealed when you cut into it?

So much nicer and yummy too.

This is so tragic and too stupid for words. Hope they are charged and convicted for it.

 

[MacMadame]

Wasn't there a CA fire that was traced back to a gender reveal activity?

Yes. They mention it in the article. It was a big fire.

 

[Aussie Willy]

Whatever happened to waiting for the baby to be born to reveal the gender? Much nicer surprise.

 

[Lilia A]

I'm so over gender reveal parties. I'm never having kids, but if did and wanted to announce it in a fun way I'd just do something like the cupcake filling thing and only with my closest relatives. But, to be honest, I'd rather send a text saying what it is. It's my favourite way to find out.
Before this there were the CA fires, and before that there were a billion balloons flying out and eventually disrupting wildlife. Just say the word and get over it.

 

[MacMadame]

As much as I dislike Gender Reveal parties, I read the article and it sounds like the dude has a cannon he liked to shoot that blew apart because it was old and not properly inspected or maintained. So it happened during a Gender Reveal party but it could have happened at any party that he fired the cannon at.

 

[Winnipeg]

What next, name reveal parties? Gee whiz, baby showers are enough.

 

[Karen-W]

What next, name reveal parties? Gee whiz, baby showers are enough.

Any excuse to throw a party. ;-)

 

[skategal]

Whatever happened to waiting for the baby to be born to reveal the gender? Much nicer surprise.

I have no idea. You can't even buy gender neutral stuff for babies anymore.

I had a really tough time finding anything gender neutral for my soon-to-be son's nursery back in 2011 and it's even worse now.

I settled for Winnie the Pooh and there was literally only 2 gender neutral themes in Babies R Us to choose from.

Finding clothes was even harder...

 

[Aussie Willy]

I have no idea. You can't even buy gender neutral stuff for babies anymore.

I had a really tough time finding anything gender neutral for my soon-to-be son's nursery back in 2011 and it's even worse now.

I settled for Winnie the Pooh and there was literally only 2 gender neutral themes in Babies R Us to choose from.

Finding clothes was even harder...

And yet ironically pink used to be the colour for boys and blue for girls.

I agree. I always tried to find gender neutral gifts for people who had babies.

 

[genevieve]

Gender reveal parties, at best, serve to uphold very tired stereotypes about gender. They need to stop even if some people manage to hold them without setting fires and blowing up their guests.

 

[Erin]

What next, name reveal parties? Gee whiz, baby showers are enough.

That is actually a tradition in Finland - it was referred to as a name-giving ceremony when explained to me, although I don’t know if that is the correct translation of the name of the tradition. We had one (virtually) for my (Finnish) nephew on the weekend. We already knew his first name, but his middle name was revealed during the party. It was fun and frankly, it’s nice to have a reason to celebrate something these days.

I do agree that the gender reveal parties have gone too far. And even the person who is credited with starting or popularizing the trend agrees. She was on one of the late night shows, I think The Daily Show, talking about how she regrets it, primarily because of the stuff about upholding stereotypes around gender. I’ll have to see if I can find the piece.

 

[overedge]

Any excuse to throw a party. ;-)

I think you meant to type "any excuse to get more presents"

 

[Karen-W]

I think you meant to type "any excuse to get more presents"

Nah. I mean, yeah, for babies, weddings, housewarmings, birthdays, etc, sure it's an excuse to get more presents. But people in this country are very capable of coming up with just about any good reason to throw a party... Super Bowl Sunday, St Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo... (notice those last two fall in the very dreary no federal holidays period between President's Day weekend and Memorial Day - and there are only very specific areas of the US that celebrate Mardi Gras so it doesn't count).

 

[once_upon]

When my sons/daughter in laws "revealed" genders it was done by a phone call. No need for a big elaborate party announcement.

It's like the prom proposal, etc attention getting. And occasionally-like in this or dozens of other examples-people get severely injured or die.

I'm old - I remember not knowing until the moment of birth. I also remember a physician friend whose ultrasound revealed a girl. She did the nursery in all pink and frills. Bought lots of frilly dresses. Except surprise - the little bugger hid his..body part and the ultrasound was wrong. I know technology is a thousand times better than 36 years ago, still

 

[skatingguy]

I think you meant to type "any excuse to get more presents"

I have this argument with my Mom because she gets all these invites (not so much for the past year) for showers etc. for the many cousins in my family who are having children, getting married, or just being. She feels like she needs to buy presents for every party, but she might only see the person in question twice or three times a year, and doesn't really know what to buy, or that she really wants to spend the money. I argue that presents are not a requirement for accepting the invite, and she should just go & enjoy the chance to socialize.

 

[Lemonade20]

I understand why new parents are so excited, but it's also completely unnecessary.

 

[oleada]

Gender reveals are dumb. Aside from you and your close family, no one cares.

That said, there’s totally valid reasons to find out the sex od your baby while pregnant. I really, really wanted to have a girl and I wanted to know the sex in case it was a boy, so I could get used to the idea. And of course, it was a boy and i was able to process my feelings about it while pregnant snd be totally happy about it when he was born.

I have no idea. You can't even buy gender neutral stuff for babies anymore.

I haven’t found this to be true. Places like Primary.com don’t even have a boy or girls section, just Baby or Kid. Hanna Anderson has a line of neutral basics. Target’s Cloud Island Line had several gender neutral collections. Old Navy has plenty of stuff that works for any gender. Bougie places like Kate Quinn and Kyte Baby also are fairly gender neutral in color and print (and again, just layette labels rather than gender). Yeah, there’s still an overload of trucks and dinos and unicorns but the neutral stuff isn’t hard to find, either. I’d even say it’s trendy right now.

 

[Prancer]

As much as I dislike Gender Reveal parties, I read the article and it sounds like the dude has a cannon he liked to shoot that blew apart because it was old and not properly inspected or maintained. So it happened during a Gender Reveal party but it could have happened at any party that he fired the cannon at.

ITA. What needs to stop is this idea that everyone has to have an EVENT so everyone will talk about how cool it is on social media.

But that was a problem before social media, too, so...it's not the event.

 

[Lemonade20]

So true! I didn't want to know for my first two (both were girls), but when we learned my mom was sick, we found out what our third one would be in case she didn't get to meet our baby. It was a boy and she passed away before his first birthday. Sometimes it's nice to celebrate a little early, but all we did was share the ultrasound pictures.

 

[quartz]

I loved not knowing. Then, after all the work and the sweat and the tears and the pushing and having that TA-DA! moment of hearing the doctor call out, ITS A BOY!, was so exciting and rewarding. Especially when everyone said I was going to have a girl.
Then, the second time and I was sure I was having another boy and then the TA-DA! moment, and hearing ITS A GIRL!, was such a thrill.
I didn’t get all hung up on clothes and nursery decor being boy or girl - did the nursery in primary colours polka dot wallpaper, and blue rug, with dark wood Jenny Lind furniture. Worked for both kids, and my daughter wore all her brothers yellow, green, blue dinosaur sleepers and it didn’t matter because you had to change them 2-3 times a day anyways. I hated frilly girls clothes - ruffles and bows really get in the way especially when nursing.

 

[vgerdes]

ITA. What needs to stop is this idea that everyone has to have an EVENT so everyone will talk about how cool it is on social media.

But that was a problem before social media, too, so...it's not the event.

True enough. Making one's party the biggest and most grandiose social spectacle ever is a concept that's been around for centuries. As have people who take that concept a step too far, with tragic consequences. The problem doesn't lie with gender reveal parties themselves, although I do agree that they're kind of ridiculous.

 

[skategal]

I haven’t found this to be true. Places like Primary.com don’t even have a boy or girls section, just Baby or Kid. Hanna Anderson has a line of neutral basics. Target’s Cloud Island Line had several gender neutral collections. Old Navy has plenty of stuff that works for any gender. Bougie places like Kate Quinn and Kyte Baby also are fairly gender neutral in color and print (and again, just layette labels rather than gender). Yeah, there’s still an overload of trucks and dinos and unicorns but the neutral stuff isn’t hard to find, either. I’d even say it’s trendy right now.

I'm glad it is getting better.

But I don't think we have access to any of those places here except for Old Navy.

I wuzrobbed of a good shopping experience for kids.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

For some reason, I am reminded of this brilliant bit from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWdS8tDg1qo

 

[oleada]

I'm glad it is getting better.

But I don't think we have access to any of those places here except for Old Navy.

I wuzrobbed of a good shopping experience for kids.

I think it’s easier to shop for neutral stuff online than in person. Unluckily for my wallet, it’s where I do all my shopping these days.

 

[skategal]

I think it’s easier to shop for neutral stuff online than in person. Unluckily for my wallet, it’s where I do all my shopping these days.

Half the places I'm interested in buying from don't ship to Canada and if they do, the shipping is twice as much as the item I want so I don't bother getting it.

I'd be so broke if I lived in the US.

 

[Wyliefan]

I don't think any particular kind of party necessarily needs to stop. People can throw a party to celebrate the clipping of a hangnail, if they want. As stupid as that would be, it's their life and their call. The thing that needs to stop is people pulling brainless and dangerous stunts and killing each other during parties.

 

[Cachoo]

There are ways to do gender reveal parties that don't have to involve accidents and death. I think they are silly anyway but here are some of the bad ones:

---Firefighter dies from burns after gender reveal party ignites the El Dorado fire
---Iowa grandma (to be) dies when a pipe bomb is inadvertently made to look like male anatomy explodes and kills her.
---Iowa plan crashes after dumping pink liquid at a gender reveal party
---Texas plan crashes following a request to fly very low for gender reveal party
---Grandpa hit in the face with pitch of baseball full of blue powder
---In Philly fireworks were hung from an outdoor clothes drying rack spewing fireworks into the crowd causing burn casualties.
---Father-to-be breaks ankle kicking football full of pink powder
---Mom-to-be pitches to Dad-to-be and is hit in the face with the pitch
---Iowa man used tannerite to reveal a baby girl and the resulting explosion is felt two miles away.
---And lest you think it is just "us" in Australia a car revealed blue smoke which quickly turned to fire and black smoke.

 

[Erin]

If anyone is interested, this is the piece I mentioned earlier from The Daily Show, where one of the originators of gender reveal parties disavows them:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly7vHN68vlg