Baby Showers?

Abbafan1972

robyn297 wrote: »

I'm from South Africa and they very big on the whole baby shower thing but it's always made me uncomfortable, too be frank, it's quite boring watching someone open mountains of presents and having to make ooohhh and aaaaahhhhh noises and remark how tiny everything is. The games are generally cringeworthy! I'm very happy to be 34 weeks pregnant and far far away from all that. Or so I thought! My well meaning family and friends have taken it upon themselves to throw a baby shower for me in my absence, they've called it a granny shower(my mum standing in for me playing all the silly games) I am quite horrified by it all and worried that some family/friends might think I'm present grabbing. I was told about there plans to hold the shower and asked to make a list of everything we need, I declined and said we've got everything we need already. To my disgust I was emailed a copy of the invitation and it says "only toys will be accepted, no other gifts accepted" I am so embarrassed by it all.

:eek: Omg! I would be mortified if my Mom did something like that! I would be tempted to contact everybody and state in no uncertain terms that this idea was nothing to do with me!

Luckily, my family aren't bothered by things like that. With my 1st I only made it to 24 weeks anyway and had to have an emergency c-section. Although, when I did reveal my pregnancy to my parents (after my 12 week scan), my Mom talked about nothing else! I had to tell her to talk about something else as she was boring me! Her response was "ok then, what do you want to talk about?".

Yuk! With my 2nd, I didn't reveal I was pregnant to my Mom until I was about 16 weeks (for reasons stated in above paragraph).

dizziblonde

j.e.j. wrote: »

Oh, I don't know. Some people do seem to delight in the thought of scaring others, be it horror birth stories, or just general doom and gloom about health-related stuff.

I think *max* is a girl, btw;)

Yep - second I mentioned having my wisdom teeth out... bam horror stories of how my head was going to swell up so each cheek looked like a football and I wouldn't be able to eat for a month... in reality, despite screaming the place down as I have a severe dental phobia - nothing to worry about at all.

But the birth horror story thing can get ridiculous at times (and I say this as someone who had a severely traumatic and screwed up birth - wouldn't tell it with relish to anyone expecting a baby... apart from the amusing bits like a very chirpy midwife telling me, while they were mucking me about making me wait three hours for pain relief, that did I want some aromatherapy!?)

I also have a massive aversion to anything girlie by the way - not all women go into raptures at pink, fluffy, cosmetics, female bonding sessions and the like... definitely does NOT make me a man.

robyn297

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

:eek: Omg! I would be mortified if my Mom did something like that! I would be tempted to contact everybody and state in no uncertain terms that this idea was nothing to do with me!

Luckily, my family aren't bothered by things like that. With my 1st I only made it to 24 weeks anyway and had to have an emergency c-section. Although, when I did reveal my pregnancy to my parents (after my 12 week scan), my Mom talked about nothing else! I had to tell her to talk about something else as she was boring me! Her response was "ok then, what do you want to talk about?".

Yuk! With my 2nd, I didn't reveal I was pregnant to my Mom until I was about 16 weeks (for reasons stated in above paragraph).

Its not my mom that is organising it, in South Africa baby showers tend to be a surprise for the mom to be(or in this case, the granny), so although my mom has an idea they are planning something she doesn't know what it is. Whats also wound me up is that they've invited some of my moms new friends that she's made in the 3 years I've been away, I've never met these people, why should they be told to buy my baby a present. :mad:

dizsiebubba

It's not always a gift grabbing thing... two of my friends want to throw me one and I have said enough times i'm not keen... don't like the attention thing... but they still want to do it as they want to all get together and haveafternoon tea or something similar!

Person_one

dizsiebubba wrote: »

It's not always a gift grabbing thing... two of my friends want to throw me one and I have said enough times i'm not keen... don't like the attention thing... but they still want to do it as they want to all get together and haveafternoon tea or something similar!

Its not really a baby shower if there aren't going to be presents, so you're in the clear.

A shower is a party where the whole point is that the guest of honour is 'showered' with gifts. In the US they have them for brides before the wedding too, in addition to all the wedding presents!

Having a last day/night in/out with the girls before the baby arrives is perfectly normal, has been happening for a long time and doesn't need to be relabelled as a 'baby shower'.

lostinrates

I don't mind giving friends or relatives something for the baby before its born, and would ratherit is useful, so getting togather with a list or whatever to 'shower' with ifts seems kind to me. More so when its a first baby, and more so with a young or less well established household.

JC9297

Person_one wrote: »

Its not really a baby shower if there aren't going to be presents, so you're in the clear.

A shower is a party where the whole point is that the guest of honour is 'showered' with gifts. In the US they have them for brides before the wedding too, in addition to all the wedding presents!

Having a last day/night in/out with the girls before the baby arrives is perfectly normal, has been happening for a long time and doesn't need to be relabelled as a 'baby shower'.

Yes it's the expectation of presents just because you are pregnant that I hate about baby showers, however after hearing you are expected to play twee games I hate the idea even more.


I agree it is perfectly normal to have a get together with friends, although often people who you would never normally go out with get invited to showers to 'up' the numbers.

Person_one

JC9297 wrote: »

Yes it's the expectation of presents just because you are pregnant that I hate about baby showers, however after hearing you are expected to play twee games I hate the idea even more.

Prepare to be horrified...


One of the popular games at US baby showers is 'the poopy diaper game'. Guess which chocolate bar has been melted onto each of these nappies!



:eek:

Gillyx

That's nothing In the past few days I've seen used nappies with actual poo stains! It's more of a "guess what my babies eaten in the past few days" game

Torry_Quine

I've been to one baby shower and really wasn't sure what to expect. In the end though it was good fun. Mainly cakes and fun with only a few games which didn't involve nappies. Some people brought gifts, I didn't as I wanted to get something after the baby was born. There definately wasnt a gift list and no-one even mentioned any.