New Gender Reveal Party Trend

[LadyCrow1313]

On ‎5‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 4:52 AM, nastyhobbitses said:

I guess people can do what they want, but I find gender (sex) reveal parties and announcements so tacky. You already have a baby shower and the birth of the baby to get assloads of free shit and attention; why are you having yet another party?
And if it's just an announcement, whoop-de-freakin' doo, your baby has genitals.

Don't read the above while drinking something. That is all. 

[Nashville92]

If I ever have kids I'm not sure I want to know the sex prior to birth, I've gone back and forth. All I know is I want a hockey/Nashville Predators themed nursery regardless of the gender 

[Geechee Girl]

@Maggie Mae Portlandia rocks!

[HarryPotterFan]

On May 15, 2016 at 1:55 PM, Mercer said:

In the unlikely event I ever end up with a baby, the nursery theme is going to be either dinosaurs or jungle animals depending on which I find cuter at the time, regardless of whether it's presumed to be a boy or a girl. 

My nursery theme shall be Hogwarts/Harry Potter. Absolutely shocking, right?

[nastyhobbitses]

I would make my nursery theme either space travel or just travel-travel (maps, planes, lots of blues and reds and yellows). Though I also like a jungle animals theme. Argh, I am too single and grad student-y to be thinking about this stuff!

[19Kittens]

Eh, I did a gender reveal for my daughter but it was just a huge barbecue where we told everyone we were having a girl. No gifts. Sense I was 19 at the time and my husband 25, it eventually turned into beer pong where I got to be the "sober shooter" lol 

[pook]

On ‎5‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 7:01 PM, MyMilkshake said:

I'm a woman and I've never been a fan of the colour pink and I detest glitter. lol 
 

Women here too, not a big fan of glitter.  Do you realize how messy that stuff can be?  As for pink I am in fact a fan but love it more when my boys wear pink shirts for anti-bullying day.

[MyMilkshake]

31 minutes ago, nastyhobbitses said:

I would make my nursery theme either space travel or just travel-travel (maps, planes, lots of blues and reds and yellows). Though I also like a jungle animals theme. Argh, I am too single and grad student-y to be thinking about this stuff!

OOoh I love the idea of an outer space themed nursery!

[pook]

I never did an official nursery for either mini pooks, it's not like they really care or notice.  We had a safe crib (and bed which we used much more since we mostly co-slept), nice neutrally painted walls and a vintage picture of a baby my grandmother gave me from her own nursery.  We also hung a model plane my husband's Dad built from the ceiling because it was a boyish cool thing to do and because my DH's Dad died when my husband was only 7. Maybe that just makes me lazy but alas.

[Mercer]

9 hours ago, ClaraOswin said:

We picked our nursery decor before we knew we were having a boy. Some people thought it was boy-ish but we liked it for a girl or boy.

http://www.babysupermall.com/cp/kidsline/cute-as-a-bug-baby-crib-bedding-accessories_kli5704bed8.html

I like that a lot! I think it would suit any baby just fine.

[HarryPotterFan]

5 hours ago, nastyhobbitses said:

I would make my nursery theme either space travel or just travel-travel (maps, planes, lots of blues and reds and yellows). Though I also like a jungle animals theme. Argh, I am too single and grad student-y to be thinking about this stuff!

It's okay. At the rate I'm going my children will all be furry, four legged, and say meow.

[Screamapillar]

My ultrasound tech actually told us that she was glad that we wanted to know what the baby was, as she finds the people who want to have her write it down so they can have a gender reveal party "irritating." Ha! I see her point, the purpose of the ultrasound is to check everything out and make sure the baby is growing okay, so if I was a tech it would piss me off having to deal with a couple of goons who are obsessing about what the baby is while I'm trying to get pictures of the heart and the brain.

There was no hiding it at my ultrasound anyway. The second the wand was put on my stomach the first shot of the baby was a splayed leg pose. I was like, hmmm, well that's clearly a girl. Watching the ultrasound is so cool, I can't imagining insisting on looking away just so you can have an obnoxious party later.

One of the pictures that the tech printed was a close up of that splayed leg pose which included the caption "it's a girl." I thought, well I definitely won't be showing anyone that! I don't want my daughter to grow up knowing I was flashing around pictures of her goods for the whole world to see!

[Childless]

4 hours ago, Screamapillar said:

My ultrasound tech actually told us that she was glad that we wanted to know what the baby was, as she finds the people who want to have her write it down so they can have a gender reveal party "irritating." Ha! I see her point, the purpose of the ultrasound is to check everything out and make sure the baby is growing okay, so if I was a tech it would piss me off having to deal with a couple of goons who are obsessing about what the baby is while I'm trying to get pictures of the heart and the brain.

There was no hiding it at my ultrasound anyway. The second the wand was put on my stomach the first shot of the baby was a splayed leg pose. I was like, hmmm, well that's clearly a girl. Watching the ultrasound is so cool, I can't imagining insisting on looking away just so you can have an obnoxious party later.

One of the pictures that the tech printed was a close up of that splayed leg pose which included the caption "it's a girl." I thought, well I definitely won't be showing anyone that! I don't want my daughter to grow up knowing I was flashing around pictures of her goods for the whole world to see!

Yeah, there was no question with my first that he was a boy.  He was hanging it out there for all to see.  The only way to avoid knowing his sex would have been to not look at the ultrasound at all.  And I couldn't help but look at the first pictures of my first baby.  You couldn't have stopped me if you tried.

[Bbfamteam]

My mom asked me the other day if hubs and I were going to do a reveal party because a lot of the women due around when I am already know and have had extravagant events. She thought it was ridiculous and was relieved when I informed her we were too busy and too lazy to do a party and we'd probably just text her and take some sort of pic to post on SM

[zee_four]

On 5/16/2016 at 1:47 PM, Nashville92 said:

If I ever have kids I'm not sure I want to know the sex prior to birth, I've gone back and forth. All I know is I want a hockey/Nashville Predators themed nursery regardless of the gender 

I (female) grew up playing hockey from my mum's side of the family. She played too. Were originally from the same town as Cal O'Reilly speaking of the Preds. Grew up with him and Snook.

[KnittingOwl]

On May 15, 2016 at 10:01 AM, Casserole said:

I think if I ever have kids, I'll find out but refuse to tell anyone else (except the father if he'd like to know.) I am a type A planner and would not be able to deal even though I'd probably choose green for a nursery color theme. But I couldn't tell anyone because I find pink to be the most disgustingly, nauseating color and if it has a vagina I will suddenly have an influx of pink tutus and I won't make it. 

I didn't find out with my daughter. Her nursery was gender neutral - jungle animals in yellow/green/orange/brown. Now she's four angd there is no shortage of pink and purple and glitter because that's what she currently likes. Has nothing to do with me!

[Casserole]

6 hours ago, KnittingOwl said:

I didn't find out with my daughter. Her nursery was gender neutral - jungle animals in yellow/green/orange/brown. Now she's four angd there is no shortage of pink and purple and glitter because that's what she currently likes. Has nothing to do with me!

 

Oh yeah, if the child asks for it I have no problems. I'll live. My favorite color was blue as a child but my sister and I shared a room that she got to design #youngestchildproblems. It had pink carpet, and sponge painted pink and purple walls. Her bed was pink and mine was purple. It was awful. When we moved and I got my own room, my parents gave me blue carpet and blue walls and an ombre blue/teal bed. I was happy. In that same new house my sister not only asked for pink walls but they added glitter to the paint so it sparkled. It's one thing if the child wants it. It's their space after all. But I know the torturous feeling of hating your space. No need to assign the child to everything pink before they form their own opinions. 

[19 cats and counting]

I'm female and as girly as they come.  While I can hold my own with the boys, I like pink, glitter, ruffles, sparkles, etc.  Jeans are the only pants I'll wear outside of the home.  If I have a preference, I buy pink electronics.  Growing up, I had a bedroom that resembled that of married Bates girls.

My sister was always a tomboy.  The only times I've really seen her in dresses (as a teen/adult) were her wedding and prom.  Because we live 6 hours apart (at the time) I never saw the kids' nursery (they did find out).  But I don't think they painted (rent). 

Older niece (3.5) is as girly as they come.  She wants everything 'fancy' (those with young kids might be familiar with the Fancy Nancy books).  She absolutely refuses to wear pants ('pants are for boys')  and even plain dresses aren't 'fancy' enough for her.  This is a kid who doesn't watch TV/movies and can't name a single Disney princess.

Still trying to figure out younger niece's (19 months) personality. 

Should I ever have a baby, the nursery's theme is going to be cats. 

[Wenny]

We're having gender reveal for my mom, my grandpa and daughter. We getting our favorite doughnut shop to make a cream filled doughnuts with pink or blue filling. It just a small family gathering. Now having a second baby shower has been a huge question for us. 

[JoyfulSel]

I've never been invited to a jinder reveal but I know some people who went very over the top. Now about the baby showers, I have also had it in my culture that for your first child, you have a bigger baby shower, and any subsequent children, a smaller gathering at a house, but there are definitely always baby showers for children after the first.

[Rachel333]

On 5/15/2016 at 11:58 PM, Season of life... said:

My cousin-in-law recently had a "ruffles or rifles" gender reveal party. I had no idea that baby blue plastic guns were a thing, but she had them everywhere. To represent the ruffles, she had humongous pink fake flowers. I thought it was a bit tacky, but I like her so I just ooohed and ahhhed my way out of actually having to compliment the decor with words. They announced the sex by cutting into the now traditional colored cake--it was pink inside. The icing was decorated with guns, flowers and question marks. 

As for gifts, we were encouraged to bring something to pamper the mother-to-be. I just brought a gift card so they could enjoy a dinner out. 

It was actually a fairly nice afternoon with happy friends and family. The huge production of it, though, was a little much since we will be having a nearly identical get-together in a couple of months for her shower. 

FJ was on my mind that whole afternoon because my eyes kept reading rifles and ruffles as "riffles". Everywhere I looked there were so, so many riffles.

This is the kind of thing I thought this thread would be about. Something like that does bother me, but when it's just colors I don't find it such a big deal.

Like, if people want to throw a party for their friends and find out more about their baby in a fun way, who cares? I actually kind of liked the gun reveals. More dramatic than a cake, that's for sure!

If guests are supposed to bring gifts, though, and it turns into the first of multiple baby showers then I think it could be obnoxious. If you want to throw a party, fine, but it shouldn't become a burden on the people you invite. I think some parents have trouble grasping that no one cares about the baby's sex as much as they do.

The gendering of toys and books and the like bothers me a lot more because it strongly reinforces gendered roles and behavior that can have lifetime effects. In contrast, I don't think it's such a big deal to have colors that symbolize boy or girl though I wish there didn't have to be any focus on gender at all.

It's weird how even when people talk about transgender kids they often reinforce the gender binary even more strongly. The narrative often ends up sounding like a boy who plays with dolls must really be a transgender girl, and a girl who likes sports and won't wear dresses must really be a boy, with not a lot of acknowledgement to all the kids who come in-between. (To be clear, I'm not saying transgender kids actually do transition for trivial reasons at all, just that it seems like some of the reporting about them vastly oversimplifies the issue.) I remember reading one mother's account of how she knew her very young daughter was transgender and she said one of the first signs was that as a baby her daughter reached for a pink blanket. It's kind of scary when people take cultural norms so seriously that they think linking pink proves someone is female!

There was a great post recently by a woman who is raising a gender non-conforming son about how uncomfortable people are, even liberal pro-LGBT people, with kids who don't fall in line with the gender binary. Her son likes dresses, jewelry, and makeup, and people see that and tell her that she's wrong to call her son her son, that her son is actually her transgender daughter. This despite that her son is comfortable identifying as a boy. https://raisingmyrainbow.com/2016/02/21/the-new-gender-binary/

So I don't blame people for wanting to know if their baby is a boy or a girl and throwing a party to find out. In the vast majority of cases the child's gender identity will match their sex, and if it doesn't then hopefully the parents will accept that too once they eventually find out. What I really do hate is when people assume the baby will act a certain way and have certain interests based solely on the baby's sex and/or gender. That shit starts so early! 

[VelociRapture]

Pregnant Velocirapture chiming in:

1. Hubby and I don't care about what sex we wind up with. We just hope for a happy and healthy baby. That said, we want to find out ahead of time. We miscarried our first early this year. We never found out the sex or even got an ultrasound or anything. All I have to remember my baby by is the test I took and my discharge papers from the Hospital - any little extra information we can find out ahead of time will ease our worries and fears a bit and help us bond a bit more with the pregnancy.

2. I don't really want a shower. I didn't have one for our wedding because we have what we need already and I don't like being the center of attention like that. If I have to have one then maybe I can convince hubby to make it a really relaxed coed type thing. That would be way better.

3. No sex reveal party for us. We may share the sex with family and friends, but we're pretty set on not sharing the names ahead of time. People can be stupid optionated about names.

4. And finally, that party the OP mentioned? Gag.

ETA: My brother is Transgender and I still feel this way about learning the sex of our child. I see nothing wrong about that nor do I see anything wrong with waiting as my sister and BIL did. It's my humble opinion that people should do what is best for them and everyone else can mind their own damn business.

[nastyhobbitses]

It's probably the more correct term than "gender reveal", but "sex reveal" to me calls to mind presenting the bedsheets after the wedding night, or even showing off the new baby: Look, everyone! We had sex! Let us reveal that fact to you!

[Johanna25]

I'm a woman who never much liked pink, but back in the late 80's it became fashionable in interiors for awhile, pink mixed with aquas and soft greens, kind of tropical. (I'm an architect and couldn't believe it when some of our interior designers proposed pink-based designs for the marines at Camp Pendleton, though.) Anyway I got caught in the trend and made pink slipcovers for my couch. When I was being packed out for a move the lead mover was practically indignant at the color of my couch. I finally told him it was none of his business, but I was a self-supporting single woman and I could have a pink couch if I damn well pleased

[Ais]

@VelociRapture congratulations! What fantastic news!