Is there anything more lame than a baby shower? (Except maybe a blatantly gift-grubbing-instead-of-celebrating-the-couple bridal shower?) I mean, oooh, smelly diaper games! Let's wrap toilet paper around the mom-to-be's belly. Guess how many (insert candy here) are in the bottle? Mawhahahaha.I say this because as of about 20 minutes ago, my friend Ginny and I are currently PLANNING a baby shower. Of course, neither of us are married. Or have children. Or, uh, for the most part, like children. But we love our friend Kathleen and are dedicated to the cause of planning a decidedly non-sucky soiree. We want it to have, as Ginny says, "elegance with an edge."
This leads me to several new-found bits of wisdom: No matter what terms you Google, whether it's "hip baby shower," "chic baby shower," "modern baby shower," even, cringe, "hipster baby shower" ... THEY ALL PRODUCE LAME RESULTS. (Full disclosure, I searched "anti-baby-shower" and got exactly one promising hit.)
Seriously. I know I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Women are smart. And dynamic. And funny. And creative. And we get together to try to figure out that "erpcaiif" is really just a jumbled-up version of "pacifier" or guess what the melted candy bar is that we stuck in a diaper??? REALLY!?
Hostess etiquette my ass.
So, now I'm stumped on what exactly we should be doing. Ginny, the epicurean, is going to deal with food. I'm in charge of activities. (Incidently, we're stilling working on important thing, such as dates. Locations. Etc.) I was thinking of creating snarky/saucy madlibs? I know there's the whole decorate-a-onesy thing. Maybe having everyone offer some words-of-wisdom for the new mom? Something involving children's literature? Maybe a game of "Celebrity Baby or Just a Noun?" (Ahem: Apple. Trick question, it's both.)
I don't know. And Google won't help. That's why I need you. Save me. Save us. Save the shower.
5 comments:
Well, the problem is that there's nothing hip or chic about babies. Babies are cute, cuddly, stinky sleep-robbers. And they turn mommies into blubbering fools. I guess the shower is really the beginning of the end. (I do say that with genuine contentment and acceptance of that fact after being a mom for a couple of happy years now.) Two things I particularly enjoyed from my shower that weren't yucky: the guess how-big-her-belly-is game. Go around with yarn and have people cut a piece as long as they think it is around K's belly. At the end, have her cut one that's the right length and then measure. It's pretty funny to see how far off base people can be. This game is OK assuming mom-to-be isn't super-sensitive about size. The second is have everyone write a piece of advice on a keepsake card when they come in. Sometimes it's just words of wisdom about motherhood, other times you end up getting really great tips. I got one telling me how to remove peas from a toddler's nose, a great homemade diaper rash recipe that I've actually used, and some really sweet sentiments from other moms. Read one card between each gift opened. Then if you're really crafty, you can turn them into scrapbook pages for her. The other idea might be something you could do with old baby photos of the new mom and dad. Maybe mix them up with baby pics of guests or of celebrities or something. Then have a contest to see who can name the most. And don't forget to buy her a box of thank-you cards and have guests address their own when they come in. (Buying postage for them is nice, too.) And as long as it won't kill K, serve mimosas or something. That ALWAYS makes things more fun. Good luck!
Maybe you could play pictionary or Apples to Apples and throw in extra baby nouns or something?
I don't know, the only cool baby shower that I went to had very little baby-centered activity...we just had our usual fun and then watched our friend open the great gifts!
I think Celebrity Baby or Just a Noun sounds fun. I also think it would be funny to go through US magazine and pull prego pictures of celebs doing everyday things and make a "If Celebs can do it you can too" book. You know the photos I'm talking about -- "They go to the ATM -- just like you." If you have DVR you could watch the episode of Project Runway where they design clothes for the pregnant Rebecca Romain. Really -- I agree that most baby showers are lame. But I would imagine just hanging out with her good friends will be more fun than any baby game you can come up with.
You know what, I would think any kind of activity would be appropriate, knowing the parents of honor here. Do any kind of party game. Catch phrase? I like the baby name or noun idea. Adult mad libs? Sure, that's what got them to this point, right?
I'm 28 weeks and planning my own hip shower. I'm having a photo booth with cool stuff to wear and having a table where people can stamp onesies with different stamps (feathers, trees, whatever) with bright colors. There will be a gift table, drink table, desserts table, and finger food table. It is going to be at a local children's garden. Hope this gives people some ideas.
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