If you are someone fortunate enough to not know what a gender reveal party is, honestly, I am a bit jealous of you and consider yourself lucky. This is one of the latest trends when it comes to having a baby or announcing that you are expecting. Instead of either waiting til you give birth to know the gender, or finding out and simply phoning family or friends, people thought it would be a great idea to have a party to celebrate.

What seems so innocent started pretty basic. A couple would get their ultrasound at approximately 20 weeks to have all the anatomy checked out and they ask the tech to write the gender down on a piece of paper or in an envelope. They then would bring this to a bakery for example and ask them to write some clever saying on the top like “Pink or Blue, which one is you?”. Then they would make the icing on the inside either pink or blue so that when the parent(s) cut into the cake they would know the gender based on the frosting inside. How this whole fad was created I will never know but one can only assume it was based off of someone doing a small reveal and them wanting to do something bigger.

Well, fast forward 5 or 10 years and now it has become some big competition. You have people who still do the cakes, that probably will never change. Then you have people who also do balloons, whether filled with confetti or even a powder. And whenever it is popped you see the color fill the air around. Then you have the crazy folks who need to announce the gender of their little bundle with explosives or some sort of dangerous way. Which sure, does not always backfire but more and more recently you see people getting hurt or even family’s having a member pass away due to some freak accident regarding the way they choose to share this moment with their friends and family.

Then you have people like myself who are old fashioned and when we found out we were having a boy with my 1st child we simply took a photo of the ultrasound and sent it to family and friends and announced it online/texts/phone calls which, brace yourself, completely FREE! We did not want to do a big celebration when it comes to announcing the sex of our baby because as exciting as it is we do not want another reason to spend money. We dont feel like we were competing with anyone so we did not want to give reasons for others or ourselves to spend money.

And before you say, “But it doesn’t have to cost money!”. Any type of party whether a baby shower, birthday, anniversary will cost money. Sure you can do it on a lower end by just getting the cake with different colored frosting on the inside BUT there is a lot more to it also. From getting the blue or pink colored plates or cups where you use the color you guess the baby will be. To decorations which you can do a solid neutral color like black or gold and silver. Or again, the two colors blue and pink. Then some gender reveal parties have little games and things that you also play. And lastly food. You cannot have a part if there is no food! Especially with a pregnancy involved! Again, you could save money with doing a pot luck style where folks being different dishes however that is another different cost for people to almost foot part of the bill.

The problem, why these gender reveal parties are so over rated, in my opinion is it becomes a show and competition people have with neighbors. With internet and technology as far advanced as it is you can search videos endlessly a out different gender reveals while thinking of your own way to up stage the ones already out there. By doing this it can also cause these reveals to take a dangerous, and even deadly route also. This is due to people wanting to create bigger explosions and bigger shows in front of their friends and families which can ultimately create permanent consequences. And for what? To be the next biggest or viral video online. There is also things that can go wrong like confetti guns not firing, balloons being let go and floating up into the air without knowing the gender too. Not every party that is planned goes perfectly.

Then you have the risk of also showing public disappointment if you are expecting to have a different gender than you were hoping on. Recently there was a video was a video of a dad and mom breaking the balloon with pink being the color scene. The dad immediately showed his disappointment. There is nothing wrong with expecting or hoping for a gender but to show THAT MUCH outward emotions over the gender of your child which ultimately you have a 50/50 chance at either a boy or a girl maybe knowing before everyone else would be a better idea. In the heat of the moment it can be really hard to control your reactions especially if you are more set on one gender than the other one.

For me, I am a mom of one and pregnant with number 2. Our goal is to have a family of 3 children. None of them (even the future one) we have ever thought about having a gender reveal party. Even pre Covid we never thought to have one. I guess we are nearly old fashioned where we just would rather tell our family and friends personally instead of making a big event out of it. There will be other opportunities for us to celebrate out newest family member and we just do not believe that their gender is one of those!

Have you planned to have a gender reveal party before?

Did you pass up on the idea of having a party to reveal it?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!