The married sister of a girl I used to date gave her parents a shoebox decorated to look like a coffin. Inside the shoebox was a stuffed rabbit dressed in a tuxedo, head resting on a pillow, pennies over the eyes, blanket up to the waist, and a tiny rosary threaded in its hands. (Yeah, the sister had nothing but time to kill…)
Though this may not be what the OP’s looking for, I was driving my parents’ car one evening and got into a minor car accident. I softened the blow by strolling through the front door and blurting out “Well, the good news is I didn’t get [GF’s name] pregnant!”
After three seconds of stunned silence I told them about the car.
- Buy pregnancy test
- Test positive (YAY!)
- Get hold of Tiffany & Co. Box
- Send prospective grandparents a present
I like the “I knocked a girl up” idea.
Does the grandmother knit? Buy some wool and knitting needles and ask them for extra small.
My parents are not grandparents yet. It’ll probably be quite a while before I can contribute in that area, so it’s up to my sister…
“Oh, daughter, you’re our only hope.”
That said, my cousin, who’s quite the joker, gave my mother the moniker “Aunty Grandma”. I believe this was in response to one of his kids questions about my mother’s relationship to them. Being a tease myself, I also call her “Aunty Grandma” on occasion. As do some of my other cousins (most of which all have kids).
We tease you, because we love you.
So, if my sister ever found herself expecting, and she’s not sure how to tell our parents, I’d suggest she call Mom “Great Aunty Grandma” or “Aunty Great-Grandma”. Of course, my mother tends to have trouble getting clueing in at times, so that might not work. Just calling Dad “Grampa” might work better.
Actually, my best suggestion would be, during a visit, simply grabbing one or both of your parents by the hand, and placing their hands on the mother-to-be’s stomach. Or the mother-to-be could just warn them…
“Now, I don’t want you to worry about my health, but I’ll be getting really, really fat over the next nine months.”
Anyhoo…
You could do what one friend of mine did, but it will require some work. His dad was very excited to be a grandpa, so pretty much as soon as my friend got back from his honeymoon, Dad started telling him every time they talked that he would give them a pair of half-court season Bulls tickets (back when the Bulls were good) as soon as he knocked up his wife.
So one day my friend is talking to Dad, and says, “Hey, remember those Bulls tickets you offered me?” “Yes, of course, but you have to knock up your wife first.” “Dad, remember those Bulls tickets you offered me?” Dad was supposed to be a highly intelligent, sophisticated businessman, but it took a couple of repetitions before he finally got it.
If your parents use email at least occasionally, just send them a quick email along the lines of:
"Hi, just wanted to say how things were going… blah blah… work has been good… blah blah blah… random stuff about personal live not relating to pregnancy… blah blah blah…
Well, I suppose I better get going. Talk to you later.
Oh, by the way, the wife’s pregnant."
My cousin told my dad like this:
“You know, Uncle Dave, I’ve always thought you were a great uncle. And soon, you’re really going to be a great uncle…”
Here’s an idea; it might not work if you see the folks often, but…
Don’t tell them until you have a baby in hand to show 'em. Now, THAT would be a visit to remember.
Considering her folks live next door…mmmm…I’m thinking that one won’t work.
I know of a couple who sent their families little dollhouse ovens, complete with little doll-sized bun inside. Cute.
My paternal grandparents had three deer figurines on their fireplace mantle; two of them were about 4" tall, the third was smaller. When Mom was expecting my younger sister, Mom and Dad added a second smaller deer to the mantle, and then waited for Grandma to notice the next time she dusted.
When my sister (whose birth was announced with the fourth deer on the mantle) was expecting her first, she wrapped a note up as a Christmas present to the entire family, to be opened last. In the note, she announced that we’d collectively be having an addition to the family – and no, she and her husband weren’t getting another golden lab!
I’ll tell them for you…
Seriously, you should try to video-tape it.
Another random thought is to make them a CD with baby-like songs
Yes, Sir, that’s my baby. Baby I’m yours. She’s havin’ my baby. You could get ultra-creative with that. Play it during dinner and see who catches on.
Have a family movie night; rent Alien. When it gets to the scene where the alien embryo rips its way out of John Hurt’s chest, have your wife turn to the parents and say: “Yeah, my doc says I’ve got a condition like that. It’ll take another seven-eight months for it to emerge. Not through my chest, though.”
For Christmas this year, one of my uncles received from his eldest daughter (not my cousin, he’s married to my dad’s sister, and this daughter was from his first marriage), sent him a silver baby rattle as a Christmas present.
Unfortunately, my uncle’s a moron, and didn’t get it. My aunt and my cousin were laughing at him.
We’ve let people know in three different ways.
My family each received a baby item in the mail…not horribly exciting, but they caught on eventually:)
For one of our friends, we’d gone over and from the time we got there my wife and I were both holding our stomachs. After about 10 minutes…our friend asked
“What’s up with you two? Something that you ate?”
I replied…“Well, I had too much for supper…but she’s jsut pregnant.” <Keep a straight face…it works best that way.>
With another friend…we just went over and accidentally dropped an 'Osh’Kosh b’Gosh catalogue on the floor as we were leaving…she found it a few minutes after we’d left…called to see if it was ours, and just before she asked why we had such a catalogue…she figured it out. 
I’m not terribly imaginative and I can’t keep a secret very long easily, so it was a struggle for me to stifle myself when we discovered our first was on the way. And we also never really invite just my parents over for dinner, so it seemed an odd (to me) invitation when I did so. Anyway, we were waiting for the burgers on the grill and were discussing books. I suddenly had an idea (I really had no plan, I was just going to tell them while we were eating) I told mom that we just got a book I thought she’d like (we were talking about mysteries) and I went inside and picked up What to Expect When You’re Expecting and handed it to her. She did a classic double take.
The fearful thing about telling everybody early in your excitement is that we, at any rate, have had to temper it with “But of course, nothing’s certain…”
I forget how I told my parents with kids 1, 2, and 3. It’s all lost in a blur. But with 4, I called up to say I had news, and dad joked ‘You’re pregnant’ and I said ‘yes’ and he just laughed and wanted to know if I knew what causes that yet. When I told my grandparents and my dad’s younger sister, my aunt actually cried (not happy) and my grandma was all worried. I don’t have easy pregnancies. I won’t be having any more at all, after this.
But …well, how about sending a ‘baby shower’ invitation, dated 9 months hence? Some of them are absolutely adorable, and they’d do a great double-take before it sank in?
“Mother, I am with cone.”
One friend of mine simply handed me a copy of her ultra-sound. She was already 4 + months pregnant, but she hadn’t changed her behavior at all (she never drank or smoked) so there we’re no clues for the rest of us. My first question was “whose is this?” (Not all that tactful, I know).
Slight hijack
Another friend of mine met me for my break at work. We were both smokers and coffee drinkers, so when she got there I offered her a coffee which, she declined. I didn’t think to much about that. A few minutes later I lit up. She didn’t, and I noticed she had no smokes with her so I offered her one of mine. She declined again. I thought that was weird, but no big deal.
The conversation turned to her husband, who she said was 1) cranky, 2) not sleeping well and 3) not feeling well. Just joking, I said “maybe he’s pregnant.” To which she replied, “He’s not, but I am.” And the coffee/cig thing fell into place–man, I can be dense sometimes.
She told me later that she had met me that day specifically to give me the news, but hadn’t decided exactly how to go about it. I set it up perfectly for her .
BTW Good luck, and happy trying!
~S
In our family we’ve asked the grandparents, “How many grandchildren do you have now?” which is followed by the question, “Guess how many you’re going to have by this time next year?” Of course, after all these years, all that is needed for them to know what we’re telling them is the first question!
When I was pregnant with my oldest child, I got my MIL a mother’s day card (from one of those machines where you could print out your own) that had a lot of springs on the front and said “Happy Mother’s Day, from your offspring!” I added the words “And ours!! Happy Mother’s Day, Nana!”
When I was pregnant with my last child, I had just finished spending money on a new wardrobe. Ironically, this was the second time that had happened, so I told my mom, “Remember what happened the LAST time I bought a lot of new clothes?” She got it after a few seconds!!
It was for this same pregnancy (which was a TOTAL surprise) that I told my newly-39-yr-old hubby, “Remember how you said that if we were ever going to have another baby, we’d better do it before you turned 40?” He couldn’t believe it!!