# Ideas to tell grandparents about a new baby **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 11, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133 "2005-12-11T14:02:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![petalpusher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@petalpusher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/petalpusher)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/21 "2005-12-12T09:11:39Z")
If your father drinks, get him a bottle of Old Granddad. Worked for my now deceased father-in-law. You could wrap up mylar “baby” balloons in big boxes with everyone to open them at the same time. Congrats on the pregnancy! ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/22 "2005-12-12T09:25:34Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > My way was sooooo cheesy, but it made everyone laugh. > > I told everyone at once (besides my husband) on my birthday. I wrote out a gift tag that said “Do not open until June 2!” While I was opening my gifts, I stuck the gift tag and a bow (which I took off one of the gifts) onto my belly while everyone was dstracted with the gifts. Then, when all the gifts had been opened and everyone thanked, I looked down, “shocked”, and said: “Wait! There’s one more present! But this says I don’t get to play with it until June!” > > It took a minute, then my mother shrieked and everyone else caught on. And you just couldn’t resist, could you??? Did you used to open your Christmas presents in September, too? Though seeing as you got such a cutie I can see why waiting was impossible! ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/23 "2005-12-12T14:20:51Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > My way was sooooo cheesy, but it made everyone laugh. > > I told everyone at once (besides my husband) on my birthday. I wrote out a gift tag that said “Do not open until June 2!” While I was opening my gifts, I stuck the gift tag and a bow (which I took off one of the gifts) onto my belly while everyone was dstracted with the gifts. Then, when all the gifts had been opened and everyone thanked, I looked down, “shocked”, and said: “Wait! There’s one more present! But this says I don’t get to play with it until June!” > > It took a minute, then my mother shrieked and everyone else caught on. This is really cute!! ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/24 "2005-12-12T14:28:41Z")
We announced our pregnancy on Father’s Day, by giving each granddad to be a T shirt that says “World’s Best Grandpa” (it was cheesy, but cute). They loved it, once they figured out that it wasn’t from our dog 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/25 "2005-12-12T14:43:42Z")
> [@Hokkaido Brit](#): > > And you just couldn’t resist, could you??? Did you used to open your Christmas presents in September, too? > > Though seeing as you got such a cutie I can see why waiting was impossible! 😃 Somwtimes a girl just has to peek! (For newer posters who are confused, she came out in February, not June. There was a great thread of Doper support about it a while back. And she’s doing great and is cuter than ever!) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/26 "2005-12-12T14:55:42Z")
My parents actually happened to be living across the country from their parents when they get pregnant with my brother. They decided it would be fun to keep the whole thing a secret until after he was born!! So the phone call was to tell them they had a new grandson born already. The trick with some of the suggestions is to have everyone open at once. I would have to go with one of the ideas that involves a communal unveiling (spelling out Baby in green bean casserole or something). ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/27 "2005-12-12T16:00:23Z")
Are they crafty, in any sort of way? My parents-in-law gave their parents a gift of some yarn and knitting needles when they got pregnant, telling the grandparents-to-be that they had nine months to get started. It’s a cuter story when they tell it, but it’s not a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/28 "2005-12-12T16:41:41Z")
Oh!! {{Elza B}} Big congrats, Sweetie – nothing’s nicer than babies! Personally, I was a blurter with both of mine. But I like the ornament or mug idea. Or, if you’re a family who does toasts on special occasions (we do, at my house), you could spill the news during a toast – “To our wonderful parents. Thanks for teaching us all you know – and we’ll have the chance to put your examples into practice after [projected birthday], when we bring our own little one home.” Or something. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/29 "2005-12-12T17:02:24Z")
Huge Congrats to you both! Now, for the scheme, I lean to the more subtle. Leave the early preggers test box casually lying about in plain view in the bathroom. Make sure there’s a baby bottle in the fridge, in plain view. Maybe a baby rattle on the coffee table. Maybe a bib somewhere else, also in plain view. I think the topic will come up, while you’re all still taking coats and saying your hellos. By the time they are all seated and have a beverage, the room should be filled to the brim with expectations. Insist on the drinks for everyone, ignore the inuendo as you go in and out. Once seated and beveraged, enter as a couple and propose a toast, as they raise their glasses, fall silent,… smile, then say, “aaah, that’s what’s called a pregnant pause.” Yeah, that ought to about do it, I’d say. Good Luck! ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/30 "2005-12-12T17:06:47Z")
“What’s that behind your ear?” ---
**Author:** ![DrLoveGun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@DrLoveGun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrLoveGun)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/31 "2005-12-12T17:17:58Z")
Just don’t do what my brother did, waiting until the baby was 3 months old. Bad bad move. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/32 "2005-12-12T18:02:54Z")
We gave ours picture frames - there are endless choices in cute picture frames that obviously say “you’ll have to have a baby picture to put in here.” In our case, we already had the picture, since ours was an adoption referral. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/33 "2005-12-12T18:29:15Z")
My sister-in-law “informed” my mother by _not_ rushing to assure her that the bottle of pre-natal vitamins didn’t mean she was pregnant(or any of a number of other things). Seriously, S-i-L had said some form of “don’t worry, I’m not pregnant” on each previous visit from my parents to her home, so when no such announcement was made, Mom got suspicious. Come to find out, during that visit S-i-L was “late” but not enough to rate an announcement. Two weeks later the official announcement came in the form of a phone call “We hope to call you Grandma and Grandpa by your birthdays next year”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/34 "2005-12-12T19:38:08Z")
My brother called. Asked for Mom. She was not in. So he said “ok, can you tell her you’re going to be an aunt?” WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Mind you, he was still in shock himself at the time 🙂 My cousin has lunch with each side of the family at least once a month; they rotate which house to have it in (both sides are largish). Sometimes they have both families in. So once the whole gang gets there and there is no food anywhere on sight; they welcome everybody and stuff but still, no food, no cooking, table is not set. Since the two families were there, neither set of parents dared ask anything. When the last person gets there, they make everybody pile up in the cars and drive to a restaurant nearby where they have reservations. So before they sit down, my aunt finally bursts, “ok, so what are we celebrating?” And Navacousin gets a grin from ear to ear and says “oh, just no alcohol for the wife here”. I think you could hear the ruckus from the next town over 😃 ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/35 "2005-12-12T20:05:26Z")
My sister and brother-in-law annouced to all of us on Christmas Eve (four years ago) that they were expecting their second child. Earlier that day they had told my niece, who was 6 and desperately wanting a baby brother or sister. I love how they told her: they wrapped up some real baby pacifiers and gave them to her for Christmas, indicating that next year she’d soon a real baby to play with. She was so excited! When my husband and I walked in the door at my grandma’s that evening, my niece ran up to us, waving the pacifiers and yelling, “Auntie Val! Look! Look!” Took me a second to catch on, but it was fun for all of us to find out that night. I’m sure whatever you decide to do will create a special holiday memory for all of you, **Elza B**. Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/36 "2005-12-12T20:27:25Z")
Best wishes for a healthy baby! My daughter told me the week before Christmas when she gave me a box to open. Inside was a Hallmark ornament consisting of ceramic baby booties. Since I had just found out that our daughter-in-law was also pregnant. it took me a few moments to catch on. :o By the way, Hallmark does make “parents to be” ornaments each year. I think the ceramic booties are available every year, as they are undated. They do have spaces on the soles for weight, name and date.) ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/37 "2005-12-12T20:37:54Z")
Congrats on the sproutlet you two! Have **ElzaHub** come out wearing a wifebeater and boxer shorts, chuggin’ on a long neck Bud, belch and say, “The old lady told ya I got her knocked up yet?” Nice and subtle. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/38 "2005-12-12T20:55:09Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > So before they sit down, my aunt finally bursts, “ok, so what are we celebrating?” And Navacousin gets a grin from ear to ear and says “oh, just no alcohol for the wife here”. > > I think you could hear the ruckus from the next town over 😃 I love this! Very subtle…it’s like leaving a clue. Then you get to watch everyone’s face as they noodle it out. ---
**Author:** ![Skipper\_Too](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Skipper\_Too](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skipper_Too)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/39 "2005-12-12T23:23:49Z")
> [@Elza B](#): > > ElzaHub and I found out that we’re expecting:D, and very, very happy (albeit a little terrified out of our wits). I managed to convince my parents to come out for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (I’ll go back with them for a visit to see my little nephew after Christmas, as I’ve got the whole week off), and the plan is to tell both sets of grandparents on Christmas. > > I need ideas on HOW to tell them. We thought about wrapping up a picture of the digital pregnancy test that I took (which faded, so we can’t give them the actual test), and letting them all open them on Christmas morning. But for some reason, that doesn’t appeal to me as much anymore. > > Any ideas?😃 My Sister and Brother in-law just had their First Child last Tuesday, My Parent’s first Grandchild and his parents 10th. They told both sets of parents on Mothers day, had them over for brunch (really iritated me cause I wasn’t invited the bums) Gave each mother a gift bag, inside was a small snap shot size photo album, on the cover read Grandma’s Photo album or some such, and inside on the first page was a copy of the first ultra sound. Then the parents were sworn to secrecy until the rest of the family could be told together. My Sister planned a BBQ the weekend after Memmorial day when His Two Sisters and Brother who live in the area and their families were able to come over, I was the last one there as I had another event that day and was assured earlier that come when you can if you are late that is ok. The day of, getting closer to the time of the party, I got four seperate calls of where are you what time are you going to be here. I arrive just start to notice the Babyback Ribs, Baby Corn/Baby Pickle/Baby onion tray, maccorni salad with baby Shrimp, the plastic cups and silverware were pink and blue, it all started to come together in my mind as the they brought the cake out with, It’s a baby! on it. It was a fun surprise and after learning of why I wasn’t invited to participate in Mothers Day I was less upset and looked forward to the Day I became an uncle. What a fun ride it has been! My mom and dad were surely relieved when they could start to tell their friends and share the good news. ---
**Author:** ![ninevah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/46a35a/32.png) [@ninevah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninevah)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133/40 "2005-12-13T00:28:14Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > … my aunt finally bursts, “ok, so what are we celebrating?” And Navacousin gets a grin from ear to ear and says “oh, just no alcohol for the wife here”. This reminds me of how a good friend told his mother that he and his (now) wife were expecting whilst they were discussing their upcoming wedding. He just casually mentioned, “Oh, and Karla’s not drinking at the wedding” and waited for the penny to drop. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ideas-to-tell-grandparents-about-a-new-baby/335133.md?page=3)