I don’t have a problem with it. I know that gift registries are a point of irritation for some. I appreciate when people take the time to make a registry. I don’t know what they need, I don’t know what colors or theme’s they have chosen.
The thing with an invitation, and gifting, is that it is totally voluntary. If you can’t join the celebration joyfully, then don’t go. No one wants a downer at their baby shower.
That’s what speeches at the reception are for - and that’s enough. You don’t want to get into a rat race of “Thank you for your thank-you card, we had a lovely time” and so on, ad infinitum.
One thing that I’ve seen done here is for invitees who couldn’t make it to be sent a (tiny) piece of wedding cake in a (tiny) box. Or maybe a bigger bit if they sent a particularly generous gift.
These social niceties are getting so tiring.
It’s finally going away from my teeny circle the need for a dozen graduation cards in May every year from kids I barely know.
Of course they want cash only. Gifts went out the window way before I graduated.
I did receive a college graduation card this past May. I did not even know the kid or the parents.
Mr Wrekker said it sounded familiar but he couldn’t quite place it. Lovely picture of a girl. I was gonna toss it but the youngest granddaughter needed it. She does a lot cutting and glueing.
Isn’t this merely part of the Conspicuous Consumption ethos, moving once-simple ritual events to social media extravaganzas?
Baby showers were friendly gatherings at a friend or relative of the mom to be, where material necessities of baby raising were gifted to someone who, it was presumed, was just getting settled into her new married life, barely more than a girl herself. It was a practical way to share the burden of setting up for motherhood.
Once weddings had been thoroughly transmogrified by the wedding industry from a modest church ritual followed by a celebratory party into the Happiest Day of Your Life Or Else, other rites of passage had to follow. Like Baby’s first birthday, now often some blow-out party for adults which generally terrifies and exhausts one year olds.
I’ve always wondered, if your wedding was your happiest day ever, is it supposed to be downhill from there?
Wasn’t there a thread recently about young people being different these days because they don’t want stuff?
In my post, which was #49, I suggested going to a bookstore and getting some standard children’s books. I don’t see anyone else discussing children’s books, so I presume that it’s not on the registry of this couple and it’s not likely that anyone else will buy those books. Children’s books are usually what I buy for baby showers and for Christmas and birthday presents for children. It’s a relatively cheap present and not likely to be duplicated by anyone else. If it is duplicated by anyone else, the couple is free to store the duplicate copies somewhere in their house and give them to some other child in a few years.
…. What a great idea! Sounds like a lot of fun. I like giving baby board books for showers and you could find a couple of well thought out ones for $20.
The drizzle part is very clever……
@Wendell_Wagner, re: no one mentioning books for a baby shower gift: I did, at some length, post #21. In fact I not sure I’ve ever given a baby gift without at least one book and usually a couple.
I almost always give books for a baby shower. The last one i went to, i gave two books. One was “the very hungry caterpillar”. It was one of four copies of that book the couple received.
I once gave Goodnight Moon to someone, and was also not the only one to do so. For a co-worker I liked who was having a baby, I gave a set of Sandra Boynton board books (along with contributing to the group office gift). I remember reading those to my brother’s children when they were little.
Yep, always some Sandra Boyntons. I’m now reading Boynton board books to my grandchildren that I also read to their mother a generation ago. Engaging, spirited illustrations and entrancing rhymes and words.
Every parent needs:
Probably just to head off all the folks who’ll say, “Jayden? I thought that was a boy’s name!” because they’ve heard it a dozen times already.
Los Angeles.
When I first starting working at the company I retired from, there were a lot of new hires around the same time I was hired, and we were all relatively young. We had a ton of baby showers my first ten years or so there. And we usually just had pot luck in the breakroom. No big deal. And the great thing is that we didn’t really have to the time for all thos obnoxious shower games (gag). Some of the guys felt weird when we’d invite them to participate, but after a while it became normal. I enjoyed those showers.
O.k. on the OP. I gave one of my coworkers a quacky duck (and a homemade baby sweater) because I thought it was cute. But it had a really obnoxious quack, and it became the baby’s favorite toy (of course). For years afterward he’d jokingly tell me that he was thinking of calling a hitman. Maybe find something like that quacky duck???
We used to always give a book in addition to a more practical gift (like a package or two of onesies). Usually it was There’s a Nightmare in My Closet.
A fun trend at some baby showers we have been invited to recently, and we did this for our first kid, is instead of greeting cards you ask for baby books and people write a message to the baby on the inside cover.
My apologies for missing that.
Curious about $! million buying only a “quite small home” in Texas. Even though home prices have shot up there as most everywhere else in recent years, I’d still think a million would buy plenty of square footage, unless you insist on living in one of the ritziest neighborhoods, or must have a condo in a flashy new downtown high-rise.
Both babyshowers my wife had were “no gifts, please” - my kids are the youngest of the cousins, so we had pretty much everything we needed 2nd hand. We still got a few from the traditionalists.a
There was, though, plenty of alcohol (not for my wife, of course, but some people will do anything for a party!
I was called in at the end of the 2nd one to resupply champagne as soon as the liquor stores opened (ie, it went on all night, this was now morning), and serve to a delightful group of now-naked ladies illegally skinny-dipping on a local beach.
The lone local surfer could not have been more delighted.
What made this a baby shower instead of just a party?
Any excuse for a party. It was a “baby shower” in name only, because one of the participants was pregnant.
I know nothing about Houston neighborhoods, but my understanding is that it is a 3-bed mid-century modern ranch, with the carport converted into a 4th bed. Pool takes up all of the yard, with a pool house where the MIL/childcare is expected to live. I’d assume it is the neighborhood this upwardly mobile couple wants to raise their kids in, for schools, parks, and amenities.
And I’ve never seen the house or even pictures. “Quite small” was from his mother’s description. No idea if that means 2500 sq ft or what.