Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Baby gender reveal party!

162 replies

Flashbangandgone · 02/03/2016 14:31

Firstly, it should be 'sex' not 'gender', but that's not my issue.

Maybe I've lived in a bubble the past few years, but I've only just realized these existed. For those of ignorant ones like me, this is where a sonographer doesn't share the sex of the unborn child with the parents, but sends it off to a baker, who then makes a cake either with blue or pink sponge, covered with icing. It may get sent to a balloon supplier too who blows up a load of pink or blue balloons depending on the result.

So, the parents or parent, hosts a party at which guests are invited to share in the drama of finding out the baby-to-be's sex.... The cake is cut into and the assembled throng whoop and cheer as the sex is revealed, with many congratulations given.... The couple would then let loose the balloons (hitherto encased in some kind of sack to keep the suspense), gazing open mouthed in wonder as the news of their foetus' sex is carried off to the world on the four winds, providing an Instagram-tastic opportunity.....

AIBU to think this is kind of party is the height of a toe-curling, self-indulgent pretention that I hope never catches on (though I believe it already has the in the States).... or am I just being a grumpy, fun-hating grouch.

OP posts:
Terribleknitter · 02/03/2016 15:02

I've witnessed one of these close up. It was wonderfully fascinating in a car crash type of way. (I wasn't invited, our local has a weird lay out and any function in the next room can be clearly heard).
Lots of people in full wedding grandeur, DJ, buffet, balloons - the full works on a quiet Sunday afternoon. The sex was revealed, everyone whooped, parents made a speech that I couldn't hear because DH was too busy asking me wtf was going on, everyone stood around making small talk then left. The parents left with huge piles of presents!
It took about 2 hours from start to finish...

UnmentionedElephantDildo · 02/03/2016 15:03

Stripy cake for previously undiagnosed twins?

Purple for intersex?

cozietoesie · 02/03/2016 15:03

Did you get to see the cake colour though, Terrible? Grin

Oooblimey · 02/03/2016 15:05

LMAO collaborate! The only guests to turn up would be the police you would hope! (Not to party though!!)

squoosh · 02/03/2016 15:05

Black cake for a goth baby.

I think pink and blue is a bit limiting.

MyBreadIsEggy · 02/03/2016 15:05

Shock Quiet that cake really is hideous! Think my dear old Nan would have a heart attack if I brought that out as the centre piece of the party Confused

Twixthecat · 02/03/2016 15:05

OMG - seriously?! What so if you're hoping for pink and get blue does everyone shuffle off home all embarrassed?
Let alone I f**king hat all that pink and blue malarkey. It's a baby.. surely (please god) it's just a healthy one you're hoping for not a particular sex. Why start enforcing gender stereotypes on it before it's even born. In my opinion pink and blue baby gear should be banned until they're old enough to choose for themselves. I'm not saying I dress my toddler boy in dresses, but the pink and blue thing is ridiculous.
... although I would love to be a cake maker to get the request and to send a green, yellow or rainbow coloured cake! :-)

GloGirl · 02/03/2016 15:06

Bluey or pinky
Vagina or winky

HA!

TheGreatSnafu · 02/03/2016 15:06

Full wedding grandeur?

Are you sure it wasn't a wedding / baby shower / gender reveal hybrid?

Grin
cozietoesie · 02/03/2016 15:06

Well imagine if you cut into it and it was an orange sponge with purple 'bits' in it.

PiperChapstick · 02/03/2016 15:07

Salem cake smash parties are universally and uniformly shite. SIL had one done for her 1yo son (which basically consisted of him in just a pair of jeans and tie - making him look like a tiny, creepy Chippendale - and barely touching a cake which eventually had to be smashed for him) and the whole family's Xmas presents last year was a printed photo each of this. Never have I tried so hard to feign delight.

Terribleknitter · 02/03/2016 15:08

Cozie didn't see the cake but I quite clearly heard that it was a baby girl Grin
I'd love to be invited to one just for fun and alcohol!

TimeToMuskUp · 02/03/2016 15:09

A friend of ours did this and invited me. Each to their own and all that, I was busy at the rugby that day, but from the pictures she posted it was just afternoon tea with a baby shower thrown in, and an ugly cake. If I'd been free I'd have gone solely for the cake. I do love a cake.

I didn't do a baby shower for either of the DCs because it just didn't appeal. I had a loss at quite a late stage years before, though, so never felt 'safe' to celebrate til they'd actually spawned and remained healthy a while. Now nobody wants to celebrate them because they're such knobbers.

RancidOldHag · 02/03/2016 15:10

Why can't you just invite friends for cake, without dragging sex into it?

cozietoesie · 02/03/2016 15:11

I don't think I'll ever be able to eat Battenberg again without some stray thoughts creeping in.

Terribleknitter · 02/03/2016 15:11

It was a little odd, tbh I assumed it was a christening but the lad on the bar asked us if we knew what one was as they had it booked that afternoon. There were hats and everything!

OttiliaVonBCup · 02/03/2016 15:13

What's with all the blue cake?

There were at least 56,987 blue cakes on the recent GBBO Celebrity charity thing.

Who want to eat blue cake? Why? It's not the natural state of cake, what's wrong with a nice not blue cake?

What it this madness?

GobiasIndustries · 02/03/2016 15:14

Oh gosh terrible, that sounds a bit over the top! Mine was really low key and in my house with family and two close friends. I don't think anyone wore a hat and the DJ was just a YouTube playlist.

HackerFucker22 · 02/03/2016 15:15

My cousin (English and worryingly doesn't even live in the US) had one for these.

I haven't seen said cousin in over a decade and I'm not on FB so heard about this through the grapevine. I'm embarrassed to be related to someone who threw a gender reveal party!!

MadHattersWineParty · 02/03/2016 15:15

Ugh.

Although my cousin had Christmas crackers made that instead of a joke (although in one respect it was a sort of joke) to reveal what gender she was expecting, two Christmases ago.

We were all bemused when we looked up and she was near tears and screeching 'READ THE JOKE!! READ THE PIECE OF PAPER!!!" and diving under the table to rescue one which had just fluttered onto the floor.

Oysterbabe · 02/03/2016 15:16

You're all a bunch of miserable fuckers Grin
Grin

Terribleknitter · 02/03/2016 15:16

Gobias to be fair sod all happens round here so any excuse is used to wear a good hat!

BarricadesBabe · 02/03/2016 15:17

This sounds too skin-crawlingly awful for words

Notso · 02/03/2016 15:18

Howling at a tiny, creepy Chippendale

Pinkheart5915 · 02/03/2016 15:21

I have been to a couple, they were nice party's with a nice cake and got to spend some time with good friends.

I also have family in America (my dad is American) and they all had them when expecting.

I wouldn't personally want one but if your somebody and they are your thing why not have one?

Swipe left for the next trending thread