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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be sick to death of cake smashes?

250 replies

Noteventhebirdsareupyet · 29/01/2019 08:45

I am so sick of this strange new phenomenon. It might even be worse than baby showers, at least you don't normally get people sending a million photos of those! What a ridiculous American (no doubt) thing to do - waste of cake, fake set-up pictures, expensive clothes bought specifically to be ruined...... ok rant over!

OP posts:
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GummyGoddess · 29/01/2019 12:06

Oh come on, it doesn't affect you so why do you care? It's just more ways to judge people. As for waste of food, is the play dough, coloured rice, spaghetti, cornflour, potato stamps, dried orange slices, moon sand and toddler baking considered the same?

The only thing I can get worked up about is if the child isn't in the destruction phase and being forced to do it. Destroying things is a normal phase children need to go through, no point forcing them to do it or preventing them.

anmh · 29/01/2019 12:10

Personally do not like them as it seems a bit like pushy parents and pageants!
However, I heard or read that cake smash cakes were mostly cream and very little cake, so yes a waste but minimal cake loss!

Jaxtellerswife · 29/01/2019 12:10

Crass...
tacky...
there's some miserable sods on here.
It's a bit of fun, and smashing things up is fun for kids plus they get to munch on some icing and cake.
I think if people want to celebrate their kids any way they like or have them photographed so what! It's a lot better than the way some people treat their kids.
The joy doesn't have to be sucked out of everything in life

Uncooperativefingers · 29/01/2019 12:13

They are naff and tacky, and the waste is part of that. But I think the biggest annoyance for me is the celebration of waste and the trend do make every event photogenic for Instagram. People laugh at teenage girls for their duck pouts, but photoshoots for engagement, pregnancy, first birthdays are part of the same trend. See also posting your lunch/the living room you just cleaned. God, I'm grumpy!Blush

Iwantdaffodils · 29/01/2019 12:14

How sad to think not liking cake smashing equates to sucking all the joy out of life.

MacarenaFerreiro · 29/01/2019 12:19

"Gender reveal pizza".

What the actual fuck.

Sparklingbrook · 29/01/2019 12:23

What's all this about pizza and lasagne? Confused

GummyGoddess · 29/01/2019 12:25

What about those who do it for their own enjoyment and don't post to social media?

Jayne35 · 29/01/2019 12:28

Definitely a tacky thing imo, along with baby showers, gender reveals etc. However I think photo shoots are fine for a lovely framed pic to put up at home - just not really needed all over social media (yes babies bore many adults).

Having said that if my DIL wishes to do anything I don't like for my new granddaughter (including those god awful headbands!) I wouldn't say a word as I wouldn't want to be the subject of a MIL bashing thread on here Grin

LetBartletBeBartlet · 29/01/2019 12:37

How does one "gender reveal" a pizza?

Did they dye the cheese pink/blue? Or is it a pink/blue stuffed crust?

NoIDontWatchLoveIsland · 29/01/2019 12:39

No, you are NBU. it is a vile, wasteful thing which seems to be mainly about producing "cute" photos for social media.

I hate all the trends (including in nursery education) around playing with food. there are loads of ways to access different sensations without wasting food when billions of people in the world are starving.

Pondering1 · 29/01/2019 12:43

Ban feeding the ducks and cake smashes - surely its a wasteful child activity and the duck food should go to the food banks?!?

On another random note, apparently you shouldn't stop feeding bread to ducks/swans and it's ok as part of a varied diet. The charity Swan Support reporting lots of cases on FB of swans starving to death due to the ban the bread campaign. Maybe they can get the smashed cakes.
Swan Support

Sparklingbrook · 29/01/2019 12:45

Do food banks want out of date stale bread?

MidnightAura · 29/01/2019 13:02

Gender reveal lasagna is a new thing I saw on twitter.

I think this is where it’s started:

www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/24/villa-italian-kitchen-introduces-gender-reveal-lasagna/

crosstalk · 29/01/2019 13:05

It's sex reveal anyway as PPs have said.

And I'll say it again - pink/red was always the colour for boys prior to the 20C since it was a more expensive dye - and blue, esp in Catholic countries, for girls. Those who could afford it dressed their children in white and up to 5s in dresses, those who couldn't put on whatever clothes they could afford with hand me down's.

And I've never understood why people want to know the baby's sex before birth unless they have a genetic problem so they can prepare, Clearly if a scan reveals the sex obviously, fine, but are you going to redecorate the nursery, buy different toys?

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 29/01/2019 13:09

And you're friends with them

Erm... No I'm not.

LaurieMarlow · 29/01/2019 13:11

No I'm not

None of your friends throw away unused food? That's statistically very unlikely.

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 29/01/2019 13:16

I don't have any friends Smile

Klopptimist · 29/01/2019 13:24

It's not even cute to me, I hate seeing people with food all around their mouths, makes me feel ill. And yes, chocolate cake smashes look like poonamis.

pandechocolate · 29/01/2019 13:36

chocolate cake smashes look like poonamis

I laughed out loud.

I've photographed quite a few cake smashes for people and always cringe when I get the request (assuming it's an e-mail or message, not to people's face!). Of all of the ones I've done, I can think of maybe 2....or 3 children that willingly smashed the cake. The rest of them did not want to do it because generally they are taught at home not to play with food. So then I always have to have an awkward discussion, "do you want to turn this in to a nice shoot with the cake as a prop or would you like to smash the cake for your child". Parents normally go for the latter and then cover their child in cake. Afterwards we make them laugh.
I'll never have one because I've been involved with the behind the scenes, and feel awkward having to point out (after about 20 mins of failed convincing) that their child is not going to smash up a cake.

pandechocolate · 29/01/2019 13:37

Oh and if anyone wants to do cake smashes nowadays, it's at their house. I've had icing up the walls!

Hedgehogblues · 29/01/2019 13:38

Clearly if a scan reveals the sex obviously, fine, but are you going to redecorate the nursery, buy different toys?

It weirds me out how many people do think like this. So many people told me I needed to know the sex so I would know what to buy.Hmm (I do actually know her sex but it's made no bloody diference to what I've bought for her)

Lunafreya · 29/01/2019 13:39

My husband is a photographer and has to do these on occasion, ditto messy paint (and sometimes he gets as covered in it as the kids Grin). I think he enjoys the fun and variety that it brings to his work.

LaurieMarlow · 29/01/2019 13:39

I don't have any friends

Well that explains it then Smile

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 29/01/2019 13:44

It does, doesn't it? It also explains why people shouldn't judge when they don't know someone.

HTH.