Louis and Marie - Baby News

[Paulina]

I think gender reveal parties are weird. But be a millennial and gen Z thing.

[karma chamelion]

I think gender reveal parties are weird. But be a millennial and gen Z thing.

My daughter had them, I think they're kind of silly TBH. Plus, my poor granddaughter burst into tears at the gender reveal party for her baby brother because she was sure he would be a little sister. Not to mention all the forest fires we had here in the US that were caused by explosives (of all things) being used in reveal parties. But I'm an old fuddy-duddy so what do I know?

[thecrownjewelthief]

I think gender reveal parties are weird. But be a millennial and gen Z thing.

I'm a millennial and I think they're weird but my generation seems to have a lot of 'main character syndrome'

[anneboleyn]

I think if they’re done small and tastefully in a way that won’t start a massive forest fire, they’re pretty harmless. Maybe they won’t be popular by the time I have kids. Who knows.

[Principessa]

Gender reveal parties are massively popular in the US and Canada. I’m not sure how big they are in other places of the world.

They are more often noticed all over the world.....sometimes rather massive celebrations.
Personally I don't get it

[loveofenglishtradition]

Being somewhat oldfashioned gender revealing parties  seem a ridiculous thing for me.

 Maybe it was invented by the party business industry to increase their income?
I also wonder how women under the age of 35 know about the gender of the unborn. I only had a test made when my second child was born because I was older than 35  not because we wanted to know the gender but exclude serious birthdefects.

But maybe I am not up to date about what is usually done nowadays.

[Royal Me!]

I think gender reveal parties are weird. But be a millennial and gen Z thing.

I agree.      

[anneboleyn]

I also wonder how women under the age of 35 know about the gender of the unborn. I only had a test made when my second child was born because I was older than 35  not because we wanted to know the gender but exclude serious birthdefects.

But maybe I am not up to date about what is usually done nowadays.

The average woman in Canada has three ultrasounds I believe. The first around 12 weeks, the second around 20 weeks (which is when they can find out the sex) and then one closer towards the end to find out how big the baby is measuring. Or at least, my two coworkers each had three ultrasounds.

I know in the states there’s lots of little ultrasound boutiques where you can pay to see your baby and can discover the sex as early as possible.

[Col1482]

Being somewhat oldfashioned gender revealing parties  seem a ridiculous thing for me.

 Maybe it was invented by the party business industry to increase their income?
I also wonder how women under the age of 35 know about the gender of the unborn. I only had a test made when my second child was born because I was older than 35  not because we wanted to know the gender but exclude serious birthdefects.

But maybe I am not up to date about what is usually done nowadays.

I was actually on a message board years ago when the first official gender reveal party happened. It was just a woman who had struggled with miscarriages, and wanted to celebrate that she finally made it to the 20-week scan to see what the gender was. It wasn't an ego thing at all. Years later, her child started to move towards a more androgynous presentation, and the family has just gone with it.

https://people.com/parent...anged-thanks-to-daughter/

[periwinkle]

I don't like gender reveal parties at all. It's this Millennial gaze back at themselves that is not helpful. I feel like younger people are so into the show they are not connected to the reality that pregnancy and childbirth are two of the most dangerous things you can do. There is no guarantee of a complete term or a healthy baby or no problems beyond nausea. Then there is the reality that more people are comfortable sharing that they are trans or non-binary. Just have a party and forget the gender business it reinforces very strict rules that don't allow for the complexity of human bodies and behavior.

[loveofenglishtradition]

I don't like gender reveal parties at all. It's this Millennial gaze back at themselves that is not helpful. I feel like younger people are so into the show they are not connected to the reality that pregnancy and childbirth are two of the most dangerous things you can do. There is no guarantee of a complete term or a healthy baby or no problems beyond nausea. Then there is the reality that more people are comfortable sharing that they are trans or non-binary. Just have a party and forget the gender business it reinforces very strict rules that don't allow for the complexity of human bodies and behavior.

Thank you Periwinkle for your explanation. I sometimes feel like living in another world. As much as I love the internet and social media because it opens possibilities to learn and to connect which we could only dream of when I was young, as much I see how dangerous it can be.

 My generation thought we were the "revolutionaries" at our time , the late Sixties and Seventies , "flower power, political discussions at univerities, demonstrations against wars, nuclear power and so on... Nowadays people don't do that anymore, at least not in Europe. So I wonder sometimes about the issues that younger generations think of being important.

Going back to the topic, pregnancy and all that has to do with it, they will learn when something unexpected or unwanted happens to them. Those things always happened, but people didn't have the possibility to share this with the whole world, that makes a difference.

[Miss Marple]

What is especially problematic, IMO, is when there are bad reactions recorded and put online - like when a sibling cries because he or she wanted a sister or brother and it was the opposite.

Finding out the gender is not a big problem anymore - I had some complications in my second pregnancy and I had to see a specialist at 16 weeks - he could tell us the gender 100% just by a simple ultrasound.

What I found more disturbing was the trend a couple of years back not to reveal anything - expected delivery date, sex, name ... anything.
Having said that - after kid #1 we found out that some people can be so obnoxious after you delivered and pushy that we always gave a wrong delivery date when asked  . So everyone was suprised when we had #2 and #3 was three weeks early anyway.

About Marie ... well, with the first kid they might be just super excited. I remember that Leti shared Sofia's sex rather early on - most likely to avoid disappointment that it was "just another girl".
 

[Duchess of Verona]

I don’t understand the ‘reveal party’….would you not just do it as part of the baby shower?  At the time,  I would have just told every person in sight it was a girl, but the Duke didn’t want to know. He wanted to be surprised. I wanted to know. So I knew and he was surprised.

[anneboleyn]

Some women don’t have a shower until after the baby is born and some want to do the reveal before the shower so they don’t get a bunch of neutral colour gifts.

[Kristallinchen]

I don't like gender reveal parties at all. It's this Millennial gaze back at themselves that is not helpful. I feel like younger people are so into the show they are not connected to the reality that pregnancy and childbirth are two of the most dangerous things you can do. There is no guarantee of a complete term or a healthy baby or no problems beyond nausea. Then there is the reality that more people are comfortable sharing that they are trans or non-binary. Just have a party and forget the gender business it reinforces very strict rules that don't allow for the complexity of human bodies and behavior.

Oh, don't get me started. Nowadays a pregnancy seems to be a science and pregnant women an alien. Far too much is written about what you should/shouldn't eat, how to give birth etc. and if the child is there you already have to decide which university it's going to attend, because you know it has to make a carrier.

A mother to be can't carry the normal groceries, because it could harm the baby. If you're a relative don't forget to be overjoyed. It's not your baby or your pregnancy, but DAM IT BE OVERJOYED, OTHERWISE YOU'RE EVIL.

Of course you got to make the baby food (mush) yourself, never give it away and be happy that you never get a free minute. Otherwise you're a bad mother. Don't forget to tell every other mother how intelligent yours is and pity her, because your child already learned 10 words and hers only half.

I could go on and on...

I wish Marie and Louis all the best and a happy/healthy baby, because that's the only thing that counts.