You ladies will love this!
n8swife
member
I know some of you have been very vocal regarding requests for books instead of cards. Personally, I find it a little rude. If I want to buy your baby a book, I will. I love children's books and we've already started a great library for our son, however, I didn't request that every guest at my baby shower buy him a book. But anyways....I got a baby shower invite today for a girl I went to college with that I'm not really that close with anymore. There was a note in the invite requesting that the guests bring a children's book instead of a card...on the back of the request, there was a list of the books the baby has already received as gifts so there are no duplicates. I find that to be rather tacky! I wasn't planning on attending the shower in the first place but after that, I probably would not attend for sure!
Re: You ladies will love this!
I find the book thing to be a bit rude too now that I think about it (although it never bothered me before reading this board, i see how its a violation of courtesy)
That said, the list part doesn't bother me b/c its no different than a registry really. Not that it will have the desired effect b/c guests will still bring the same book multiple times so what difference does it make?
I find it a little odd that first time parents would have a lot of childrens books to start with but thats a whole other issue.
In this case, the list of books would have stopped me from going. I think it's rude. If there are certain books you want to receive as gifts, register for them and hope that someone buys them. The list seemed tacky to me. I understand that they don't want duplicates but the list makes me feel like they are dictating what a guest should/should not buy. As I said, the shower is not for a good friend so that's why I don't feel obligated to go. If it was a family member or a close friend, the list of books would still annoy me but I'd probably go to the shower anyways.
I registered for books and got quite a few, which was awesome! love my amazon registry
other kids books I pick up cheap at half price books.
Gretchen Evie, born 7/8/2012 at 35w5d
See, it's things like this that drive me crazy about our entitled society. "Please get us a book, but DON'T get these!!" FFS. It's a baby shower.
And I think the OP illustrates our point--the thing we try to point out everyday here. While people may not say it to your face and they might actually attend your shower, it doesn't mean they don't think something is rude. Yes, they have the choice not to come, but a lot of people feel obligated. So you've just made the half of your guests that DO think something is tacky think less of you. Why not just err on the side of caution? If a lot of people think something is tacky don't do it. Then you offend no one. If you do it anyway, you offend half. 50% or 0%...it's not rocket science.
I guess I don't quite get the bring a book instead of a card thing...one of my friends did it at her shower, which I didn't go to anyway since I had just (two weeks before) had my m/c, I thought it would be overwhelming so I had my DH drop off a card with a gift card in it.
Just the other day I looked through my baby box and there were all these cool vintage (well 1979 vintage) baby shower cards in it and they were so cool. Several of the ladies wrote sweet and kind messages and many were handmade. I thought it was really touching.
Don't get me wrong...books are awesome and I know our LO will be blessed with lots of them. But you only get one baby shower (usually). To each their own!
Henry Cavill...You're welcome!
BFP #3: EDD 1/10/13 **DS born 12/30/12!!!**
BFP #2: MC 7/2/11 @ 12 weeks
**Missing our February '12 LoveBug**
BFP #1: MMC discovered on 12/6/10
Ten million copies of Everybody Poops, I hope.
I do not like the book instead of a card thing either. I ALWAYS include a book as well as an outfit along with something from the registry.
The only way someone can "try" to have people not dupilcate book purchases is to put them on the registry. There might still be duplicates but hopefully not so many.
Why would it be odd? I had two shelves of children's books before I had my LO. I love kids books and would buy them at garage sales. At one sale I bought a whole copy paper box full of children's books for $20. I pulled out the ones I wanted to keep and donated the rest to the peds office I worked at. I knew one day I'd have kids and I had friends that had kids so why not start collecting books early?
and with all copies written in by the gift givers you can't return any! I would think this would be more inconvenient...