August 2015 Moms

Shower experiences

I thought we can share our experiences at other showers. Something we liked, that was different, odd. I'll start!


I've been to two baby showers where they omitted the gift opening portion. One shower was a traditional women only shower. Basically there was food and everyone said some encouraging words to the mom-to-be. That was it for three hours. The gift table remained untouched. They also passed around a "chore sheet" where you sign up to clean, run errands, or cook. And when you signed up to cook it was for four adults and two children!

The other shower was a co-ed bbq (which I loved!). The mom-to-be opened some gifts at her leisure but all of the guests attention was never on her. I personally get bored after about the 5th gift as do many others who start to carry on side conversations.

Re: Shower experiences

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  • I've been to so many showers as DH has such a large family. we always do some kind of craft (optional and at the end as some are not into this) examples: quilts, pack clips, hair bows. Every one is different.

    I don't do games. Only one I think is really fun is the gift bingo. So the guests have some thing fun to do while gifts are being opened.

    At my shower for DS, I received books for the baby instead of cards. Loved it! Still love reading DS a book and seeing the note from whoever gave it on the inside cover.

     

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  • I've never heard of books instead of cards, love it!
  • only one recently, They played games like guess what candy bar is is melted and smosshed in this diaper, and try to figure out what baby food flavor this is. We watched her open all the gifts. It was a very well organized shower, if was for a FTM put on by her  mom and her many sisters. I thought it was fun. I like the idea of books instead of cards. I also like hanging the clothes up for display, but I'm not sure how I feel about idea of telling people not to wrap presents. Its better than the post (on a different thread)  I read about handing the gifts back out to the guest and having them open up the gifts.
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  • Personally, I find the "gift instead of a card" thing to be incredibly tacky. To me it's like asking for a gift on top of a gift.
  • I always hate going to baby showers and there's NO wine! I was not pregnant, I want wine! So my only request for my mom who is throwing the shower is to have free wine for my friends and family bc I think showers are torture haha
  • I love the book instead of a card thing. Books become something to treasure your entire life, I have books I was given as a child that I am excited to be able to share with this LO. That being said, if you hate the idea, just buy the card. No one is going to kick you out because you didn't bring a book.

    I've been to a few showers that sucked and a few that were fun. I think the key is having the right mix of structured and unstructured activities. Some people really like watching mom open gifts, but it wouldn't be terrible to have other stuff going on for those who don't care to watch.
  • We did the book instead of a card at my shower, wording it as optional. I think you have to know your audience in how that will be received. We received zero duplicates and as others have said, love remembering who picked that book out for DD when we read them.

    I love the idea of a co-ed BBQ with no forced to watch gift opening. 

    A game I've seen done that has worked well is everyone gets a yarn necklace with 3 plastic safety pins on it when they come in. If you're caught by another guest using the word "baby" they can steal a pin. The girl with the most pins at the end of the shower wins a prize. This really gets the competitive people going, and those that care less, aren't really forced to play, other than giving up their pins. 

    Something I hadn't seen done before and was a little taken aback by at first, was the host passed around baby's piggy bank and asked the guests to help fill it up. I wasn't prepared and had no cash, so felt like a dope on that one. 
  • My sister is throwing me a shower and has asked for my preferences. We plan on doing a co-Ed bbq with a few simple games like bottle chugging ( with beer or Apple juice); pin the sperm on the egg; and prob some sort of counting contest in a jar ( all thanks to some Pinterest searches). Love love love the idea of a book instead of a card, especially if it's a used book - even more sentiment behind it! Prob gonna display unwrapped gifts on a table ( either encourage guests to bring unwrapped or just do it when they get there). I think displaying clothes on a line is super cute! I also think we will have diapers and sharpies for people to decorate whenever, I know our friends will get creative with those! There will be beer, food, music and hopefully good times to celebrate our future LO!
  • My sister is throwing me a shower and has asked for my preferences. We plan on doing a co-Ed bbq with a few simple games like bottle chugging ( with beer or Apple juice); pin the sperm on the egg; and prob some sort of counting contest in a jar ( all thanks to some Pinterest searches). Love love love the idea of a book instead of a card, especially if it's a used book - even more sentiment behind it! Prob gonna display unwrapped gifts on a table ( either encourage guests to bring unwrapped or just do it when they get there). I think displaying clothes on a line is super cute! I also think we will have diapers and sharpies for people to decorate whenever, I know our friends will get creative with those! There will be beer, food, music and hopefully good times to celebrate our future LO!

    This. I really dislike suffering through traditional baby showers so why would I torment my family and friends with one? My sister is throwing mine also and she decided on the same premise. "Baby, bbq, beer". I look at it as a good way to have the guys around. This is DH's child too. I live 6 hours from home, so I don't get to see many of my family and friends very often. I would rather spend the time celebrating and socializing than forcing people to watch me open gifts the whole time!
  • I generally enjoy showers, the key I have found after attending many is sitting with people you enjoy talking to.

    Also the food has to be good!!! The less enjoyable showers I have been to have weak food offerings.
  • Man, I love watching people open baby gifts. I don't understand why anyone thinks this is torture.

    I went to a friend's shower recently, it was for her second boy so it was more of an adult co-ed party. We had a food art competition and there was a candy bar... I ate too much candy but it was gooooood. I enjoyed seeing old friends there. Gifts were opened at the end but of course they were small gifts from friends like baby toys, books, and cute outfits.
  • Man, I love watching people open baby gifts. I don't understand why anyone thinks this is torture.

    I went to a friend's shower recently, it was for her second boy so it was more of an adult co-ed party. We had a food art competition and there was a candy bar... I ate too much candy but it was gooooood. I enjoyed seeing old friends there. Gifts were opened at the end but of course they were small gifts from friends like baby toys, books, and cute outfits.

    Food art competition? What is that and how does it work? Sounds interesting.
  • One of my favorite activities was at a baby shower there were a lot of plain onesies, socks, and bibs, and we were given fabric paint to decorate it.
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  • We will be doing a book themed nursery, so we would like books instead of cards also. This is for my traditional shower. I will also be having a joint "babyQ" shower. This is with my husband's huge Hispanic family.

    My SIL has hers at a Mexican restaurant (in the private room) with a DJ and it lasted until 2 am. There was no gift opening or games, I saw the mom to be for about 30 seconds. Everyone was drunk and dancing. No thank you. Strangest thing I have ever experienced.
  • ammc07ammc07 member
    edited March 2015
    I actually saw this last night... We went to a Chinese buffet for dinner and there was an obnoxious crowd of about15-20 people in one of the corner areas (not really a party area but they seat large groups over there). So anyways they had baby shower balloons and a baby shower cake theme etc... The mom to be was opening gifts and she got what looked like a Michael korrs diaper bag and she started to jump up and down and went around to everyone in her party individually so they would compliment her on it. Then as they were finishing up to leave she wanted a group photo. the waitress wasn't right there and the mom to be said 'for every second she's not here to take this picture she's going to lose a dollar of her tip money'. It was like just seconds later the waitress comes around the corner and the lady says to her 'finally, where have you been?'. It was like a train wreck and I couldn't take my eyes off the whole thing.
  • My formula for a good shower (as a guest) is: good food, good booze, no games.
  • The last two baby showers I have been to were co'ed with alcohol (one had beer and wine the other a full bar). Both had gifts opened at the party. One was a laid back backyard BBQ style and the other was picnic style foods made by the host


    I definitely want a co-ed shower
  • I want my shower to be a certain way. Like I've been to fun baby showers and showers where they just open gifts and they leave. I want to have a fun shower with games and such not a open presents and leave kinda thing.
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