I have been blogging about babies and The La Leche League this month in honor of World Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I haven’t done a non-birthday party post for a long time. So here we are A Baby Shower in Se7en Steps… Following the Se7en Steps Party Plan.
This is not your traditional baby shower…
Step 1: Invitations:
Well this is more about who is invited. I will never understand why the whole world wants men to be part of the whole baby process… antenatal classes, labour, nappy changes in the dead of night. And then for the celebration in anticipation of the new baby men are traditionally not invited!!! Bizarre… We invited almost everyone we knew to our baby shower – men, women, kids – we wanted everyone to be as excited as we were… Here is a copy of our baby shower invitation:
Step 2: Party Starters and Gift Ideas:
We asked everyone to guess Hood #1’s career choice… and somewhere I have an envelope full of post-it-notes and career choices for him!
Se7en gift ideas for a baby shower:
- Practical: A friend of mine always gives a bag of nappies/diapers! Baby toiletries can be hard, new moms usually have a pretty good idea about which brand they are going to use… trust me don’t mess with a new mother! If you want to spend some money then you cannot go wrong with the best baby book I have ever read:
- Pampering: A new mother needs special attention, herself, a gift just for her will be really valued. A nice soap, some special tea, an aromatherapy candle. Pamper the mother and she can care for the baby!
- Precious: A momento for the baby, something small and something sweet. A special gift is a tiny hand-painted t-shirt. A tiny picture frame. Something small, that can be saved in a memory box.
- Patience: If you are going to give baby clothes, then think of clothes that are older in size – the baby will get lots of newborn clothes. Some of our most special gifts have been older outfits – something nice and new just for that baby when all the newness appears to have worn off.
- Promises: A promise to do a chore for a new mom – hang the washing out, sweep the floor, hang out with older siblings so that the new mom can spend time with her newborn. Vouchers for a take-out meal, new babies have all sorts of hidden expenses and new parents often don’t have the money for a treat.
- Perfect: The perfect gift is obvious: food… often a first time mom cannot get near food preparation for weeks – she is home alone and helpless(!), literally I remember it well, forget meals – she needs snacks. Something she can grab and eat – if she needs to prepare anything it is no good – think instant!
- Priceless: Encouragement. This is what new parents need most, especially the mother to be. Advice – not so much, nothing ruins a friendship like advice. By the time they have a baby shower they will have a pretty good idea about how they want to parent – it doesn’t matter if it is realistic or not just encourage them – reality will hit them soon enough!!!
Step 3: Party Games:
Personally if I get a baby shower invitation I just want to run a mile… firstly I hate all girl events, but the games – oh baby shower games are awful and leave me dying of embarrassment – be kind folks… a baby shower usually happens when a mom-to-be is eight if not nine months pregnant – she doesn’t feel great and sense of humor failure is a genuine potential problem. Frankly drop the games – all together. If you must then keep them light and happy – guessing gender games whatever… lose the dressing up, guessing how much she has gained and eating baby food ideas – they are just not nice.
Step 4: Party Crafts:
We never did a party craft, but if I had to do it over, I would probably get a plain cotton baby blanket and get everyone’s fabric paint hand print onto it… quick, easy and not too messy. Just have a pile of wet-wpies next to the paint and people won’t mind dipping their hands into paint for such a good cause… and your baby will have a sweet blanket covered in loving hands – it doesn’t get much better than that.
Step 5: Pinata’s
We never had one, but I am older and wiser now! And I would definitely go for mini-pinata’s, they are so quick and easy to make and you can chose any color in the world of tissue paper to cover them with. What to put inside? Something small and sweet like a hershey kiss or jelly babies.
Step 6: Party Food:
Remember for a good party you need one food and one beverage. Our party was after work on my last day as a working girl – a double celebration and we ordered in a couple of pizza’s – lazy I know, but hay I was well pregnant! I did get an extra pizza box, to store cards and gift wrap and so on. And I have absolutely no memory of what we drank! If you are having a tea party then you really should serve baby window cookies…
Step 7: Treasure Hunt and Go Home:
At this stage you are tired, put your feet up and send those guests home!
That’s it… Party On!
2 Replies to “A Baby Shower in Se7en Steps…”