Gender Reveals: Making the Big Announcement

Gone are the days of guessing your baby’s gender by how you a carrying or which way a wedding ring swings over your baby bump.

Technology allows us to know well in advance whether we should be planning for a bouncing baby boy or a gorgeous baby girl. Sharing the news with friends and family was always fun, but now it has become a wonderful excuse for celebration.

Gender reveals are big business, and whether you go all out with the pink or blue trimmings or prefer to have a simple and intimate occasion with your nearest and dearest, they have become as much a part of new parenthood as baby showers and naming ceremonies.

HOW TO CELEBRATE YOUR GENDER REVEAL

Commonly, gender reveals are celebrated sedately, perhaps with a single glass of champagne for each of your guests and a light buffet – no excessive boozing or overblown feasts. Inviting guests to bring an offering of finger food, suggesting that they might bring their own alcohol as mummy and daddy will be abstaining and mentioning that presents aren’t required are all great ways to keep costs low and make your guests feel welcome and part of this special experience.

While they are a wonderful way to share your exciting news with friends and family, they are also a connecting and empowering chance to bring older siblings into the journey, making them feel important, valued and as much a part of the experience as you and your partner.

GET YOUR LITTLE ONE TO REVEAL THE GENDER

If this isn’t your first child, your older children may be feeling left out or that all the focus is on the younger child, even before they are born. Buying your children a special ‘big brother’ or ‘big sister’ gift is a lovely way to give them a role for the new arrival.

Best of all, they can be the ones to make the grand announcement to the world.

If your child is the sensitive type, or if they are particularly fixed on having a little baby brother or sister, it may be worthwhile asking them if they would like to know the gender before the big event. Social media has a flood of videos and memes of temper-tantrums caused by unwanted gender reveals, and sometimes it’s just not worth the risk!

The big reveal can be made in all sorts of ways, and a quick Google search will lead you to cakes with pink or blue-coloured sponge inside, boxes filled with gender-specific balloons, coloured smoke cannons or party poppers and even exploding golf balls. If you have a little boy who loves his footy, you can buy soccer or footballs that will burst into bright pink or blue smoke when he kicks them. For little girls, they may wish to cut the pretty ribbon on a beautiful box to release some appropriately-coloured balloons. Of course, she may also prefer to kick a soccer ball!

Shop for your gender reveal props with your children, help them choose something that will be a thrill and treat for them and let them know that, although the day is about their unborn sibling, they are the most important person at the party.

WHY REVEAL THE GENDER AT ALL?

Tradition dictates that blue means a boy and pink means a girl, and this is definitely the most obvious, least confusing way to reveal your baby-to-be’s gender. However, as popular as baby reveals are becoming, there is also a growing group of new parents who choose not to tie their upcoming child to a gender at all, or at least choosing not to add weight to the importance of it.

Whether same-sex parents themselves or simply supportive of the LGBTQ+ movement, many parents are opting to avoid connecting their newborn with a specific gender.

You may wish to send your message in a flurry of pink or blue, keep it a secret altogether or announce the occasion, only to greet your guests with rainbows and a heartfelt announcement that you will cherish your child no matter what and allow them the right to define their own gender when the time is right.

However you choose to do it, a gender reveal party can be a wonderful, magical and uniting time, so have fun with it – whatever you decide to announce!

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