Are baby showers a bit wet? Maybe, but Sinead wants one anyway.
If you’ve never been to a baby shower, I’ll paint you a picture. Instead of doing your weekly grocery shopping, a mountain of laundry or catching up on Vanderpump Rules, you have to sacrifice your precious Sunday afternoon to celebrate your friend’s life choices. It would be absolutely fine and dandy if the event involved eating burrata and slamming Aperol spritzes in a sunny garden bar – but a baby shower is usually held at the parents of the expectant mum’s house and it’s just tiny, dry sandwiches and one bottle of prosecco to share between 22 of you.
Then the games begin, with no Cards Against Humanity or beer pong in sight. Instead, it’s things like “pin the vomit on the baby” or “guess the poo”, where different types of chocolate bars have been melted into nappies and you have to literally chow them down. Maybe this is your idea of an absolute hoot and that’s cool! But also, a tough ask if your guests have had a big Saturday night and they’re feeling delicate.
Then it’s time for presents. You don’t have to bring a present, but lots of people do and if you don’t, you will probably feel like Scrooge. Because of course, we would all love to gift our pregnant friend the entire Jamie Kay catalogue, but there’s a cost-of-living crisis and some people are barely making rent. And in my case, I got pregnant four days after I got home from my wedding, where my friends had just forked out to celebrate my husband and me on Waiheke for an entire weekend, and now they’re expected to buy me $60 lambskin booties from Nature Baby out of their “emergency account”? Hideous. Not fair.
So long story short – baby showers are not a good time. Except, I want one.