Finding out the gender of your baby is fun and an excuse to celebrate. But over the years, they’ve become a bit too elaborate if you ask me.
Yes, I’m showing my age here, but I had all three of my kids before people did things like throw a grandiose party with pink or blue cake, balloons, or smoke, and we all did just fine. I certainly never felt like I was missing out.
It’s exciting to share the news, but after the events of this weekend, where a couple from Southern California literally affected the lives of over 20,000 people with their pyrotechnic-involved gender reveal party, we need to come up with another way and go back to the old-school method of telling people via phone/email or to their face.
Of course, the couple didn’t mean to start a massive wildfire. But it’s concerning (to say the least) that on a day when temperatures reached over 100 degrees, the couple didn't seem to hesitate before setting off fireworks.
This wasn’t the first time a smoke-induced party has turned sour, either. There have been other wildfires caused by couples, including one in 2017 that caused a 47,000-acre wildfire in Arizona.There have been deaths and even plane crashes caused by these so-called celebrations.
Hopefully this will put an end to all this gender reveal nonsense. It seems like everyone is about putting on a show these days so it can be splashed all over social media. But people are throwing basic human safety out the damn window. Trust me, it's OK to just send a good old-fashioned text to friends and family even if it doesn't get hundreds of likes on Instagram.
And this doesn't even take into account how silly it seems to make such a big deal out of something like an unborn child's sex. Not to mention many couples and parents are choosing to do their child’s gender reveal over again when the child is older and able to tell them what gender they identify with.
There are many reasons to stop with these celebrations, and last weekend was a huge lesson. So let’s just let these parties become a thing of the past and make the announcement in a way that doesn’t involve a reveal of any kind unless it's 100% safe for everyone.
