A Baby Shower I’m Not Dreading
Baby Showers are at the top of the list of torturous, anxiety-triggering social obligations I can’t always get out of. However, for the first time maybe ever, I’m actually looking forward to one.
What is different about this one?
Two things:
- The parents chose not to find out and reveal the baby’s sex.
- It’s a co-ed event.
Very few people understand why I hate showers so much. Women who don’t like showers or who have social anxiety think they understand. They don’t. Social anxiety is definitely part of it, but not more than it is part of things like house warning, weddings, funerals, and birthday parties.
The last time I walked into a baby shower, I literally felt like an alien. I may have been born with a female body, but I have never felt like a woman inside. Online, I call myself non-binary or gender-fluid, but I almost never talk about this with people in the face to face world. Anxiety silences me nine out of ten times I could broach the subject with family and friends.
I’m not going out of my way to hide it. I just can’t talk about it out-loud.
I never feel like i belong at ladies-only events.
Thankfully, this shower isn’t one.
However, there is another reason I’m looking forward to this one: No one knows what the baby’s sex is.
At all the past shower’s I’ve attended, the has mother known, so before the baby is even born, people are forcing gendered stereotypes on them.Girls are pretty,princesses, clad in pink and flowers. Boys are handsome princes, ladies men before they can walk, wearing blue, clothing decorated with tools and trucks. The kid wasn’t even born and was already being told that girls are pretty and fragile like flowers where boys are tough and practical.
It will be refreshing to see what people gush over when they can’t lump the yet-to-be-born child into the girl or boy piles.
This time, when I was shopping, I didn’t feel like I was being subversive or grumpy for going out of my way to find gender neutral baby clothes, or for just buying diapers without even looking at the registry.
I still bought diapers, because babies poop a lot. Every new parent needs diapers.
However, I actually had fun looking at baby clothes. As I scrolled through Star Trek, Deadpool, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter themed onesies, I laughed. I smiled. I had fun thinking of how the parents would react to opening a shirt inspired by their favorite characters. I was shopping for things the parent’s liked without worrying about gender stereotypes.
Let’s face it, no matter what sex babies are born, they all go boldly with maxim effort in their diapers.
Whether you have a boy or girl, poop is coming!
Note: This post is just my opinion about baby showers. I am not saying everyone has to agree with me or hide their baby’s gender. I am not in any way commenting on how people should raise their children.