4 Reasons Why I Won’t Have a Gender Reveal Party

Sometimes I am so out of the loop with trends that I kind of feel like an alien. That’s how it is with gender reveal parties. . .  and Pinterest. But that’s a whole other post.

I see all the elaborate and clever reveals going on around me and on social media, but I’ve never had an ounce of interest in doing one myself. Not even a little. Now, I’m not knocking it if gender reveal parties are your cup of tea.

But here’s why it’s not mine.  

Why I'm glad we didn't do a gender reveal party.
This is the closest we came to throwing a gender reveal party. This is it. 

1. I’m a low-maintenance mom who fiercely guards our family calendar. 

We are at a time in our lives where, if I let it, our calendar could be booked every single day. There’s showers, birthday parties, and school events… nonstop. We do want to celebrate and participate as much as we can. But, I also need to make sure our little family is getting time together, rest, and not getting run down (which seems to happen when we are always on the go). Plus, if and when I can help it, I like to keep things low stress and simple. So planning and adding another party seems unnecessary to me. 

2. If the initial reaction for my husband or myself has a hint of disappointment, I’d rather process that in private. 

This hasn’t happened to us. However, just for the sake of security, if either of us had been initially disappointed in the sex, I think it would be so much easier to work through those feelings in private than experience that in front of a big group of people. 

3. Finding out the gender of our babies was extremely emotional for me. 

In fact, these have been the most emotional moments of my life. There’s something about getting to see the baby developing in my belly while finding out the gender that makes the experience so overwhelming and tender. I cherish that the first two times were sweet, quiet moments shared just between my husband and me. 

4. The third time around, I found out the gender over the phone from my doctor’s office while I was at work. 

Thanks to my “advanced maternal age”, my doctor did blood work for some extra genetic tests when I was 12 weeks pregnant with our third baby. (You’re probably too polite to ask, but I’m 35 in case you’re curious.) The doctor let me know with these tests they are also able to determine the sex of the baby. My husband and I knew when they called with the results that we wanted to know the sex right away.

Do I wish I could have had another sweet sonogram moment with my husband and maybe our kids? Kind of. Here’s the thing though, I may be low-maintenance, but I am also a planner. I like to have my ducks in a row if I can help it. So finding out the sex of the baby over a phone call seemed like a good trade off for extra time purging our house of what we don’t need, preparing for what we do need, and fighting about deciding on a name with my husband. 

So I found out the sex of the baby while I was at work. When the nurse told me, I was surprised and excited. I couldn’t wait to share the news with the hubs and kiddos. On my lunch break I went to a bakery and bought up all their pink treats. My boss let me leave a little bit early that day. I went home and surprised my family with the news. 

I will admit that the excitement and fun of surprising them did give me a peek into the appeal gender reveal parties may have . . . but not enough to trump my other reasons for why I’m not interested in having one. 

I’m glad that finding out the gender of our babies were private, family moments. 

So what about you? Did you have a gender reveal party? Why or why not? 

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Lacey Hamilton
I am originally from northeast Oklahoma. I attended college at the University of Central Oklahoma and stuck around the Oklahoma City area after graduation. Now I am a breadwinning wife and mom. I have 3 amazing kiddos and 2 mini dachshunds. As a family, we try to live as low maintenance and stress-free as possible. Our home is full of playing, laughing, cooking, eating, swimming, praying, gardening, reading, napping, dancing, and hugging puppies.

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