Tiny Toes Pink Baby Shower
It’s a commonly asked question for the friends and family of expecting parents who’ve already had a child: can they host a second shower to welcome the new baby? Depending on who’s asked, the answer is usually either a resounding “No! It’s tacky!” or “Yes, the new baby deserves to be celebrated also!” Some people insist that etiquette forbids a shower for any child after the first, but other people see it as perfectly acceptable to celebrate the arrival of each child.
The big dividing issue is the idea of presents. The people who think it’s tacky think that having a baby shower for each child is basically expecting friends and family to take on the costs of the couple having children. Plus, since they already had one child, why would they need a bunch of new stuff for the second? On the other side, people tend to think that all babies should be celebrated, and some even say that each child is just as deserving of gifts as the firstborn.
Following traditional etiquette does mean that there should not be a shower for the second child. The idea is that the first child can have a full-blown baby shower, but by a second or third child, the parents should already have stocked up on almost everything they will need. Lately, though, the general consensus is shifting to be more lenient on people who want a shower for their second (or third, fourth, etc.) baby. This is especially true in cases of opposite gender babies, babies born within a very short time-frame, or parents who are having another baby quite a long time after the previous children were born. If the second baby is the first boy, for example, much of his older sister’s frilly girl-clothes aren’t the best hand-me-downs, so having a shower and asking people to bring boy clothes is understandable. Also, if the parents-to-be have a very young child who is still using the crib and other baby items when the new baby is born, they are going to need all-new baby supplies. The same goes if the new baby’s older brother or sister is much older, and the parents have already passed the crib, high chair, car seat, etc. on to someone else.
In some cases, people simply think that every baby is worth a celebration, and that a baby shower doesn’t have to be about the gifts. It seems that more and more people are thinking this way, and multiple showers are becoming more common as time passes. We’re especially seeing some of our customers start to throw scaled-back celebrations rather than a full-blown shower, in order to keep it from crossing into “tacky” territory, but to still be able to celebrate the arrival of each child.
If you’ve decided to go ahead with the second shower, you will want to try to do so as tactfully as possible. It can be a touchy subject though, so it’s important to handle it carefully. We will have a follow-up post shortly with some tips for how to throw a second shower without offending anybody, but in the meantime, leave tips and ideas of your own in the comments section and we may include them in our next post!
So what do you think? Would you have a second or third baby shower?