As most people know, a gender reveal is held during a woman’s pregnancy. This is where friends and family gather to find out whether the new mom is going to have a boy or a girl. These reveals can be anywhere from over the top giant parties, or even a simple Zoom call, due to the pandemic. However, in recent years with the popular idea quickly growing, some people believe that things have gotten out of hand.

Gender reveal parties first originated in the U.S. during the early 2000s from a woman named Jenna Karvunidis. At the time, she thought it would be a fun idea to celebrate the exciting news; she was expecting a baby girl, so she decided to bake a cake filled with pink frosting. After sharing what she did on her blog, she was interviewed by magazines that were published, and the idea quickly spread from there.

The typical gender reveal varies from balloons, cakes, smoke cannons, or even confetti cannons. Typically, these are all filled with colors pink or blue. Some people have even thought outside of the box with ideas like dying hair, doing a pink vs blue wrestling match, and even calling a dog wearing a bandana with the color of the baby’s gender around their neck, out from a back room. There have also been people who went all out and hired skywriters or planes to fly by pulling banners or dumping powder as they pass.

In Sept. 2020, a California couple decided to hold a gender reveal party for their family. The plan was to light smoke bombs that would go off with either pink or blue pigment. However, this took a turn for the worse when a casual gender reveal turned into the California El Dorado Wildfire. The couple then went on to face many charges for being the cause of this fatal fire.

Many have claimed that gender reveal parties need to come to an end. These reveals can be very destructive and sometimes the gender displayed can even end up being the wrong one. But it brings people together and creates a fun environment for those attending the parties.

From small get togethers to an accidental California wildfire, there are many different ways to announce if the baby will be boy or girl. But do you think that these trends should come to an end?