Baby Showers In A New Era

We are coming up on baby shower season. Apparently July through October are the most popular birth months with August typically having the most birthdays overall. Clearly, as humans we do whatever is necessary to stay warm during the winter months. With Covid still in our midst and vaccinations being distributed, some people have the need to be more cautious than others when planning a party. It really is a mixed bag when it comes to baby showers and how they will be celebrated. I was recently invited to a drive through baby shower for a family that I used to do childcare for. Being my first drive through shower, I really didn’t know what to expect. Today I’ll share my experience and give you some gift ideas too. Hopefully you will find this helpful as you begin to receive those shower invitations in the next few months. 

As I mentioned, this baby shower was for a family that I used to provide childcare for. I started watching their little boy when he was 7 months old. He remained with me until he turned 4 and they moved. Needless to say he has a special place in my heart. I was really excited to hear that he was going to be a big brother and even more excited that they asked me to come to their shower.  

After looking at the family's baby registry I decided not to purchase from it because for one, I tend to wait until the last minute and it was picked over, and two, the remaining items were pretty basic things that they’d probably get a ton of from others anyway. Instead, I decided to put together a gift basket full of items that all moms would love by being not only cute but useful too. I found a simple white cube shaped basket in the storage section at Target. The basket itself is perfect to use as extra storage in the nursery and simple enough to go with any decor. I filled the basket with a set of fun sleepers with woodland critters on them, soft socks, an adorable fox hat and bloomer set, and of course no basket would be complete without a couple Snoofybee products. For this basket I included a changing pad and a set of snack bowls because, hello, necessities. You can absolutely customize a basket like this with items on a registry too. Some other great additions could be a package of onesies, baby toys and teethers, baby books, first aid items, and so on. I’m sure you get the idea. A themed basket would be fun too, like for example, items to create your own portable changing station, including diapers, wipes, a changing pad, an outfit, and baggies for soiled diapers. There are so many options out there for a great gift. For this basket I also added a Lego set for big brother. I don’t normally do this, but I felt it was important to celebrate him on this occasion too, and well, I’m kind of fond of him. I didn’t wrap this basket, but you could use some clear cellophane for  a nice touch. Instead I just attached a curly bow. The items inside were cute enough that nothing else was really needed.

As for the drive baby shower, it was a little awkward in the delivery. The family lives at the end of a dead end block on the left side of the street. This made it a little difficult to drive through seeing as how we drive on the right side of the street here in the US. Luckily when we drove past it was pretty obvious that everyone was just parking and visiting on the lawn. It was nice to actually get out and say hello. Everyone was masked and distanced for safety. There was a tent set up with little goodie bags and full bottles of champagne to take home. I thought this was a nice touch while completely unnecessary. I think the momma wanted to have something to offer her guests because drive through showers typically miss out on that social aspect and can feel a little like a ploy to get gifts. These aren't my thoughts of course. Being a pregnant momma during a pandemic is full of misgivings with dads often not being allowed to go to doctors appointments and not being able to meet with friends and share pregnancy stories in person. Mommas deserve to be showered every day in my book, whether we are in the middle of a pandemic or not. Overall, this was not your typical drive through shower but we had a good time and it was actually kind of nice to come and go as we pleased.