Virtual baby shower

[Anonymous]

I know there have been a couple of previous threads on this before, but they were on the lean side - anyone have great suggestions for a virtual baby shower? Mom-to-be is my cousin and is in a country with strict lockdowns in place. We'd have invitees from at least 4 different time zones!
I was thinking just an hour or so with a couple of online games, like the baby picture guessing game or a virtual scavenger hunt. I'm an educator so could do some sort of fun online quiz like Kahoot.

Hit me up with your best suggestions! I know it's a bit cheesy, but really for me it's only about making the mom-to-be feel loved and celebrated.

[Anonymous]

The one I attended had like 5 different women give speeches about what the mom-to-be meant to them. It was brutal, like being trapped in the front table at a dry wedding. Don't do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The one I attended had like 5 different women give speeches about what the mom-to-be meant to them. It was brutal, like being trapped in the front table at a dry wedding. Don't do that.

Goodness! No I wasn't thinking of anything on those lines. That does sound brutal.

[Anonymous]

Split into 2 teams (family vs friends?). Each team selects a leader. The moderator sends a private chat to the team leader with the names of 5 children's books or songs or movies. The leader has to describe the book/song/movie and the team guesses the name. Whichever team guesses all 5 the fastest "wins" that round. You can go back and forth several times as long as you have prepped enough titles.

[Anonymous]

Just don’t. No one wants anymore virtual anything. Yes the mom to be will get less gifts. Covid sucks, it is what it is.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't do it. I hated Zoom showers. If you must, I went to one that had a word scramble game. The host showed a flash card with a baby-them word scrambled, then attendees typed in the answer in Zoom chat.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't think they want gifts, in our culture it's considered inauspicious to buy ahead of baby being born. Most people have adapted to buy just what they need for a newborn, but certainly not the gazillion things people put on registries.

I appreciate the honesty about Zoom showers. I am on the fence about hosting one myself; however I've been thinking that it must be so hard to go through pregnancy and birth through this pandemic & lockdown, and was thinking it might be a way to just help the parents-to-be feel like people care about them.

[Anonymous]

I would skip the virtual baby shower before the baby is born, specifically because of the gift issue. What you could do instead is schedule a virtual sip and see where people could login to see the baby over zoom, maybe a month after his or arrival to give the new parents some time to settle in. You could also coordinate with guests to have gifts sent ahead of time (during the month or so between when the baby is born and when the zoom is scheduled) so that the new parents could open during the zoom.

But, if you or the mom to be aren’t hung up on having a a video shower and the whole shebang, you could get a list of names and addresses of those closest to her, and design and send each an invitation to send some love to the mom to be over the miles — include a small card they can fill out with their best advice for the new parents; one where they guess the baby’s birthdate, weight, height and sex (if unknown), and an addressed, stamped envelope to mail their responses back. You can also include the new parents mailing address and a link to a registry if they have one. You can send all of this out before the baby comes, and give people time to shop and send their cards back; just tell the parents to be not to open anything until after baby arrives. Or, you can wait until baby comes and then send it out and have it be a little bit after the fact.

I have had a baby while living on a different continent from my family and friends and understand how hard it can be not to be able to celebrate in typical fashion. It’s really nice to make an effort to do something for your friend who is probably feeling a bit more lonely and emotional during this big phase in her life being so far from loved ones. Good for you for being there for her! (Ps — for the posters who will come here and whine about it all being a gift grab, forget them. People who are close to the parents are going to want to buy a gift for the baby! If the mom does not want gifts, just do the advice card and the stats guessing game. Believe me, she doesn’t “just” want presents. She wants to feel cared for and thought of being so far from family and friends and have her baby celebrated even if she doesn’t have anybody there who will be able to come hold the baby or meet them right away).

[Anonymous]

I have attended a few zoom showers. The ones I liked had interactive games for the virtual attendees. One did a quiz on Kahoot and all of the questions were about the parents when they were babies or things they were doing to prepare for the new baby. I think that's a good idea!

The one I didn't like had some people attending in person and it was really hard to hear what was going on over zoom. I think it's a nice gesture to do something to make the parents to be feel special.