Yesterday, over lunch, my fabulous friend and former roommate, Frank asked me if I was planning a baby shower.
"Oh, God no," I said. "For my second baby? That's just tacky."
"What!?
You're crazy! You NEED a shower! You HAVE TO have a shower! It's a girl
this time and you're going to need all new things! Oh, let me have one
for you! Please! Please! Please! Please! Ahhhhhhpleaaaaaase."
"I don't know, dude. I've never even been to a shower for a second baby. It seems really inappropriate."
It wasn't until I said those words aloud that I realized maybe I didn't mean them. Maybe I was just saying that it seemed inappropriate because I felt like I had to.
Because I didn't really know whether or not it was inappropriate or
what it was. Like I said, I've never been to a second shower, before.
But maybe that's just because most of my friends are kidless.
A
baby shower has always seemed to me, a celebration of the exciting
newness of parenthood, a rite of passage for mothers-to-be, surrounded
by women (and gay best friends) to dote on them for an afternoon. It
never seemed like a celebration of "Archer" per say. Or any baby for
that matter.
In fact, having a second baby shower
always seemed to me, equivalent to having a second bachelorette party
for a second marriage. Kind of non-sensical, because, duh! I've
been a mom for over three years, now. I know what I need and am pretty
much prepared for a new baby. Wouldn't I be kidding myself to say that
I'm not? To play games and accept advice from friends who have already
been there done that for me at my first baby shower?
According
to the various message boards I encountered in my google-quest for
"second baby shower. yes or no?" I came across quite a few women who
believed VERY strongly in the importance of a baby showers for every
pregnancy. One woman, a mother of six proudly boasted of having had a
shower for each of her children because, in her words "each pregnancy
was different and special and one always needs new stuff..."
Frank would have agreed wholeheartedly with her. Me? Not so much...
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