Eco-Friendly Gender Reveal Party

There are numerous ways people have revealed the gender of their child during a reveal ceremony, but they all involve something that’s either blue or pink to reveal whether the baby is a boy or girl. Some of the ways people reveal the gender of their child include:

• A cake with either pink or blue cream or sponge inside
• Bursting balloons to release either pink or blue confetti or glitter
• Releasing balloons that are pink or blue
• Using fireworks that are blue or pink
• Smoke bombs that let off different coloured smoke

The Problem With Gender Reveal Parties

Many people try to one up each other to have the craziest gender reveal party they can come up with. And this is where the problems begin. The only one I’m comfortable with above is the cake as that doesn’t cause litter and won’t potentially cause a fire.

• Glitter = micro-plastics
• Balloons = litter and they’re harmful to wildlife
• Fireworks / Smoke-Bombs = potential to cause deadly fires

Gender Reveal Parties Gone Wrong

The reason for this article is the massive fire caused by a gender reveal party this month. But there have been so many instances of them going wrong in the last few years. Any party that uses explosives when climate change is causing very dry conditions is more than stupid.

“A gender-reveal event gone wrong is blamed for the El Dorado fire that has now scorched 30 square km” Sept 2020

“a gender reveal party (…) sparked a wildfire that burned more than 45,000 acres and caused more than 8 million dollars in damage.(…) an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent shot a target labeled “boy” and “girl.” The target exploded causing a fire to quickly spread through the grass.” April 2017

“a car emitting blue smoke to celebrate a baby boy on the way suddenly burst into flames.” July 2019

“a gender reveal caused a plane crash in Turkey, Texas. The pilot dumped over 300 gallons of pink water from the plane but it was “too slow” and immediately stalled.” November 2019

“an Iowa family accidentally made a pipe bomb while experimenting around with “different types of explosive material” in hopes of creating a gender reveal device. The family’s Grandmother was killed.” December 2019

On another note, and not about the environmental implications of gender reveal parties, 2020 seems like a strange time to be so focussed on gender. Even the ‘inventor’ of gender reveal parties, blogger Jenna Karvunidis, thinks they should be stopped.

“Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid’s penis. No one cares but you,”

In 2019, she wrote that

“assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what’s between their legs.” – Woman who popularized the gender reveal party says enough already after latest wildfire

Definition of Gender

“The definitions of gender and gender identity vary on a doctrinal basis. In popularized and scientifically debased usage, sex is what you are biologically; gender is what you become socially; gender identity is your own sense or conviction of maleness or femaleness; and gender role is the cultural stereotype of what is masculine and feminine.” – wikipedia

How To Have An Eco-Friendly Gender Reveal Party

If knowing the gender of your child (or more accurately, the sex of your child) is so important to you that you feel the need to announce it before the birth, why not just have a small gathering of close friends and family?

Bake a cake with either a blue or pink sponge. If you want to decorate for the party here are some great alternatives to balloons to use as decorations. These are unlikely to cause fires, create litter or cost you money that could be better spent on something else.

There are certain things that should be avoided at any eco-friendly get together…

• Balloons
• Single use anything (paper plates, throwaway decorations etc)
• Glitter
• Shiny paper / decorations
• Fireworks

Read more about eco-friendly celebrations.

Alternatively you could email your friends and family. Why not see if you can create a clever photo or small video that you can send to announce the gender of your child?

Are Gender Reveal Parties Really Necessary?

I’ll be honest with you, a gender reveal party is something I just don’t understand. To me it’s just another way to spend money on something that a few years ago no-one cared about or even thought about. Save your money and spend it on something more useful. Why not celebrate when the baby is born? Or spend the money on a baby shower instead. To be really blunt, there are very few people that will actually care what sex your baby is apart from you and close family members, so have a small celebration and feed them all cake! Of course the biggest issue with gender reveal parties is that they can cause unbelievable devastation, like the current fires in America have proved.

Here’s a video that tends to agree with me and mentions a few of the parties I mentioned above.

There are so many celebrations that people feel they should have, and that they feel they have to spend money on, and you really shouldn’t. Don’t feel pressured into having some crazy big gender reveal party. If you really must ‘announce’ what sex your child is, at least have an eco-friendly gender reveal party by having reusable decorations and requesting no gifts.

I want to point out that this article was not written to shame people who want a gender reveal party. I wrote it to make you think twice, which is what being environmentally aware is all about. If you’re serious about living an eco-friendly life, the most eco-friendly thing you can do is to stop buying things that are not a necessity.

How to Have an Eco-Friendly Baby!

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