I just read a story in HuffPost in which a couple had a gender reveal party at which the parents detonated (that word and gender reveal party should not go together) 80 pounds of Tannerite, an explosive target typically used for firearms practice.
Several New Hampshire towns as well as parts of northern Massachusetts were rocked by the ground-shaking blast. One couple who live next to the quarry where the detonation took place said the blast knocked pictures off their walls and cracked the foundations of their neighbors’ homes.
This is not the first I’ve heard of gender reveal events not turning out as expected, so I thought I’d round up a few of the more outrageous ones.
Thankfully, and as might be expected, Buzzfeed already did the work for me. So I’ll just provide a list of a dozen of my favorite headlines, and if you want to read the details, or see more of these epic fails, here is the link to the Buzzfeed article.
One thing I noticed, and you’ll see this in the headlines below, is that it may be better if the dad-to-be didn’t show up at these events.
Gender Reveal Fails
- Australian gender reveal party goes wrong as car bursts into flames
- Dad Accidentally Smashes Pregnant Mom in the Face With a Bat During a Gender Reveal Gone Wrong
- Partygoers thought they’d built a clever gender reveal device. It turned out to be a deadly pipe bomb
- Three charged in 2017 mass shooting at Ohio gender reveal party for woman who wasn’t pregnant
- Gender reveal party’ triggers 47,000-acre wildfire causing $8m of damage
- Florida couple uses huge pet alligator to reveal gender of 10th child (you just knew Florida would make the list)
- Tree Falls On Dad-To-Be At Gender Reveal Party
- Dad Breaks Ankle During Gender Reveal On Father’s Day
- Gender Reveal Baseball Hits Grandfather in the Face, Covering Him in Blue Powder
- Famous Youtuber Revealed the Gender of Her Baby Via Colored Fart (yes, you read that correctly)
- Disappointed husband slammed ‘sexist’ for storming out of a gender reveal party
- It’s a boy? This NJ pizza chain serves up blue lasagna for that gender reveal party (I don’t think I could eat it.)
All I can say is, what is wrong with people. Our gender reveal party was calling up friends and family when our babies were born.
People truly have gone crazy! We were surprised with both of our babies and I loved it that way!
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so were we!
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I can’t tell you how much this drives me mad! What is the matter with people?? I feel like it’s just all for attention and I’m sick of all the damage it’s causing! Enough already! 🙄😒 Fine, if you want to do a reveal then do it normal: with cake! At least no one dies! (sorry, so angry lol).. The wildfire one really sets me off!
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I agree; it’s completely unnecessary and egotistical…
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I think this all boils down to any excuse for a party. Lots of other kinds of parties go tragically awry also. Perhaps it would help if booze was banned from all gender reveal parties.
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yes. booze and men – a scary combo…
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The party that caused the wildfire should be jailed. And ten kids…..
I prefer your method of gender reveal!
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I agree; there should be consequences for such behavior. And I do like to keep things simple…
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I thought the worse that could happen at a gender reveal party was that months later it would turn out they got it wrong – all that blue smoke and you get a girl or all those pink cakes and you get a boy! But it seems gender reveal parties are dangerous and best avoided. I was thrilled when my son and later on son-in-law rang to say I had a new grandson. But both couples decided to find out the sex second time round – I still think surprises are best.
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that would be quite a surprise if they got it wrong! and I’m with you, I just like waiting to see what happens…
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The second one on the list got my attention because something similar happened one day at school. One of the teachers was doing a unit on Mexico. As part of the unit, the teacher decided it would be fun to have her students break open a pinata. Her boyfriend helped out that day and was the one raising and lowering the pinata as kids valiantly tried to bust it open. The kids egged on the teacher to take a turn. She put on the blindfold, took a mighty swing, and promptly clocked the guy in the head. I don’t know many details other than he had to go get stitches immediately.
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Oh gosh! I bet she felt awful! Wonder if they stayed together. 🙂
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I would hope so – makes for a good story to tell later…
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Thats what I was thinking! 😉
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👍
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I had to read on to understand what a gender reveal party was.
Really?
Who cares? – apart from the parents and presumably they already know.
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I agree that it is just a big waste of time, and now it’s gotten out of control. We preferred to just wait and be surprised 🙂
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I wonder how transgendered people feel about these reveal parties. Maybe we should give the new person a chance to grow up and tell us what gender they are.
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I don’t think these parents have the ability to wait that long…
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Understandable I guess. Hard not to get excited about the expectant birth of your child.
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quite true!
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And besides who knows if the child will want to keep that gender in the future. Just saying.
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yes, good point…
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it’s become an event that people use to top each other, and unfortunately it has done more harm than good. too bad there wasn’t an intelligence reveal for the expectant couples. )
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I think these parties often do reveal the intelligence of the couples 🙂
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What a totally pointless excuse for a party! And how could anyone think that explosives are appropriate? Some potential candidates for the Darwin awards here, if fatalities happen.
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some people just don’t think things all the way through…
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The explosives story made The Guardian newspaper here today. It just seems so unnecessary. We didn’t want to know what we were having, and preferred to wait for the natural reveals on the actual days. It wouldn’t have made any difference to how we felt about our daughters.
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that’s probably just what these people want – for their story to go viral; they probably could careless about the damage they caused…
and we did the same thing; that moment of surprise is priceless…
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‘Reality’ TV has a lot to be blamed for: morons copying morons.
I don’t understand people wanting to know the gender in advance, let alone blowing up the neighbourhood for it.
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it’s a losing battle to try and understand what motivates some people to behave the way they do…
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I went to one of these parties once. I stood up and dropped my pants and the hosts called the police. I guess I misunderstood what the party was about.
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😶🤚!
Oh gosh! I may have laughed out loud at this! You sure didn’t waste any time of making me “smack my head” like Tippy asked.
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Laughing at my misfortune. Figures.
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Haha! Oh, I wouldn’t miss a chance to laugh at you, but I know this wasn’t your misfortune. I am not quite that gullible! 😂
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🙂
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🙂
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you win the internet today; funniest comment I’ve seen in a long time 🙂
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Now he is going to need a hat for his head, it may swell. LOL!
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but what if the hat does not fit…
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So glad this wasn’t the thing back when I had kids. We didn’t know the gender until
they were born and we all survived just fine!! Loved having that surprise!!
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I agree; we did the same thing. That was part of the experience, not knowing…
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A new low of stupid.
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well said 🙂
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I agree with you Jim. All “three” of my daughters were born without any gender revealed prior to each birth. However, I did almost guarantee the gender of daughter #3. She was destined to a girl because three of a kind always wins over a simple pair.
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yes, we did the same thing, but had three boys! too bad you didn’t place a bet in Vegas before daughter number 3!
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What are these people smoking?
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something that takes away their ability to make good judgement…
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We knew our son’s gender from the ultrasound. It was a surprise then rather than in the delivery room. I’d never consider having a gender reveal party and have never been invited to one.
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I would never have a gender reveal party either; I think people get caught up in trying to outdo each other…
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Great last line, Jim! Made me laugh. I’m with you, sir. Cheers!
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thanks, Peter. It is a strange tradition…
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All I can say, is touche to the last line! 🙂
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thanks, Debby!
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Well, what can I say? People will be people. LOL!
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for better or for worse 🙂
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