my mates wife is expecting a nipper in Dec and her friends are having a "baby shower" for her, fair enough the dad and a few of us are going to FoD for the day, but WTF is a baby shower anyway?

It's an american idea where all the "mom's" friends get together and buy the mother-to-be lots of baby stuff.

It a way of getting loads of free stuff off of your friends, who arn't really interested in your new baby.

It's like Halloween for grown-ups. Just say no to cultural dilutions and yankification.

It is when people buy a load of baby stuff as presents and have a sort of girls party to give them. Seems a bit of a con to me (I am a miserable b@stard). We never got baby presents of wedding presents, so I am bitter and twisted.

it's a bit like a golden or brown shower, but involving minors.

so it's commercially made up to make money, like birthday cards, christmas cards and all those mothers/father/secretary/teachers day cards etc?

why are people so gullible?

I dont care- it saves US money!

Another nauseating Hallmark holiday / event

Just say no to cultural dilutions and yankification.

Yeah! Like rock music, beefburgers, pizza, skyscrapers, jazz, human rights, modern art and, er, mountain biking. Bastards…

you sure about all those Mr Woppit?

Beefburgers or more accurately "hamburgers" originated in Hamburg.

Pizza is traditionally peasant food from Italy.

Modern art? Clearer definition please but I'm pretty sure Picasso wasn't a yank.

Mountain biking? They may have coined the phrase but I was off-road biking some 30 odd years ago.

rock music, beefburgers, pizza, skyscrapers, jazz, human rights, modern art and, er, mountain biking

yes, but apart from the Music, beefburgers, skyscrapers, jazz, human rights, modern art and mountain biking…what have the Americans ever done for us?

Yeah! Like rock music, beefburgers, pizza, skyscrapers, jazz, human rights, modern art and, er, mountain biking.

So only Jazz then which they can keep.

First I've heard of anyone having a baby shower here, utter crap.

Pulled you out of a giant Nazi shaped hole in 1944 ??

I wasn't alive in 1944

hels is right.. the americans stole an enigma machine, enabling the allies to crack a previously unbeaten code..

I've seen the film.. it must be true

😉

I've managed to put the wife off of having one…so far. I think they are pretty rubbish to be honest – as pointed out above, a 'made up celebration'.

Oh and the Americans didn't pull us out of a hole, per se, in 1944; It got to the point that they couldn't keep ignoring the threat posed to themselves any longer (the idea of the Japan on one side and a totally occupied Europe on the other wasn't appealing, obviously, so selfishly – yes, it was selfish first and foremost – they decided to enter the fray) and thus, assisted an economic ally; remember most of their assistance was initially in provision of materials, way before they sent troops in. Also, the timing was futher influenced by the fact that economically they couldn't sustain a war in the early part of the war (Great Depression, New Deal, etc), and also the ever rising threat from Japan to their west, which would truly isolate them if left unchecked.

However, none of this is to say that their was not a sigh of relief when the Yanks joined in on our side, I'm sure.

A shame that they don't hold off a bit more these days…

I'm sure someone will find fault in the above, but whatever, already waaaayyyyy off topic.

I blame the yankification being brought upon us by baby showers… 😉

Turned up once they had seen which side was winning and took all the glory you mean??

I think the torpedo sinking of a passenger liner off the coast of Ireland also forced the hand of the americans in joining the war. I cant remember the name of the liner though.

Aren't all celebrations "made up" ? And what's wrong with celebrating things? The whole giving loads of gifts thing is a bit odd, but no reason not to have a party etc.

I think the torpedo sinking of a passenger liner off the coast of Ireland also forced the hand of the americans in joining the war. I cant remember the name of the liner though.

I think that was the Lusitania, which iirc was the other big war in the last century

The whole giving loads of gifts thing is a bit odd, but no reason not to have a party etc.

True, but the whole point of a baby shower IS to give gifts. It's just begging really, in the comfort of your own home. On a par with Tupperware parties imo.

But Coffeeking, it used to be that when you get the baby home people come and see mum and baby and maybe bring teddy or something, if interested.

Now, it's organised and people are invited; it's like bullying your friends in to buying you baby gifts. I think that is pretty weak sauce, to be honest.

(don't mention the war..!)

The Yanks pulled the Russians out of a Nazi shaped hole not us. With the airwar won we were relatively safe by 1942. We would have effectively been in stalemate in all probability. It was the Russians who were messed up. I bet that gives all our American a warm feeling!

Suppose that depends on the people organising it, the baby showers my other half has been to have just been gatherings of friends with no requirement to bring presents, and only those who were actually interested in the pregnancy were invited anyway.

Baby Showers to Nazi Germany. Only on STW 🙄

jon1973 – but it's why you keeping coming back isn't it? be honest… 😉

coffeeking – fair enough; but a lot of the time it seems to be more of the 'buy my unborn baby stuff' variety; that is more what is pushed in the trashy womens mags my wife very occasionally buys and the girls at work read too often!!!

A sales person tried to get my wife and I to start a baby gift list in John Lewis. We only went there to have a look at pushchairs and car seats.. I can just imagine my friends and family's reaction when provided with a gift list.

more of the 'buy my unborn baby stuff' variety;

That would indeed annoy.

It's a rain storm slightly less intense than "cats and dogs" rain!
What do I win?

@ coffeking – that is indeed what I told my wife when she brought the subject up; it hasn't been raised again – think I'm now safe from that potential embarrasment!!

Hamburgers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburgers#Invention
Rock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll
Skyscrapers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscrapers
Human rights: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine
Mountain biking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County

OK, you can have modern art & pizza.

The yanks saved Europe's bacon twice, of course, when it became evident that we couldn't manage on our own, even when they supplied us with arms and industrial machinery for years before that…

De Gaulle to Eisenhower, having withdrawn France from NATO: "Take all your troops home".

Eisenhower: "Even the dead ones?" 💡

jon1973 – but it's why you keeping coming back isn't it? be honest…

Of course it is 😆

So Thomas Paine from Thetford down the road from me wrote and supplied some of the ideas for human rights, that'll be one for us then?
Far from saving our bacon in WW2 they ensured that our industry was starved of investment by the state by asking for payment for all those tanks etc. they supplied, which we finally finished paying for when El Gordo was chancellor. Something the beaten foe did not have to contend with under the Marshall Plan. They were paid for their efforts like mercenaries and wouldn't have joined in but for Japan in the last unpleasantness.

Far as I'm aware, Thomas Paine was a US citizen when he came up with "The Rights of Man"…

Fairly safe assumption at the time that an Empire would be able to pay the bill, nobody's a real fortune-teller.

Oh, and before I forget – cheaper quality goods produced by assembly line.

A haven for all those motivated to escape from crappy monarchist, repressive societies like the pile of crap this country was and then the balls to fight a war and tell it to **** off…

… and much else. 🙄

Got invited to a baby shower recently by a close friend, but hadn't a clue what she was on about as had never heard the term before – mightily confused as obviously thought it was a baby having a shower, but as she was still pregnant this was highly improbable. Anyway didn't go as didn't want to show my ignorance, which apparently was a mistake as there was loads of single tottie there 😥

Human rights – like segregation, the Contras, segregation etc etc etc ??

I was wondering how long it would take for this to come over from America.

Prefer our way, celebrating when the baby is safey delivered and presents are given accordingly, not 'cos you've been invited to give one.

Gosh I'm in a foul mood today.

i blame the TV show Friends myself

but as the dad said when i asked him to explain baby shower "it's some american influenced rubbish which is an excuse for a get- together for broody girls, but who cares i get to go riding with my mates!"