One of the common rites of passage is the baby shower. Expectant mothers all over the country are being ’surprised’ by their families and friends with these fun gatherings meant to help the new parents obtain all the gear and advice needed for their future addition. And a baby shower would not be complete without some fun games to help the guests get to know each other as well as have some fun. It is easy to forget that some of your friends and family may not know each other, and having a nice casual introductory segment before the real festivities is a great way to get people talking to each other.
Here are some games which can be played. The first game is easy to set up: “Guess the Size of the New Mom’s Tummy.” You’ll need string or yarn and scissors to play this game. Each women than estimates what she believes is enough yarn to go all the way around the mother to be, and cuts their string. After all the guests have guessed, they can either take turns measuring around the new mom’s tummy (for a lot of laughs) or comparing to a ‘master’ piece of yarn or string which has actually been wrapped around the expectant mother. Everyone has fun and the best guesser gets a prize!
Another game that is fun at baby showers is the “How Many Baby Items Can You Name?” game. For this, you need only a piece of paper and pen for each player. Have each guest write down as many baby products as they can name off the top of their heads within a short time, for example, five minutes. Bottles, pacifiers, blanketswhatever comes into your mind, write it down. Give a prize to the woman who names the most baby products. Of course, if someone writes down things that aren’t really baby products, they don’t count! This is both useful and fun. After all, the new mom will have a baby soon, and the winner will have come up with a readymade shopping list which can be shared with the guest of honor as well as any other expectant mothers.
Baby-Maker is another great game. No, it isn’t anything naughty and doesn’t require the presence of a man (or any medical personnel!). Get a stack of baby magazines, scissors, glue and paper. The women form teams of three and cut out pieces of pictures from magazines to put together a composite baby of what they think the new mom’s baby will be most likely to look like. The mother to be can then be the judge of the winner. Give prizes to the winning team. They earned it and laughed during the process. This has the added advantage of being something your child will enjoy seeing when they get older as well.
Baby Food Flav-O-Rama is another fun game. Before the baby shower, get a selection of several different flavors of baby food. Then take the labels off. You’ll want to get about ten different flavors, just to make the game challenging enough to be interesting. Have the women taste the foods and guess the flavor. In the event of a tie, have a taste-off and blindfold the leaders for a greater challenge. The winner, of course, should get a prize. And the new mother will be relieved to know that what she will be feeding her baby is surprisingly edible
, even for grown ups.
Don’t be afraid to be creative! You’ll have a memorable baby shower if you create your own games.