Help me plan some baby shower games...

[TheAttachedMama]

Hi Everyone,

I was given the honor of planning some baby shower games for a first time mother-to-be at our church.  All of the women of our church have been invited, and I would guess there will be about 20 women there.   Can you please help me plan some games that people would actually LIKE to play?  I don't want anything gross or embarrassing.   The mom to be is incredibly introverted, so nothing that might put her on the spot.   

I have never been to a traditional baby shower in my life!  So I am not really sure what is protocol when it comes to games.    Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.  🙂

[Kfamily]

We had a baby shower for my sister a few months ago and I'm with you about the gross baby games. A close friend hosted the shower, but my other sister and I helped out. Here are some games we played:

We played a quick game where each guest filled out a card guessing/choosing which parent would best satisfy as the answer to each question. So, something like "Who will be more overprotective of baby....Mom or Dad?" "Who will change more diapers...Mom or Dad? My sister and her husband had answered the questions in advance and created an answer key. The one who missed the least won a prize.

We also played a game where no one could say the word "baby". Everyone wore a diaper pin and whenever someone said "baby" someone else could claim the pin. At the end, whoever still had their pin won the game. You could also give the person who had collected the most pins a prize too. 

This one isn't really a game, but an activity. Each guest was given a card where they could fill their guesses about the baby...weight, hair color, length, time of birth, date of birth, etc. There was also a space at the end where each guest could write their most important advice to the new parents. All of these were really lovely and sweet. 

The day was very special for her. 

[Kanin]

Well, I hate every single baby shower game, so I'm no help. 

Maybe something like.... guess the number of X in a collection? Like, how many diaper pins in a jar, how many somethings in a something.... hmmm... winner gets a prize for being closest? That at least isn't embarrassing or focusing attention on one person. 

[saraha]

The showers I have planned we played a fun game where you have to hold a doll, pretend to talk on the phone and hang baby clothes up on a makeshift clothes line, most clothes hung up in a certain time wins. 

[TheReader]

We played one once where it was a few nursery rhymes (one line from them, or the title of them) scrambled, and you had to unscramble it w/in a given amount of time. The person with the most correct won. 

We've done the "baby" one (where you can't say the word, wear the pin, etc.) as well. 

I did one once where everyone had to close their eyes, and had something like 30 seconds to draw a baby on a sheet of paper, but you couldn't pick up the pencil, and then the best drawing won. 

Please don't do the toilet paper "let's measure mom-to-be's belly" one. 

If your church is a culture that prefers thank-you cards, one I've seen done is that each guest addresses an envelope (and the hosts have stamped them also), and then at the end, one is drawn to win a prize -- at the end of the shower, the guest of honor has pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes for sending thank you cards. (and presumably also the thank you card in it, to fill out).  But that's only good if your church is a thank-you note culture and the guest-of-honor won't feel pressured to do something they wouldn't otherwise do. 

 

[Kanin]

20 minutes ago, TheReader said:

If your church is a culture that prefers thank-you cards, one I've seen done is that each guest addresses an envelope (and the hosts have stamped them also), and then at the end, one is drawn to win a prize -- at the end of the shower, the guest of honor has pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes for sending thank you cards. (and presumably also the thank you card in it, to fill out).  But that's only good if your church is a thank-you note culture and the guest-of-honor won't feel pressured to do something they wouldn't otherwise do. 

 

That is an awesome idea! Would be great at a wedding too, maybe. 

[Tina]

A fooler, is the yarn game.  Everyone cuts off a piece from the skein, but aren't given any other instructions.  Many will pick a longer piece, assuming it's to measure the mom-to-be around the middle.  Instead they have to introduce/talk about themselves as long as it takes to wind the yarn around their hand.

[TheAttachedMama]

45 minutes ago, TheReader said:

We played one once where it was a few nursery rhymes (one line from them, or the title of them) scrambled, and you had to unscramble it w/in a given amount of time. The person with the most correct won. 

We've done the "baby" one (where you can't say the word, wear the pin, etc.) as well. 

I did one once where everyone had to close their eyes, and had something like 30 seconds to draw a baby on a sheet of paper, but you couldn't pick up the pencil, and then the best drawing won. 

Please don't do the toilet paper "let's measure mom-to-be's belly" one. 

 

 

Yes, this sweet mama would be mortified by the measure the belly thing.  She doesn't like having much attention on herself, but we would still like to honor her...and fill her home with baby essentials. 🙂

Also a question:  How did you pick the "best" drawing?   

[rocassie]

A "game" that resulted in a lot of laughing and breaking the ice at the tables was "In Your Purse."  Basically we had to fulfill a list to "create" a diaper/mommy bag from all the items we had in our purses or pockets.

1. Diaper - Someone had a pack of tissues

2. Drink for Mommy - Someone had cough medicine 

3. Diaper Cream - Hand lotion

Things along those lines.

Another game that involved your purse was for the table or person to get a point for a list of items that could be found in a purse.  There were generic things like pens, chapstick, tissues, license, etc. but there were also less common like a pair of underwear, deodorant, nail polish, sandwich, scissors, yarn, etc. 

Whoever (or the table) had the most points or had the most creative solutions got a prize or got to be first in line for food.

[TheReader]

1 hour ago, TheAttachedMama said:

Yes, this sweet mama would be mortified by the measure the belly thing.  She doesn't like having much attention on herself, but we would still like to honor her...and fill her home with baby essentials. 🙂

Also a question:  How did you pick the "best" drawing?   

I think when I went, they had the mom-to-be choose.....since it was eyes closed, timed, etc., it was "most recognizable as a real baby".  You could also do it voting style -- everyone comes in, draws it at the same time, then place them on a table or something, give everyone a token of some kind to drop in a bowl next to the drawing they prefer (or on the drawing, etc.) and the one with the most tokens......takes the judging off of any one person. 

[HS Mom in NC]

I'd clear the idea of games with the incredibly introverted mom before I planned any.  I think shower games demean everyone involved, so if someone threw me a shower it wouldn't be a kindness to plan any games.  I planned my own baby shower to avoid that problem by making it basically like a birthday party.  Good food men would like to eat too, cake , co-ed guest list, and opening gifts.

Everyone plans to bring a gift for the new baby regardless of who throws the shower, so the "gift grab" accusation about the mom to be or her family throwing it is nonsense.  I wasn't going to let some poor soul throw me a shower where I hated every minute of it-it's not cool to do that to a person.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Homeschool Mom in AZ

[regentrude]

For an introverted mom, games sound like pure torture. (I am as extroverted as they come, and I would have hated it.) I would do food and drink and chat and skip the games altogether. People can have a lovely time without them.

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by regentrude

[Kassia]

I would also hate games - both as a guest or the mom-to-be.  It's one of the things I dread about attending showers.

 

[theelfqueen]

My favorite traditional baby shower game - everyone brings a baby photo of themself and the group tries to guess whose is whose. 

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, theelfqueen said:

My favorite traditional baby shower game - everyone brings a baby photo of themself and the group tries to guess whose is whose. 

That I can see being fun.

[DeainUSA]

I hate games in general at showers, but anything where I have to speak aloud or interact is excruciating!  No need to torture the guests. Paper games like word scrambles or who knows mom best are the least painful to me.

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, theelfqueen said:

My favorite traditional baby shower game - everyone brings a baby photo of themself and the group tries to guess whose is whose. 

 

11 minutes ago, regentrude said:

That I can see being fun.

I think it sounds like fun but some people (like me) don't have any baby pictures of themselves.  😞  Still, I think it would be fun to guess others!  I think my SIL's party had a name that tune type of game for nursery rhymes/songs but I can't remember the details.  

[theelfqueen]

At one of my showers everyone was arguing which baby photo was my mom and which was my aunt (her sister)...this was fun. I have a distinctive birthmark so I'm easy to spot and once you know which one is me - my mother, my aunt and now my niece are all completely obvious  lol

[Tap]

I made up a game where I took nursery rhymes and had people fill in the blanks. I used common ones, but also the more complicated ones like All the Pretty Little Horses. I told everyone ahead of time, but since there are multiple versions, I had a printed version of each, and for fairness, that was the 'right way' of singing it. I didn't make it hard, but in the end, people counted thier correct answers and who ever had the highest number of correct lines, won bragging rights. When I host a  shower, the prizes are hidden, but everyone gets one at the end. I make homemade strawberry bar cakes for the guests to take home. 

All The Pretty Little Horses - Lyrics

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry
Go to sleep, my little baby
When you wake, you shall have
All the pretty little horses
___ and ___, ____ and ____
All the pretty little horses!

Way down yonder
In the meadow
Poor little baby, crying Mama
Birds and the ______
Flutter round ____ ____

Poor little baby crying Mamma.

 

 

[Bambam]

I hosted a few baby showers for friends. I'm not a big baby shower game person and did not realize I could have asked someone else to do that! I know better for the next time - so thanks for that tip. 

I did print out a list of classic baby book titles with titles rewritten.  Similar to this idea - https://tulamama.com/alternative-book-titles-baby-shower-game/

All the moms invited were homeschool moms, so I assumed they would all be familiar with classic children's/baby's books. 

[HS Mom in NC]

Guess the guests' baby pictures only works if everyone is of the same or similar racial/ethnic background and age range or if you have quite a few people in each racial/ethnic group and age range present and participating. I've seen a few times where that flopped because there weren't enough people in each group to make it a guessing game. (Think the baby shower episode from the Office.  Hmmm, which one is Stanley?  Which is Oscar? We all know. ) Photographs are very distinctive in color tones or absence of color and in texture from Silent Gen to Boomer to Gen X to Millennials. That's who made up most baby showers I've been to. And as stated upthread, not everyone has baby pictures of themselves. So know your guests.

[marbel]

11 hours ago, Bambam said:

I hosted a few baby showers for friends. I'm not a big baby shower game person and did not realize I could have asked someone else to do that! I know better for the next time - so thanks for that tip. 

I did print out a list of classic baby book titles with titles rewritten.  Similar to this idea - https://tulamama.com/alternative-book-titles-baby-shower-game/

All the moms invited were homeschool moms, so I assumed they would all be familiar with classic children's/baby's books. 

I don't like shower games, but the one linked above, and similar ones where people just write stuff down or otherwise work alone from a paper, are the best to me. People can laugh and talk while they play but there is no attention put on anyone in particular till the scores are totaled up and the winner announced.  If people aren't familiar with the books, they don't have to let anyone know that if they don't want to. 

[Kanin]

15 hours ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

I'd clear the idea of games with the incredibly introverted mom before I planned any.  I think shower games demean everyone involved, so if someone threw me a shower it wouldn't be a kindness to plan any games.  I planned my own baby shower to avoid that problem by making it basically like a birthday party.  Good food men would like to eat too, cake , co-ed guest list, and opening gifts.

Everyone plans to bring a gift for the new baby regardless of who throws the shower, so the "gift grab" accusation about the mom to be or her family throwing it is nonsense.  I wasn't going to let some poor soul throw me a shower where I hated every minute of it-it's not cool to do that to a person.

This sounds the best to me, too! Just ditch the games. 

Whenever we do "team building" games at school, all the adults roll their eyes. We do it, but it's definitely awkward and we would rather do something else. It never seems to build team spirit, either, except to get us united complaining about the activities!

[Drama Llama]

I was at a baby shower where we played "The Price is Right" with baby items.  I've heard the suggestion that you should play with things from the registry, which sounds like a disaster.  Who wants to point out that the stroller this grandma got costs more than the carseat that grandma got?

But at this one they did ridiculously expensive things a celebrity might buy.  Strollers that cost $8,000.  A $50,000 play house for the backyard.  Some $900 sneakers for a kid who can't walk yet and will grow out of them in a month.  It was kind of horrifying in a fun way to see how much one could spend if you really tried.