Wow! Just read the whole article. Talk about extrapolating waaaaaay too far.

I didn't read the full article 'cause I had never heard of Gender Reveal Parties and wanted to decide what I thought of them before I read someone else's editorial. Narcissism doesn't first come to mind for me. I'll have to read the article to see why the author comes to that conclusion.

Having chosen to wait until our babies had each been born to discover the gender of the children God had granted us, choosing to find out while I was still pregnant appeared to be so *blah*. Journeying through an entire pregnancy and birth and *then* discovering the gender was excitement to the nth degree! Of course, the pale yellow and mint green outfits kind people gave me didn't get worn much after I got pink and blue outfits. I always wanted to shout, "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!" via their clothing and any other means possible.

It seems to me that gender reveal parties are attempting to recapture a bit of the anticipation, excitement and surprise of gender discovery after birth that was always the case pre-ultrasounds. Such parties sure beat hearing, "Well, looks like you have a ____," from a (possibly bored) ultrasound technician pressing a hard instrument into your lubed-up abdomen.

One day while I was pregnant with our older child - Jessica, our daughter, I was walking across the parking lot of the grocery store. Another pregnant woman yelled out to yet another person across the way, "I'm pregnant!! It's a girl!!" My gut reaction? "I *so* don't want that to be me..."

So where does narcissism come into all this? Don't know; I'll have to read the article to find out. Choosing whether or not to discover a child's identity pre-birth is an amoral choice. A gender reveal party sounds like a fun way to discover the baby's gender; but it can't hold a candle to the excitement and surprise of waiting until the child is born. The really big surprise, of course, will be for those parents for whom the ultrasound operator got the prediction wrong!

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Okay, so I just re-read the quote above and see where the author comes up with narcissism:

"At a bris or christening, the emotional emphasis falls on the arrival of a new life in the embrace of family and community. At a gender-reveal party, the camera is on the expectant father tearing up at the sight of pink cake."

Lousy comparison and unjustified conclusion - in my honest opinion. A bris or a christening has nothing to do with gender discovery. Gender revelation is much more comparable to telling someone I'm pregnant. Is telling someone "I'm pregnant!" narcissism? Is posting a movie of a wife telling her husband, "I'm pregnant!" and his reaction always narcissism? Why should posting a movie of expectant parent's reactions to gender discovery be considered narcissism? The realization that the wife is pregnant and then discovering the child's gender is much more about the couple coming to grips the fact that they will become parents, whether for the first time or again, than it is about that child being received into the family and community. And such parties don't negate the fact that bris, christenings and birthday parties are still in that family's future.

I hereby reveal that my gender is male. I am sexually attracted to females. I like thinking about guns, knives, swords, ships, climbing gear, computers, adventure, aliens, violence, warfare, danger, honor, glory, and Stuff Blowing Up. I am utterly uninterested in fashion, parties, or which ditzy celebrity is committing adultery with which. I watch Master and Commander, Lawrence of Arabia, Hunt for Red October and other movies about people whose gender is male doing physical harm to other people whose gender is male. I think that Worf is an utterly cool Star Trek character and Troi is not.

Have I revealed that my gender is male yet? Can we now have a party?