Russians are more superstitious about pregnancies and are not accustomed to a lot of fanfare and gifts before the baby is born, and sometimes before he/she is a few months old. Plus, it's not like the small living quarters normally allow for a lot of "stuff." But American baby shower traditions are catching on.
In this case, the moms are both expecting for the second time. One's having a girl (we think) and the other's having a boy, so we played some games with Team Blue and Team Pink. They didn't necessarily need a lot of clothing and things, but we still wanted to take the opportunity to pamper them with love and affection.
I hope the tradition of American showers (the way they are now does NOT catch on!) To help a poor mom get the basics for a baby is great, but the last few showers I have been to, have been just really disturbing - as the mom opens thousands of dollars of clothing and completely unnecessary accoutrements that will be outgrown and un-usable within just a few months.
ReplyDeleteAwww that's precious!! What a great thing for your church to do! I bet it means a lot to the moms :)
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a baby, so I don't know how much of the stuff ends up being "unnecessary." We try to coordinate gift-giving in order to cover the essentials. For one mom we just bought a few toys and then collected money because they had a specific purchase in mind that they needed help with.
ReplyDeleteI think that even for women who don't like being the center of attention, it's still important to know that people care and want to "spoil" them before they're taking care of a little baby 24/7.
The nice thing is that no one really knows what to expect, so we can form our own traditions and not worry about conforming to a certain mold.