SURPRISE!!!!

No More. Men and women live with each other before marriage, and it’s saying we’ll use the points for the honeymoon fare before he’s even asked. There are baby showers and bridal showers with registries. Even the sex of the baby often isn’t a surprise.

Is this a reaction on the part of the current 30 somethings to 9/11, the biggest surprise of all, when they were 20 somethings?

I don’t like registries that have more gifts listed than the person could ever expect to get. You should give people a choice of type of gift and price range. But still, I was happy when there was very little left on the baby shower registry of the woman whose shower I recently attended.

I’ve known her all of her life. She’s 28, the age I was when I gave birth to my first born. It was a nice event given by her mother and her mother-in-law at her mother-in-law’s large house in Westchester. It’s a boy. So, blue tablecloths covered rented round tables, decorated with flowers from the garden in glass bowls, and Dad’s childhood books and toys. It was simple, attractive and gave us reason to chat with the person we didn’t know at the table about their experience with the books and toys as a child, themselves, or with their own children or grandchildren.

I didn’t get her something off the list. I got her a colorful weekly clothes organizer, a pacifier bag and a toy to hang on the stroller/carriage. Does anybody buy a coach carriage anymore?