Gender reveal parties are nearly as common as baby showers. But unlike most baby showers, those who throw them seem to be continually upping the ante, seeking exciting and increasingly dangerous ways to broadcast their baby’s sex to family and friends. Extreme gender reveals might look cool on social media, but a recent gender reveal that ended in a deadly accident has raised questions about whether or not this trend should continue.
A Knoxville, Iowa, family recently lost their 66-year-old grandmother in an explosion caused by a homemade gender reveal contraption that turned out to be a pipe bomb. ABC News reports the grandmother, who was identified by police as Pamela Kreimeyer, was fatally struck by metal debris from the explosion and died at the scene of the accident. Kreimeyer’s family had reportedly been experimenting with different explosives to create an exciting gender reveal and didn’t realize what would happen with the device they constructed.
Only a day later, authorities in Waukee, Iowa, were called to investigate a second, unrelated gender reveal explosion. This time, the explosion was caused by a store-bought gender reveal kit, instead of a homemade device. No one was injured, but residents told local CBS affiliate KCCI that the blast from the gender reveal bomb scared them because it could be felt more than 2 miles away.
Dangerous gender reveals have become increasingly common in recent years. In April 2017, a gender reveal explosion sparked a 47,000-acre wildfire that started in Green Valley, Arizona, and blazed through the Coronado National Forest. In April 2018, a car in Queensland, Australia, burst into flames after its tires were treated to make them produce blue smoke when the driver spun out for a gender reveal stunt.
Parents-to-be have even gotten deadly wild animals in on the trend. In September 2019, a gender reveal in which a couple tossed a watermelon full of colored dye into a hippo’s mouth went viral.
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In 2018, another video surfaced of a family pulling a similar stunt with a live alligator.
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With the popularity of viral gender reveal videos and photos online, it’s easy to see why so many parents-to-be might feel the pressure to go big or go home. And while many gender reveals do not end in tragedy, the presence of things like explosives, guns and wild animals definitely creates a potential for danger. Is it really worth the risk? Some parents don’t think so.
“Gender reveal parties have gone from cupcakes with half a dozen close family members to a social media spectacle of people trying to one-up each other,” Valerie Williams, a deputy news editor at Scary Mommy and mom of two, tells Care.com. “Considering gender identity has nothing to do with the sex a child is born as, it seems foolish and overblown. Besides, how exciting is it when there’s only ever two possible answers?”
Even the creator of gender reveals has expressed apprehension about what the trend has become. In July, Jenna Karvunidis, who’s credited with having the first gender reveal, wrote on Twitter, “I’ve felt major mixed feelings about my contribution to the culture … It just exploded into crazy after that. Literally — guns firing, forest fires, more emphasis on gender than has ever been necessary for a baby.”
New parents are undoubtedly excited to bring a new life into the world, and they want to share that excitement with family and friends in every way possible. Gender reveal parties are a natural extension of that, but there are other options. Parents can host baby showers, do special pregnancy reveals or even have a party to announce the baby’s name to family and friends or to let loved ones meet the new bundle for the first time. Extreme gender reveals don’t have to be the go-to when there are so many other ways to have a celebration.
