Wedding and Baby Showers

What do people think about showers? I go back and forth on it all. I've had lots of phases in my life on this topic. First, I wanted nothing to do with them...it just seemed like a waste of time. Then I went through the they must be co-ed phase, because if I had to suffer through it, then my s.o. should as well. Next was the, forget co-ed, don't put everyone through the pain phase. I'm coming around slightly on showers as a whole. I think they are a good idea, you are helping jump start a couple's home, or a baby's life, with useful stuff. (I won't go so far as to say necesssary).

Besides the helpful factor, both weddings and babies are things to celebrate, so I'm good with a party. My problem is that these "parties" often aren't fun. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe I'm just a jerk and don't enjoy sitting around, eating off china, and getting giddy over house items or baby clothes.

Here's my philosophy. Instead of showers, people should just be generous. In fact, this happen with lil-M. We had some gracious friends throw us showers and lots of generous friends give us helpful stuff. However, we got TONS of useful baby stuff outside the shower. If that was the standard, then we wouldn't need showers for people to feel forced to give us stuff. Then, all we would need to worry about is the celebration. Just throw a party! We don't need to spend hours opening gifts, because there won't be any, people have just been generous in general. Simple, pure, celebration of the life of a new couple or a new baby. As a bonus, there's no thank you notes to weigh down the new couple or parents.

The problem with my philosophy is the multiple generations. I'm not sure how to handle that aspect in my utopia world of showers.

I just spent my whole Saturday preparing, attending, and post-attending a shower. It was relatively fun, but I would have rather dropped off my gift at my convenience and gone out for a bike ride on an amazingly beautiful Saturday. Then after the sun went down raise a toast to the new life ahead.