Baby Information

For parents-to-be who also have an interest in the past they may find it interesting to learn some about baby shower history, in particular the history of baby shower gifts. We didn’t always bring over baby bottles and diapers for the parents-to-be however it was popular to give the parents gifts that they would need to help care for the new baby. In reality friends didn’t really give a lot of things to expectant parents. It was standard to wait until after the baby was born, sometimes quite a while after the baby was born before sending over gifts and other items to help out. This practice developed due to the high mortality rate of infants in earlier eras.

Grandparents have always had a unique place in the practice of giving gifts at baby showers. In some places it was and is still traditional for the grandmother to make up a baby blanket or small quilt for the baby. It also used to be practice for the grandmother to give a gift of silver to the baby. This was held for the baby by the parents and helped to provide a small amount of inheritance for the child. This just might be where it came from.

It’s also a practice in some families for the gifts received at a baby shower to be stored at the grandparent’s home until the baby comes along or the parents have a chance to make room for them in their own place.

As the times changed so did some of the older practices. Now we have baby showers before the baby is born, which is a good sign showing how much success we have with childbirth these days. Also silver may not be given, but many grandparents and certainly other members of the existing family can set up savings accounts and funds for future college expenses.

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Posted on September 23rd, 2008 by pongdet
Filed under: Baby_Shower