Going right along with the theme of "What could go wrong?" in 2020, as well as why this trend should not be a thing, is the latest example of a gender reveal party fail.
Not only was this a hilarious fail, but it also quickly went from being a "gender reveal" party to a "reveal what?" party.
And the best part?
It was caught on video.
Recorded first by the private Instagram user @dlicht_ and later shared by the Podfathers Podcast on Twitter, as well as the "Public Freakout" subReddit, the video now boasts thousands of replies and upvotes, though not necessarily of the positive variety.
In the video, the mother is seen first, holding the over-sized black balloon that would contain either pink or blue confetti, announcing the family's soon son- or daughter-to-be. While holding the balloon, the woman's daughter appeared to tried to grab at it, which led to the family's first little, if subtle, squabble.
Immediately thereafter, the parents encouraging stood around the girl, telling her to pop the balloon with a dart. The girl almost popped the balloon and then hesitated, probably concerned over the balloon's size, the upcoming popping sound, or the party chanting going on in the background, any of which could be overwhelming to a young child.
The mother snatched the dart away, which led to the girl's emphatic scream:
"No!"
The mother, perhaps impulsively, gave the dart back to her daughter, who proceeded to throw the dart across the deck, encouraging disapproving calls from the crowd.
The woman appeared to swat at her daughter's hands and scolded her:
"Are you kidding me?"
In the meantime, the distracted mother did not realize she had let go of the balloon, or that the string had slipped off of the weighted black that was still resting on the deck.
Cries and laughter of excitement and concern issued from the crowd as the black balloon flew away over the treeline.
The video stopped shortly thereafter, making it unclear if someone in the crowd knew the gender, or if the party was effectively over at that point.
But viewers of the video, particularly on Reddit, were not ready to let the matter drop as easily as a lost balloon.
Some had major concerns with how the mother interacted with her child.
"We can't handle our first child so let's have another one!!!" - fishinsydney
"What I see is 2 parents parading their kid around as a prop for social media 'likes,' allowing a large group of people to yell at her until she gets freaked, and then when she's visibly nervous and too slow, the mother takes the pin away rather than encourage/comfort her."
"THEN when the child screams, or as you say had a 'tantrum,' the mom immediately gives back the pin to the screaming child, re-enforcing the negative behavior."
"But the real winner is when the kid, now totally overwhelmed, confused, embarrassed, and STILL being screamed at by the crowd, throws the pin to the ground in frustration - the mom hits her." - adiosfelicia2
"To me it seemed like the girl was feeling very overwhelmed or even frightened with everyone yelling at her to pop the balloon so she lost it and screamed. So mom punishes her by slapping her? What the h**l? How dare she not be a perfect little angel on MOM'S SPECIAL DAY!!! This will look terrible on her Instagram!!" - mrsdoubleu
Let alone the fact that the family felt the need to have a gender reveal party at all.
"There's got to be correlation between trashy families and gender reveal parties." - Jasper632
"What's the need for one? Just say whether it's a boy or a girl." - EventYes
"People like to party. This is just another excuse for a party."
"What I hate is the people who have now made it so they expect gifts, and the people who have caused damage to property that makes people think it's dangerous.
It's just supposed to be a thing where some family and friends come together to hang out and have a tiny little moment of finding out the gender of the child. Nothing more than that." - ToxicBanana69
Though everyone is allowed to choose how to celebrate the children they have, 2020 does seem to be making a particular argument against the gender reveal, from costly arrangements, to wildfires, and all the way down to child-sized tantrums.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads