Hate crimes are rising and the planet is burning, but this woman locked herself in a bathroom and cried because a gender reveal was ‘ruined’
A woman accidentally ruined her sister-in-law’s gender reveal party, and was reaction ruptured reddit users. (Logan Riely/Beam Imagination/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)
As the United Nations warn the world is on the “point of no return” on climate catastrophe and hate crimes rocket across the globe, a mother-to-be locked herself in the bathroom because her gender reveal party was spoiled.
Priorities.
Gender reveal parties – the act of celebrating the genitals of a foetus in front of friends and family – have emerged as one of the more quirky and transphobic trends of the 2010s.
Until recently, expectant parents tended to learn this information during a routine ultrasound or even over the phone to limited fanfare.
But after plane crashes, two explosions, Jell-O-filled hippos, runaway balloons, blue lasagne, a thousand acre-sized wildfire and ‘gendered’ fog spewing from a car doing doughnuts in a cul-de-sac ending in four arrests, the act has overtime began to reach Super Bowl Halftime show-level theatrics.
In a since removed reddit post, a woman asked the ‘Am I The A-Hole’ subreddit whether she’s a bad person for “ruining” her sister-in-law’s reveal party.
Mother-to-be locks herself in bathroom and refuses to chat to sister-in-law after gender reveal slip.
During Thanksgiving, she accidentally told the expectant mother the news which incited fury from her, leading to a furious Facebook post and her locking herself in the restroom.
The original poster explained how she planned the party “for weeks” and even had the ultrasound results mailed directly to her.
“I took every precaution to not tell anyone what the baby was. I was gonna kill it!” she said.
But the night before Thanksgiving, she was taking her sister-in-law about the setup for the party, and accidentally let slip the big reveal.
“Sister-in-law asked me about the smoke bombs, and I said: ‘Once you pull the pin, it’ll blow smoke white for tens seconds, and then it’ll smoke blue’.”
Traumatised, “she locks herself in the bathroom, crying, saying it’s all ruined and that she doesn’t even want to do it now because there’s no point, refuses to talk to me.”
OP said she felt “horrible” about the slip, and profusely apologised.
“I told her a story about how I ‘ruined’ my own engagement, but that we still got married… and there’s still a baby coming!”
“Then, we were supposed to go to dinner with our in laws and she didn’t go.
“OK, great, clearly she doesn’t want to sit through dinner with me. I get it, it’s still raw, she’s upset.”
‘She really just wanted it on Facebook Live and to have the stupid pics anyway’.
But in a not at all petulant plot twist: “I get to dinner and see that she posted on Facebook about how her gender reveal was accidentally ruined and that, ‘just so everyone knows., we already know’.”
Her sister-in-law took to Facebook to proclaim she’s giving up gender reveal parties, and that her first time was “supposed to be a special moment and it was ripped away”.
“On and on,” she went, according to OP.
However, the sister-in-law ended up bluntly stating it was OP’s fault, despite the fact that no-one in their family circles knew it was her beforehand, “and she really just wanted it on Facebook Live and to have the stupid pics anyways.”
“We went through with the reveal as planned, it was streamed live so her ‘intimate’ gathering could get all the likes and comments.
“Normally, she tags me and everyone in her posts, but this time it was noticeably not tagged.”
So, despite the level of prep and pomp, the sister-in-law learning this one feature of the foetus inside of her clearly impacted her. Was the OP an “a**hole” then?
Resoundingly, reddit users said: ‘Not the a**hole.’
“You made an honest mistake,” said one user, “she’s overreacting to a ridiculous degree.”
Another added: “Gender reveals are stupid anyway.”
While a user said: “Clearly, this was all about the publicity stunt of having a grand gender reveal on social media.”
“I just can’t believe your [sister-in-law’s] response, after about 30 seconds of disappointment, wasn’t… ‘[Oh, my God!], we’re having a boy! Let’s call husband!’,” explained a user.
“Like, this party is more important than the fact that she just learned the sex of her first child?”
