This evening, our friends at the fabulous Kicks Count shared an Instagram picture that really resonated with us – outlining the rules of “birth announcement etiquette” – their message was this – do NOT post any details or hints about the birth, or congratulate the parents publically until the parents have posted their own status.
For me this is something that I couldn’t agree with more highly. We all know how exciting it is when a friend or relative gives birth, and when its a relative its even harder to contain your excitement as their is a new addition to your immediate family – however – keep your mouth shut you must! When my sister gave birth to my nephew in 2012 I was so desperate to tell all my friends and waited with baited breath refreshing Facebook repeatedly before she and her partner shared their news. I was then able to tell my friends that I had become an aunty and I was over the moon. I was impatient, beaming with pride and incredibly chuffed to have a new nephew, but I wouldn’t have dared announced it until she was ready to do so – if at all.
I am noticing more and more that I learn about my friends giving birth from someone else posting on their wall. A friend recently gave birth to a baby girl, and despite no official word from her or her partner, there were over 10 messages on her wall wishing her all the best with her new arrival!
When we had our daughter Erin back in 2013, We had a long and traumatic labour – over 36 hours in fact, and my partner called a few of our immediate family members and close friends to advise that our baby girl had arrived safely.
Within mere hours of our baby girl arriving in the world, the word had obviously spread through the gossip grapevine, and I had a barrage of notifications on Facebook, congratulating us on becoming parents and saying how happy they were to hear our news. This, in itself, didn’t bother me so much – despite the fact that we hadn’t been able to post our own status yet.
What bothered me beyond belief, was when someone, a partner of a close friend, revealed our babies GENDER before we did. We waited 9 WHOLE MONTHS to get that surprise, and it quite simply wasn’t her news to share. Why not share her full name, birth weight and whether I poo’d in labour whilst you’re at it? GRRRRR!! At the time I was in my exhausted and overwhelmed new mum bubble that it didn’t really sink in, but a few weeks after I started to feel really annoyed about it. I found this to be a total invasion of privacy.
What I am noticing more and more these days is parents feeling the need to add to the end of their texts “please don’t put anything on Facebook” to ensure their news isn’t transmitted with the world. A sad sign of modern society perhaps!!
Has this happened to you? How did you feel?
At least this time our babies gender is already common knowledge…. unless they got it wrong of course!!!!
Lucy x
