GENDER reveal parties are supposed to be celebratory but one soon-to-be mom’s reveal was ruined by her mother-in-law’s prank.
She was so hurt by the joke that she walked away from the party in tears.
Posting anonymous on Reddit as u/10315150, she explained that she had two boys and was currently pregnant with her fourth child after a miscarriage.
When it came time to have her gender reveal party, her mother-in-law decided to take charge.
“My MIL offered to be the gender keeper. She got the confetti cannons,” she wrote.
“This is my last pregnancy so I wanted to do a small reveal with close family and friends.”
The mom explained that she would have been happy with either gender but leaned towards a girl more.
“I have 2 boys and of course would adore a little girl. I would also be happy keeping my boy mom crown but damn a little girl would just be so freaking sweet,” she wrote.
At the party, her mother-in-law handed both her and her husband a confetti cannon.
Her husband set his off his first, revealing a stream of pink confetti that made her emotional.
“The sweetest surprise. My life with a daughter flashing in my mind. Hugging my husband. Tears shed. My mom crying happy for me. This is the biggest best surprise I’ve ever had,” she wrote.
Soon after celebrating, her MIL reminded her to set off her own cannon, which busted out blue confetti and cause some confusion.
“I was so excited to see the pink confetti from my husbands that I never set mine off,” she explained.
“I am assuming it’s also pink… because I’m not having twins. But instead it’s blue.
“I instantly regret my initial ecstatic response. Why are there both colors now?”
“She then hands us the ‘real’ cannons and they both pop blue. Of course, I can’t match my previous energy.
“I hugged my husband and people around me and excused myself. And I cried. I haven’t really stopped for hours now.
“Don’t get me wrong. I am so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to have any children and i know health is number 1…. that isn’t lost on me.
“But it’s as if I had this space in time where my dream of a daughter came true and I experienced the joy of having a girl join my crazy boy-filled family, and now I’m grieving that,” she wrote.
She couldn’t help but feel embarrassed, especially since a large crowd of people witnessed the event.
“I feel like a jerk for being so upset but all this happened in front of an audience. I’m so embarrassed and this happy video taken of the reveal isn’t even real,” she said.
“It’s a moment in time I got my heart broken.”
People blamed her mother-in-law for the prank and comforted the mom-to-be.
“I’m sorry, but that was either an intentionally cruel or wildly stupid choice from your MIL,” said one commenter.
“I’m really sorry you had to go through that, and with an audience to boot. Give yourself some credit, you handled it as gracefully as possible.”
Many agreed that the prank was in bad taste and could’ve been executed better.
“A GOOD version of this prank would have been an unexpected color like green, then MIL being like ‘Oops, that was for the plant reveal tomorrow’ with the actual confetti shooters,” said one commenter.
The Redditor said that her mother-in-law did seem to realize, after the fact, that she’d messed up, and “quickly [apologized] at the end of the night.”
“Honestly, I didn’t want to talk to her. I gave her a hug and walked away to be polite,” she said.
“I’d like to think it wasn’t meant to be cruel, as I thought we had a good relationship.”
She still can’t understand what her mother-in-law was thinking.
“Even had everything gone ‘according to plan,’ I don’t understand what the point is? Confusion at best? I don’t see what the humor was in it,” she said.