a Franco-American baby shower

My American friend Eve and I wanted to have an authentic American baby-shower for our French friend who is pregnant and who is married to an American. So we started the planning. It would be a surprise... it would be at Eve’s apartment... she would somehow manage to get guests invited (French family and friends of our honoree)... and then I suggested games.

“No way!” she said, “Our guests don’t even know what a baby-shower is... it’s just not done in France.”
I said, “Well, it’s not much of an American baby-shower without the corny games.”
Eve argued, “And how will you explain how to play the games in French since most guests won’t speak English?”
“No problem.” I argued... “We will somehow manage.”
“OK” she said, “It’s all yours, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

I searched the internet for ideas. When I was of child-bearing age and so were my friends, I attended many a baby shower, but that was a very long time ago. I decided on a game where you had to guess the circumference of the pregnant mother. OK, but in centimeters, not inches. I thought a good tie-breaker would be to guess her weight... but in kilograms. To be really cruel, I though about making them guess it in pounds!

The big day came. Guests started to arrive. Each guest who arrived had to go around and do the kissy-thing with each other guest who was already there. That took forever... and it was getting to be time for the guest of honor to arrive... I started getting nervous... Get on with it... stop the kissy stuff!

Our pregnant friend finally arrived on time (only because her American husband brought her). She was very surprised! There was more kissy stuff, a little visiting, and then.. let the games begin!

I wanted the first game to be a bit tame to break them in. They had to write down baby name ideas where each letter of the mother’s name had to be the first letter of the idea for a girl’s name. Each letter of the father’s name had to be the first letter of the boy name ideas. It was pretty fascinating. First of all, they took FOREVER! I forget how quickly Americans ‘get the job done’. They pondered, they discussed, they debated the pros and cons of using ‘old’ traditional names vs. newer, modern names. And in the process, I learned that the French government will not let you use weird names for your babies. The name has to be approved as a good “French” name. And at the suggestion of one name by a guest, the whole room broke out in laughter. I didn’t understand... but then it was explained to me that the name suggested was the French equivalent of an American “preppy” name. For the life of me, I can’t remember that name!

The second game was to guess the circumference of the mother and the third game was to try and match as many baby socks as possible in 10 seconds. They really enjoyed the sock game. A few guests continued to play it long after the official game ended. I think they all had fun and the games were a big hit. They particularly liked the fact that there was a prize for winning.


Then it was time for our pregnant guest of honor to open her gifts. The things she got were all so amazingly cute. French baby clothes are adorable and even the toys are awesome. I gave her three American books that I purchased on our last trip to the states. I figured she needed to feed that baby some good American culture. I gave her “Green Eggs and Ham’, “Goodnight Moon”, and a Madeline book titled, “Madeline says Merci”. The guests (and the pregnant mother) didn’t recognize any of the books but they did get a kick out of the Madeline book. They even joked that it wasn’t “Mad – e- leene” but instead, the American sounding, “Mad – a – line”. When the father later arrived and saw the "Green Eggs and Ham" book, he began reciting the lines from the book without even opening it. Good American!

At the end of the shower, when it was time for everyone to leave... again, it took FOREVER for everyone to kiss everyone else goodbye. My estimate is that ¼ of the baby shower was spent kissing! The other national sport of France (after protesting).