An Arizona gender reveal party in 2017 started a wildfire when an expectant father shot an explosive substance at a target. This ignited a fire that destroyed 47,000 acres. It took 800 firefighters almost a week to contain it.
In 2020, the El Dorado Fire in California was started when a detonation of a smoke bomb lit nearby dry grass on fire. This fire burned more than 22,000 acres over 71 days. It resulted in the death of a firefighter and 13 other injuries; 20 buildings were destroyed.
These are just two devastating examples of gender reveal parties gone seriously wrong.
A new life is worth rejoicing. Unfortunately, the motivation of getting a good video or photo for social media, has created an unnecessary pressure. The bigger the reveal, the more attention it gets online.
Finding a way to celebrate this new life that doesn’t cause millions of dollars of damage – or worse – is critical.
Here are a few ways to share your baby’s biological sex that can be fun with reduced risk of injury or fire:
- Pop a balloon with pink or blue confetti or powder
- Use silly string
- Break a piñata, or use a pull string version for easy opening by a sibling
- Stir up a special drink, either by color of the libation or use special straws that change color in the liquid
- Blow glitter
- Outfit the nursery
- Cut a cake
Create cake pops, cookies or even doughnuts filled with colors or candies
Use paint splatter or squirt guns to spray colors on canvas or t-shirts
Use colored lights on holiday trees. Turn on the lights when it’s time to reveal
Bottomline, the event is a great excuse to bring family and friends together to party and take some fun videos and photos. Skip the stunts – and the potential tragic outcomes. Instead, safely celebrate one of the biggest, joyous change in your life.
Lori Stauffer works for Scottsdale Fire Department in Community Relations. She is the immediate past president of the Arizona Fire and Burn Educators Association and is a member of SafeKids Maricopa County.
