baby - Hostess Etiquette For Baby Showers- How to Make the Best of a Stinky Situation

You have spent countless hours putting the perfect plans together for a successful baby shower. You've done your homework. Making sure the schedule does not conflict with Sally's ballgame and Suzie's pool party. Congratulations! Your hard work and effort will pay off with a successful baby shower. You have prepared for that special moment, but are you prepared for handling an uncomfortable situation, should it occur? Conquering hostess etiquette can help smooth out uncomfortable baby shower situations that can crop up. No matter how hard you try to flawlessly put together that perfect baby shower....things can sometimes happen out of your control. What you do in those critical situations can make a big difference on the comfort level of your guests and pregnant guest of honor. You know that you cannot accommodate everyone's schedule. When things so south, as they sometimes do, the way you handle the situation can make or break the baby shower. So, what do you do when your 20 guests turn to 2 or 3? This is a time when tact can go far. Never make any comments about the amount or lack of people at the baby shower. This might cause the pregnant mom's hormones to start the tears flowing! As soon as you have an indication that the guest list has fizzled, cater the baby shower to the guests that have made the effort to arrive. Don't let the conversation get uncomfortable because you are waiting for a little longer to start the games, hoping more people will show. Keep in mind the typical baby shower ranges from 2-3 hours in length. Most people will not mind ending a little early, as long as you make an effort to stick to a basic activity, game, gifts and then food schedule. Here are some Hostess Etiquette tricks that can help smooth out this sticky situation... *Always start the beginning of the baby shower with an activity. This will keep awkward conversations and long silence at a minimum. By the end of the activity, the guests would have had sufficient time to arrive. *Cater the games to the amount of people at the shower. If the game you have chosen only works for a big crowd, simply do not play that game. *Prepare for unforeseen game problems with 1 or 2 smaller, intimate games for the smaller groups. *If you do not have a game that works, you can use more time than usually on the activity. Most of the time, people do not mind decorating something in place of a game. *If you do need to stall for time- pull out a camcorder and ask the guests to talk about how they know the parents and have them give advice for raising kids. *When all else fails, start the food before the gifts to give people a chance to "eat" up some time. What if there are conflicts with the baby shower? Perhaps people do RSVP but most state that they can only stay for a little portion of the baby shower due to another previous engagement. In this situation, you can have some appetizers at the beginning of the baby shower with the activity. Then after 1 or 2 games, open the gifts so those guests that need to leave can do so. Other guests can then move on to the food or also have the chance to leave if they do not want to stick around and chat. Hostess Etiquette will always work in your favor if you keep in mind the feelings of your guests and mommy to be. Visit http://www.creative-baby-shower-ideas.com/hostess-etiquette.html. for additional topics on hostess etiquette, including a place to ask your own hostess etiquette and baby shower questions. Nisha Williams is a woman and a mother who has boldly taken on the oppurtunity to educate others on throwing successful baby showers. Visit her website at http://www.creative-baby-shower-ideas.com for a creative, free resource full of tons of pictures, recipes, and great advice. View detailed picture instructions for creating anything from diaper cakes and creative centerpieces to structuring the perfect and fun baby shower! Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nisha_Williams baby - Baby Showers And Gifts - What The Hostess Should Consider There may be questions concerning a baby shower and gifts. What kind of gifts, when are the gifts opened, thank-yous for the gifts, etc. These are all questions you may have if you are planning your first baby shower or even if it's been awhile since you hosted a baby shower. If you are hosting the shower should you also give a gift? Usually the person who gives the shower will also give a gift but that is up to the hostess. You may choose to give the shower as your gift or you may give the mom-to-be an extra gift as well. You know the new mom wants a lovely crib and you decide that it would make a great gift for the shower. All you need to do is to let everyone know that this is the plan and if they would like to go in on the gift you will be collecting the money. Have a card ready for each person to sign as they make the contribution. You can then purchase the crib or other big-purchase item and have it wrapped and ready to give to the new mom at the shower. If you end up with more money than you need to make the purchase you can buy a crib sheet, blankets or other smaller items on the gift registry. Speaking of the gift registry. It is always a great idea to put the store or stores where the mom-to-be is registered on the invitation. Parents fill out gift registries for a reason. They can choose the gifts they really would love to have. Instead of choosing bedding in a train pattern that you personally prefer consider the jungle animal bedding listed on the gift registry instead. And while you may be crazy about those lovely ceramic sculptures depicting mother and child, not everyone is and that may be why they are not listed on the registry. Back to the big gift. If this is what you decided to do, how will you present it? You could simply bring it into the room where the shower is being held and give it to the new mom. You could hide it and design a game around finding it. Maybe you want to roll it in at the last minute and surprise her. It's up to you how dramatic you want to get when it comes to giving the big gift. If there are many guests at the baby shower and many gifts, how do you keep track of everything? You make sure you have provided a notebook and a reliable recorder. The recorder will keep track of all the gifts and who gave them. This list can be given to the mom-to-be and she will have a complete list for her thank-you notes. Want to make this even easier for your guest of honor? Provide the thank-you notes at the baby shower and have all the guests address the envelopes. Baby shower and gifts, think of all the possibilities!