"Boliath" wrote in message
...
Ericka Kammerer wrote:

It's not rude to turn down an offer to throw a shower. Just
say, "You are so kind to think of me, but I would just be too
embarrassed to put people through that trouble after they'd already
been kind enough to throw a shower for my first. My mother would
have my head on a platter if I accepted your kind offer."

I said almost exactly this recently, my son is only 2 1/2 so there is no
need for another shower.

Then,
if she continues to press it because she wants to have some sort
of celebration, you can say, "If you really want to do something,
maybe we could just have a little tea or something after the baby's
born so that folks can meet him/her--but please, not a shower where
people feel like they need to bring a gift." Even if you do some
other kind of party, people may still bring gifts, but at least
the gift-giving is not required. What they choose to do is their
own business, so you accept it graciously. If people ask what you
need/want, you can always say that you have everything from the
first time around, so you don't need anything big and really it's
just the consumables that you're saving up for this time.

Phew - and this - Ericka do you hang out around my office/home? Weird!

Showers are not done in Ireland - where I'm from - I was very
uncomfortable with it the 1st time around, I did it because it was
expected of me, when in Rome etc...

This time if people ask, I tell them that we plan to use cloth nappies so
if they'd like to buy some X brand, please do, but please don't feel
obliged, we really have everything we could possibly need thank you very
much.

I have been trying to drop the hint/spread the word that we saved
everything, so we have all of our baby gear and clothing. Hopefully this
will be noticed. LOL.