Magazine

A bewildered dad holding a tiny impractical baby outfit while toddlers create chaos.

An Honest Letter to Past Tom About the Best Baby Shower Gifts

I'm currently staring at a cashmere baby cardigan roughly the size of a teacup, aggressively regretting my life choices. My mate Dave’s gathering is tomorrow afternoon, and I'm writing this as a therapeutic exercise directed entirely at my past selfβ€”specifically...

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Pregnant woman in a comfortable pink baby shower dress holding a coffee.

The Sweaty Reality of Finding a Pink Baby Shower Dress

It was 2:15 PM on a Tuesday in late July, and I was standing in the dressing room of a maternity boutique that smelled aggressively like fake lavender, trying to pry a magenta wrap dress off my sweaty, thirty-two-week pregnant...

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Exhausted dad holding a cup of tea while looking at maternity dresses

The Ultimate Blue Baby Shower Dress Survival Guide for Dads

I was standing in our shoebox-sized London bedroom, knee-deep in crinkled ASOS packaging, watching my heavily pregnant wife attempt to extract herself from what can only be described as a sapphire-coloured sausage casing. She was breathing heavily, one arm pinned...

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A pregnant woman looking confused at a calendar on her phone while holding a coffee cup.

The 2026 Chinese Gender Calendar: A 50/50 Coin Toss

I was wearing Dave’s stained college sweatpants, sitting cross-legged on the cold bathroom tile, holding a dripping pregnancy test in one hand and frantically trying to do lunar math on my phone calculator with the other. My coffee was sitting...

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Pregnant mom setting up a baby shower venue table with organic cotton blankets and wooden toys

Searching for Baby Shower Venues Near Me Without Going Broke

I was exactly twenty-nine weeks pregnant with my oldest, sweating entirely through a polyester maternity dress in the lobby of a local country club that smelled heavily of floor wax and old money. The event coordinator, bless her heart, was...

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Pregnant mom sitting on couch surrounded by blank baby shower thank you cards and gifts

Writing Baby Shower Thank You Cards Without Losing Your Mind

I was exactly thirty-six weeks pregnant with my oldest, sitting dead center on the faux-wood floor of our tiny rental duplex, surrounded by seventy-five pastel blue envelopes. I was absolutely sobbing. My lower back felt like it was splitting in...

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Marcus staring at a slow cooker of meatballs while holding a digital thermometer.

Dear Past Marcus: Debugging the Baby Shower Meatballs Crisis

I've got a digital meat thermometer plunged into the geometric center of a frozen sphere of ground turkey, and the reading is hopelessly stuck at 138Β°F. It's 11:30 PM on a Friday. The kitchen smells like a confusing collision of...

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A half-addressed baby shower invite sitting next to a spilled cup of lukewarm coffee.

The Honest Truth About Baby Shower Invites (And Surviving Them)

I was sitting at my kitchen island in July of 2017, my ankles swollen to the exact size and texture of grapefruits, wearing a maternity tank top that had a crusty mustard stain on the hem, crying over cardstock. Literally...

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A pile of organic cotton baby blankets next to a wooden toy

The End of Humiliating Baby Shower Games (And What to Do Instead)

Five years ago, I stood in a drafty village hall in Surrey, holding a plastic cup of warm sparkling wine, watching my sister-in-law unwrap a massive ball of clingfilm while wearing a blindfold. Someone shoved a disposable nappy under my...

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