1.

Sean
September 13th, 2006 at 10:21 am

First off, I think you’re really discounting the surprise on the day of their birth aspect. There’s just something about having yet another surprise on a crazy day that finding out months before just won’t give you. And you get to realize that, in the end, as long as they’re healthy, the color you picked for their clothes are truly a moot point.

Our parents tried to use the same arguments to get us to find out the sex of our son before he was born - and, of course, tell them as well so they could buy buy buy. I think we drove them a little nutty with our refusal!

I’ve never liked the “a boy needs blue (and a ball), girl needs pink (and a doll), start socialize em’ into their little predefined boxes at birth” concept anyway, but that might just me! That, and I really dislike baby blue & pink as colors…

2.

Amberlynn
September 13th, 2006 at 10:40 am

Buying a ton of baby stuff pre-baby seems to be what most parents do, and they end up paying for stuff they never actually use. Regardless if you’re into pink/blue decor or not - you’ll save more if you wait ’till you need it to buy it, and then do your shopping at second-hand sources, where they’re always less. You’d be surprised at how many clothes a 6 month old doesn’t need. You’ll probably get gifted enough through baby showers.

We decided to “be surprised” not out of surprise factor, but because long-term effects of ultrasound are not known, so we didn’t want to chance it if we didn’t have to. Plus, the cost of the ultrasound is much higher than any little pink dress.

3.

Lawrence Salberg
September 16th, 2006 at 8:00 pm

As a father of seven, we’ve never known the sex until the moment of delivery. Having more children simply eliminates the potential savings that could be had if one knew the sex beforehand. After we had our one boy and our one girl, it really didn’t matter what sex any future children would be - we were prepared either way. Of course, financial advisors typically would recommend having LESS children to save money - but it isn’t always about the money, right? I can always make more money somehow, but I can’t get back my time, my life, my days with these kiddos.

Oh, and on our first two? We simply chose colors that could work both ways - sea green, white, etc.. Then, we get the fun of shopping a bit later to accessorize the main colors. Try it!

4.

DivaJean
October 19th, 2006 at 8:46 am

Even in foster parenting/adopting, we weren’t all that able to preplan.

My partner & I had been told forever that we would never get a baby for adoption- so we upped our perameters to consider a child from 3-7 yrs old. We outfitted a bedroom with a bunk bed, dresser, etc and had it ready for a preschooler. The phone rang one day and we would be getting our daughter the next day. Although we had to think fast, we lucked out, since so many friends and family members rallied for us. We bought a car seat and a crib- everything else (changing table, swing, clothes, blankets, diapers, formula) was subsidized by do gooders in our life who were able to get us what we really needed- not frilly “baby shower” type gifts.