Asking For Cash On A Baby Shower Invite Is Beyond Tacky

I know that pretty much everything surrounding baby showers is getting a lot less formal; there are co-ed parties, there’s less emphasis on frilly white things and actual fun baby shower games exist. I’m all for that. But I think we would all do well to pay a small amount of attention to etiquette. There are certain unspoken rules when it comes to gift-giving. One that is paramount is – you never ask for cash. Duh.

I understand wanting cash – I really do. That’s where gift cards come in. Most widely-visited stores that will fulfill your baby needs have taken the “awkward” out of asking for money by making the ingenious gift card. Ask for those. Problem solved.

I know your brain may logically think, Well, we really need the money. Why go through this whole charade of pretending like we don’t? Because that’s the way things work, that’s why. I got a massive amount of Target gift cards for my baby shower. It was amazing, We were having a tough time financially after the birth of my first child, and I was actually able to buy groceries with those things. My friends were thrilled to give those as gifts. How thrilled do you think they would have been had we said, we are registered a Babies R’ Us and also accept cold, hard, cash because we are sort of broke right now? Something tells me that wouldn’t have sat well. I feel awkward accepting cash from anyone but my mother anyway. Even that feels weird, actually.

The bottom line is this – the gift-giving ceremony is supposed to be ceremonial. You don’t want to come across as gift-grubby. We all know baby showers exist for the gift haul, but everything just works better when we ignore that. People just follow certain unspoken rules – and that’s how it should be. The most important rule for the guest is “follow the registry.” The most important rule for the host is “don’t ask for cash.”

I don’t make the rules. I just shame people for not following them.