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

By Nisha Williams

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.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Hostess-Etiquette-For-Baby-Showers--How-to-Make-the-Best-of-a-Stinky-Situation&id=226812