Funny Questions to Ask Parents at Baby Shower
Twenty light questions for the expecting parents at a baby shower, read aloud as a game or printed on cards: the strangest craving so far, the advice strangers keep offering, the name they quietly vetoed, and which of them will be better at three in the morning.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What's the strangest craving so far, and who got sent out to find it?
Why ask it
The errand is the funnier half, so ask for both parts. It also hands the second parent a role in the answer, which matters early in a game where one of them tends to do all the talking.
What's the most ridiculous advice a stranger has given you?
Why ask it
Everyone in the room has either given unsolicited advice or received it, so this gets a laugh from the whole party. It also quietly signals that the game is on their side rather than at their expense.
What was the funniest reaction you got when you told people?
Why ask it
Announcement reactions are safe territory and usually involve one relative crying, one saying something tactless, and one who guessed weeks earlier. Let them name names only if the person is not sitting there.
What's the most unnecessary thing you've already bought?
Why ask it
Expect a gadget with one function and a high price. This works because it is a small confession rather than a brag, and other parents in the room will immediately volunteer worse purchases of their own.
What's the strangest question a stranger has asked you?
Why ask it
The answers are usually about people asking things nobody should ask, which lets the parents laugh at it rather than absorb it. If the question they name was clearly upsetting, move on rather than pressing for detail.
What name did you both love and then quietly veto?
Why ask it
This gets a name without asking them to reveal the actual one, which many parents are holding back on purpose. The reason for the veto is the story: a relative, a classmate, or how it sounded shouted across a garden.
Who in the family has already claimed to be the favorite?
Why ask it
Usually a grandparent, and usually one who is in the room and delighted to be named. Read the family first, since it lands badly if the honest answer is somebody nobody wants to discuss.
Which of you will be better at three in the morning, and which one is lying?
Why ask it
The best question in the set for two parents together, because they will answer over each other. Neither of them knows yet, and everybody who has done it already knows they are both wrong.
What's the most ridiculous thing you've done to get ready?
Why ask it
Nesting produces genuinely odd projects: a cupboard reorganized twice, a room repainted a shade nobody can distinguish, a bag packed in April. The pointless task is funnier than the sensible ones.
What have you researched far too much at two in the morning?
Why ask it
Answers name the one topic they have gone down a hole on: car seat fittings, bottle brands, sleep methods, whether a cat can be trusted. It also lets other parents in the room say honestly that it did not matter.
What's something you've worried about that you know is completely irrational?
Why ask it
Keep the frame on the irrational ones and it stays light: forgetting the baby's name, dropping the car seat, being unable to work out a pram in a car park. If either parent answers with a real fear, respond plainly and move on.
What nickname has the baby already picked up?
Why ask it
Almost every pregnancy acquires a placeholder name from a scan photo, a food comparison or a sibling's mispronunciation. Ask where it came from, because the origin is always better than the nickname.
Who do you think the baby will look like, and who's already claiming credit?
Why ask it
This turns the room into a jury and gets grandparents involved without being asked. It is also a good place to point at the two family photo albums somebody has definitely brought.
What habit of yours do you hope they don't inherit?
Why ask it
Self-deprecating rather than pointed, as long as they answer about themselves rather than each other. Expect lateness, stubbornness, a temper in traffic, an inability to sit still through a film.
What part of parenting are you oddly looking forward to?
Why ask it
The word oddly is doing the work, since it rules out the obvious answers. People name school lunches, reading the same book nightly, teaching one specific skill they have been waiting years to pass on.
Which of your own childhood traditions are you definitely keeping?
Why ask it
This is where the game turns warm, and where the two families in the room start comparing notes. Answers are usually about food, holidays or a particular bedtime routine that survived a generation.
What part of your own childhood are you planning to skip entirely?
Why ask it
Sits deliberately after the previous question so the pair balance. Most answers are mild: a food nobody liked, a strict rule, a sport they were made to play. If somebody goes deeper, let them, and do not follow it with a joke.
What do you think you'll be surprisingly strict about?
Why ask it
Prediction rather than memory, and worth writing down so it can be read back later. Answers reveal what each parent quietly cares about, and they are almost never the things anyone else would guess.
What's the first song you want them to know all the words to?
Why ask it
Easy, specific, and it gets the whole room offering suggestions. It also gives a shower with music playing something to do with the answer immediately.
Ten years from now, what do you hope you're doing together on a Saturday morning?
Why ask it
The closer. It moves past the logistics that have swallowed the last several months and gets one honest answer that people will remember from the party. Ask it last and let the pause sit.
How to run this as a shower game
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Running it on the day
- Ten questions is plenty. Read them aloud after food and before gifts, when the room is settled and nobody is queuing for anything.
- Ask both parents where both are present, and give the quieter one the question first. Otherwise one person answers everything for an hour.
- Have somebody write down the answers and hand the sheet to the parents afterward. The predictions are worth having in a year.
- Print them on cards for a shower where guests circulate rather than sit. People will pick one up and ask it themselves, which spreads the game out.
Adjusting for the family in front of you
- The craving and stranger questions only fit a pregnancy. For parents adopting or working with a surrogate, swap them for the ones about names, traditions and preparation.
- Second and third-time parents find the prediction questions funnier than the preparation ones, because they already know how wrong the first set of predictions was.
- For a single parent, cut the which of you questions rather than adapting them awkwardly on the spot.
- If one parent cannot be there, ask the questions anyway and record the answers for them. Do not ask the room to guess what the absent parent would say.
What to leave out
- Nothing about how the pregnancy came about, fertility treatment, or how long they tried. Guests at any shower may have their own history with this, and it is not material for a game.
- No questions about the birth itself, weight, feeding plans or medical details. Those belong to the parents and their clinicians, not to a party.
- Nothing about the parent's body or how they look. It is the single most common thing expecting parents say they are tired of hearing.
- Steer guests away from labor horror stories if the answers head that way. A cheerful change of subject is enough, and the parents will be grateful for it.
Keeping it moving
- Ask the room to vote on the three in the morning question. Turning one answer into a show of hands buys you five minutes of easy fun.
- Follow up with where did that come from. Nicknames, vetoed names and traditions all have origins better than the answer itself.
- If an answer stalls, offer your own. A guest admitting to a useless purchase gets the parents talking faster than any prompt.
- End the game while people are still enjoying it. One that finishes early gets remembered better than one that runs through all twenty.