Jesus, y'all are just a bundle of happiness, huh? Seriously. Becoming a parent is insane and exciting. You GROW A PERSON. Inside you, of all things! And the whole time you're thinking a million things. who is this person? What do they look like? Who will they laugh like? Will they have my eyes? Will they be my best friend someday? Or be an asshole? If it's a girl will she look like my mother in law? Oh, hell no. I'm not growing a mini one of her.

You wait for what seems like EVER to get any clue about who is hiding out in your uterus. And finally, you get a clue to part of that puzzle: a girl or a boy? And you're so over the moon to know SOMETHING about this alien in you that you just want to share that excitement with people you love.

Now, our whole culture is currently obsessed with gender equality and that's great. We should not put people in boxes. People should be whoever they are and that's that.

However. You cannot deny that there are differences between boys and girls, biologically and socially. And not in bad ways; just different. And those differences give parents clues to who/what their child will be.

When it's a girl, you get fired up about teaching her to be strong, to love math/science, that she is worth everything a man is worth. You will talk about periods and men and whatever she wants her role in life to be. You know that you will be her champion, her advocate, and that you'll love her fiercely.

If it's a boy, you know that you'll do everything in your power to keep him from becoming an incel, or a red piller; and at the same time not be too much a "brah". And you'll snuggle on the couch with him watching movies when one day you realize his armpits stink and his voice is starting to squeak. And then you'll long for those times when he was small and folded into your arms at the end of a long day of playing.

There are differences between raising a girl, and raising a boy, whether you want there to be or not. And there always will be. But honestly, that's not why people have gender reveal parties.

They have them because it's the first time they get any real glimpse into what this new phase in their life will be like. Who their child is or could be. It's the first time it feels REAL, like there is a real, actual PERSON being created. Because no matter how many times you are pregnant, it's still such a fucking crazy thing to wrap your head around that you GREW A PERSON without even looking it up on pinterest.