Risks and Consequences: The Dark Side of Baby Gender Reveal Parties

2023-09-04 15:27:12

A dramatic incident overshadows a baby party in Sinaloa, Mexico. Everything is actually prepared for the big moment: balloons in blue and pink are hanging from an “Oh Baby” lettering. Parents, friends and family are just waiting for the gender of their child to be announced. Will it be a boy or a girl?

A small plane suddenly approaches from the background at high speed: the jet sprays pink particles over the couple. It’s going to be a girl! As can be seen in a video on Platform X (formerly Twitter), cheers erupt among the party guests.

Pilot killed following his Piper PA-25 left wing failed at a gender reveal party in the town of San Pedro, Mexico. pic.twitter.com/6JILK7fsGm

— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) September 3, 2023

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But the situation spirals out of control. After the private jet releases the pink smoke, it rises steeply into the air. The left wing of the aircraft breaks and separates from the fuselage. The video, which has gone viral on social media, ends abruptly.

Mexican authorities in the state of Sinaloa later said the pilot, 32-year-old Luis Angel N., was taken to the nearest hospital following the crash. There he succumbed to his injuries. According to the police, the specific cause of the plane accident remains unclear.

How baby showers are getting more and more out of control

The example from Mexico shows how baby gender reveal parties are currently rampant. The concept itself, i.e. telling friends and families the sex of the child by means of a surprise, sounds harmless at first. Initially, it was either a blue or pink cake, glitter in the respective gender-related colors, or fireworks.

But in the past, such unveiling ceremonies, which originated in the United States, have gotten increasingly out of control. The parties kept getting more expensive, more risky, more dangerous. Such videos are clicked millions of times on social media, and they are becoming larger and more unusual. For example, in 2017 in Arizona, USA, a party caused a 47,000-acre bush fire. The damage was estimated at more than eight million dollars.

In October 2019, in the American Midwest, in Iowa, a family built a pipe bomb that was supposed to glitter in either blue or pink when it detonated. When the explosive device detonated, fragments hurled back and forth through the air, killing the child-to-be’s grandmother standing nearby.

The preliminary low point was reached in California in the summer of 2021: At that time, a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device was used in the district of San Bernardino, which triggered a 10,000-hectare bush fire – the “El Dorado Fire” east of Los Angeles. The fire raged for a good three weeks, several towns were evacuated, five single-family homes burned down, and one firefighter died.

The parents responsible for the gigantic fire have been charged with around 30 crimes; including involuntary manslaughter, reckless arson causing bodily harm and arson of occupied buildings. A California court has yet to decide whether the parents should be behind bars for consequences of the baby gender reveal party.

It remains to be seen whether there will be any consequences for parents in Mexico.

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