Meghan took a bad idea to a whole new extreme

DEPENDING on who you read, Meghan’s Markle’s baby shower was a meticulously executed act of revenge against her critics and the very least she deserved after months of racist vitriol; or was a vulgar display of greedy ostentation that contradicts her reputation as a humanitarian and by extension casts a cloud over the UK monarchy. The controversial celebration has stirred a second debate on this side of the Atlantic about whether baby showers are a tacky US import, or a joyful occasion for female bonding, with guests assisting the mother-to-be stock up on baby wipes and booties. Now call me superstitious but I’d rather wait until the proverbial stork had arrived safely before worrying about sterilisers and cot sheets. But while baby showers to my mind tempt fate, I’m light years behind the gogetting moms in America who regard birth with so little caution and mystery that ‘gender-reveal’ parties have overtaken showers as the latest fad. As their name suggests, at these parties the sex of the baby is gleefully announced as well as his or her Christian name. The payoff for the guests is that they can purchase baby items in colours other than gender-neutral yellow or white, and order personalised welcome cards for the new baby. What fun. Raising children, from cradle to career is becoming an increasingly expensive and protracted business. Market forces – which are producing a boomerang generation of adult children living under their parents’ roof – are outside our control. But we have some power on what occurs at the start of life and whether we embrace baby showers and gender-reveal parties that are designed to have us spending on babies before they are even born.