The first grandchild is on the way and I attended a modern baby shower. Much of it has not changed. Pink and blue are pervasive. You can blame the manufacturers for forcing gender specific colors down our throats. In this case, we won't know if the baby is a boy or girl till it's born, so shopping was a nightmare.
One thing that has changed is that the fathers-to-be are much more involved. The couples tell people, "We're pregnant." I gather that many baby showers now are couples showers. In this case, it wasn't - a gaggle of happy women congregated outside under a canopy while the few males in attendance hid out up on a deck and drank beer.
So how to acknowledge the dad when all the attention is on the young mother-to-be? Ah-ha! A diaper bag just for dads - aka The Diaper Dude. Why should the mother have all the fun? So the dad of the moment received not one, but two! - a black one that could pass for a computer case and will no doubt be the "formal" one (relegated to the closet), and a camouflage design that will, I'm sure, become a constant companion.
I like the idea of men changing diapers. I love to see young dads carrying their babies in public and taking them out of church when they get cranky while the mother sits serenely in her pew. The axis has shifted. No, things are not yet equal, but in one generation, the axis has definitely shifted.
Do they have changing stations in men's rooms? I'll have to ask someone about that....
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