A gender reveal is supposed to be one of celebration, smiles and laughter. But an expectant father was tragically killed when a gender reveal device exploded.

Over the years, a gender reveal party is becoming as synonymous with pregnancy as a hens party is for a wedding. Our social feeds are filled with all kinds of creative gender revelations. There’s the cake that’s coloured blue or pink inside. There are a flurry of balloons that are either pink or blue and more dramatically there are explosions of coloured chalk or confetti revealing whether the expectant bub is a boy or girl.

Freak Accident

Christopher Pekny from Liberty, New York was preparing for his and his girlfriend’s gender reveal party, putting together the gender-reveal device, when the device exploded in his garage, killing him and injuring his brother.

Peter Pekny, the older brother of the victims, said the incident was “the freakiest of freak accidents that I could ever imagine”.

Michael is now in stable condition after having his injured knee rebuilt.

Christopher was expecting a son with his girlfriend.

Gender Reveal Danger

This is certainly not the first time a gender reveal has been fatal.

Earlier this month, a man from Michigan in the USA was killed when a cannon exploded during a baby shower.

The cannon exploded and sprayed metal shrapnel hitting the victim who was standing nearby.

Fireworks

And then last year, a gender reveal pyrotechnic display caused a massive runaway fire, destroying more than 22,000 acres of Californian bushland and claimed the life of a firefighter.

It Needs To STOP!

The woman, who is credited, for being the inventor of the gender reveal concept, says it’s time to stop the dramatic- and potentially dangerous displays.

In 2008, blogger Jenna Karvunidis hosted a party when she was pregnant with her first child and served a cake with pink icing to reveal their baby’s gender.

Her story was shared globally and soon became a trend.

“It just exploded into crazy after that. Literally – guns firing, forest fires, more emphasis on gender than has ever been necessary for a baby,” Jenna said.

Stupid!

Jenna recently expressed her disgust at how gender reveal parties have burst out of control. She shared on her Facebook page, High Gloss and Sauce:

“Stop it. Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid’s penis. No one cares but you.”

“Who cares what gender the baby is? I did at the time because we didn’t live in 2019 and didn’t know what we know now – that assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what’s between their legs.”

Personally we quite like the gender reveal party but somehow the concept has been escalated from harmless fun to explosive danger.

What do you think about the gender reveal party? Tell us in the comments below.