Never realised that celebrating a baby shower in a corporate setting can be so much fun to organize.
The opportunity came when working on the 'Johnson's' brand, with 2 of our HR managers 'eating for 2' in the 125th year of the brand's existence... we decided to celebrate with a surprise baby shower for the mums-to-be.
Searching for 'how to organise...' ideas on the internet was an obvious choice, but not too many novel options came up, so here's a round-up of how to celebrate the 'bun in the oven' in an office set-up.
1. Have a customized official invite sent out [without marking the mum-to-be, of course ;) ]
2. Put up pink & blue balloons & streamers with some good music in the background. Stock up well on some pink & blue leave-behind blank notes as well that you want the audience to fill in with their good wishes & hand-over to the mum-to-be on the way back.
3. Celebrate with games that involve the mum-to-be [reward winners with some pink & blue baby goodies - we had a few exclusive Johnson's & Aveeno baby products to give away and the audience lapped it up]
3. Celebrate with games that involve the mum-to-be [reward winners with some pink & blue baby goodies - we had a few exclusive Johnson's & Aveeno baby products to give away and the audience lapped it up]
a. Guess the birth week/ time: Ask the mum-to-be to guess theirs on a separate A4 sheet and put up a large-size chart for the audience to mark their guesses - select the winners basis those who come closest to the mum-to-be week/ time slot indicated on the A4 sheet coz mum-knows-best :)
[One of the mums actually came back after the baby was born to send me a message about how we'd been pretty close to predicting the right week/ time for her baby's arrival]
[One of the mums actually came back after the baby was born to send me a message about how we'd been pretty close to predicting the right week/ time for her baby's arrival]
b. Child-star quiz: As per the local culture, child stars may be from varied fields like movies, sports, TV shows viz. local dancing/ singing stars. Below is an example of a painstakingly compiled, Bollywood quiz we played which resonated very well with the audience; goes without saying, the expectation is that the child will be born a star*
-Appeared as a child
actor in Yaadon ki Baarat (1973), when he was just 8 years old.
*Aamir Khan
-Sang quite a few popular
songs as a child in movies like Rangeela (1995) and Akele Hum Akele Tum
*Aditya Narayan
-He was the ‘Farex’ baby
of the early 90s. In other words, this actor started modeling and was a brand
ambassador of a leading food brand, when he was in his diapers! He debuted in
Bollywood when he was 9 years old, in Mr. India.
*Aftab Shivdasani
-As a child artist, this
leading Bollywood actress of today starred in a movie called Sangharsh (1999)
which had Akshay Kumar in the lead role. She was just 6 years old at that time.
*Alia Bhatt
-A child arist in many
films including Koi Mil Gaya (2003), she debuted in Bollywood as a lead actress
with ‘Aap Ka Suroor’ (2007). She is a prominent actress in South India.
*Hansika Motwani
-A child artist in a
movie called ‘Bhagwan Dada’, when he was just 12.
*Hrithik Roshan
-Born in a Kashmiri
Pandit family, he was a successful child artist having acted in serials like
Gul Gulshan Gulfam and movies like Hum Hai Rahi Pyaar Ke (1993).
*Kunal Khemu
-An adorable debut as the
cute kid of Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee in ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ (1998)
Then, only ten years old, this actress went on to more roles and then finally
debuted as an adult in a supporting role in the movie ‘ Student of the Year’.
*Sana Saeed
-Faced camera for the
first time at the age of 8 in the now memorable ‘Complan Ad’.
*Shahid Kapoor
-She debuted as a child
artist in a devotional Tamil movie ‘Thunavian’, at the age of 4. She was the
go-to-girl for child artists in South Indian movies. She also made a debut as a
teenager in Bollywood with the movie Julie (1975).
*Sridevi
-A child artist made an
impact in Shekhar Kapoor’s Masoom when she was just 9. Also, who was her
co-star.
*Urmila Matondkar & Jugal
Hansraj
-Made her film debut with
a leading role in Kabir Khan's 2015 drama film Bajrangi Bhaijaan,
opposite Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor & Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
*Harshaali Malhotra
c. Passing the parcel until baby-kicks: This is a fun-twist to the passing the parcel game.. hand-over a placard with a picture like the one above to the mum-to-be and ask the audience member on whom the parcel stops every respective round to perform their act until the baby kicks [of course, only the mum can ratify when the baby has kicked and can ask the member to stop their act ;) makes for a fun exercise trying to get the mum-to-be to agree]
4. Have a mum-to-be cake and oh-so-yummy baby shower cup cakes [along with other snacking options]: Pre-order these well in advance and the mum-to-be will reminisce the memory for a long-time to come...
5. Surprise the mum-to-be by having her hubby/ parents join the celebrations - this is literally like the 'icing on the cake' and something she's been least expecting [you'd be surprised how easy it is to figure out the contact details for the family members - I just spoke to the office creche in-charge for the pre-registration the mum & dad-to-be had made for the creche services later]
6. End with a mum-to-be hamper wishing her luck in the wriggly, noisy joyride of motherhood; the leave-behind notes by the audience can be circulated as well for them to customize their messages [We had our HR head, Shivena handing over the hamper to the mums-to-be - Roma & Apeksha]
A baby shower at an office is not only reflective of the camaraderie and bonhomie in an office set-up but also speaks volumes about the people practices and support that corporate establishments like J&J extend to mums-to-be, enabling them in their journey of being born into mothers :)
c. Passing the parcel until baby-kicks: This is a fun-twist to the passing the parcel game.. hand-over a placard with a picture like the one above to the mum-to-be and ask the audience member on whom the parcel stops every respective round to perform their act until the baby kicks [of course, only the mum can ratify when the baby has kicked and can ask the member to stop their act ;) makes for a fun exercise trying to get the mum-to-be to agree]
4. Have a mum-to-be cake and oh-so-yummy baby shower cup cakes [along with other snacking options]: Pre-order these well in advance and the mum-to-be will reminisce the memory for a long-time to come...
5. Surprise the mum-to-be by having her hubby/ parents join the celebrations - this is literally like the 'icing on the cake' and something she's been least expecting [you'd be surprised how easy it is to figure out the contact details for the family members - I just spoke to the office creche in-charge for the pre-registration the mum & dad-to-be had made for the creche services later]
6. End with a mum-to-be hamper wishing her luck in the wriggly, noisy joyride of motherhood; the leave-behind notes by the audience can be circulated as well for them to customize their messages [We had our HR head, Shivena handing over the hamper to the mums-to-be - Roma & Apeksha]
A baby shower at an office is not only reflective of the camaraderie and bonhomie in an office set-up but also speaks volumes about the people practices and support that corporate establishments like J&J extend to mums-to-be, enabling them in their journey of being born into mothers :)