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AITA: Not Sharing Baby Name Before He Is Born

When you announce your pregnancy one of the first few questions you get asked are; 'are you finding out the sex?' and 'what names do you have picked'? 

But some parents to be like to keep that information to themselves until the baby arrives for a variety of reasons. Maybe they don't want peoples opinions putting them off, or maybe they just want to see if the baby suits that name. One Mum to be be took to Reddits AITA (Am I The Asshole?) board after she refuses to disclose her babys name to her mother in law.

Read the full post here:

"I’m (33F) pregnant now with a baby boy. My husband and I are so excited. We tried for a few years and ended up going through IVF.

We’ve chosen a baby name we love. It is not a uNiQuE name, I promise - very standard name. We just have decided not to share the name with anyone until we give birth. There are a few reasons for this:

  1. The name is significant to us. We don’t want outside opinions

  2. We went through IVF and were VERY open about our journey. We’d prefer to keep this part private.

My MIL is throwing us a baby shower at the end of this month. She reached out today and said we really should be sharing the name with people. We ended up getting in a bit of an argument about it, and she told us that it was incredibly rude not to share something as small as a name with our guests that are coming/giving us presents/etc. She said everyone is just very curious and excited for us.

AITA (AWTA, I guess)?"

Read the full Reddit thread here

aita-not-sharing-baby-name-before-he-is-born

What was the general consensus?

The poster was voted NTA (Not The Asshole). One of the top comments said:

"NTA - MIL is wrong. She is belittling your decision by guilting you to spill the name. She has lots of choices and is choosing to not support you.

People who love you are overjoyed about your new little one and will wait until you announce this decision. You are wise to hold a firm boundary on something that is important to you. Congrats!"

While another commented: 

"NTA and it's weird of her (imo) to be fixated on this. Like...so many parents change their minds or don't even have a name picked out until the baby physically exists. She's excited and all (and sure, knowing the name helps with "personalized" gifts) but she can calm down."

Our Verdict...

No-one has a right to know your babys name until you are ready. But trying to guilt trip someone into telling you before they are ready to do so is uncalled for. We are glad this mum to be stood her ground. Just because people are giving you gifts for the baby at the baby shower doesn't mean you owe them anything. 

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