The most recent baby shower I attended was a blast. Two neighbors, who are best friends, threw the shindig for two other neighbors who were due to give birth within days of each other. Oh sure, there were some silly games and plenty of pastel decorations, but there also was beer and pool in the basement for the guys and Frisbee and badminton outside for the kids. This was not your mother's baby shower.

Randy Wilson, a baby shower expert who maintains the Web site Planning A Baby Shower (http://www.planning-a-baby-shower.com), says baby showers have changed quite a bit from their original religious roots and are continuing to change as our society becomes more inclusive and less focused on the traditional rules of etiquette.

"The first parties that involved gift giving to the baby had to do with the baby's religious christening, and they were given after the baby was born," says Wilson. "This transformed into having teas for the new mom in the late 1800s, but they [showers] were still given after the birth of the baby. It wasn't until the early 1900s that these functions became baby showers as we know them today."

Through the 1990s, baby showers followed a pretty strict formula that kept the guest list largely feminine. Siblings and grandparents weren't usually welcome, and the parties were only for the firstborn. Wilson, a single father of two, says none of those old rules apply today.

"Today you have baby showers for the dads, grandparents, even showers where the siblings are invited," says Wilson. "As for only having baby showers for the firstborn, now you have them for every baby and even adopted children. With the Internet you can even have a baby shower online if the parents or mother are out of town but you still want to give them a shower. A good example would be friends and relatives in the military who are overseas."

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