Gender reveal parties have surged in popularity in recent years, despite their reception by the general public.
Viewers tend to especially enjoy hate-watching these reveals, specifically for how the parents react to the big news. When one parent doesn't appear to be particularly excited by the reveal results, viewers are quick to judge their commitment to parenthood.
But mother Kendra Evans, who runs a family TikTok account called "Daily Dose of My Girl Gang" starring her four young daughters, argues that "gender disappointment" and "gender grief" are real things, and these valid concerns should be normalized.
Evans recently posted a video of her, her husband, and their three daughters, looking on as a color bomb went off inside of a jack-o-lantern. The gray smoke poured out of the pumpkin's eyes, mouth, and nose, and it gradually turned pink.
At the realization that the smoke was not going to be blue, Evans covered her face before bending down to her knees in tears, mourning the fact that she would never get the boy she was hoping for, since her husband had recently had a vasectomy.
You can watch the video here:
Fellow TikTokers were deeply divided by the mother's reaction in the video, as comments poured in ranging from empathetic to angry and skeptical, and those disappointed in the opportunity the mother seemed to be missing.
Some TikTokers completely understood where Evans was coming from and shared their own stories.
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But others challenged Evans to think about her situation from someone else's perspective who might be less fortunate.
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Evans has shared that she has since made peace with the news and was excited to have a beautiful family of girls, sisterhood, and sisterly bonds.
But she also did not want to apologize for the boy she wished she had, and she felt that parents should be more open about what they want and not apologize for the grief they feel when the life they were dreaming of doesn't turn out to be the reality.
