It seems that babies come in waves.

I haven’t attended a baby shower in more than a year, and after several Father’s Day ultrasound Facebook announcements this week, it looks like I may have something close to 5, 356 games of “Guess the Baby Food” in my near future.

When one of these precious expectant families, either through birth or adoption, discovers they’re having a girl, I immediately take the full liberty of purchasing every obnoxious flower hair bow and ridiculous-looking tutu in sight. I don’t care that the mom-to-be has requested no more clothes on her baby shower invitation; she gets to buy tights and accessories and pants in colors other than “will-look-good-in-dirt” for the rest of her mommy life. She can sacrifice a little for a deprived boy mom whose shopping experience includes stripes, solids and “which t-shirt will look best with rips from tree house jumping?”.

But when these families discover they’re having a boy, I skip the clothing aisle all together. Because, let’s be honest, it’s not like those clothes will ever stay tear- or stain-free anyway.

Instead, I gift them with our Boy Survival Kit — a collection of items that we, as boyparents, have discovered are helpful, useful or vital to life with boys.