It's the police: the gender reveal parties Aussies love

The pink-or-blue parties are now on par with engagements, hens, bucks, graduations and baby showers. And social media is behind it.

There's an arms race on sites like Tiktok and Instagram to create the most unique baby gender reveal possible and it's prompting parents to get creative with cannons, burnouts and every type of sports equipment.

But the parties are under fire for reinforcing traditional gender narratives and causing chaos in public spaces.

Melbourne's Gender Revealer party supply store manager Renee Fass said she works with expectant parents to make sure their surprise is stunning while remaining safe.

Ms Fass shared some of Australia's favourite gender reveal party ideas.

Tiktok is a fertile ground to test wacky pranks. One expectant father involved the police in his viral gender reveal posted to the social media site on May 15 and it's sure to be an instant classic.

Footage of the Sydney party shows guest shocked when two men dressed as police confront the dad-to-be Mina Ibrahim.

"You can't just walk into our house," Mr Ibrahim yells at the fake police officers before telling the party guests to film the interaction.

Mr Ibrahim made a move to push one of the officers and things escalated.

Just as the confrontation reached a crisis point one of the officers yelled "Congratulations it's a baby girl".

The most popular gender reveal in Australia is a simple hand-held cannon filled with confetti in pink or blue.

"This is far and away the most common gender reveal we do," Ms Fass said.

Firing these hand-held cannons are safe when used correctly, she said.

The advantage of a cannon reveal is its price-points. Parents wanting to keep their gender reveal costs under $60 fire off one of these devices, she said.

But parents wanting a more dramatic reveal tend to hand out a cannon to each of the party guests, Ms Fass said.

Believe it or not, a major trend in gender reveal parties involves taping a black bag stuffed with pigment to the back wheel of a car, gathering friends and family and doing the burnout of a lifetime.

These videos show party guests whooping and cheering as the colourful dust is blown over the crowd like thick smoke.

"We recommend this gender reveal is be done by a professional in a suitable vehicle on either private property or to check our your local raceway or motor sports venue," Ms Fass said.

"We don't encourage illegal or dangerous behaviour with this product," she said.

Whatever brand of sports fanatic - golf, cricket, tennis, rugby, gridiron, basketball, baseball - there's a ball packed with pigment.

There are even clay pigeons for those who care to pair babies and guns.

The balls can be kicked, hit or pitched to reveal the pink or blue pigment packed inside.

There's a category on Tiktok called "gender reveal gone wrong" that's almost as popular as videos that go as planned.

They involve cannons misfiring, revealing the wrong gender and helium balloons floating out of reach and taking the surprise with them.

"People see fireworks on Tiktok and Instagram and want the same in their backyard in suburban Australia," Ms Fass said.

There's one day per year, July 1, where punters in the Northern Territory are allowed to play with fireworks.

Otherwise Australian restrictions on fireworks limit their use to those with a permit and professional pyrotechnicians.

"We tell them that we can do that but it's going to cost $10,000," Ms Fass said.

There's a lot that can go wrong, she said.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Gender reveal mishaps can be serious and the parties have accrued a death toll.

In the United States at least two major wildfires, in 2017 and 2020, were started by gender reveal pyrotechnics.

A Californian wildfire raged from September to November 2020 after a couple set off a smoke bomb at a gender reveal photoshoot in El Dorado Ranch Park.

The fire burned through 20 buildings and killed one firefighter. The couple were charged with involuntary manslaughter over the gender reveal gone wrong.

The sawmill fire burned 190 square kilometres of Arizona's Coronado National Forest in April 2017 and there were luckily no fatalities or injuries resulting from the fire.

An off-duty border patrol agent started the fire when he shot four bullets at a highly explosive target packed with blue dye.