A baby stag is a celebratory event held for a man shortly before he enters fatherhood to celebrate his "last days before fatherhood" or merely to spend time with his male friends. The baby stag is usually planned by a friend or a group of friends of the future father and is modeled after that of a bachelor party. Typically the event is held before or early in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy.
As per North American tradition, women will hold a baby shower for female friends of the mother which entails a gathering to celebrate the future birth of their child. The baby stag was created for the father as soon-to-be fathers have historically been excluded from holding specific events to celebrate their future parenthood.
The inaugural American baby stag was conducted on November 17, 2013 in Buffalo, New York. Eleven friends along with the future father embarked on a day trip to attend the Buffalo Bills versus New York Jets NFL football game. This event was titled “the Baby Stag for All Mankind”.
The first known UK Baby Stag was held in September 2011 in Bristol for a gentleman that goes under the pseudonym 'cinq Noisettes'.
By June 2016 the ‘Baby stag’ celebration had become toxic after sustained founded and unfounded complaints. The complaints originated from ‘Baby shower’ attendees. Evidence suggested the motivation for the complaints was jealousy - ‘Baby shower’ attendees were having less fun than ‘Baby stag’ attendees. ‘Baby stags’ invitees received pressure not to attend from ‘Baby shower’ attendees. A decision was taken to retire ‘Baby stags’ from popular culture.
A new celebration has been invented to celebrate a father’s upcoming parenthood - ‘The Miracle of Life toasting’. It is hoped the new celebration will reflect the seriousness of a father’s right to an event to celebrate their future parenthood and ‘cool’ the fun factor its detractors abhor.
To avoid any blurring boundaries of this new celebration and the old, please in no way use ‘The Miracle of Life toasting’ interchangeably with ‘Baby stag’.