Here at Parentology, we’ve reported on gender reveals before. While they can often be fun and hilarious — just ask Tank the hippo — they also have the potential to get out of hand. Luckily nothing really serious happened in the latest gender reveal gone wrong — although one very unfortunate dad might disagree.
Tom and Kristin Cressotti wanted the reveal of their baby’s gender to be spectacular. To accomplish a striking visual, the couple decided to use colored smoke bombs. According to TODAY, the smoke bombs were designed to shoot 30 feet into the air.
As the couple and their daughter prepared to set them off, Tom had an inkling that something might not be quite right.
“When my wife handed it to me, I asked her if it was the right way,” he said. “She assured me it was and even told me to hold it a little lower like the packaging shows.”
Sadly it was not, in fact, the right way. After a quick countdown, Kristin’s blue smoke bomb went straight into the ground — and Tom’s went directly into his groin.
“You gave it to me the wrong way!” the anguished father cried out after falling to the ground in pain. As an onlooker helpfully noted, “Hey, no need for a vasectomy!”
“First of all, my utter shock was from the fact that it backfired,” Kristin later told TODAY. “I knew it was wrong when the blue was on the ground and not in the air. Then I realized my daughter was covered in blue powder, then I saw my husband on the ground yelling at me, because it was apparently my fault he did it wrong.”
“Honestly, it’s not very clear on the box,” Tom lamented. “They need a red arrow with ‘this end up.’ Something more specific.”
Fortunately, Tom’s parenting experience has toughened him up to the occasional low blow.
“My daughter hits me there once a week probably,” he said. “But it was my first, and last, explosive device to hit my testicles, that’s for sure.”
Thankfully, no serious damage was done, and Tom is able to laugh about the mishap.
“I initially just panicked when it first went off, because I was afraid it had hit my daughter,” the dad said. “Later, I was able to laugh at the situation, because no one got hurt.” Well, not permanently at least.