Guess the Baby! How to Run a Family Baby Guessing Game (Grandparents Included)

Somewhere around week 30, every family conversation ends the same way. "So, when do you think?" Grandma is certain it will be early. Your brother has money on a boy. Your niece just wants to know if the baby will have curly hair like hers.

Those guesses are already flying around. A family baby guessing game simply catches them, writes them down, and turns the wait into something the whole family plays together. Here is how to run one that works for a four-year-old, an eighty-four-year-old and the cousin who lives three time zones away.

Why a family game beats a shower game

A baby shower game lasts an afternoon and only includes the people in the room. A family guessing game runs for weeks, and that changes everything:

• Everyone gets in, including the people who could never make it to a shower: grandparents abroad, the uncle who works shifts, the kids who were in bed.
• It builds anticipation. Every family chat between now and the birth has a running joke: "Still sticking with the 14th, Dad?"
• The reveal is bigger. When the baby arrives, you are not just sharing a name and a weight. You are announcing a winner, and half the family has been waiting for exactly that.

If you are new to the idea, what is a baby pool explains the basics in two minutes.

Step 1: choose what the family guesses

Keep it to five or six things. Too many questions and Grandpa gives up halfway. These are the ones families actually enjoy arguing about:

1. Birth date. The classic. Everyone has a theory, and everyone is wrong in a different direction.
2. Time of day. A lovely tiebreaker, and kids love guessing "in the middle of the night".
3. Boy or girl. Only if you are keeping it a surprise. If you already know, swap it for the next one.
4. Weight. The one grandparents are genuinely good at. They have seen more newborns than anyone.
5. Length. Harder than it sounds, which makes it fun.
6. Hair. Lots, little, or none at all? Bonus points for colour.
7. Eye colour. Almost impossible to predict, so it splits the field nicely.
8. The name. If it is still a secret, let the family guess. Nothing gets a group chat going like "You would never name a child that, would you?"

Need more inspiration? Our 30 baby prediction questions has the fun extras, from first word to who the baby will look like.

Step 2: get every generation in

This is the part that makes a family game different, and it is where most people give up too early. A few tricks:

Grandparents. Do not send a link and hope. Call them, ask the questions out loud, and enter the answers for them. Five minutes on the phone, and they are in the game and telling everyone at the club about it. If they are online, a shared baby pool with one link works just as well; they tap, fill in, done.

Kids. Let them guess with crayons on paper, then type it in under their own name. A guess of "twelve pounds and purple eyes" is exactly the kind of entry that gets read out loud at the reveal.

Family abroad. The people who cannot be there physically are the ones who love this most. Post the link in the family group and give a deadline. Time zones do not matter when the game runs for weeks.

The competitive uncle. There is always one. He will want to know the exact rules before he commits. Give him a copy of the baby pool rules and let him strategise. He is doing the marketing for you.

Step 3: set the rules once, out loud

Nothing kills a family game faster than a disagreement about who really won. Settle three things before the first guess goes in:

• How the winner is picked. Points per question, closest on the date, or "most answers right". Pick one and tell everyone.
• The deadline. Guesses lock at 37 weeks, or a week before the due date. After that, nobody changes their mind, however sure Grandma suddenly is.
• The tiebreaker. Time of birth is the usual one. Weight works too.

Write it in the group chat once, and point back to it later.

Step 4: keep it alive until the birth

A guessing game that sits quietly for six weeks is forgotten. A few nudges keep it warm:

• Share a "guess count" now and then: "14 in, still waiting on Aunt Sue."
• Post the bump photo each month and ask if anyone wants to reconsider their weight guess (they cannot, and that is the joke).
• When the due date passes, celebrate every wrong guess as it expires. "That's Dad out."

Step 5: make the reveal a moment

The birth announcement and the winner announcement belong together. Send the photo, the name, the weight and the length, and right underneath: "And the winner of the family baby guessing game is..." Then wait ten seconds before revealing. Families will tell you that pause was the best part.

Prizes for a family game should be about the baby, not a gift card:

• First cuddle after the parents and siblings.
• An honorary title: "Official Baby Oracle" on a mug, or a framed certificate.
• A photo with the baby on the day, printed and sent to the winner.
• A small pot if you played for money, with a rule that half goes to the baby's piggy bank.

Bonus: the other "guess the baby" game

If you search for "guess the baby", you will also find the classic photo game: every family member sends in a baby photo of themselves, you put them on a board, and everyone guesses who is who. It works brilliantly alongside a prediction game, especially at a family gathering where the grandparents have the old albums.

Run the photo game for the laughs on the day, and keep the prediction game running until the baby arrives. Between the two, nobody in the family is left out of the fun.

Start your family game today

Pick your questions, phone Grandma, and post one link in the family chat. Create a free baby pool, invite the whole family, and let the guessing begin. The baby is going to bring everyone together anyway. Why not start a little early?