Mommy or Daddy Baby Shower Game (Free Printable + Play Online)

I have sat through a lot of baby showers, and I have watched a lot of games quietly die on the carpet. The Mommy or Daddy game is not one of them. It is the one that gets loud. It is the one where somebody’s father-in-law shouts “that is absolutely a Daddy answer” across the room and everyone falls apart laughing.

The idea is almost too simple to write down. You read out a question about the parents-to-be. Something like: who will change the most diapers? Everyone guesses Mommy or Daddy. Then the parents tell you the real answer, and everybody finds out who actually knows them.

That is the whole game. No props to buy, no craft supplies, no complicated setup, nothing to time. It works with six guests around a kitchen table and it works with forty people in a rented hall. It works over video call. It works if the dad-to-be is stuck at work and phones in his answers ahead of time.

I built the tool above so you do not have to be the person with the clipboard doing arithmetic while everyone waits. It reads out the questions, it keeps score, it crowns a winner, and when there is a tie, which there almost always is, it settles it for you. You can also print the whole thing as a game sheet if you would rather play with pens and paper.

If you want the questions without the tool, they are all below. Take them, screenshot them, write them on cards. That is what they are there for.

How to play the Mommy or Daddy baby shower game

You need the parents-to-be, some guests, and a list of questions. That is genuinely it.

Sit the parents at the front where everyone can see them. If you want to be cruel about it, sit them back to back so they cannot see each other’s faces. Then work through the questions one at a time.

For each question:

Read the question out loud to the room.
Give everyone a moment to lock in a guess, either out loud or on a game sheet.
Ask the parents for the real answer.
Anyone who guessed correctly gets a point.

At the end, whoever has the most points wins. That person, officially, knows the parents best.

There are two ways people run this, and they are both fine:

The scored version, where there is a right answer, guests earn points, and somebody wins a prize at the end. This is the one most people mean when they say “Guess Who: Mommy or Daddy.” It has a competitive edge and it is the version I prefer, because a game without a winner tends to fizzle.

The just-for-laughs version, where there is no winner. The parents answer, everyone reacts, you move on. It is lovely and low pressure, and it is a good fit if the mom-to-be is exhausted and you want something gentle. The tool above will do this too, if you switch the scoring off.

A word on how the parents should answer. The classic move is to give each parent a prop to hold up: a paper mustache for Daddy and a pair of paper lips for Mommy is the traditional pairing, but honestly, two pieces of card that say MOMMY and DADDY work exactly as well. If a question genuinely applies to both of them, let them hold up both. Nobody will mind.

Mommy or Daddy questions

This is the part everybody actually comes here for, so here is the full list. It is far longer than you need for one shower. Pick the ones that fit the couple, ignore the rest, and add your own.

Twenty is the sweet spot for a real party. Fewer than twelve and it is over before it warms up. More than twenty-five and you will feel the room start to drift.

Parenting predictions

These are the heart of the game. Nobody knows the answers yet, including the parents, which is exactly what makes them funny.

Who will change the most diapers?
Who will get up for the 3am feed?
Who will be the stricter parent?
Who will spoil the baby the most?
Who will say “no” more often?
Who will take more photos of the baby?
Who will panic first when the baby cries?
Who will actually read the parenting books?
Who will pack the diaper bag?
Who will be the fun parent?
Who will cry first on the first day of school?
Who will teach the baby to ride a bike?
Who will sing the lullabies?
Who will give in first at bedtime?
Who will handle the first diaper blowout?
Who will fall asleep before the baby does?
Who will be better at getting the baby back to sleep?
Who will lose the pacifier more often?
Who will take the baby to their first haircut?
Who will make the sillier voices?
Who will be the total pushover?
Who will assemble the crib?
Who will lose more sleep in the first month?
Who will teach the baby their first bad word by accident?
Who will worry more about the baby’s temperature?
Who will do bath time?
Who will be better at soothing a tantrum?
Who will insist on one more bedtime story?
Who will childproof the house?
Who will be first to say “wait until your mother hears about this”?

Pregnancy questions

These have real answers, which means guests can genuinely get them right or wrong. If you want the scored version to feel fair, lean on these.

Who suspected the pregnancy first?
Who cried first at the ultrasound?
Who told their family first?
Who picked the baby’s first name?
Who picked the middle name?
Who is more nervous about labor and delivery?
Who decorated the nursery?
Who picked out most of the baby’s clothes?
Who has read more about pregnancy?
Who wanted to find out the gender first?
Who has been to more appointments?
Who packed the hospital bag?
Who chose the stroller?
Who has been more emotional this pregnancy?
Who talks to the bump more?
Who has eaten more of the pregnancy cravings?
Who has received more unsolicited advice?
Who is more excited about the baby shower?
Who first felt the baby kick, besides the one carrying?
Who has said “I can’t wait” the most times?

Guess who: when they were babies

This is my favourite category and the most underused. These are questions about the parents when they were babies themselves, which means somebody has to go and ask a grandmother.

Send these questions out with the invitations. Guests love having a bit of homework, the grandparents love being consulted, and you end up with baby photos on the table. It also gives relatives who cannot attend a way to take part.

Who weighed more as a baby?
Who was born earlier in the year?
Who walked first?
Who talked first?
Who was the bigger handful as a toddler?
Who had more hair as a baby?
Who was born closest to their due date?
Who cried more as a baby?
Who slept through the night first?
Who was the pickier eater as a kid?
Who got into more trouble at school?
Who looks more like their own baby photos?

Around the house

Reliable, easy, and quietly revealing. These are the ones where the couple starts bickering, in a nice way.

Who is the better cook?
Who does more of the laundry?
Who is messier?
Who hogs the remote?
Who is the better driver?
Who snores?
Who sleeps more soundly?
Who wakes up earlier?
Who leaves dishes in the sink?
Who does the grocery shopping?
Who deals with the spiders?
Who is better with money?
Who is more likely to be late?
Who takes longer to get ready?
Who has the messier car?

Funny Mommy or Daddy questions

If you only have room for a handful, take these. They get the biggest laugh per question.

Who is more likely to fall asleep during a movie?
Who is the better dancer?
Who is the worse singer?
Who is more competitive?
Who tells the worse jokes?
Who is more stubborn?
Who is more likely to cry at a commercial?
Who spends more time on their phone?
Who is more likely to google a symptom at 2am?
Who will eat the baby’s snacks?
Who takes longer in the shower?
Who is more likely to hit snooze?

Sweet questions

Slip two or three of these in near the end. They change the temperature of the room, and they are the ones the mom-to-be remembers afterwards.

Who said “I love you” first?
Who planned the first date?
Who is the better gift giver?
Who is more romantic?
Who apologizes first after an argument?
Who is the better listener?
Who was more nervous on the first date?
Who is going to be the softie?

Tie breaker questions

Here is the thing nobody warns you about. If you ask twenty yes-or-no questions to twelve guests, you will get a tie. Not sometimes. Almost always. Two or three people finish level at the top, everyone looks at you, and you have to invent something on the spot.

Do not invent something on the spot. Another Mommy or Daddy question will just tie again, because it has only two possible answers.

What actually breaks a tie is a number. Ask a question with a numeric answer, have each tied guest write down a guess, and the closest one wins. There is no way to draw.

How many diapers will they go through in the first week?
How many hours of sleep will they get on the first night home?
How many photos will they take in the first 24 hours?
How many people will visit in the first week?
How many times will someone say “she has your eyes”?
How many baby outfits are already in the nursery?
How many minutes will the first bath actually take?
How many stuffed animals will baby own by the end of month one?

The parents give the real number, or their best guess at it, and the closest guest takes the prize. The tool above runs this automatically the moment it detects a tie, which is the part I was most keen to get right, because a tie is where this game normally falls apart.

Guess who: Mommy or Daddy

You will see this called the Guess Who Mommy or Daddy baby shower game, and people sometimes assume it is a different game. It is not. It is this same game with the scoring switched on.

The distinction that matters is what kind of question you ask. If you ask “who will change more diapers,” there is no correct answer yet, so there is nothing to score. If you ask “who suspected the pregnancy first,” there is a correct answer, and a guest can genuinely get it right.

So when you are picking your Guess Who Mommy or Daddy questions, weight the list towards the pregnancy questions and the when-they-were-babies questions. Keep the predictions in for the laughs, but do not build the whole game out of them or the scoring will feel arbitrary.

Mom or Dad baby shower game

Same game, different label. Some people say Mommy or Daddy, some say Mom or Dad, and you will see the scored version called the Guess Who Mom or Dad game too. I have also seen Mama or Papa, Mummy or Daddy, and plenty of showers where the parents’ actual names were used instead.

Use whatever the couple actually calls themselves. This matters more than it sounds. Not every baby is arriving to a mommy and a daddy, and a game sheet that assumes one is a small, avoidable way to make somebody feel like an afterthought at a party thrown in their honour. Two mums, two dads, a single parent and a grandmother, a parent and their sister who is doing the night feeds. The game works exactly the same. Change the two names at the top and everything else follows.

The tool above lets you rename both parents to anything you like, and the printable sheets pick up the new names.

Here are some “guess who mommy or daddy” baby shower game questions.

Who will be the fun parent?
Who weighed more when born?
Who told the family about the baby first?
Who will say no the most?
Who picked the nursery theme?
Who spends more money?
Who will be more patient?
Who made the first move?
Who keeps their car cleaner?
Who has more clothes?
Who will take the most photos?
Who will spoil the baby more?

Ready-Made Printable

Editable Version

With the DIY guess who game app you can choose any border to match your shower theme.

Free printable and PDF

If your shower is the pen-and-paper kind, print it.

Choose your questions in the tool, hit the print button, and you will get a game sheet with your questions laid out and both parents’ names beside each one, ready to circle. Print one per guest. There is a matching answer key so whoever is running the game is not trying to remember what the parents said four questions ago.

The printable comes out in plain black and white, deliberately, so it does not drain your ink and it looks clean on any paper you happen to have. It uses whatever names you set, so if the sheet says Mama or Papa, that is what will print.

What you need on the day

Very little, which is the point.

The question list, on a phone, a screen, or paper.
Something for guests to answer with. Game sheets and pens, or just voices.
Props for the parents, if you want them. Paper lips and a paper mustache on sticks is the classic. Two cards with the parents’ names on work just as well.
A prize. A candle, a bottle of something, a bar of good chocolate. It does not need to be much, but a prize makes people try, and people trying is what makes the game fun.

Playing at a virtual baby shower

This game survives a video call better than almost any other shower game, because it is entirely spoken. There is nothing to pass around and nothing to smell.

Share your screen with the game running, read the question, and let people call out their guesses or drop them in the chat. The parents answer on camera. One person keeps score, or the tool does it for you.

If some guests are joining in person and some are on a screen, this is the game to reach for. Everyone can play it at once, which is not true of most of the alternatives.

How many questions should you use

Twenty. If you are short on time, fifteen.

I know that sounds oddly specific, but I have watched this game run long and it is painful. The first ten questions are electric. By question thirty, people are checking their phones and the mom-to-be is trying to work out how to end it politely.

Start strong with a funny one, put your sweetest question last, and stop while everyone still wishes there were more.

More baby shower games

If you are putting a whole afternoon together, this game pairs well with the rest of the baby shower games on the site. A few that go down well:

Baby shower bingo, which runs quietly in the background while gifts are being opened.
Baby shower trivia, if your crowd is competitive.
The baby shower emoji game, which is the one that always surprises people.
Baby shower word scramble and the baby shower word search, both good as guests arrive.
The Price Is Right baby shower game, which gets surprisingly heated.
A diaper raffle, which is not really a game, but it does get you diapers.

And if you are the one organising all of this, the baby shower checklist and the guide to planning a baby shower will save you a great deal of second-guessing. There are also baby shower invitations you can customise, and a baby registry checklist for the parents.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Mommy or Daddy baby shower game?

It is a guessing game about the parents-to-be. The host reads out a question, like who will change the most diapers, and every guest guesses whether the answer is Mommy or Daddy. The parents then give the real answer. Guests who guessed right score a point, and whoever has the most points at the end wins.

How do you play Guess Who: Mommy or Daddy?

Exactly the same way, with the scoring turned on. Guess Who is just the name people use for the competitive version, where there is a correct answer and a winner at the end. If you want it to feel fair, use questions that have a real answer, like who suspected the pregnancy first, rather than predictions about the future.

What questions do you ask?

Anything about the couple that the room might have an opinion on. The best lists mix four things: predictions about parenting, real events from the pregnancy, facts about the parents when they were babies themselves, and a few daft ones about who snores or who is the worse singer. There is a full list of questions further up this page, sorted into those categories.

How many questions should the game have?

Twenty is about right. Fifteen if you are short on time. Past twenty-five the room starts to drift, and the game is much better remembered if you stop while people still want more.

Is there a winner?

There can be, and I think there should be. Some versions of this game are played purely for laughs with no score kept at all, which is a perfectly nice way to run it. But a small prize makes guests actually think about their answers, and that is where the fun comes from. The tool on this page keeps score for you, and you can switch the scoring off if you would rather not have a winner.

What happens if there is a tie?

There usually is. Every question has only two possible answers, so with twenty questions and a room full of guests, several people tend to finish level. Another Mommy or Daddy question will not help, because it can tie again.

Use a numeric tie breaker instead. Ask something like how many diapers the parents will go through in the first week, have each tied guest write a number, and the closest guess wins. There is a list of tie breaker questions further up this page, and the tool runs one automatically as soon as it spots a tie.

What props do you need?

None, strictly. If you want them, the traditional pair is a paper mustache on a stick for Daddy and a set of paper lips for Mommy, which the parents hold up to give their answers. Two pieces of card with their names written on do the job just as well.

Can you play it at a virtual baby shower?

Yes, and it is one of the few shower games that genuinely works over a video call, because it is all talking. Share your screen, read the questions, and let guests call out or type their guesses. The parents answer on camera. It also works well for a mixed shower where some guests are in the room and some are on a screen.

Is there a free printable?

Yes. Pick your questions in the tool on this page and print them as a game sheet, one per guest, with a matching answer key for whoever is hosting. It prints in plain black and white so it does not eat your ink, and it uses whatever names you have set for the parents.

What if the parents are not a mommy and a daddy?

Then use their names. The game does not depend on the labels at all, and it works exactly the same for two mums, two dads, a single parent, or a parent playing alongside whoever is going to be doing the night feeds with them. Change the two names at the top of the tool and the questions, the scoring, and the printable sheets all follow.

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