It’s safe to say he fumbled the bag.
A UK man named Ryan was mortified after his pregnant wife aired the questionable contents of the hospital bag he packed for her — which included shower gel, a T-shirt with a movie character and a whistle. The woman chronicled the literal grab-bag in a TikTok video with 1.8 million views.
“I was baffled. There was no sense behind it,” Liv Nightingale, 23, told Jam Press of the ludicrous experience, which occurred while she was 34-weeks pregnant.
The expectant Worcester native and her boyfriend Ryan, 25, had just driven back from a family vacation Torquay, when they thought she was due to deliver — a situation she described as “pure panic.” Fortunately, it later turned out to be a false alarm.
At the time, the unaware family decided to rush the stay-at-home mother to the Worcester Hospital, after which her beau hurriedly cobbled together a pack of hospital essentials and dropped them off at the hospital.
“He had a 10-minute window to put a bag together for me,” recalled Nightingale, who shares a toddler with her partner.
Unfortunately, when the patient opened the care package, she realized the contents were anything but essential.
In lieu of the usual towels and undergarments, the parcel contained a prop comedian-evoking list of random items, including a make-up bag, shower gel, a Dyson hair dryer and three toothbrushes.
Also in the bag were two “going out” dresses, hair gel, a whistle and — perhaps most perplexingly — a T-shirt emblazoned with a cigarette-smoking Max Branning, a character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
Nightingale found the assortment “hilarious.”
“I don’t wear much make-up, I’m not sure what the hair gel was for and he was clearly planning on me going on a night out after being released from the hospital with the dresses,” the Brit said. “The dresses didn’t even come in handy, though I can kind of see his thought process.”
She added, “I’d have liked some underwear, a towel for starters and a normal t-shirt though.”
The Brit said the Max Branning shirt caused a stir among the nurses, who’d periodically pop in to check on it.
“I was having serious discussions with midwives with a Max Branning T-shirt on,” lamented Nightingale, who surmised that the garment was an in joke referencing her beau’s collection of “EastEnders”-themed shirts.
The TikTok commentariat was similarly flabbergasted over the packing list.
“This is like if you asked an 8-year-old to pack your bag,” said one critic, while another wrote, “Maybe I’m a diva but I’d actually be fuming.”
A third joked, “The way I would blow the whistle to get his attention every time I wanted something.”
However, Nightingale was quick to defend her seemingly packing-illiterate BF.
“I didn’t realize people felt that passionately about hospital bags,” he said. “It got even more extreme than that, I’ve never experienced bullying or anything like that so I had to delete the comments. I guess people don’t understand our sort of banter.”
Fortunately, this trip proved to be a false alarm and Nightingale is still waiting to give birth to her pride and joy — hopefully with a better bag this time.
However, it appears the Brit’s husband didn’t see the error in his packing ways.
“He said it’s forced him to rethink a few things but stands by the Max Branning T-shirt,” she said.
