Thank you for this! I still have on my ever growing to do list to finish my first son’s baby book. He’s 4 ... lol and my second son is 6 months (didn’t even buy a baby book for him) I should just delete the to do off the list and relieve myself of the guilt!
Or keep them and add intermittently as “childhood” books? Reading this I was thinking, I don’t care when I first rolled over or whatever but I would love if my parents had written down some random silly stuff like malapropisms or bragging about eating exactly 30 peas for dinner, you know?
A few weeks after my first baby was born (over 20 years ago) I was invited to a Creative Memories party by a mom in the neighborhood. I was the young mom in the group and felt so intimidated seeing the "experienced" moms work their scrapbook magic.
I scrapbooked up to my daughter's second birthday. Looking back, it was definitely not worth the time, money, or stress. For my middle two I made Shutterfly books, only pictures. And I still need to make one of those for my last — he's 7.
What I've experienced is that our videos are most precious, especially the ones of everyday stuff. They're the only ones my kids have much interest in looking at.
Before out daughter was born I saw someone say that they opened up an email account for their kiddo so they could send messages whenever they wanted (with the plan to hand over the password when the kid turned 18). As a librarian with archival tendencies, I loved this! So did my husband. We set up an account. Who sends the messages? Me. Just me.
As a "thing," I like it. I send one email or so a month with bullet points and a few photos. It's something I can keep up with (being a bullet journaler helps with my recall). But is totally care work dominated by moms.
I also like this as a thing! But yup totally still care work. I sometimes jot down cute shit at night in my "line a day" journal but obv feel guilty I'm not jotting that same shit in the cute books blah blah blah.
Of course I had intentions of both filling out a baby book AND getting my kids 'My Book About Me" by Dr Seuss, as my brother and I loved fillings ours out in our elementary school years. Neither happened. Also, photo albums (because my kids are 22 and 20, it's both old school printed photos from film, digital camera print and then phone pics that remain on my hard drive) remain half done, and in boxes in the garage.
But my husband actually spent quite a few years journaling, and journaled through the kids early years, particularly when we were on vacation and he had more time. He's more introspective and romantically inclined, if that makes sense, so he was probably the better one to do it.
I did do memory boxes every year during the kids elementary school years, throwing in art, school work, birthday cards, etc. God knows what they will actually do with them, but I still have mine in the garage from high school and college!
Ahh, the baby book guilt! I've jokingly said that Facebook memories are my kid's baby books, but it's actually kind of true (and one of the things that prevents me from quitting FB). I am delighted to have random stories and pictures pop up every year and someday would like to figure out how to export them so I could give them to the kids... but that is another task I just don't have bandwidth for. So here's hoping (I guess) that FB sticks around long enough that I can someday get that done.
FYI, my college aged son tells me that his friends stalk their friends' parents' FB pages and screenshot all those adorable pics we posted when the kids were little and send them to the group chat. Especially those awkward years, lol.
Thank you for this! I still have on my ever growing to do list to finish my first son’s baby book. He’s 4 ... lol and my second son is 6 months (didn’t even buy a baby book for him) I should just delete the to do off the list and relieve myself of the guilt!
Or keep them and add intermittently as “childhood” books? Reading this I was thinking, I don’t care when I first rolled over or whatever but I would love if my parents had written down some random silly stuff like malapropisms or bragging about eating exactly 30 peas for dinner, you know?
Or don’t!! Gods know you don’t need any more pressure to do anything you don’t want to do
I have a running Notes app note with my sons funny sayings and such!
A few weeks after my first baby was born (over 20 years ago) I was invited to a Creative Memories party by a mom in the neighborhood. I was the young mom in the group and felt so intimidated seeing the "experienced" moms work their scrapbook magic.
I scrapbooked up to my daughter's second birthday. Looking back, it was definitely not worth the time, money, or stress. For my middle two I made Shutterfly books, only pictures. And I still need to make one of those for my last — he's 7.
What I've experienced is that our videos are most precious, especially the ones of everyday stuff. They're the only ones my kids have much interest in looking at.
Before out daughter was born I saw someone say that they opened up an email account for their kiddo so they could send messages whenever they wanted (with the plan to hand over the password when the kid turned 18). As a librarian with archival tendencies, I loved this! So did my husband. We set up an account. Who sends the messages? Me. Just me.
As a "thing," I like it. I send one email or so a month with bullet points and a few photos. It's something I can keep up with (being a bullet journaler helps with my recall). But is totally care work dominated by moms.
I also like this as a thing! But yup totally still care work. I sometimes jot down cute shit at night in my "line a day" journal but obv feel guilty I'm not jotting that same shit in the cute books blah blah blah.
Of course I had intentions of both filling out a baby book AND getting my kids 'My Book About Me" by Dr Seuss, as my brother and I loved fillings ours out in our elementary school years. Neither happened. Also, photo albums (because my kids are 22 and 20, it's both old school printed photos from film, digital camera print and then phone pics that remain on my hard drive) remain half done, and in boxes in the garage.
But my husband actually spent quite a few years journaling, and journaled through the kids early years, particularly when we were on vacation and he had more time. He's more introspective and romantically inclined, if that makes sense, so he was probably the better one to do it.
I did do memory boxes every year during the kids elementary school years, throwing in art, school work, birthday cards, etc. God knows what they will actually do with them, but I still have mine in the garage from high school and college!
Ahh, the baby book guilt! I've jokingly said that Facebook memories are my kid's baby books, but it's actually kind of true (and one of the things that prevents me from quitting FB). I am delighted to have random stories and pictures pop up every year and someday would like to figure out how to export them so I could give them to the kids... but that is another task I just don't have bandwidth for. So here's hoping (I guess) that FB sticks around long enough that I can someday get that done.
FYI, my college aged son tells me that his friends stalk their friends' parents' FB pages and screenshot all those adorable pics we posted when the kids were little and send them to the group chat. Especially those awkward years, lol.
Parent hack: get them to do it themselves as soon as they can hold a pencil, it’s too cute 🥰 (I’ve done this once for one of my 4 kids 😂😂😂)
UM THIS IS BRILLIANT