While photos and videos are great ways of preserving memories of your evolving family, they certainly don’t capture everything. And, saving all those art projects and school papers can take up a great deal of room. Over the years, I’ve found that I appreciate having a written record of things my children said and did, in addition to all those visual reminders and academic memorabilia.
You may think that your child’s sayings and strange mutations of words are so hilarious and original that you will remember them–but chances are, if they’re not written down somewhere, they will just fade into the passing years. Having a journal where you can write down things your child says and does periodically will give you a written record of their childhood. I so appreciate being able to look up which one of my children used to use the phrase “Nether Day” for any event that didn’t happen that very day (it took her a while to grasp the elusive concepts of yesterday, tomorrow, next week, etc.–so everything just happened on “nether day.”) While I may have remembered the phrase, I might now know who it was assigned to unless I had written it down.
Journaling about your kids and family can be such a great way of gaining perspective. It’s hard to stay grumpy about the mess in the kitchen or the mud in the living room if you’re writing it down for posterity. Just think of the fun you’ll have being able to share with your grandchildren all the escapades and misadventures of THEIR parents. Having it down in black-and-white will make it tough for your child to accuse you of making it up!
Whether you write things down by hand in a notebook or journal, or whether you tuck things away on your computer, the important thing is to actually be getting some of these things down on paper!
See Also: The Imperfect Scrapbook Life