Send Emails to Your Child
Children’s books are great. All these little handwritten notes about their first words, their first tooth, and their first parenting friends. And, of course, you add photos taken when your child was first grooming or when they first ate banana puree.
Do you know what’s not so good? Our inability, as parents, year after year to follow through and actually fill this damn thing. Of course, the first child can get the most complete picture of the first five years of his life. But each successive child comes in with less and less likelihood of receiving more than a firm assurance that they were in fact babies at some point.
Instead of? Email them.
When the baby is born, reserve a special email address that you will use to secretly communicate with them as they grow up. All those sweet things that you try to keep in your memory – at the time when you experience the most sleep deprivation – will not be lost forever.
The first time they smile at you, email them to tell them what stupid thing you did to piss them off. When they take their first steps, email them how they refused to even try until they knew they could walk through the room without stumbling. Send them an email when they reach out to you to ask you to raise them, saying, “Am I hugging you?” and its attractiveness almost kills you on the spot.
Email them to tell them how brave they were on their first day of kindergarten. Submit a photo of their fourth grade BFFs and a video of this awesome soccer goal or their first solo choir performance. Send them an email every year on their birthday to tell them how they are growing, changing, and making you proud.
Then, when they turn 18, give them the password.