Capture Memories of Your Child With a Journal

by Barbara Abercrombie

That amazing observation coming from your toddler at breakfast, or the weird and wonderful story your third grader school tells you on the way home from school, or the question your sixth grader asks that stops you dead in your tracks, are going to be forgotten if you don't write them down. You think you'll remember (who could possibly forget when your four year old asks you, "Where is Queen Tut?" or "How come spiders can climb walls and people can't?"), but time rolls by and those sweet bon mots are gone. When you look at the photographs you have of your children as infants, you realize how much you've forgotten already. (Could those feet really have been that small? Those baby thighs so huge?) As a photo album can help you to remember, so can a journal.

Of all the activities in your busy life, keeping a journal can be one of the simplest. There's no special store to look up in the Yellow Pages, no fancy equipment to buy. All you need is a pen and a notebook, or a new file on your computer. I think the best notebooks are the lined spiral ones you can buy at the market or drugstore. Beware of the beautiful notebooks with lovely covers and heavy paper. They can end up intimidating you, making you to feel like you ought to write something really significant and earthshaking.

What you write may not seem all that significant until next month or a year from now, but what's vital for keeping a journal is that you write it down anyway. You don't have to have perfect grammar or spelling, and you don't have to be clever or literary. You could even write just lists: 5 Things Max Said Today or 5 Ways Sarah Can Make Me Crazy. Lists are wonderful for writing in journals because you don't need to feel creative or inspired to write one.

Find a time every day - ten minutes before the kids wake up, the last thing at night, or whenever you can grab a few private moments for yourself - and write down everything you can remember that your child has said or done during the past twenty-four hours. Maybe it'll be the whole convoluted story that your third grader told you, or maybe it'll be one moment, one word from your toddler that made your heart lurch.

Writing an e-mail everyday is another way to keep track, and if you spend a lot of time on a computer it can quickly become a habit. (Be sure to print yourself a copy) This can be a win-win activity: your mother or father would love to hear from you and what a gift to let them know on a daily basis what their grandchildren are up to. Or exchange reciprocal e-mails with your best friend or a sibling.

What you often find happening when you keep a journal or write daily e-mails is that you're more alert, listening and looking for things about your child to write down. And what could make a child happier than a parent paying that kind of attention, and realizing what he or she has to say is valuable enough to write down?