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Most of you know that I've been working on setting up a sort of library in a front room of my house (upgrading from a playroom), and while it will be a while before the trim work is done, I've migrated all of my albums in there - every single one from all over the house.

Well, that has sparked a new interest with my kids. I guess the albums were just ubiquitous before - they just kind of existed everywhere and blended in and nobody ever asked to see them. Anyway, two nights ago, I was in the craft room in the basement, and Jake brought down an album from 2007 or so when he was a toddler. The layout it was opened to contained several photos of him making a bunch of different faces. And what I wrote about him was in cursive, which they aren't teaching anymore, so Jake has a hard time reading it. So he brought it to me and asked me to read what I wrote on that page.

It was kind of a love letter addressed directly to his toddler self that was represented in those photos. When I was done reading the whole thing, he set the album down on the floor, and just gave me a huge hug and said "I love you mom". I think it totally got him "in the feels". I've always held out hope that they'd someday be interested in looking back on their life. And while this is likely just a passing phase while the room is new, I'll take that one single moment from Jake as fuel to continue what I'm doing. Because just that one reaction from him, makes it all worth doing.

In other news, all of my journaling is in cursive, and future generations will need a translator specializing in ancient writing techniques to read it!!! Ug.

Awwww. That's so cool, Julie! I tend to use cursive on mine as well. I'm in envy of that bookcase that will properly hold your albums!

It's so worth it.
During our son's "troubled years" I came home one day to find him with friends going through scrapbooks. The pages reminded him - and us - that there was a time when we weren't battling each other every. single. day. and gave us hope we could get there again. Thank goodness we did.

That's a great feeling isn't it? Love that story!

pamcook wrote:It's so worth it.
During our son's "troubled years" I came home one day to find him with friends going through scrapbooks. The pages reminded him - and us - that there was a time when we weren't battling each other every. single. day. and gave us hope we could get there again. Thank goodness we did.

Pam - my first motive has always been to do this for me. And when it became clear that my grandmother was suffering some kind of dementia as she got older, it became even more urgent for me to have these books for my own self as I get older.

But a close second motive was to have that documentation for the kids. They don't ever act like they know it, but their life is pretty dang good. These books tell stories of family, friends, good times, holidays, travel - and on occasion random everyday moments. Some day when my kids are going around spewing nonsense about how dreadful their life has been and how awful their parents are, maybe I'll just make them pluck a random album off the shelf and take a look. Granted, I don't document the terrible. But there is a hefty amount of "the good life" in those books that they'll be reminded of.

I would hope that their life never goes through a truly terrible low streak, but it could - and you make a really good point about your son. Even if times are bad, if looking at old photos and stories can lend hope, then that's a great thing.

It sure bothered me when they quit teaching cursive. I was in 3rd grade and had to learn cursive over weekend.

So now my grandkids will learn cursive by their parents teaching them
It is one thing they really need to learn

It is so cool that the kids look at the scrapbooks. You should be so proud

Where's the tissue????

What a touching moment for you Julie, and of course Jake!

Thanks for sharing.

pat-czap wrote:Where's the tissue????

What a touching moment for you Julie, and of course Jake!

Thanks for sharing.

I know, right? After the hug, he quietly took the book and went back upstairs, presumably to finish looking through it. But I'm not gonna lie - I had a bit of a moment.

pat-czap wrote:Where's the tissue????

What a touching moment for you Julie, and of course Jake!

Thanks for sharing.

OMGosh...no kidding...ditto here also. sniff, sniff...

That's why we do it - so someone will know who we were and what our lives were like. I hold no hope that Chris or Jim will ever be interested, but Maddie is, and if one person cares, then that's good enough. And who knows? Maybe someday a historian will be interested in all of this.

Hey, it could happen.