Write Your Kids
Ideas for creating a rich record of your kid’s childhood. Learn more here. Like this? Subscribe below.
Breakfast time
Regardless of what it is and how it unfolds, it does - almost every single day - and that makes it the most important meal of the day a ritual worth documenting.
Watershed Moments
Write about a moment where some small thing shifted, and something that might have been taken for granted before, no longer held true.
Stage an Interview
Write down a few questions and stage a little mock audio interview. Encourage them to go deeper on their answers, to really get a rich snapshot a few minutiae of this point in their lives.
Unacknowledged Labors
There’s lots we do for our kids without an expectation of acknowledgement or gratitude. Tell them - not to make them feel bad - but so that they know why you gladly do it anyway.
Recount a Tantrum
Childhood isn't all puppies and sunflowers. So keep things real: recount a temper tantrum where tears were shed, and things were said. (Bonus points if puppies and/or sunflowers figure into your story!)
Weekly Rhythms
When the weeks tick by so fast, and surviving one can feel like such an accomplishment, it’s no wonder we don’t pay much attention to their shape. So, describe your kid’s daily and weekly rhythms.
Slow Transitions
Some changes happen all at once, while others, by degrees over time. By definition, the slow transitions are harder to notice, but no less valuable to write about (even if it takes a bit of practice).
Before, During and After
It might seem intuitive to only wait until an event has passed to write about it, but even a quick note leading up to the event, or during it, evoke the memory in a different light.
Record their voices
Record your kids’ voices as they talk about important things, or wholly unimportant things. You’ll be surprised at what the subtraction of the visual element can add.
Personal precepts
Encourage them to define a rule to live by, and check in every so often on how it’s evolved.