By: Wendy S. Marcus
As much as I try to be a good mommy, time after time I find myself confronted with reminders of just how far I fall short. Take last month, for instance, while I was cleaning out my youngest daughter’s closet. And may I share here; I am truly amazed at how much stuff I’d been able to cram in there over the years. Too bad the ability to hide junk is not on the good mommy rating scale!
Anyway, let me start from the beginning. I save everything having to do with milestones in my children’s lives. Baby teeth. Locks of hair from the first haircut. Hand prints. Foot prints. Drawings. Colorings. Paintings. Sand art. Splatter art. School writing samples. Awards. Certificates. Report cards. Programs from dance recitals, baton recitals, soccer and baseball tournaments, and band concerts. Letters and cards from each of them.
At face value sounds like something a good mommy would do, right? Now ask me where I keep my mommy memorabilia.
Crammed into my youngest daughter’s closet. Where the baby teeth and locks of hair got mixed up, so I’m not sure who they belong to. Where the artwork my beloved children presented me with pride over the years, yellowed and bent and crumpled and tore.
And the pictures. THOUSANDS of them stuffed into boxes, left to fade and curl and stick together. Very few are labeled, and since my youngest daughter often wore my oldest daughter’s hand-me-downs, damned if I can tell them apart in certain pictures.
I need to do better.
For you younger moms out there, don’t let this happen to you! Don’t let your mementos amass to an overwhelming, disorganized heap of bags, file boxes, and Rubbermaid containers that look more like refuse waiting for trash pickup than valuable reminders of treasured times. Don’t be a bad mommy like me!!!
I am at your mercy, fellow mommies. Please share how you preserve your children’s childhood memories. What you keep vs. what you get rid of. And what do you do with the stuff you keep? I’ve thought about scrap-booking, but to tell you the truth, I am the anti-crafter. My creativity is limited to the written word. But any helpful hints and suggestions would be very much appreciated.
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Hey, Wendy,
I’ve started putting pictures on CDs to preserve them. I keep the originals but have a filing of CDs. I also have a particular bin for each child and I’m adding more for different years. You know, like Rubbermaid bins?
TBH, some of the bigger things, like drawings in school, I didn’t keep. I took pictures of them. It takes up too much space.
I hope this helps.
Abbi
I don’t know if that helps.
I took some inspiration from Kelle Hampton’s beautiful photo books and bought myself a digital scrapbook program and dragged and dropped my way to a fabulous yearly memory book. I loved the first one so much I am putting the second one together and even though it takes some time, there is nothing like the finished product.
Here was my inspiration piece : http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/04/it-is-finished.html
I’m with Abbi and Lisa! Take pictures of the big stuff and get everything digital (takes up less space and wont be damaged) then compile the best of every year in a storybook showcase! I just did the first 2 weeks of pictures of my new baby and she is kid #4: http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectID=1910881&productId=458&sponsorID=315189 Let me know if you want help going digital, that’s what I do.
Uhhh, I’m going to win the worst mommy award here. I don’t keep mementos. No baby teeth, no locks of hair,and no drawings/paintings/artwork either.
I have their birth certificates and will certainly keep their high school diploma – everything else in between is pretty much toast.
Now all of our pictures are stored on the computer with a CD backup – done by my husband.
Hi Abbi!
Taking pitures of artwork/projects is a FABULOUS idea! Putting pictures on CDs is even better. I bet you know what’s coming next…… Exactly how do you put a picture on a CD? I am absolutely hopeless!!!!
Hi Lisa K! And Welcome!!!
I will definitely check out that link! I’ve never heard of a digital scrapbook. Thank you so much!
Hi Shari! And Welcome!!!
Going digital is perfect! (space wise) The actual execution has me worried. I am a techno-idiot. Wow! Your #4 will have actual pictures! My #3 has some. Not nearly as many as her older brother and sister! Thanks for your offer of help! I am under deadline right now and won’t get to any new projects until early in the New Year, but I will definitely keep you in mind.
Hi Aimee!
You know my son and daughter both asked me, “Why are you saving all this crap?” Except for my youngest dtr’s cast, she told me to throw it all out. And my oldest told me to get rid of duckie!! Duckie!!! The stuffie she carried everywhere for years. How can I get rid of duckie??? (I am picturing you saying, “Easy. You just toss it in the trash.”
I’m liking this digital deal. I do have some pics on Shutterfly. And maybe Kodak. I need a Dan!!!
OH, thank you Wendy! I am poised at the verge of being you. With my boys still young, my goal to fame was taking everything my son did in kindergarten and prek and sticking it in a big plastic tubberware in the basement. And I was so proud of myself! But what I I keep doing this and have 22 tubberwares in a few years?
And Aimee – thank you for being so honest and causing me to sputter my coffee. I LOVED that you didn’t keep anything. I need to get tough also and keep only the stuff I know is important. But my older son is a total packrat. He caught me throwing away his old math homework and said, “Why don’t you want to keep this?” and broke my heart!! Hoarders – here we come…
Great post! I have fabulous intentions. Started well with scrapbooked memories for number one but poor number three is now three and his first year isn’t even started. My aim is to do a photobook every year and I do try to keep special pictures but they are all currently just shoved in a box
Hi Jen!
Hoarders here we come….too funny! But I see how it can happen. I find the stuff seems so important to me at the time. Then, years later, when I go through some of it I wonder why the heck I kept it? And now that my children are older, they don’t seem to care at all about it. But I think when they have their own children – many many years from now! – it might be fun for them to compare their first grade essays with their children. Or maybe not. Who knows?!
Hi Rachel! And Welcome!!
I have fabulous intentions, too! Welcome to the club! I did baby books for each of my children, although poor #2. I was working a high level management job then and they wanted me back at 6 weeks post delivery. I think I only made it to two months for him. (I tried to piece it in years later though….I mean, he won’t actually remember his first word…sooooooo…….)
I can see this happening to me. I can only make shadowboxes out of so many things.
Hi Sakya! And Welcome!!!
Not sure what a shadowbox it, but the digital scrap books recommended above sound like a great idea to me! I think I’m going to give them a try!
Thanks for stopping by!
A suggestion from Twitter:
I go to @mommycplus2 site http://www.theforevermoments.com @4badmommies Preserving childhood memories. Some great suggestions. What do you do?
Taking pictures of special things is a great idea. I might just have to make that a weekend project. I have drawers and drawers of things that my kids have made over the years. Your picture looks very familiar to me.
Hi Laci! And Welcome!!!
(Although for some reason I think you may have been here before…) I think that taking pictures of special projects and crafts is a great idea, too!
Loved your blog post. Young teens are not easy. My youngest is 14. Lately we’re getting along!!! I hate to jinx it!
LOL, Wendy! You know there’s this new thing called a scanner and it ‘scans’ your pictures onto the computer and then you put them on CD.
Actually, you don’t have to buy a scanner, you can do it at CVS or Walgreens for a fee.
I also wonder how much of this the boys are going to really want. Is it for them or for us to relive the memories? So, is it really bad if we don’t keep them? I mean who wants to look at a 30 year old tooth? Yuck.
Abbi
Hi Abbi!
I’ve heard of a scanner. I even had one at some point. But I remember having trouble using it so I disconnected it and I think it’s in the basement. Will have to re-visit that piece of office equipment!
Very funny about the 30-year-old tooth. Aimee really has me thinking about tossing much of the stuff I’ve saved. But of course I’ll have to go through each item first….and that will take time….so I’m putting it off. For now!
I told my oldest (20) I found duckie and she said, “Really, mom? Really?” She wasn’t near as excited as I was!
One idea I read from another blogger is that she takes pictures of somethings and post them in a scrapbook. I kind of modified this and thinking about recording my son with certain things to keep the memory.
I know some things I will want to keep, but this at least gives me options.
Hi Optimistic Mom!
Recording things is a great idea! When I was in the hospital delivering my third child, my friend – who was watching the other two over night – recorded them talking about the new baby. It was wonderful to listen to them. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen that cassette in a long time. I wonder if it was in my daughter’s closet? And if I have a cassette player to play it on….oy!
I think you are in good company! So many times have I had to clear out the pile in fear it will take over the house.
I have been trying to get in the habit of having my kids give me the pics they draw, paint, etc. and scanning them into my computer. This way I can preserve their art without the clutter. I generally throw the original away (when they are not looking of course).
Also, I feel like you about scrap booking however, I do mine digitally. No paper, stickers, cutters or tools needed and no mess. I use Creative Memories Software (Memory Manager to organize my photos and Storybook Creator for scrapping) to create a book for each year of life for my kids. So far I am of course behind a tad but when I complete them it feels so good and to know they are totally protected makes me very happy!
Good luck on finding your way
Hi Amanda! And Welcome!!!
I’d never thought of taking pictures of art projects before this post. And my friend Abbi scans stuff into her computer, too! What a concept! I will have to learn how to do that!
I will check out that Creative Memories software. I don’t think I can re-create a year by year accounting at this point, but I can probably put something together!
Wow, am I late to this party! Been sick, but glad I got over to the computer to read this one. I have stacks of precisous momentos in boxes out in the garage probably being ruined by heat and time. I keep telling myself “one day” but “one day” never comes.
My mom did the same. Then when we were all adults with families of our own and my dad died, she spent a year sorting through it all and creating a “book of bests” to give to each child and a room of memories for herself. I think it was her way of mourning my father’s passing, celebrating the life they had shared, and accepting that her life would be very different going forward.
I can see myself doing that or my husband doing it after I’m gone. Of course being a man, he might just toss it all.
Hi Regina!
Glad you’re feeling better! My mother in law did the same thing after my father in law died. She sorted through all the family pictures and made albums for each child. I don’t think my children will appreciate the memorabelia until they’re older. I’m concerned, however, about what condition it will be in when I finally get around to sorting through it!!!