Mommy Confession: I Didn't and Won't Finish My Son's Baby Book

I know there are going to be plenty of parents out there who are going to disagree with me on this one, but it is my opinion that traditional baby books are quite an archaic practice.

I started one. Why? Well, it was just something I thought people were supposed to do. I also thought that my ability to complete this book was a reflection of how good a mother I was, because (gasp!) what kind of a mother doesn't even bother to complete her own child's baby book!? Or at least that was the false idea I had in my head.

So, I worked hard on it. I tried to write down everything and make sure each little category was completed. When I forgot something I was really hard on myself about it.

Then in the middle of age 1, I just stopped. I have a handful of photos just tucked into the book waiting to be glued down. I know there are a ton of pages left empty.

What made me give it up? Well...quite frankly I just didn't enjoy it. It was fairly time consuming and I eventually realized that I would much rather be spending that time actually in the moment with my son rather than spending time trying to document everything. And I asked myself what my son would rather have me doing; ignoring him while I try to fill out this book or spending time with him building endless variations of train tracks?

In these times it is so much easier to just live life and have it documented as you go. There are a number of apps, like Time Hop, that allows you to photograph life and take walks down memory lane all the time. Facebook does this too. Google Photos stores everything by date and is easy to search. All my documented and important images are stored in "the cloud". It's fairly effortless. And if there are other memories I want to preserve that can't be stored photographically I have a running Google doc that I periodically write little notes to my son on. Someday, when he can read, I'll share it with him so he can read the things I wrote (and some family members too) while he was growing up.

The other factor is that, well, he just isn't going to care. Sure it will be a nice little memory to look at every now and then, but when it comes right down to it I think my son would rather have me there with him experiencing life rather than sitting in a corner stressing about completing lines in a book and pasting photos. I don't think my mom completed mine. While I appreciate what she did complete some pages of mine, I honestly don't feel that her ability/inability to complete my baby book is a direct reflection of her parenting. The things that mattered most were the things she did with me.

So, yeah I give up on the baby book. Maybe someday I'll get really bored and try to do what little I can remember by then, but I highly doubt it. And I'm okay with this.