If you are a young mother RUN, don’t walk, to the nearest Walmart or any other store where you can buy a loose leaf notebook, diary, journal or whatever you want to call it and begin today to write in it every day for the rest of your life. Now that may seem like a formidable task or a waste of time to you right now but believe me, in years to come you will want to hug my neck for encouraging you to do so. Entries can be made in less than fifteen minutes or you can write as long as the urge remains. Your day-to-day experiences that may seem humdrum to you now will take on added significance in your senior years. You will read the comments you made and they will bring tears to your eyes or fill your heart with laughter as they bring back the precious memories of those times. Think of the things that you see your young child do as he or she is learning the lessons of life. Their first smile, sickness, laughter or cry is something that you should never forget. First steps, words or hugs - who doesn’t remember those little arms grabbing you around the neck or the leg. You are their world at the time. Enjoy it but also put it on paper for safekeeping. If you have a computer, and in this day and age who doesn’t, you are ahead of the game already. Take time away from FaceBook and email to write about your family. Photographs are wonderful but they can’t tell you what your child said at the time or what they did one moment after the camera clicks. It’s up to you. And don’t forget to include your spouse. There are so many moments that you share that should be written in stone. Remember the way he looked at you when you presented him with your first child or told him that you bent the fender of the new car he was so proud of. It doesn’t matter, its all life and should be remembered. Time passes so fast while we are trying to keep up with all the day to day living and pretty soon it has slipped away. Children have graduated, married and gone on to live lives of their own and that’s how it should be. We have nurtured, protected, advised, nagged and tried to prepare them for life. Now it is out of our hands but what parent doesn’t sit and wonder if they did all they should have, could have or would have if they had thought of it at the time. Life gives you one chance and you have to try to get it right the first time around. Few of us have no regrets. I know I have plenty and when they arise I sit back and try to remember the things that my husband and I did right. We all make mistakes but we all try not to repeat them. “I’m sorry” erases so many of those mistakes and “I love you” takes care of many more.
Think back to when you were a child of two or three. What do you remember of those formative years? Do you wonder what kind of child you were? Who do you go to for that information? That’s right, your Mother. Be prepared like a good little Scout. In the far distant future when your child approaches you about the subject, grab your trusty notebook which should still be right at your fingertips where you are making daily entries about your grandchildren, and say, “I thought you would never ask!”
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