Create a Web Space for your Baby

This is something that is repeatedly appearing on baby sites. Create a web space for your baby. Creating a Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook account is going a little far in my opinion, but I think an email address is a great idea. So, once my daughter was born (maybe a month later as I didn’t know the sex) I created her very own email address!

Whenever she goes through a milestone – crawling, eating solids, walking, first day of Kindergarten etc. I email her to tell her. I send her pictures of our adventures, of her mischievous ways, vacation snaps or just selfies we took while hanging out at home! I also send her emails with advice, perhaps she would sooner listen to her 30-year-old mother rather than her 50-year-old mother who clearly knows nothing (oh I can’t wait for the teenage years!!) It’s almost like writing emails to my younger self, giving advice on what I did and what I should have done or would do differently if given the chance. Telling her stories of when I was younger and what I used to get up to, or stories about her Nana and Grandad, Aunties and Uncles who she doesn’t see very often because they live in a far away country. Sometimes instead of writing an email I will record a video and send to her. Telling her at that moment in time what is happening and my hopes and dreams for her.

This sort of information is priceless, right? At least if it is sent in an email to her it cannot be lost, and one day when she is old enough she will read it and know more about herself and her family. Hopefully she will find most of it entertaining and cringe worthy, but imagine having access to all those memories, with exact dates of occurrences and getting to live in the moment as your mother tells you what you got up to when you were 9 months old? It will of course take her a very long time to go through all the emails, but hopefully it will be an enjoyable experience for her.

My Dad recalled a memory a few years ago – he said I was maybe 6 months old, it was the middle of the night and there was a huge storm outside. I wouldn’t sleep so he took me to the sitting room and I was laughing and smiling, and he fondly remembered beaming at me and grinning to himself that a huge storm was taking place outside and I was totally oblivious to it, just happily kicking away on the couch looking up at my Daddy. What a wonderful memory to be shared! I began thinking, in all my 30 years, I am sure there are so many other moments – good and bad! – that have gotten lost and I will never know happened! My daughter will be overloaded with memories; it might take her a lifetime to get through them!

A piece of advice if you are planning on doing this for your son/daughter – I have the email address and password written into my Will and testament in case anything should happen before I get to give it to her myself. That way, I know one day she will receive it and I haven’t spent years typing emails or recording videos that could be lost into a black hole in the World Wide Web!