My wife and I started writing emails to our young children.
I wish I could claim credit for the idea. But I stole it from a friend and past colleague.
I created an email for each kid. We are not to open the email account unless Google requires us to over time. And once an email is sent there is no retrieving it. It’s our rule – do as you wish.
At first, I overthought the emails. I’d attempt to extract learning for the kids. It quickly became boring and slightly annoying.
I asked myself “why do I want to email them?”. And the answer was clear to share stories about our life that I likely will not remember in the future.
This made it much easier and more fun.
I send the kids an email when they do something funny. I still send them emails with learnings (e.g., orient themselves with their tools) and life events (e.g., their mom graduating from midwifery school),
I try to attach a photo or video to the fun emails.
What’s next
I’m now incorporating video. When I was younger, I’d watch home videos. Most of the videos were centered around my brother and me. The videos occasionally included my parents. But my brother and I were the stars of the videos.
I now do the same with the videos I take of my kids. It’s all about them.
One thing I wish I had was a video of my parents talking about the decisions they made and what they were going through. It would be neat to watch those now especially now that I’m an “adult” with kids.
The videos would tell me more about them at the time of the recording. What do they look like? How do they talk? I feel like my memories of them when I was younger have been overridden by how I see them now. It’s kind of weird to explain.
This got me thinking
Why not record them now?
Thankfully both of them are still alive so I’m going to execute this ASAP.
Both of my kids are young. And my grandparents have passed by now. My grandma passed when I was 10 so my memories of her are few. It didn’t help we only saw her on the holidays because they were a couple of states away.
Introducing Mockingbird
And this triggered another idea. There are new parents like me. They want to share more with their kids and they want to document their parents’ lives for their children (and for them).
So this led to the creation of Mockingbird?
Mockingbird will serve both Parents and Grandparents. Our offerings are similar: we extract information, preserve it, and circulate it back to you (and/or your children).
Parents
- We’ll supply you with questions
- We’ll remind you to record a video and hold you accountable
- We’ll store the videos and send them to your kids on a specific date or randomly after a specific date
Grandparents
- We’ll interview your parents
- We’ll supply you with questions
- We’ll store your videos and send them to you for reminiscing – randomly and/or scheduled
Interested in testing Mockingbird? Check it out and submit the form.
Featured image by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash.