Growth Charts and Videos? No, Thanks

on January 27, 2009 at 5:23 PM

The scratch marks on the closet door of my childhood home are still there, the places where my mom made me stand every couple of months to chart my growth from toddler to teen. My mother either got bored or I started refusing to submit to the semi-annual event around 6 years old, because that's where the marks leave off.

This is one tradition I'll admit I'm not going to uphold. Besides wanting to prevent even more toddler-related scratches on my walls, I don't see the point of growth charts. I know many parents still do, and I totally get why -- plus there are tons of fun and colorful ones in the stores, even fancy growth charts where you insert pictures of your child at the appropriate age into plastic sleeves near the measurement.

But not for me. Yes, I am that mom. The mom who stopped writing in her kids' baby books when they were 8 months and 6 months respectively, who rarely picks up a camera (thank goodness for my husband), and (BIG confession) I don't even own a video camera.

I don't -- and can't -- track every second, every experience of my child's existence. The way life is right now, I'm lucky if I pay the bills on time and remember to put my kids' coats on before they head outside.

Don't get me wrong -- I envy those uber-organized moms that let no small detail or experience vanish into thin air. I suppose it would be nice one day when I'm older to pull out the record books and reminisce over a picture of my son's first soccer game, or the date my daughter's canine teeth came in. I hope there won't come a day, years from now, where I stop suddenly and think, "Gosh, I will never know how tall was Carolyn when she was 37 months old!"

But I don't think so. I'd like to think I'll be dwelling on the people my kids are right now.

So I'll continue to snap a picture when I can and save special artwork, clothing and toys -- but for the rest of it, I'm content to live in the moment of my children's milestones. There won't be any videos or diaries to prove it, but even better will be remembering that I was the one in front of the lens -- jumping, laughing, eating, and playing right along with them.

++Are you obsessive about keeping photo albums, growth charts, videos, diaries, and scrapbooks? Why or why not is this important to you?

About the author Cynthia Dermody

is The Stir's Managing Editor who has trophies in her home for her skills at the Irish Jig. She makes cupcakes with as many fattening ingredients as possible, doesn't comb her hair for months at a time, and was probably a faerie in a former life.

Filed Under: activities, milestones

Comments (18)

MommaTasha1003

on Jan 27, 2009 at 6:10 PM

I am a scrapbooker & have enjoyed collecting memories since I was old enough to do so... My dd is 2.. And so far I have filled out everything as good as I can in her babybook. I am making scrapbooks about every move she makes.. I try to write in a diary for her/letters to her ever so often.. I tracked her first foods for a month (LOL). I wasnt so good at keeping up with Height & Weight though..

She has a calender in her bedroom & I write down everything on it. When we go to playgrounds, when she spends the night somewhere. Sick. New words. EVERYTHING.

Its fun to know. I wish I knew more about myself when I was a tot. AND most importantly, How cool would it be to see my mom or grandmother in photos/film!

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jsmjboertlein

Not me man! I have every single breath documented. I have 100's of thousands of videos and photographs. We were just watching some of the videos the other night as a family. I still write regularly in both kids' baby books and they are 10 and 3. I'm a memory junkie though.

on Jan 27, 2009 at 6:12 PM

O ya and we have a growth chart that gets marked every 6 months for both kids on the basement wall. It also has one of dh's friends on there lol, sneaky bugar, musta done that when I wasn't looking!!

JasonsMom2007

I kind of keep record. I have a calender that I write new accomplishments on. I do have a ton of photos of him but that's because I love photography and well, we still need to keep parts of ourselves right? I also love scrapbooking so I have the scrapbooks as well. Size, not so much. I do ocassionally mark his height on the wall in his bedroom but that's because I want to see how much he has grown!

I kept diaries since I was old enough to write. some i cant even read because the writing is so bad. I like to dig them out & see exactly what I was doing years ago, on exactly that date.. and how much we change is amazing.

bigblueeyes

on Jan 27, 2009 at 6:29 PM

lol.....i try to do a lot of that....but alas....i've failed!...lol...oh well.....better the time spent wiiith my kiddos!.....lol

dsteiner23

on Jan 27, 2009 at 7:00 PM

I wish I had all sorts of stuff documented, but I decided a long time ago that it was more important to be making memories WITH them then OF them.

ElaineZ1997

on Jan 27, 2009 at 7:15 PM

When I was growing up my mom did not keep records of anything. She remembered some stuff but nothing about what my first words where. What did I like to do the most, etc. My mom came from China and back there documenting history was just in your mind not on paper. I remember for a history project at school we had to do a family tree and do a project about our family history. I was sadden that I really had nothing to look back on. Let plus my mom really didn't remember names of great great grandparents and such.

So starting in middle school, I started collecting things and photos of things I did as I grew up. Names of old class mates, favorite hang outs and just small tidbits of my past. Now I enjoy going back to see all the old faces of my friends. I want that for my child. I want to give some memories to look back on. I don't want to docment every second of his life but I wish to gave him some memories of his past just in case I'm not around.

aeneva

on Jan 27, 2009 at 7:36 PM

Well I don't keep many records, but we do have lots of digital pics and do a sort of growth chart thing. Once they are able to stand we go to a local park and take a picture on their birthday by the same statue. My grandmother did this with us by her front porch and kept the pictures in their own special album that she gave to us when we moved out on our own. It was nice to see how we had grown from year to year.

MommyLi288

on Jan 27, 2009 at 8:10 PM

I'm not big on baby books, most of them don't have places for the things that I think i'll most want to remember. I do write down little things they say and do that I don't want to ever forget. I take tons of pics and videos though, but don't scrapbook or anything.