Journaling for my Children
From this year I am going to keep a journal for my children (my unborn child included here) or rather, I am going to keep a journal that my children can read in the future. I am hoping that this will provide them with a deeper understanding of the many facets of my life that make up who I am.
You see, when I look back at my own relationship with my mum, I realise that up until a couple of years ago I really didn’t know much about her – and there is still a lot I still don’t know to be honest. To me she has always plain old Mummy. That’s it. I never saw her as someone who may have nursed dreams, or suffered heartache or fears or who perhaps may actually have loathed her life and longed for freedom at some point or the other. Instead, she was always Mummy. Put on this planet for me – to comfort, chide, nourish and give, give, give. I believe I am like most other children who as far as they are concerned Mummy doesn’t have a life of her own rather, Mummy’s whole world revolves around me and I sit right at the centre of it. It wasn’t until I became an adult that my mum began to open up a bit to me but even so, I can tell she is not comfortable with it. Perhaps it’s has something to do with the way her generation was brought up.
I on the other hand want to make my children a part of my life. I want for them to see me as a real person – not just someone who goes to work, cooks meals and makes sure they have clean clothes on their backs. I want them to know about my fears, interests, feelings, hopes, dreams, failures. I want my journal to be the medium through which they discover who I am.
I think it’s going to be an interesting project for me as well. It’s not going to be the normal, run-off-the-mill journaling I have done in the past – today I did this, tomorrow I’ll do that, today I feel like this etc etc. It’ll be a journey of discovery for me too. Things I plan to include in it are –
Poems
Sketches (I don’t draw very well but hey, that’s part of the fun)
Snippets of news or newspaper clippings
Random observations
Music I like
Photographs
A family tree
My hopes and dreams
… and lots more
I want to create a journal which I would have loved my own mother to have written and given me to read.
You see, when I look back at my own relationship with my mum, I realise that up until a couple of years ago I really didn’t know much about her – and there is still a lot I still don’t know to be honest. To me she has always plain old Mummy. That’s it. I never saw her as someone who may have nursed dreams, or suffered heartache or fears or who perhaps may actually have loathed her life and longed for freedom at some point or the other. Instead, she was always Mummy. Put on this planet for me – to comfort, chide, nourish and give, give, give. I believe I am like most other children who as far as they are concerned Mummy doesn’t have a life of her own rather, Mummy’s whole world revolves around me and I sit right at the centre of it. It wasn’t until I became an adult that my mum began to open up a bit to me but even so, I can tell she is not comfortable with it. Perhaps it’s has something to do with the way her generation was brought up.
I on the other hand want to make my children a part of my life. I want for them to see me as a real person – not just someone who goes to work, cooks meals and makes sure they have clean clothes on their backs. I want them to know about my fears, interests, feelings, hopes, dreams, failures. I want my journal to be the medium through which they discover who I am.
I think it’s going to be an interesting project for me as well. It’s not going to be the normal, run-off-the-mill journaling I have done in the past – today I did this, tomorrow I’ll do that, today I feel like this etc etc. It’ll be a journey of discovery for me too. Things I plan to include in it are –
Poems
Sketches (I don’t draw very well but hey, that’s part of the fun)
Snippets of news or newspaper clippings
Random observations
Music I like
Photographs
A family tree
My hopes and dreams
… and lots more
I want to create a journal which I would have loved my own mother to have written and given me to read.
Labels: Journaling
posted by hundred and one at 2:43 pm
4 Comments:
what a wonderful idea :) your children will appreciate it one day i am sure and i'm betting you will as well ...
what a great idea! i hope you follow through... your children will thank you for it
I think this is a beautiful idea! I can so relate to what you said about not really seeing your mother as a person in her own right until recently. That probably has a lot to do with what we need our parents to be to us when we're growing up, plus not having the maturity or life experience to fully appreciate our parents as people until we come to terms with ourselves a bit more first. In many ways, especially as teenagers, we perhaps need to be blind to a certain extent to who our parents are, otherwise, how could we possibly rebel against them? But having said that, there is so much I'd love to know now about my parents now, especially my mother, so this is wonderful. Your children will definitely thank you for it.
Hi, I have just come across your blog and have enjoyed reading it. I especially like your idea of a journal for your children. A few years ago I wanted to do something for my children and I heard on the radio about this man who had written his daughter a letter every year on her birthday, and then when she was 18 he gave them all to her. I have started doing something similar. I keep a book that I put photos and letters to them in. I try to write something on or around their birthdays letting them know what life is like at the moment, the things I love about them, how I feel about motherhood etc.
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