Baby Books and Scrapbooks...Oh My

Photo by The Italian Voice

One of the things I hear moms talking about is baby books---or more specifically, how they feel guilty for being "behind" on their scrapbooking efforts. I'm no different: I had grand ideas of filling in detailed logs of every doctor visit, every "first" and gluing all kinds of mementos.  Then I discovered digital scrapbooking, and raised the stakes even more: I wanted to do a fully-designed page for every milestone, trip and special event.  It was getting crazy. So finally, I lowered my expectations...

I knew I had to do something. I want my son to have a book to flip through someday, so he can get a sense of what he was like as a little guy. I had an expandable 8x8 album with clear sleeves, so I could print out an 8x10 photo, crop 2 inches, and stick it inside. But I would end up with a backlog of ideas and a shortage of time in which to complete the pages.

Then, I would get a Snapfish coupon in my e-mail for a discount on 8x10 prints.  Oh, no! I have to design some pages before this coupon expires in four days! Then I'd stay up way too late one night, trying to catch up on several months' worth of memories, and....not finish.

I had to pick a realistic number of scrapbook pages per year.  For me, it's four.  Yes, four.  One per quarter. One per season. A number I can wrap my mind around.  Then I made some simple "growth chart" pages where I could stick a current portrait, write down height and weight, and make some brief notes.  I didn't want to face a book full of empty lines that I was supposed to fill in. This is what I can handle.

What I really want to avoid is having kid #1 with an awesome scrapbook, and any future kids ending up with much lesser books, because I started something I couldn't sustain. I think I can keep up this pace even after we have more kids.

If you're guilting yourself about not recording memories in a way that lives up to the current scrapbooking trends, stop it!  Seriously!  Do what works for you.  Cut the mommy guilt wherever you can!