Why is scrapbooking important?

By:Michelle L

As a mother of two (soon to be three) beautiful girls, I started scrapbooking to keep a record of their childhood years. Being a mother is the greatest gift that I have received in my lifetime and it is so important to me to share in every aspect of my childrens' lives. However, what good is sharing their lives if you cannot recall even the slightest of details later on?

I have often asked my own mother to share her memories of me as a child. However, after 34 years she can remember the big events, but has trouble recalling the little things like the funny things that I did at age 2, my first boyfriend or when I started to walk. I decided when my first daughter was born, in 1993, that if she ever came to me with a question like "What was the funniest thing that I ever said when I was 3?", that I would be able to answer her.

Our children grow at an alarmingly rapid pace. It seems like yesterday I was changing my 7 year olds diapers and teaching her how to walk and talk. It is important for me to remember all of the good times, as well as the bad, of my childrens' growing up years. It is just as important to me to have the memories of what they looked like at different stages in their growing.

Sure, you can take photos, but what good are they if you don't remember the story behind those photos? It's great to remember a certain event in your childs life, but what good is it without a photo to capture that event? What if my one of my children were to suddenly be taken away from me? If I did not have a scrapbook on each one of them what memories would I lose?

My scrapbooking is sooo important to me that I have even taken an extra step in making photo copies of each page and have them safely kept in a bank vault, along with all of my negatives, in case a fire should destroy the originals. Is scrapbooking important to me? You bet your life it is!

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Scrapbooking: My Life; Past, Present and Future, by Susan Shute