The Best Way to Preserve Your Kids’ Childhood (Without Overwhelm)

Seven years into motherhood, I’ve experimented with a lot of different memory keeping ideas. Promptly journals, annual yearbooks, Flecks of Gold journal, and more…. I’ve loved searching for the best way to document and remember this special time when my kids are little.

After so much trial and error,

If I could rewind time and just do a few simple things, here is what I’d do.

If I Could rewind time and just do a few simple things, Here’s What I’d Do

1. Write one small thing every single day.

Not a paragraph. Not a polished journal entry. Just one small thing.

A sentence about how my girls mispronounce “Efa-lant.”
A note about how she always says “hold you” when she wants me to pick her up.
A feeling I had rocking my baby at 2am.

Instead of doing promptly journals or baby books, start the Motherhood365 challenge from the very beginning.

One line a day may feel insignificant — but over a year you’ll be amazed by how beautiful your little record is.

You think you’ll remember.
You won’t.

So just write down one line a day.

2. Have fun capturing images you love.

Motherhood can become beautifully, exhaustingly monotonous. The dishes. The laundry. The diapers. The endless meals.

Photography can change your focus.

When you look through a lens — whether it’s a DSLR, film camera, or your iPhone — you start looking for light. For connection. For tiny details. It shifts you from surviving the day to noticing it.

Photography isn’t about perfect pictures.
It’s about paying attention.

3. Skip the annual yearbook and make multi-year albums instead.

I put so much pressure on myself in the beginning thinking I needed to make a yearbook every single year.

It felt overwhelming. And when something feels overwhelming in motherhood… it usually doesn’t happen.

Instead, group years together.

Create multi-year albums that tell a fuller story. 2018-2020, 2021-2023, 2024-2025. It removes the pressure and makes the process sustainable.

Memory keeping should feel simple and repeatable — not like a deadline you’re constantly missing.

4. Take more videos — and make them easy to watch.

Photos freeze a moment.
Videos bring it back to life.

Capture the messy kitchen. The baby babble. The way they run into your arms. The ordinary Tuesday afternoon. My toddler telling me about their day.

Seriously, capture them talking!!! These videos are the very best!!

Then make it simple: compile your favorite clips and upload them to a private account on YouTube, then create a “home videos playlist” so you can watch them easily on your TV.

Future you will be so grateful you did.

5. Enjoy it. Even when it’s hard.

Everyone says it goes fast. And it does.

But what no one tells you is how much you’ll forget.

You’ll forget the way their voice sounded at three.
You’ll forget the tiny phrases they used to say.
You’ll forget the rhythm of your days.

Memory keeping isn’t about perfection. It’s about preserving enough so that when the house grows quiet, you can flip through pages and remember.

Notice.
Write one line.
Take the picture.
Press record.
Make the book.

If you’re at the beginning of your motherhood journey (or even in the thick middle of it), it’s not too late to start.

One small thing today changes your day-to-day experience in motherhood and is like a future gift to yourself!