I am keeping an electronic journal for my children - it has mostly my thoughts, things I want to share with them that they wouldn’t understand now (they are 5 and 2 1/2), observations and stories they won’t remember but charmed me, clippings from articles and news that I want to share with them - you get the idea.
If you had one of these, when and how would you share it with them? I am thinking I would share it with each of them when they were 13 - a kind of non-religious Coming of Age celebration - and then, if I was still at it, given them the rest when they were 18.
I want them to know I love them and think about them, and that, in spite of the inevitable troubles we will have, I want to be a good parent and have them grow up to be good people.
Girls might be interested around age 11, then quickly be embarassed by it by age 13. Your next chance is around 18 when s/he leaves for college. I would NOT have wanted to read my mom’s musings about me when I was 13… it would only compound the self-conscious belief that everyone was watching me closely.
So, based on these two suggestions, I should just assume that a preteen or teenager is simply not going to want to deal with this type of thing? I was thinking that maybe they would like knowing that someone cares, but since I don’t currently have a teenager, my idea may be the wrong way to go about showing that…