Documenting your child’s moments, milestones

When I witnessed as my daughter took her first steps, I was amazed. I quickly took my phone and recorded this milestone and looked at it every now and then. Every child, who achieves a new height, deserves some accolades from the parents.

For parenting blogger and lead photographer for Memoriesbyese, Mrs. Ese-oghene Umoh: “Documenting milestones is important, not just for the children, but also for parents. It gives our children a hindsight view of all the years they have lived. It shows them just how much we value their lives and it also helps parents when they start to age, to remember all the moments that truly mattered in their lives. The day their children were born, baptised, walked, started to attend school, are just a few examples of these important milestones.

The lawyer-turned family photographer, who believes that documenting milestones enhances parenting, noted that it creates bonding.

“I personally, believe I bonded more with my kids because I was so eager to be present to document all milestones. I didn’t want to be told that they had crawled or walked or said their first word while I was away. I wanted to see their reactions when they tasted new food for the first time, to be able to take pictures or even a video recording.

“Documenting milestones also helps you to keep track with medical milestones and determine that your child is not experiencing any obvious developmental delays.”

While speaking on how best to achieve celebrating children on a budget to avoid taking a toll on parents, Mrs. Umoh said: “Growing up, my parents rarely threw parties for us, and when they did, it was always a joint party. I never understood why I couldn’t have my own parties but now that I have my own children, I think I can say I understand. Parties are expensive and take a lot of time and efforts to plan.

“When it comes to throwing parties, I believe at certain ages, it is important to throw a party, especially if your child turns one, when a child turns five, 10, then 18, there’s a lot to celebrate. For younger kids, however, I think a play-date is more appropriate and more enjoyable for the child. It is more important to make sure you create beautiful memories to celebrate your children’s birthdays, bake or buy a cake, give them a treat, buy them a new outfit, buy them a new book or take them out for a new experience. It’s really the little things that put smiles on our kids’ faces.”

She noted that what’s more important in relieving memories are the emotions they evoke.

“Every time I hear highlife music, I remember my parents dancing together in our living room while we were kids. Every year on my kids’ birthdays, I scroll back through years of pictures and videos and I am amazed at how much time has passed. The memories remind me that I have so much to be thankful for.

“We may not remember how we felt just after we passed our WAEC examinations or the courses that gave us sleepless nights in school. We may not remember how much progress we have made and how much we have been blessed through the years, but every time we look through our pictures and video files, they take us right back to those moments. Even if it’s just for a moment, we can relive that memory.”

Mrs. Umoh added that it is much easier today to take and preserve our memories. With the availability of smart phones and amazing applications that serve as online memories, she created email addresses for her children and send pictures and videos there as a back-up plan.

“We may not have as many photo albums as our parents did but we can still try as much as possible to organise our memories into folders every other quarter of the year. Our future selves will thank us one day,” she said.