Today I’m over at Writers Inspired talking about writing letters to your child. Be sure to go on over and say hello and find the clue for the Scavenger Hunt that’s going on!
I have three beautiful girls with three distinct personalities. But all three love to write me letters. My oldest will send me emails - sometimes just simple ones saying ‘hi, I love you’. My middle daughter loves to send me forwards – whether they be emails full of pictures the make her laugh or devotionals that she thought I needed to read (yes, you read that right). My youngest loves to write me notes, send me emails (they all have iPods) or leave me voicemail messages. And in today’s world – emails, text msgs, voicemails and actual words on a piece of paper – they all classify as letters.
I love to read these from my girls. I enjoy watching how they grow and mature throughout the weeks/months. I cherish the voicemails I get that say “Hi Mom, I miss you and just want to know when you’ll be home,” on the days when I’ve run away from home and am sitting in my car drinking a coffee enjoying the silence. I realize how important the text messages are when my girls are at home and just want to say “I love you” or even “my sister makes me so mad…” It’s their way of communicating with me, and I’ll take it.
I know I often joke that the day can’t come soon enough when my children are grown and out of the house – we are in the fighting stage and hormonal teen stage so you really can’t blame me – but I do cherish these little bits of heaven I receive from them. I know that one day there will come a time when they won’t want to say I love you anymore, when it won’t be cool to write your mom an email ‘just because’ or the pictures I find laying on my pillow when I go to bed disappear…
Actually … I don’t want those pictures or the letters to stop.
One day I may show my girls the gift boxes I keep full of their letters, drawings, cards and crafts they made me through the years. Maybe when they’re about to have their own children…
See there I go … daydreaming about the future…
Steena Holmes on Google+
June 6, 2012 - 2:19 pm
I just wanted to share a wonderful experience I had with my grand daughter this past Sun. evening. We invited her and her significant other for dinner and have a WONDERFUL evening. They loved my food I served, said my Blessing was beautiful and we then watched a video of when she was about 4 (she’s 24 now) and I laughed til I had tears running down my face.
When they left, I sat here feeling melancholy about the whole event as it was over, in the past, but never to be forgotten. I told her the next time they came, I was serving lasagna.
She is such a beautiful young lady that would do anything for us. This may sound terrible but she is the only g-child out of 6 that shows the love and respect she feels for my husband and I.
My prayers are with her as she has a job interview this Sat. which would mean more money for her. She’s tried so hard all her life that I pray one good thing happens. For me, one GREAT thing happened…she was given to me as a gift from God.
June 6, 2012 - 3:59 pm
Linda, it sounds like you have a fabulous grand daughter! Those are memories to cherish!
June 6, 2012 - 8:14 am
Steena, I did the same thing when my boys were growing up and still have those treasures. I also write them a letter at some point every year and tuck it away in a file that they will find someday when I am gone (not to sound fatalistic… but y’know, there will be a day …). It’s fun for me to look through them from time to time and relive the passage of years.
June 6, 2012 - 9:37 am
I love the idea of tucking the letters away in a file. I have journals for the girls that I write in – I usually write letters on their birthdays, New Years Eve etc and then whenever the mood hits me
June 5, 2012 - 8:11 am
Thanks Louise! That made me smile – I keep telling my youngest she needs to become a chef so she can cook for me – she keeps reminding me that I don’t get to choose her career but that she’ll learn to cook at home just for me
June 5, 2012 - 6:41 am
Lovely post, Steena, and a lovely sentiment. I found the paper stuff quits, but the relationship doesn’t. Nor does the meaningful communication. My daughter phoned last night to tell me she’d been to costco. they have the second card on my account. but when they got to the cashier they were told it had expired. Oops, I didn’t get a notice, but oh well. Anyway, she renewed it and just wanted me to know I didn’t have to worry about it and that she was glad to have it. Isn’t that nice? unexpected, and totally nice.
your daughters will do the same thing. for the notes don’t stop, they just change form.