My daughter Cadence just turned three months old. If I could talk to twenty-something-year-old Cadence, how could I capture the authenticity of these memories?
In a beautiful Twitter thread, investor Jim O’Shaughnessy advocated writing letters to our children. One of his regrets is that he never received such a thing from his own dad, noting the difficulties of understanding in their own relationship.
In Jim’s case, he started writing letters when his oldest child was seven days old. At a specific milestone, say their 21st birthday, the letters were compiled along with mom’s hand-selected pictures and given as a gift.
The idea is to capture how you and your child change through the years. By capturing different snapshots, we remember the moments without the bias of time. It’s an opportunity to model how our thinking and beliefs evolve. We can share the lessons life has taught us in relatable, personal messages. And, this allows these intimate conversations to happen at a time when our child is mature enough to understand.
Personally, this is also extra fuel to keep learning and trying to get better. If something should happen to me, these letters provide eternal memories that can live on with my daughter.
To my three-month-old daughter, I wrote about the crazy world in which she was born into, my dreams for her, and a reminder that she matters.
What might your letter say?
Cover Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash
