In my family we’re celebrating a new baby arriving in the world and I thought it was a very good time to inspire you to write something really special. Think for a minute about what it will mean to your children and grandchildren to one day read about the day they were born – all through the filter of what you experienced and felt that day. Let’s learn how to craft a simple written piece about “the day you were born.”

An Important Story to Collect

There’s perhaps no more important family stories than those that contain the details of someone’s birth. Today’s version of these stories are often contained inside of text messages in brief snippets. “It’s a boy!” “It’s a girl! We named her Leah. She weighed 8 pounds and her eyes are blue like her mother’s.”

Personally I believe that our children and grandchildren deserve to learn more about the day they were born than what most of us tell them. My own mother shared with me some details about my birth that are very precious to me. Not so much the “facts” but things like learning how she felt that day when she woke up from the anesthesia (standard protocol in the 1950s) and heard that she had given birth to a second daughter.

As her story goes, she and Dad had for some reason just assumed that I would be a boy. So – a boy’s name had been chosen and they had no clue what to name a baby girl. Nothing. Knowing how my dad liked to be right on top of things, I would have loved to have seen him panic a bit. All in all, I’m happy with the name they came up with in a pinch. Oddly enough, Mom never told me what the boy’s name would have been.

Remembering the Story

To get started, go back to the day of your special person’s birth and maybe the days surrounding it and just start to reminisce. These are sweet memories, aren’t they? Remember that this isn’t just a story of “facts” but also of feelings. Your feelings.

Here are some memory sparks:

• How and when did you find out that the baby was going to be born? How did you feel?
• Before you found out the gender, did you have a correct or incorrect prediction? What about the rest of your family?
• Was there anything unusual about that day? Crazy weather, world event, personal event?
• When did you first meet them? How did you feel?
• Share some stories about their birth experience – either first hand if you are the mother or based on what you observed or were told if you aren’t the mother.

Writing the Story

As you collect your memories and thoughts about that special day, jot down some notes and begin writing.

My advice here is always the same because so many people get locked up when asked to write something.

Just start writing.

But first, here are my 3 ground rules for writing family stories.

• Write as much or as little as you want. 
• Choose the medium that is the easiest for you to use and also to keep organized. That could be handwriting, typing, recording your voice, filming yourself, etc. My suggestion would be to experiment with some of these different mediums to find the best fit for you.
• And most importantly, please have fun.

Curating & Sharing The Story

If you haven’t done so already, you need to begin to gather your family stories into some sort of storage container – either physical or digital, or both! The next step from there is to let one or more of your family members know where they can find it if you’re not able to tell them later. It’s too distressing to talk about WHY you might not be able to tell them, but I think you know what I mean.

Life is unpredictable and none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, so let’s be prepared and make sure the stories you are taking the time to write or record can be found.

Are you excited about writing these special stories? I have a few to write for myself, so I’ll let you get busy.

If you ever have questions about writing family stories, please reach out to me. You can find me here: info@roseandbird.com