Have you ever written a letter to the future?

I am too lazy for baby books so I bought all of my kids those "time capsule" thingys. I only wrote the letter to the future for my first son and that was when I was expecting his first sibling when he was almost four.

The other two? nada

My husband is being sent to the UK for four weeks so his company offered to send the family over for three of the four weeks. We reached the tough decision that the four year old would be a nightmare on an 8 hour flight, would be difficult to entertain with a 7 and 11 year old in the city and would barely remember the experience anyway. So he is staying with grandma and grandpa for three weeks. Enter Guilt!

I just sat down and wrote a three page letter to my youngest son in the event that something happens while we are separated. Am I crazy? I am now sitting here at 1 AM red-eyed with sinuses 100% clogged. That is quite an exercise to imagine yourself talking to your son from the grave.

Was I silly or prudent?

But it's also worthwhile preparing for the future and saying the things which need to be said in case theey never get said. In the off-chance that something were to happen, your kid would thank you -particularly at such as a young age when his memories of you all would be limited. He'd probably be touched to know that before whatever happened occurred, his mother was thinking about him and took the time to sit down and express her feelings about him and about his family. It would also prove a useful resource for him to discover what his life was like before whatever happened eventuated

In the 99.9% chance that everything goes OK and you return home safely then keep the letter -it may be of interest to either you or the children in remembering what life was like and how you thought during that particular phase of your life.

BTW I went to Thailand when I was 4 and to Australia (where I now live but we only moved there much later) when I was five and I still have vivid memories of both trips

encouraging the latter to be more like the former, i.e. less nervous, scared, etc., and more able to deal with people.

By the way, love the screen name.