Writing a letter to a newborn baby is a great way to chronicle events or emotions that occur during the early months of a child's life. These types of letters become cherished keepsakes when your baby grows to adulthood.
Writing a Letter to Your Newborn Baby
While not exactly a new concept, the notion of writing a keepsake message to a newborn has finally caught up with technology. Along with using plain pen and paper, people can now utilize the Internet to write and publish their letters for public viewing or strictly for family members in far away locations.
Who Should Write the Letter?
Anyone who loves the family can write correspondence for a newborn baby. In most cases the letter writers are mothers and fathers, but grandparents, siblings, extended family members and close family friends can also record their thoughts in a letter.
Why Write a Letter to Your Newborn Baby?
While letter writing hasn't altogether replaced traditional baby books as a means of recording the infancy experience, it has helped to enhance early parenthood for parents and children alike. The actual reasons you might choose to write a letter to your newborn are uniquely yours, but consider the following:
- Documentation events that took place at birth
- To answer questions older children ask about their infancy
- Detailing the earliest months of a baby's life
- Sharing thoughts, emotions, and baby's milestones with family members
- Expressing meaningful personal information as a keepsake for children
- Allowing baby's siblings to introduce themselves
Tips for Writing a Letter to a Newborn
It may sound easy, but some people may want to plan before they sit down to write. If you're interested in creating a meaningful letter for your baby to read when she gets older, the tips discussed in the following sections may help you get started on your project.
Choose a Tone
The tone of the letter is one of the most difficult aspects of letter writing to a child. Grown up family members have adult knowledge about the world that can seep into a letter unintentionally. For some, this type of intimate and frank sharing becomes the point of the letter, but others may choose to keep the tone light, airy, and fun, especially if the child reads the letter at a young age. Spend some time deciding when you plan to give the letter to your child and how much worldly knowledge you'd like it to contain.
Don't Sweat Mistakes
A great benefit in writing letters to a baby is basking in the luxury of time. It will be a long while before your child is old enough to read the letter so mistakes aren't important. After you write your letter, give yourself some time and then read what you've written. If you feel uncomfortable about anything your letter says, you have plenty of time to make changes or start from scratch.
Letter Topics
A letter to a newborn can wander down many poignant pathways, but sometimes people aren't sure where to start. If you're having trouble coming up with an initial topic, browse the discussion ideas in the list below. Your child will take delight in learning about the things you talk about in your letter.
- Favorite memories of parents and newborn
- Early strengths and habits during infancy
- Funny faces, gestures, sounds and mannerisms
- Sleeping and eating habits or other baby milestones
- Most special moments shared with baby
- Things about your newborn that surprised you
- Local and world current events
- How you feel about your baby
- Hopes, dreams and ambitions
Share Your Thoughts With Your Baby in a Letter
Many people who write a letter to a newborn don't stop at just one. What better keepsake can you give your child as he grows into adulthood than a chronicle of his early life? In addition to letter-writing, some parents have created online blogs in which they share their letters to baby with other new parents. Printing blog entries and putting the pages in scrapbooks becomes a wonderful way to give children the memories they helped to build.
