Do you scrap unhappy things?
My scrapbooks aren’t all picnics and parades. I try to document our life as it really is - full of happiness and joy with occassional tears and trials.
Recently, I shared a page that featured a letter I’d written to Aidan about his temper tantrums.
This is one of my earliest pages. Really. What kind of mother snaps photos of her baby girl sprawled out on the pavement, crying and reaching out for comfort? I wasn’t even a scrapbooker back then. LOL! (click to enlarge images)
This layout features another letter - this time to Dani. In black and white, for all the world to see, I admit to being a lazy Mom. Someday, when Dani’s a mom, I hope she’ll look at this page and remember that no matter how much you love your kids, you’re gonna make mistakes, and that doesn’t make you a bad parent. I hate it when I hear my friends say stuff like, “I get the Bad Mom award today.” We’re not bad Moms. We’re human Moms.
Another letter to Dani - this time about HER shortcomings:
Scrapbooking tears and heartbreak:
Frustration:
Illness:
I don’t dwell on the unhappy events in our lives, but I don’t exclude them, either. I want my family albums to tell our WHOLE story. All of the stories - happy ones, silly ones, sad ones, frustrated one - they all make us whole.
Coming up in my scrapbooking queue: a photo shoot where my friend Cara and I became so frustrated by our whiny, uncooperative boys that we literally dragged them back to our cars with clenched teeth. We were so totally frustrated that afternoon, but when I look at the pictures now, it’s downright FUNNY! The pics are hilarious, as you can see the 6 boys growing more and more resistant with each frame. LOL!
February 1st, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Stacy-I was just wondering this very same thing. I know you’ll get a chuckle out of this dilemma-I was debating whether or not to scrap the National Championship game that Ohio State lost miserably. I would rather forget that that night ever happened, but it did and it affected me. I have pictures of the kids and me in our jerseys getting ready for the game. I know I should and it will be difficult.
I have also scrapped about my chronic kidney illness, dialysis and transplant. I even have pictures of me hooked up to the dialysis machines. For 15 months that was my life- 4 hours/3 days a week. It affected how I felt and functioned. I couldn’t ignore that it happened. Now, when I look at those pages, I think “wow” I was pretty strong to go through all of that.
Thanks for sharing and letting us know it’s OK to scrap the not so OK moments in our lives.
Benita
February 1st, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Brilliant! It’s important to remember the good and the bad times - it’s healthy to be able to look back at bad times and laugh, knowing that you got through it. I think this is one of the things I love most about your scrapbooks. They are a true record of the life and times of your family.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:06 am
I definitely believe in scrapping the bad/sad times. I believe that, I take the pictures, but I rarely actually do it. I have pictures from 9/11, my daughter’s recovery, and even my mother’s memorial service. I will document these events because I don’t want to forget them.
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:05 am
I am getting ready to scrap about my families
health, we had surgeries in August, Sept.,October and November….The title is life….just one thing and then another. I remember when you first posted the mean mother layout…….You sure have a gift!!!
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I have also scrapped bad times. One in particular is when Beau was involved in an accident at a karate tournament. It was BAD and included lots of blood. Beau was the one who caused the other child to bleed. It was a complete accident, but a tragedy nonetheless, and Beau learned a solid lesson from it — that the martial arts weapon he was yielding really WAS a weapon. When I first scrapped about it, Beau wasn’t happy, but we’ve talked about it several times since, and he agrees that it was a good lesson learned that IS important to remember.
February 3rd, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Stacy, thank you for sharing this. I just finished my pages from Christmas 2005. It was the first year I was able to draw my journalling directly from my blog. That Christmas was not a happy time for me for a variety of reasons. My blog had captured some pretty raw, real feelings. I considered glossing them over for my album but in the end, I kept them almost verbatim. For me it helped capture that even though I started the season out in tears, I still managed to focus on the happy parts and enjoy time with my family, whether they made me mad or not.
~Heidi
February 6th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Thanks for sharing this. I think it is so important to share the good and the bad. Life is full of both and if our lives are truly reflected in our scrapbooks then they will contain both sides of the story.