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Comment by josefresco | Hacker News Reader

The best moments for me as a parent usually happen when no camera or PC is present. I have learned to just smile, relax and enjoy the moment as opposed to trying to document it.

I do think however that your idea is a good one. I've also thought about starting a website for my girls, filled with photos and videos from their childhood.

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Exactly. What I suggest is not to rigorously document. I will be writing letters to my son daily about things. And this will incidentally form a record of what he has been doing/learning, and how do we predict his personality is shaping up.

I predict that this will benefit you more, through reflection and conscious living, than your son (through a historical record later in life), but it will consequently greatly benefit him, because you are more tuned in to his development and can pick up on patterns and developments better. Good luck!

> The best moments for me as a parent usually happen when no camera or PC is present.

Sure. It won't be long before a continuously videocammed household becomes practical, though. (And probably commonplace not long after.)

I'm a little sad that we missed that with our kids. On the other hand, I don't spend much time watching the videos we have made, so maybe it wouldn't be that different practically.

It's true. Unless you carry a camera around constantly you're going to miss almost all those unpredictable moments. I completely agree about not needing to document everything - plus documenting things misses the spontaneity of it all - and unless you're some kind of world class photographer/videographer you're going to lose most of the emotion and humanity of those moments.

So why do I still obsessively document events? Simply an aide-mémoire - because my mémoire is awful.

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