Family advice: How videos and photos of their smaller selves can help kids’ mental health.
SlateSign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Whenever the time comes for me to upgrade to a new phone, these old videos come with me, thank you very much. But as long as your knee-jerk reaction isn’t to immediately put all these photos and videos online and you can balance being present in the moment, these gigabytes of still and moving images are an unalloyed blessing. In the 1980s, the time of camera film and camcorders, my parents didn’t invest in making a record, and the dysfunction of my fractured family life ensured that there were very few moments worth committing to film or ever watching on playback. My kids eagerly press Play and relive it all: the unmistakable lilt of their little baby voices, unsteady first steps, charmingly off-key renditions of Disney songs, and wary standoffs with anything remotely resembling a vegetable on their plate.
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