Words of wisdom - now what?

During a Easter weekend roadtrip to Normandy, France (a good couple of years ago) my hubby and I stopped over at Mont Saint-Michel, a rocky tidal island which has been the seat of the Saint Michel Monastery since the 8th century. From this picture you may be able to imagine how stunning, quaint and old this place must be. 

But before I digress and start telling you just how stunning,  amazing and incredibly steep the fortifications were let me get back to my post.  

It was here, in this historical place, that I found a gem. A gem which in my minds eye, was going to become the next family heirloom. Passed down from generation to generation.  It was a notebook. A beautiful, leatherbound notebook with handmade paper that looked like it belonged in another century. I just had to have  it as I knew immediately what it was destined for.  

I would jot down all my sage advice and my thoughts on life,  so that I could one day share these with my children.

The way I figured it, by the time they hit their teens I will have more luck reaching them via the written word than with any unwanted lectures from their "old" mom. In the back of my mind I could already see them devouring my every word and saving this precious book to later add their own thoughts (if there was still space) and hand it down to their kids and so forth. 

See, what did I say - destined to become a treasured family heirloom. Brilliant idea, right?

Well I started writing... inadvertently addressing my daughter (yip for some reason I figured I would one day have a girl) With time I fell pregnant and what do you know, we have a boy.... I think OK, this changes things slightly but never to worry I'll just find another notebook and write down my advice aimed more for boys. I'll keep the original for my daughter, which actually works out perfectly because now my kids will each have their own book. So no fighting over who gets to keep it.  Problem solved? Wrong, I fall pregnant again and you guessed it we have another boy. 

What now? I am certainly not going to keep on going till I get a daughter. Luckily I do have a lovely niece whom I adore so in the next 10 years she will become the proud custodian of my treasured family heirloom. 

As for my boys they'll just have to fight over who gets to keep the "male" version. Not that boys really care about that sort of thing :-)

Food for thought,  have you ever noticed how your advice would change whether you are addressing a boy or girl? I'll save that for another post....