I think I made a core memory with my daughter last night

@berk60 I never thought how kids will miss seeing stars because of an early bed time. The things we take for granted because they’re always there. I’m definitely going to do something like this when kiddo is a bit older
 
@berk60 My daughter was about 3 when we were at my brother in laws wedding. Both kids passed out early in their clothes so we let them be. The place we were staying at was the venue for the hotel, our in the sticks in Vernont. I don’t drink and I usually don’t care to hang out during garbage time so I went back up to the room around 11pm. My daughter woke up from all the commotion and I could see it her eyes she wanted to party so we went back down to a fire pit that was vacant and she saw the fire ashes rise up to the stars. She put it together that’s how stars get made and I wasn’t about to correct her. We stayed there for a while and I listened to her tell me all about stars and fire. It was definitely a core memory for me. Never been so happy to not drink at a wedding.
 
@berk60 When I was a kid, we had a small cottage in a more rural part of the province. My dad was really excited about introducing me to some of the wildlife in the area. One night he woke me up in my bunk bed, and told me to crawl onto his shoulders. I can distinctly remember the smell of the air, and my dad’s hair on my face. It was pitch black, except for where my dad was illuminating with his flash light. I remember seeing an overturned blue box. We walked up to it and kicked it over to reveal a creature underneath. My dad pointed and said “Porcupine!”, and this large porcupine waddled away. I guess my dad caught him in the woodshed. lol! We walked back inside and he tossed me back in my bed. I thought it was a dream till he mentioned it the next day.

This experience has always been a parenting benchmark for me. I also grew up to be an ecologist.
 
@berk60 This is amazing. My dad actually used to do “wrap up in the stars” when I was around that age. He would take one of my siblings or I and wrap me up in blankets, and go outside to stargaze. It definitely created one of the best memories for me. Now looking at the stars brings me great joy. This was in Alaska, so now I love being cold while having a nice warmth and support around me. It was one of my favorite things.
 
@berk60 I love everything about this. My daughter is a little older, 7 now, but when she was 5, I got her/us a legit telescope because she had an early fascination with space. During last year's "parade of planets", we got up at 4am to drive a little bit out to the country to set up the telescope and view the planets. We saw Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and it's 4 big moons, and the rings of Saturn. Oh, and a sliver of the rising moon. It was a first time for both of us and simply magical.

We followed up with sleeping on the couch, as a movie played, when we got back after sunrise.
 
@berk60 That's awesome. I have memories of doing this with my father, he woke me up to see the northern lights. Still stays with me as a fond memory and I'll be 40 this year.
 
@berk60 Go play in the mud, dig a hole, chase a butterfly, smell some flowers, splash around in a downpour, camp, play with fire, swing too high, throw rocks off a bridge into a stream... They're all core memories eventually.

My first memory is walking around outside during an absolute deluge of a rainstorm, the cornfield behind our house turned into mud and we both lost a shoe, our neighbor's pond burst it's shoreline. Dad could've said "nah, it's raining too hard, i don't want to get wet, but it's a fond memory. I couldn't have been much more than four.
 
@berk60 When we were little my dad took us out of school one afternoon to take us tobogganing. The memory lives on, over 50 years later. So when my kids were little we did something similar - took them out of
school for the day (a Friday) and went to Agawa Canyon. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Just different from normal routine. Way to build memories!
 
@berk60 Thanks for sharing. After a long and tough day with mine…this helps me remember that no matter how tough they are, little moments like yours overshadow all that.
 
@berk60 I didn't know how badly I needed to read this until I read it. Thank you so much for sharing. I'm gonna go challenge myself to make great memories with my kiddos too
 
@berk60 Dang my 3yo is still in his crib. Can totally climb out but never does, and if he did he would just come to my room and ask us to read lol.

Good job dude! Dad achievement unlocked!
 
@berk60 Biggest piece of advice I ever got was don’t sweat the small stuff. There’s a difference in star gazing at three AM and completely wrecking the living room with wall paint. I’m sure it is a core memory, when I was little bit older then her I wanted to camp so bad. Dad worked a lot and mom wasn’t gonna sleep in a tent. So one night I got my comping gear snuck out and tried to pitch a tent in the backyard. Dad came out and without ever saying a word helped put the tent up got his sleeping bag and we both slept in the tent for the rest of the night. I still think of that night sometimes.
 
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