Making Memories

I’m not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I hate downtime or any unstructured time. Trying to relax makes me bored and being bored stresses me out! Part of the reason I am so obsessed with crocheting is it gives me a project and working on a project is my happy place.


Only recently have I worked out that Zoe is wired this way too. She is much happier working through a To Do list of chores than just playing. Give her a task, a project or a mission and she gives it puts the biggest smile on her face (bonus points if she gets to be the boss!) Since I made that connection, I have been trying to think of projects we can tackle together as quality time.


Today, I agreed to something she has been begging me for since she was 4...we made a YouTube video. She wanted it to be a tutorial, so I pitched the idea of a kid-friendly crochet along (CAL) where I could take her step by step through it and viewers could follow along at their own pace. We agreed to do a simple circle. It’s a technique I haven’t taught her yet, but she did know the basics to be able to do it. We recorded an intro and propped up our phone and kicked off.


So, the circle took us about 15 minutes from start to finish. And our camera positioning was not ideal. The bottle we propped the phone on is in the shot and a lot of the time our hands aren’t even on camera! I was thinking, “Oh no! This isn’t good. It won’t help people and it certainly isn’t a good ‘brand identity.’” I was pondering what to do as Zoe and I chuckled at our foibles, but she has strong opinions in the matter. She said we have to keep it because it’s “keeping it real” - fair point, I thought. Then she sealed the deal saying how this video attempt was us “making memories.”


She’d be a good lawyer. I was persuaded. So we edited it as best we could and then we uploaded it. I realized that this is one of those things where it’s better to do something imperfectly than nothing. If I don’t want her to be a perfectionist, then I can model that by embracing this video for what it is - happy memories.


Voila! Our first YouTube video.


P.s. I’m sure we’ll have other chances to improve for future videos.