Journal · July 31, 2026

Keeping your child's voice

You'll have thousands of photos. The voice, though, is the first thing to go — and almost no one saves it in time.

Why the voice fades so fast

Tomorrow they'll already say the word they mispronounce today. The song they made up on the way to daycare, you'll never hear again. The voice changes month to month, and unlike a photo, it doesn't stick around by accident: if you didn't record it, it's gone.

What to record today

• The word they say their own way (with the mistake — don't correct it).
• Their theory of the world: why it rains, where the sun goes at night.
• The song they made up, even without lyrics.
• Your own voice reading them the usual story — that's their childhood too.

The trouble with a loose audio file

An app of loose recordings becomes a folder you never open again: you can't tell which is which or from when. The voice matters when it stays next to the moment — who said it, that day, with that letter. In Dear You the voice note lives inside the letter, with its photo and date, and one day it travels in the book: at 18 they'll hear how they talked at 3.