I Lost My Mom at 9. This Is the Journal I Wish She'd Left Me.

Because Baby Books Don’t Tell The Whole Story

When I became a parent, I didn’t just want to record milestones — I wanted to tell the truth. The raw, messy, beautiful truth of what it felt like to become someone’s parent. Not for baby books or keepsakes, but for the adult my child would become someday.

After losing my mom young, I’ve long wished I could ask her what it was really like— her fears, her joys, her regrets. I wanted more than just memories. I wanted her voice. So I started writing to my son, honestly and unfiltered, in the moment.

That idea has become this journal series. A place to capture your story as it’s unfolding — not just what happened, but how it felt. Because one day, your child will have questions. This journal is a way to give them answers.

Meet The Journals.

What started as a letter to my newborn son has grown into a complete journal series designed for real families, at any stage. Each journal follows the same philosophy: write to your future adult child, not your current one. Be honest about the hard stuff. Skip the milestone stickers and get to what actually matters. Whether you're holding your first baby or navigating the chaos of middle school pickup lines, there's a journal here for you. Because the truth is, we're all just figuring this out as we go — and that's exactly what makes these journals so powerful.

A teal book with a yellow spine, a baby book/journal that covers birth through adulthood
Cover of the book, light blue with teal spine. Journal for parents of children ages 5-12
A journal that parents can write notes to their teenager that they will read when they are adults

Examples of Real Prompts You’ll Find In Each Journal

The book I'll Tell You When You're Older Birth-to-Adulthood is on the floor, a baby has their hands on the cover

    • Before becoming your parents, we worked to heal our own childhood wounds so we wouldn't repeat them with you. The patterns we're determined to break in our family are:

    • The biggest surprise about parenthood that I never saw coming:

    • When you're tackling something challenging, here's what I observe about your approach:

    • Becoming your parent has completely changed how I understand love. What you've taught me:

    • Looking back on my parenting journey, here's what I want you to understand about my efforts and my failures:

    • I see your truest self emerge when:

    • My thought process for knowing when to help versus when to let you struggle:

    • The popular parenting wisdom I've deliberately rejected because it doesn't suit who you are:

    • How we find our way back to each other after we've had conflict:

    • What I hope you'll remember when you're facing something that feels impossible:

    • During times when you're struggling but won't accept my comfort, here's what I wish I could say:

    • Things I've noticed about your social relationships that I'm keeping to myself for now:

    • The day I first recognized that you'd grown beyond me in certain ways:

    • What raising a teenager is teaching me about releasing control:

    • The parts of who you are right now that I pray you'll carry into adulthood:

The People You Become Together Is Far More Beautiful Than Who You Both Were Alone

When you bring a child into your life, you as the caretaker inevitably grow right alongside them. Sometimes the lessons are painful, sometimes they're beautiful. Sometimes you walk away thinking, "I crushed this parenting thing today." Other times you feel complete shame about how you handled things. Your growth and your child's growth are so intertwined—so why don't we capture them both?

There are no first steps without thousands of hours of loving encouragement. There are no first words without hundreds of hours of one-sided conversations. You learn to parent your child as they learn to be human. There's no "getting it right" without plenty of "getting it wrong." We are more complex than our first foods or first steps. I wanted to create a more meaningful way to capture that complexity.

My hope is that this journal gives the children who receive it a window into who they are and who their parents were—a window that opens when they're ready to dig deeper into what shaped them. That's why I created this. That's what I hope to facilitate through these journals.

Grateful for all of you!

❤️ Molly