It’s like something out of one of my nightmares. An inbox over which you have no control and to which you have no access, steadily filling up with emails that you can’t read, file or delete. Scream for eternity.
So spare a thought for Prince Archie, aged five, and Princess Lilibet, three. In a podcast interview with her friend, beauty entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima, Meghan Markle explained that she is putting together a “time capsule” for her children with Prince Harry, sending photographs and anecdotes daily to email addresses she’s created on their behalf, so that they may enjoy them later on. They won’t be able to open the inboxes until they’re 16, or even 18 (hopefully along with a trust fund, eh?)
Or as Meghan put it: “Here’s everything and every moment that I wanted to tell you how much I love you, and like, how proud I am of you.” She emails them most nights before bed “because it doesn’t have to be a heavy lift.” Which former members of her staff, who claimed in The Hollywood Reporter that Meghan would fire off regular 5am emails, might find all too familiar.
Aside from how overwhelmed I now feel on behalf of two children under six—think of the heavy lifting they’re going to have to do reading all those emails as teenagers, when they’d rather be out with their friends—Meghan’s latest project says so much about millennial parenting. Turns out it’s not all that different, whether you’re in Montecito or Mile End.
I’m talking about the cult of “making memories”, which is among the more nauseating phrases to emerge from social media. It’s often said that we’re the most nostalgic generation, having straddled the analogue and digital eras. And when it comes to our parenting style, it’s having a direct impact—the constant urge to create unforgettable experiences, or indeed, make email time capsules. We struggle to just roll with it, instead every day has to be a potential “core memory” for our little darlings.
We’re so nostalgic that we’re already imagining how our children might look back on their younger years with future fondness. How they might recall all those soft play afternoons and the incredible effort we put into, as Meghan says, everything and every moment (“aww, look at the 5am email mum sent me 12 years ago”).
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