Having a shared family iCloud album has turned into a new medium for communicating with my family. I got the idea years ago from a friend I worked for and tweaked the idea.
She and all of her extended family all contributed pictures and updates from their families in a shared album. She loved it for keeping up with her nieces, nephews, and siblings.
Only a handful of months after having my daughter, I was, frankly, exhausted from hearing my family tell me they hadn’t seen her lately… most of the time, they had seen her just the week before.
I remembered my friend’s shared iCould album from years ago. I decided to take on the idea and tweak it to my use. I started an iCloud album used singularly for pictures and updates on my daughter and invited all of my family to it.
My daughter is three and a half now. We’re at 2,186 pictures and 558 videos. Here are three reasons why you should do something similar:
My family feels connected to us.
From school spring pictures to casual videos of her telling a story at home, I post in this album at least every other day. My grandmother told me recently how she loves to see what our normal evenings at home look like. When I speak to my family throughout the week, they all already know, to an extent, what’s going on in my and my daughter’s lives at the moment.
Our pictures are all in one place.
Not to say this takes the place of tangible pictures, because nothing can, but I feel secure in knowing my daughter’s childhood pictures are in one, secure place. I keep the native album on my phone fairly cleared because her pictures are stored otherwise. I also know that I’m not relying on a physical device like my laptop or an external hard drive to store something so precious.
I have so many memories with me at all times.
The first thing I do when I sit down in a waiting room is going to this album. I flip through all of these pictures frequently. I know it’s not normal to reminisce so frequently on our kids’ lives. I can see how much I benefit from it because I’m constantly reminded of how fast time goes by with young kids.
Whether it be for your own convenience or simply to keep family members at bay, you can benefit from your own version of a family iCloud album.
