| As a father of a five year old, let me send some advice back in time to a dad with a zero year old! I know this isn’t exactly what you were asking for — apologies please let me suggest changing your goal slightly to try and give your kid a message every year, not just all at once at twenty. More than that let me suggest you do this activity with your kid and not alone. I’ve seen my child change so fast and I promise you they would rather have gifts and thoughts from you each year then in a big pile at the end. You will also know them much better five years from now (and ten and fifteen) so the letter will mean more to them because of what you know to put in it. That said, you can still be clever with time! Every year you could write a letter to open in 1, 3, 5 and 10 years so a fifteen year old could have letters from several different times. Don’t forget to include pictures of you and your kid in each one and messages from the kid themselves. They will love it. It turns out kids just want you to be with them. Use this as a way to be with them. And lastly, if that suggestion doesn’t feel like enough to you, consider writing a journal about your life and write some of the more personal messages to them there instead. We can’t predict when our kid will want to know us as people better, but it’s probably well into adulthood. When that happens they won’t want advice as much as wanting to know you and all your dreams and struggles. Good luck and congratulations! |