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Seven ways to keep the words your kid says
The cute stuff has a window, and it closes without telling you. These are the things that actually worked for keeping it, from a parent who wrote enough of it down to make a small clothing brand out of it.
Eric, Philadelphia · October 13, 2026
1. One note, on your phone, dated
Not a baby book. A baby book lives in a drawer and asks for too much. One note on your phone, titled with the kid's name, and every time they say something you write the word, what it meant, and the date. Ten seconds, in the moment, before it is gone. The date is what turns it from a list into a record.
2. Keep their definition, not yours
"Yestertime: any time before right now." "Worker: anyone with a job, including Dad." Write what the word meant to them, in the way they would say it. In a few years the definitions are better reading than the words.
3. Say it back
The words that survive are the ones the family adopts. Use their word at dinner. Use it in a text to your partner. A word that gets used on purpose stops being a phase and becomes part of how your family talks. Most families have two or three of these and do not notice until a visitor asks.
4. A word of the year
Every December pick the one word from that year. Write it big on a card and put it on the fridge, or write it in the front of the next year's calendar. After five years you have five words, and each one brings a whole year back.
5. Record the voice, once
Thirty seconds of audio of them saying the word, on your phone, filed with the note. Writing keeps the word; the recording keeps how they said it, and that is the thing you will not be able to remember later.
6. Put it on something they wear
This is the one that started isms. One Christmas, one word on three hoodies, one for each of us. The kid wears his word, the word gets asked about, the story gets told, and the hoodie outlasts the phase by years. It does not have to be a hoodie. A sticker on the water bottle or a mug for the grandparents does the same job for a few dollars.
7. Give the word to the grandparents
Grandparents miss the small daily stuff more than anyone. A mug or a tee with the grandchild's word on it, and the definition in the card, is a gift they will actually use, and it gives them a word to say back to the kid on the phone.
The words in this one
Good to know
What age do kids stop making up words?
Most of the invented words happen between about two and five. By six or seven the standard forms win, unless the family keeps a word going on purpose.
Is there an app for keeping the things my kid says?
The notes app already on your phone is the one you will actually use, because it is open in two seconds. Title a note with their name, and add the word, the meaning and the date each time.
Written by a parent, not a content team. Something wrong in it, or a word you want to see here? 7echome@gmail.com.