videoing the little darlings

[monkey]

Following on from the thread discussing what memories your parents have of you, well: Does anyone have any success with their camcorders?

We got one to take videos of our little angels and ha we wait for them to be playing, think oh aren't they gorgeous, turn on the video, and that's it.
either

• they immediately start fighting

or more commonly, they both run over, shouting let me see and climb on my lap, and I take a fab video of the tops of their heads and/or the wall.

No amount of patiently explaining, or plain shouting in frustration has any effect!

If I wait until they're old enough tpo understand I'll miss out on their childhoods entirely!

What do you do to solve this problem? Someone must have some great ideas!

My advice is to pretend you're videoing them and keep doing it till they loose interest in what you're doing. Keep it handy and use it often.

The only other thing is try to be discrete about those fab action pieces of cutie pies in the bath - they'll kill you for taking them when they get to their teens!!! When mine were in their 6s and 7s they adored watching themselves as babies, better than any other programme. Also I have some wonderful video footage of both my parents who are now dead and it's a memory for both me and the children. We did a bit of a record when we moved house - this is my house, here's my bedroom, my best friend etc...

We have the same problem sometimes, monkey, more so when they were younger. But as Kia suggests, the more you use it the less of a novelty it is and they forget about it to some extent. My two love the camera these days and will "perform" for it. I have a lot of my dd singing and dancing (Mama Mia or the national anthem usually!) Other times they don't really take much notice.

Have it handy so you can hopefully capture at least some of the moment; otherwise by the time you get it out and put the battery in etc, the moment has passed! Try to be discreet about it, rather than saying "look at the camera". Sometimes it's better if there's another adult there to distract them from what the cameraperson is doing! Don't save it for special occasions or when they are doing something in particular, just start it rolling at the park, in the backyard, etc; you can always rewind it and record over it if you want to later. But IME those seemingly "ordinary" times are the ones you will want to remember later on, when they are no longer "ordinary" (yes, even the tantrums and the fighting!).

How old are your kids? Maybe you could try to show them how it works, and let them look thru the viewfinder when it isn't on; if they are allowed to satisfy their curiosity about it they might not be so excited about climbing all over you when you are using it. Take some video when you are out and then show them on the TV when you get home so they see themselves "on TV". Ours love seeing themselves on the screen, esp as babies.

They grow up so quickly and change so much it is amazing and so precious to see it years later. Dh and I agree - it is the best thing we have bought so far as the kids go. There have been some periods when months have passed without us videoing anything, and it is always a bit sad later on when we realise that those memories are gone to a great extent. Photos are great, but a video is so much better. We have 4 two hour videos so far, and even if we don't watch them very often, we know they are there. We also made copies for the grandparents as gifts and they cherish them. Do keep trying, and you will capture at least some of their childhoods - next thing you know they will the ones shooting the video of you!

3 and 18 months. the 3 year old is desperate to see in, even though we've explained it & let him see a million times. We have some success if we turn the view window round, but then he just stares. He has just started to go all camera shy too. The younger one follows his lead and also just tries to climb up me to see, so every attempt to video them just leads to me getting incredibly p**d off!

MIL still 'waves' to the 'cine' camera reminiscent of those days without sound!!