<p>We are not people who take a lot of photos. Also, H’s family lives out of the country, and my family is very, very small. So, there are no photos in the living romm, and the only pictures I have in our family room are school and sports photos of the kids, since without my having to do anything but write a check, we get these sent home every fall. There have been times when I’ve wondered if the lack of displayed pictures of friends and other family member makes us seem insular or narcisstic. Maybe we are???</p>
<p>Current trophies are displayed on the kids’ bureaus, and older ones are in a box in the basement. Newspaper clippings now go in a scrapbook under the child’s bed. Only one kid has had enough stuff in print to have motivated me to actually archive them in books. The other two children might have manila evelopes somewhere in the basement or a closet. I don’t handle papers particularly well.</p>
<p>I tend to agree with Marian that permanent displays of certificates and awards should be avoided. I think it’s great when they’re brand new to put them on the fridge to show the kids we’re proud of them, but then after a week or two I take them down. I would never display a report card because that’s too easily compared with someone else’s since they contain a scale of numbers or letters and ALL kids get one. A stellar report could make a classmate who comes to visit feel really bad if his grades aren’t comparable. I think other achievements tend to be less quantifiable and thus don’t lend themselves as well to comparison. If I come to a home and see a cheerleading award and my child doesn’t do cheerleading, I’m unlikely to feel envious or shamed than if I were to see a report card superior to that of my own child.</p>