Trying to keep kids' albums equal

I have 3 boys and honestly I've never thought about having to keep things equal and it sure as heck never occurred to me that I should keep page counts equal?!? Their albums are about school, sports, activities, friend BD parties, etc. One kid was in 4-H, the other 2 played youth FB and on and on it goes. I scrapbook what I have for each of them. At the end of the day they are all going to graduate from HS with about 4 albums each which will = success!

My kids' albums are nearly finished after about 18 years of scrapping. I ended up with one more album for DD than I did for DS (8 albums vs 7.) She was in dance and a vocal performing group for many years, so there were more events to photograph. Even though DS was involved in lots of things too, that's just the way it ended up. I don't think it bothers DS, but DD likes to rub it in anyway.

I found it a little more challenging to scrap boy pages equally. The girly products are a lot more plentiful. DS's albums aren't macho-masculine, just a different color palette. There are flowers to be found in his here and there, but they aren't quite as elaborate as DD's.

It would be hard to keep them even if one kid has more photo ops, but I would try to keep it close. Maybe you could sneak up on them with a camera, document more daily things, likes and dislikes, go a little deeper and make it more personal.

There are all kinds of fairness. I agree with some others that you are right to celebrate the accomplishments of the one child and respect the wishes of the other. Maybe you can sneak into the gamer's room when he isn't home, and take some shots of the games on the shelf, the controller(s), other things that reflect his life right now.

I didn't start scrapbooking until my kids were almost grown. My first albums were the ones I made for them. I tried to make each a reflection of that child's personality. The benefit of scrapping the past was that I scrapped the themes in their lives (say HOCKEY, SCHOOL SPORTS) but not every event. Some pages were the same for all: family tree, farm life. I didn't worry about how many pages went into each album, but they all ended up about the same size.

With my grandkids, I try to make sure that every album has at least SOME photos of each grandchild, but I don't see all of them every month, and some of the moms send me more photos than the others. Photos I have that demo personality or reflect really special events for an individual may take up more that one 2 page spread.

I haven't separated my pages into individual books. Have been thinking of doing this when the kids graduate from high school? Right now the pages are put in my own albums chronologically. Could photocopy the pages (@$2 per page), then either pass on the originals or the copies.

This is something I've been thinking about. Older DS was an only child for almost 10 years. He has soooo many pages it's kind of ridiculous. I've cut back on his layouts just because I realize they'll be too many albums for him to keep.

As of right now I try to make:
2-3 layouts for DS 2
1 layout for DS 1
1-2 other layouts (vacation, about me, about DH and I, etc).

That way I cover a little of everything and get DS 2's album with some layouts. I'm not super strict but I try to keep it in mind.

I don't worry about who has more layouts. I've never noticed any jealousy about it and I don't want to introduce the idea of it. My question these days is when will I stop scrapping separate books and start doing one family album? When they turn 18? When they move out? I don't know yet.

I do not think I will ever do family albums again.  My boys are adults but I still scrap them individually.  The albums I did that are family albums need to be split and someday if I live long enough I will do that.  They need to have their own lives in their own albums not try to split them up someday.

I may do specialty albums like if my husband and I travel.  My son already told me there is no way he can take all of his albums.  He probably has at least 20 right now that are just his life and that does not include the first 10 years that I did family albums..................

No. I don't concern myself with album equality.

Life isn't fair.
You will get whatever I get done before I pass on to the next life. If that's not good enough for you, feel free to complain after I am gone.

This is my hobby.
I do it as I want.
I don't owe you anything.