A faded report card, a colourful drawing made with uneven crayons or a tiny note written in a child’s handwriting may seem like ordinary pieces of paper. But for many parents, throwing them away can feel surprisingly difficult. Even when children grow into adults, parents may continue to keep folders filled with schoolwork, drawings and handwritten notes. Some remain tucked away in cupboards, while others are displayed on refrigerators or carefully stored in memory boxes. At first, this habit may look like simple nostalgia. But psychology suggests that these objects can carry a much deeper meaning. They can act as reminders of important experiences, relationships and stages of family life that cannot be recreated in exactly the same way.
Psychology says old drawings can become powerful memory cues
10 Sept 2026 | 12:19
What’s one thing you swore you’l never do as a parent now you find yourself doing?
One reason parents hold on to childhood objects is that physical possessions can trigger autobiographical memories. These are memories connected to a person’s own experiences and life story. Research on autobiographical memory has shown that remembering is influenced by relationships and the way families talk about their past. Psychologist Elaine Reese’s research, for example, has explored how conversations between parents and children can help shape the way children remember personal experiences. This may help explain why a simple drawing can become emotionally important to a parent.A picture made by a six-year-old may remind a mother or father of the home they lived in at the time, the child’s personality, a school event or even a particular conversation. The drawing itself may not have much artistic value, but it can act as a doorway into an entire period of family life. The same can happen with a report card. Years later, it may bring back memories of a child’s first achievement, the excitement of coming home from school or the parent helping with homework.
Nostalgia can make an ordinary piece of paper feel priceless
Another explanation comes from research on nostalgia. Psychologists Constantine Sedikides and Tim Wildschut have extensively studied nostalgia and its connection with memories, relationships and meaningful experiences. Their work suggests that nostalgia is often a positive emotional experience involving important people, places, objects and moments from the past. That can make an otherwise worthless object feel incredibly valuable. An old report card may no longer have any practical purpose once a child becomes an adult. But to a parent, it may represent a time when the child was still coming home with a schoolbag, asking for help with homework or proudly showing their latest achievement.The object becomes a shortcut to the memory. A child’s handwriting can make this effect even stronger. Misspelled words, uneven letters and drawings with unusual colours can immediately remind parents of how young their child once was. Imagine finding an old drawing labelled “My Famly” years after it was made. The spelling mistake may instantly bring back the child’s voice, personality and age. The emotional value comes not from the paper but from everything connected to it. Research by Sedikides and Wildschut on nostalgia provides useful context for understanding why ordinary objects can become emotionally meaningful.
Parents may also be preserving their own story
Perhaps the most interesting part is that parents may not only be preserving memories of their children. They may also be preserving memories of themselves. Psychologist Dan P. McAdams’ work on narrative identity suggests that people make sense of their lives through stories about important experiences and relationships. Parenthood can become one of the most significant chapters in that story. An old drawing can therefore represent more than “my child made this”. It can represent “this was the time when I was raising my child”. That may explain why parents sometimes remember exactly where a particular drawing came from, even if they have forgotten countless other details from the same period. These objects also make the passage of time visible.A tiny drawing made by a five-year-old can look strikingly different when the child is now an adult. The contrast can remind parents just how quickly childhood passed. This can become particularly emotional when children leave home, graduate, get married or begin families of their own. Still, keeping old schoolwork does not automatically mean someone is overly attached to the past. Some parents simply enjoy preserving family memories, while others may hope their children will appreciate the objects later. Psychology cannot determine someone’s personality simply from a box of old drawings. What it can help explain is why something as simple as a report card or a child’s drawing can carry a value that has nothing to do with money. Sometimes, parents are not really holding on to a piece of paper. They are holding on to a moment in time that the paper helps them remember.
