This feels like something straight out of my worst nightmares—an inbox you can’t control or access, slowly filling with emails you can’t read, file, or delete. A never-ending scream into the void.

Now, spare a thought for five-year-old Prince Archie and three-year-old Princess Lilibet. In a recent podcast interview with her friend, beauty entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima, Meghan Markle revealed she’s creating a “time capsule” for her children with Prince Harry. She sends daily photos and anecdotes to email addresses she’s set up for them, which they won’t be able to open until they’re 16 or even 18 (hopefully alongside a trust fund, right?).

As Meghan explained: “Here’s everything and every moment I wanted to tell you how much I love you and how proud I am of you.” She emails them most nights before bed because, in her words, “it doesn’t have to be a heavy lift.” Former staff members, who once claimed in The Hollywood Reporter that Meghan sent 5 a.m. emails regularly, might find that all too familiar.

Beyond the sheer overwhelm I feel for two kids under six—imagine the actual heavy lifting they’ll face as teenagers, sifting through years of emails when they’d rather be out with friends—Meghan’s project says a lot about millennial parenting. Turns out, whether you’re in Montecito or Mile End, it’s not so different.

I’m talking about the obsession with “making memories,” one of the more cringe-worthy phrases to emerge from social media. We’re often called the most nostalgic generation, having lived through both analog and digital eras. And when it comes to parenting, that nostalgia has a direct impact—this constant need to craft unforgettable experiences, or in Meghan’s case, digital time capsules. We can’t just let life happen; every day has to be a potential “core memory” for our kids.

We’re so nostalgic that we’re already imagining how our children might look back fondly on their childhoods—how they’ll remember those soft-play afternoons and the effort we poured into “everything and every moment” (Aww, look at that 5 a.m. email Mum sent me 12 years ago!).

I think it stems from the fact that we’re starting families later, having built entire lives before bringing kids into them. Maybe that makes it harder to adjust than previous generations? Or maybe we pile pressure on ourselves to make every minute count, as if that justifies our life choices (and, of course, looks good on social media). What other reason could there be for emailing your kids nightly in a one-sided conversation and then crying about it on a podcast?

It’s the same mindset that expects millennial parents to stay at their kids’ birthday parties instead of dropping them off like our parents did. If you’re not present, making memories, you’re failing them. If you’re not stressing over their next world-beating day out, you’re failing them. If you’re not practicing gentle, empathetic parenting, you’re failing them.

I swear, when I was young, weekends were spent at MFI or Homebase. The idea of my parents curating a special day for us—outside of birthdays—let alone a daily time capsule, was as unthinkable as them saying, “I’m nurturing you, I see you deeply, and I love watching you grow.” (That’s Meghan talking to her kids, by the way, not their overflowing inboxes.)

“I thought it was such a great time capsule to create for them because I used to have scrapbooks and photo albums, but we’re past that generation now,” the Duchess added on the podcast. There it is again—nostalgia, trapping us in a loop.