Get in the photo. Not just take it. I said get IN the photo.
As a mom of two little ones- my camera is constantly out. At the time of writing this, I currently have 11,823 photos in my camera roll- and my phone is alerting me that it’s out of storage. I have photos of my girls from every single moment of their lives: trying a new food, taking their first steps, smiling faces in front of a pumpkin. I capture EVERYTHING. But, when I scroll and look, I am usually the one behind the camera, rarely in front of it.
I have excuses for it all. I haven’t showered in days, postpartum acne and hair loss, haven’t lost the baby weight, etc. I can come up with excuses for days. I’m positive so many moms out there can relate.
When our family suffered the loss of my mother-in-law last month, we were all tasked with the project of collecting photos of her for the celebration of life. Going through her camera roll, she had thousands of photos of my daughters. They were the joy of her life, and she got so much happiness seeing their photos. Now, however, I find myself longing for more photos of her WITH the girls. My daughters will grow up with a huge hole in their lives where their Nonna should be. The best thing I can offer them is memories and photos. Thankfully we have a handful of candids that my sister-in-law took- Nonna rocking the girls in the rocking chair, watching them crawl around on the floor, holding them while they slept. THESE are the photos that we will remember and frame and treasure.
So take it from me- your children don’t care how your hair looks. They don’t care if your face is broken out and you’re wearing spit-up stained clothes. In 50 years when they are looking back on their childhood, they won’t care about the perfectly posed photos of them smiling in front of the Christmas tree. They’ll hold on to the candid shots of their mom holding them dancing around the living room and the one with their mom and dad smiling down on them as they open their birthday gifts (even if you have a double chin because it’s a horrible angle!!!!). Hand the phone over to dad, grandma, heck even a stranger on the street. Let someone else do the documentation for once, and smile along with your children. I promise you’ll be glad you did.
For BlueWaterParent.com – Alyssa Dock
