Tomorrow is picture day at Snow White's school. For years and years I have worked 2 hours or more away from where we live. For years and years I have sent my children to school in what I deem their best possible outfits (sometimes to their great protest) with their hair neatly groomed and a clean face. A month or so later a package comes home with nearly 100 photos that do not look like the children I sent to school on picture day.
I swear they wait until after recess, gym with their hair all sorts of here and there. Better yet after lunch with blue pudding etched around their lips or spaghetti with matching stains on shirt. There must be a prize that out shines any lottery awarded to the photographer who captures the most awful photo of a child.
Anyway, I have had to deal with the pain of being a single mother who cannot take a full day off work to help my children realize the person taking the school photo only says "You look fantastic" is not actually looking at you but has 300 more children to photograph today and only wants you to take up the 2.5 seconds allowed per photo. They no longer give the children time to check themselves in the bathroom, class room window or even give them a comb any more.
You may think you are saved by not purchasing the school picture photo package but you would be sadly mistaken. That photo is the only way to preview the photo which will appear in the school year book. Yes, from pre-K to High School senior the photo taken on picture day is the one that will be distributed to every person in that school. It will also be kept as a record at the school for many years to come. That photo will never go away.
Last year after receiving yet another set of 'Ooops!' photos I opted to take a half day off for retakes. I had put up with "Ooops!" photos from time to time since ManSon was in kindergarten through 11th grade! I was there when she was in line. I was also brushing the hair of other students who had just been out at recess. I made sure her hair was brushed down (super curly needs some attention) and that year there was a really nice photo we did not have to explain away Blue super berry yogurt, recess of who can hang upside down the longest or why my hair has brambles and thistles that match the outline of the playground.
It is my goal tomorrow to be at her new school and supervise. I just looked at the weather forecast and it will be humid and rainy. Her extra curly hair will need extra attention. With all the stay at home moms here I am sure not to be standing there in the photographers line alone.
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You know what I love? Spring pictures (we do fall AND spring here) - they take their pictures and send the packet home. Our initial notification is a tiny slip that says "Picture day is coming up!" Good luck having NB get that little thing home to me!!
This last spring, I knew when SS's pics were, but not NB's. I got two full packages back...NB was covered in pirate tattoos. Then I forgot to send the packages back so now I owe them like $70 and have two full packages of pictures I don't even want. (If they ask, they're getting the pics, NOT the money!)
For the most part, though, I let it go because those pictures show what they're "really like" (as The Man says!). Kind of a compromise.
I love the missing tooth/teeth photos and I don't mind really about the hair but blue stuff or red stuff all over their faces and clothes for $60. Snow White doesn't want to hand them out and we end up just sticking one in the album and the rest (100s of them) go in some box in the basement.
If it werent for the year book I would so skip the school photos.
What is your worst school photo? Mine was wearing a shirt I did not realize was so TIGHT. Why was that photo not just head and shoulders? It was LONGER than my friend's photos. Guess the photographer really liked the boob shoot.
I let my daughter dress herself. I figure it's a more accurate representation of who she is. I have photos of her in t-shirts, photos of her in pretty dresses, photos of just her head and shoulders, and, my favorite, a full sized photo of a baseball tee and pants where you can't see the holes because of the pose she took... that one I admit I cringed at, they were her stained and holey khakis that were on their way out...
We never actually give the pics out either. We just keep them for albums. The thing is, it's because you can get better pictures at the mall at one of those places where they have cuter props etc etc. I mean, we're still doing the same 'pick a background shade' we did in the 80s, with maybe a 'different pose' offered.
My parents are definitly in the "Traditional" family photo column. One year my parents, siblings, nieces and baby ManSon all gathered for a family photo. Everyone was dressed as if they were going to high tea with the Queen...well, almost everyone. My older brother had on a Hawiian Shirt and floral shorts. My parents were indeed shocked but my other brother and I insisted this was an exact portrail of our older brother.
My worst one was in the fourth grade...my mom insisted on blow-drying my hair different and making me wear a certain sweater. I looked like a boy.
OR! It was my freshman year in high school...but that was the school's fault. The flash was bad so everyone's face showed up ghostly white in a black background. Most people's were fixed with retakes, but my mom took me to Sears instead...so my ghostly picture ended up in the yearbook.
Those damn yearbooks!
I cannot ever remember my mother fussing over what we looked like for our school pictures. She only wanted to know what date so she could have a check ready for us.
man oh man do I ever wish you had been with my son at his picture day this year...he is almost 13..need I say more?? lmao.
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