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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Bad Mommy Moment #72

I have often mentioned here on All Stace the differences between my children. Besides having a huge age gap, they are as different as night and day. Nick is dark haired, Michael has light. Nick has brown eyes, Michael has blue. Michael is very gifted athletically, Nick is not. I mean, their personalities, their temperment are just worlds apart.

One thing, though, that seems to get to me more than anything else is pictures. I take a LOT of pictures. I scrapbook and I love it. Nick, is very photogenic. I mean, even in the womb the boy cooperated with a camera. Not Michael. Nick always takes a good picture. Even when he was in to wearing all black, not shaving and having shaggy hair, he still managed to look good. Poor Michael is not comfortable having his picture taken. It is RARE to get a good picture where he is not looking like a deer in the headlights or as if someone were holding a gun to his back.

So back in September it was picture day at school. I always order the package because we have so many people to share with. I know it's more expensive than going to Wal-Mart but it saves me time. The first round of photos I did not like. I apologized to Michael and told him that we wanted them to be done over. We did that last year too so he was okay with it. Well, yesterday we got the re-takes back and I think they were worse than the first. Was the photography bad? No. Was the quality poor? No. Did my child look like someone who had fallen asleep behind a dumpster and was pulled out and photographed for ID purposes? Yes.

Shouldn't I love these pictures merely because they are of my boy? Shouldn't I look at that little raggamuffin and think of how he looks like this a LOT and embrace it? I can't and I feel HORRIBLE about it! I know that I had my fair share of horrible photos growing up and my mom still kept them. We have a long running joke about a picture she had taken of me right before I had my open heart surgery at age 4. I HATE that picture - and it's kind of morbid. But she loves it and cherishes it. Why can't I do that?

Bad mommy moment. Seriously, bad moment.

*Today's Examiner.com article is on special deals for homeschoolers. You can read it HERE. Thanks!*

5 comments:

Sheila Sultani said...

First of all if you have a teen and are only up to bad mommy moment #72 you're doing something right. Second, those annoying school pictures are just a way for that company to suck people dry - they play on the mom guilt "what's WRONG with that woman, she doesn't love her kid because she doesn't buy the largest package offered." If your school is anything like ours they do more than one school picture - the last couple years we've had three beginning of year, January and April (summer beach scene) This is the same company that barges into your hospital room right after you've delivered a baby. I don't feel guilty if I only buy the pictures 1 really like, which may be once every couple years.

Anne said...

School pictures always turn out badly. I wouldn't even order them, but I have to order something to get the class picture. You are lucky if one of your kids turned out good in school photos. Both of my kids rarely look good. I don't think that makes you a bad mom, it just proves that you can see.

jenn said...

I was kinda wanting to see the picture...lol!

A Lil Enchanted said...

The photographers who take the school pics herd those kids through like cattle... they don't care what the pic looks like because they assume you'll by them no matter what... and they're definitely not gonna take their time to work with your kid and try to coax a good pic out of him... they just wanna get done for the day and get outta there. They usually get paid either a flat rate by the day or a pretty low hourly wage... so they don't care if the pic is good or if it sells or not.

If you really really don't like it don't buy it... take him to Penny's where you can pick whatever poses you want for $4 a sheet and they do try to get good pics.

And stop feeling bad.. you're a great Mom!

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Frugal Vicki said...

I can giggle here because I haven't hit this yet (and BTW, I am TOTALLY with you on the pictures. I am not kidding when I tell you I average 500 pics PER KID PER MONTH!!!!)
Anyway, my BFF just told me they took their family pictures, and she took so much time making sure everyone looked perfect....hair, nails, clothes.....and then she got the pics back. And realized her daughters nails were green. I am going to send this post to her!