Get Over It And Say Cheese

If you’re anything like me, you often cringe when you see pictures of yourself. For me, I always think twice before getting into a photo. I prefer to be behind the camera, not in front, and since my girls are wonderful subjects, I take tons of pictures. I have pictures of them all over the house. Last month, my kids went off to camp. As part of her “going away” preparations, my youngest daughter wanted to take a small photo album of her city friends, her cousins and her family. All of us. Even me. This did pose a problem since I have very few pictures of me with my girls. As I said, I’m the one mostly behind the camera.

When I tried to explain this to my daughter, she said, “But Mom, I want to have lots of pictures of you and me.”

It makes sense, of course, to have pictures of my girls and I for posterity. So why is it so hard? I know that when she’s older, or even when she has kids, it will be so wonderful to pull out pictures of us when we were younger. I know my kids (or grandkids) won’t be care about extra baby weight, a bad hair day or if I'm in sweats or covered in paint. All the reasons I give for not being in pictures will be irrelevant. My kids will (hopefully) only look at the pictures and remember the good times, the hugs and the smiles and the love. So, from now on, I am now going to make an effort to say yes to pictures. I mean, don’t you love looking (and laughing) at pictures of your parents when they were young?

How do you feel about being in pictures?