Framed pictures of my 8-year-old hang on the walls of most every room in our house, run down the hallway and sit on just about every flat surface.
Once a year, I take Sawyer to the portrait studio. I buy his pictures from school, soccer, basketball, baseball and drama camp. And, like a lot of moms, I never go anywhere without a camera tucked in my purse.
Today's children are the most well documented generation ever, what with the advent of digital photography, inexpensive still and video cameras – even cell phone cameras – and affordable studio portraits.
Chances are good that our children will never look at these pictures – at least not all of them. Even we don't have the time to go through stacks of CDs and DVDs containing thousands of images.
Is all this picture-taking coming at a price as parents, busy documenting school plays and birthday parties through a lens, fail to enjoy the moment live? I want to be a good mom, and good moms take lots of pictures, right?
“I think you can be the best parent in the world and not take any pictures or you can take lots and lots of pictures and the pictures are for your personal, selfish edification, not for the child, and you might not be a good parent at all,” says Denise Bodman, a senior lecturer in the School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. (She's also the mother of two grown kids.)
So I try to take some pictures and then put the camera down. And I've learn to balance the video camera on my lap during Sawyer's games and performances, so that he sees my face, not the camera, when he scans the crowd.
Karina Bland is raising her 9-year-old son in Tempe with a lot of love, humor and support from her friends and family. A longtime journalist covering child welfare and education issues for The Arizona Republic, she blogs about raising good kids.
It is funny you wrote
It is funny you wrote this....
I was just telling my husband that I am awful about taking pic's.
I feel I am a good mom but I don't have a camera in my purse.I do in my cell phone and even that doesn't remind me...
We certainly take pic's when there is a celebration of some sort going on.
And once a year we have a night when we go through the pic's we take and put them in a album.It is a nice night of talking about the last year.
However I must say there are times when I kick myself because I didn't click away....
I have often felt this way
I have often felt this way too! I have a 13 month old son and I feel like if I don't capture every great moment on film, I will forget it somehow. Plus, we have a family blog to keep family updated who live out of town so that makes me want to take even more to share with everyone how great my little guy is! I often joke that my second child will have 2 pictures taken of him/her whenever we have one. It's nice to hear that it's okay to just put the camera down. Sometimes we need reminders like that...
I have lots of pictures of
I have lots of pictures of my oldest, and not as many of my next. I suppose that is life and I am glad for all that I do have.
Now the big thing is to make sure you back up your pictures. I need to do that before my computer decides to eat them all.I have a girlfriend that this happened to and she was devastated. I know I would be as well.
KarilouMomof2 is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Tempe. Her daughters are 9 and 6.
I had the same problem, but
I had the same problem, but then I realized that there are several other family members/friends at the parties, games, etc. that are capable of taking pictures. So I just pick a different person (who I trust to get the perfect shot) each time and have them click away while I cheer.
That's a great idea,
That's a great idea, hockeymom. I did that once, just by chance, at my son's birthday party, handing off the camera because I was so busy organizing games, food and present opening. It was great later to get the pictures because I was actually in some of them! Usually, I take all the pictures so, based on the photo albums, it's like I wasn't even there. I'll make sure I hand off the camera again at the next event, at least for part of the time. Thanks.