I arrived at my daughters school today to be asked by one of the lovely Strathmore mums what I thought of the school photographs. Now perhaps what I should have done is have a decent conversation as to whether they were any good or not, instead I did a high pitched squealing sort of sound followed by the confession that I had not looked in my little mollys school bag since before half term and I then proceeded to rummage through her little school drawer which is full of stuff I possible should take home to try and find said photographs. (Feel free to send me a bad mother badge which I will wear with pride) Now armed with exhibit A "photographs of child" I felt far more ready to have the conversation where we proceeded to digest and then dissect the quality and cost of the photographs. My bet is that at least half of the parents think the photographs are too expensive and Il also guess that the same parents think the quality is not great..... but equally at least half will buy them and there would be an uproar if schools stopped providing the service. I think that the dexterity it must take to be a child school photographer deserves a medal... or at the very least a blue peter badge, similar to the role of a teacher which takes a very special sort of soul... I think the vast majority of us would reel at the thought of attempting to cajoul hundreds upon hundreds of children into wiping away the snot and smiling for the camera (or in my daughters case looking at the camera in a way that suggests she just stole something and is going to get caught) All the while I am having this conversation the daughter (who I promised to be more approachable and attentive with ) is hanging off my arm reminding me at full volume that I am meant to be doing shared reading with her... having used her supersonic selective hearing she has noted me saying that I wont be buying them and proceeded to have a meltdown. Molly: "Mummy but WHY wont you buy them" Me : "Because I have hundreds of photos of you that are much better than that" Molly : " But WHY" Me :" Molly Im a photographer and it would be silly to spend money on pictures on you when I can take perfectly good pictures myself" Molly : (whingy voice)"But everyone else is going to buy them" Me : "I dont give a toss (yes...oops...said toss at school) what everyone else is going to do... if everyone jumped off a cliff would you think its a good idea too?" (clearly I was feeling a bit childish this morning and also prepared to lie and say I didnt care what everyone else was going to do) Molly : "PURHLEEEESE mummy" Me: "For heavens sake Molly, No. I could continue but I am afraid that if I actually used the dialog that I used with Molly and wrote it down then I may never ever pass a CRB check should I need one. So, having not read story with my daughter and managing to make her feel unloved I walked home feeling guilty. This is what my little rant for the day is about. Guilt. Perhaps schools shouldnt put the photographs of children in clear plastic bags and give them to the kids to give to us... is that not emotional blackmail.? Does that not scream "you unphotogenic unloved child" if you do what I do and dont buy them? The only advantage I can see of buying a photograph of a child that you dont like is the joy you can get in later years proudly showing them to every new boyfriend of theirs that passes through the door... but I sense that I will be embarrassment enough for Molly without having to add to her shame with dodgy old school photos. So I draw the conclusion.... if you like them woo hoo, buy them and enjoy them. If you dont like them, DONT buy them. Dont fall into the guilt trap of buying at least one... instead give some money to charity and get a happy healthy glow of doing something fab.. or use the 10 or 15 quid to let your kid go mad in a sweet shop, or go and eat pizza together just the two of you... or anything at all that makes you both smile. Alternatively come to the shop and have some taken by me, and Il try really hard not to swear this time...... |
 |
|||||||
 
|
|
 |
|||||
    |
|||||||
