A Mother’s Day Challenge

A Mother’s Day Challenge

As I was planning this blog post, I went looking through photos from my own childhood. I found less than a dozen photos of my mum and myself together, and I was either a tiny baby or a sullen teen (sorry mum). The first nice one was from my wedding in 2007. I know I am giving away my age here but statistically speaking that is only 0.33 photos per year over 33 years! Not only is that shockingly low it makes me so sad and regretful.

Mum get out from behind the camera

My mother’s day challenge is that each and every mum makes an effort for the remainder of the year to be in photos with (or without for that matter) your kids. It is important to capture and preserve your story and photos are the perfect trigger for your memory.

Typically mums are the family photo custodian and as such tend to be tucked behind the camera. Most of us also prefer to stay out of picture. Too often when we are asked to be in a photo we are overly judgmental of appearance… I hate my teeth, I didn’t wash my hair, I look fat in this top… you know the excuses, we all use them regularly. The trouble with being so fault-finding means that you run the risk of excluding yourself from the family photo collection, effectively obliterating yourself from your own family history.

Luckily my mum was in a number of photos on her own but still, not very many. I am also blessed that I can remember her from those days – but realistically I am not confident that I always will. Can you be sure that your own children will remember how you looked at age 25, 30, 40 and beyond? Do you remember your own mother at those ages?

So this mother’s day I challenge you to think long term and focus on creating a family photo legacy for your children.  Stop agonizing that you are not ‘photo ready’. You might feel uncomfortable but I promise that in years to come your kids won’t see messy hair or sloppy clothes they will only see the mother of their childhood memories. They will just want to see that you were there, with them in those special moments so they can more easily recall the stories of their younger years — and I think you will benefit from those walks down memory lane in the future too.

Keeping all this in mind, we encourage you to hand the camera over to someone else more often so that you can be in more photos with your kids.  When you see another mother out enjoying a moment with their kids offer to snap a picture for them, and ask them to return the favour. Love them or hate them a selfie stick could be a good investment, sometimes a selfie is the only option. My kids love pulling faces for selfies and as an added bonus you get to cuddle up into a snuggly cuddly small frame to take them.

mothers day. selfie, family

Being able to show your daughter your wild unruly curls or a face full of braces will bring you closer together when you show her (quite literally) that you have been in her position before and survived. We also encourage you to talk to your mum and capture your own story as mother and daughter.

In years to come when your children have grown and are raising their own families, they will thank you for your efforts.

Have a magical day

Mara

1Comment
  • Andi Willis
    Posted at 02:44h, 13 May

    I think this is the one great thing about selfies. My teenagers are much more agreeable to snap a quick selfie with me than to pose for a picture. My husband is getting better and telling me to get in the picture too. Thanks for the great reminder