There are so many reasons to get in the photos with your children. We are so good at telling ourselves “I will do it when I…(insert your version of being enough)” . We tell ourselves we’ll get in the picture when our hair is done, our clothes are right, or we lose weight.  How many mamas have put off those newborn pictures because they didn’t feel “photo ready” after the baby arrived?  How many mamas put off those family photos because they feel like next year they’ll have it more together?  (Mama–nope–as The Brakes points out often–the chaos keeps coming). You need to get in those photos now.  

Get in the photo to celebrate this moment.

Photos are not a celebration of having reached some pinnacle of style. They are a commemoration of the love and joy and chaos that is present in your everyday moments.  Phots are the telling of your family’s story.  They are the reminder of the tiny toes, the chubby cheeks, the little giggles, and the big tears soothed with the warmest hugs.  Your baby is only a newborn for the blink of an eye.  Your toddler only toddles for a second before they run.  Don’t get sucked into the lie that you aren’t stylish/thin/pretty/fill-in-the-blank enough.  You are enough. As Brene Brown beautifully writes, “No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.” You always were enough, and you always will be enough.  Get in the photos, because you are essential to the story.

Get in the photo because you belong there.

We do not get in the photo enough. My phone has 1,197 (er…roughly) photos of my oldest daughter; I’m in about 100 of them.  The ratios are similar for all my children.  Sure, many of these are snaps I took because my kiddos were being particularly adorable.  In those moments I truly was nothing more than an audience. But there are many photos focused on times that I was there and slid out of the frame because I wasn’t feeling pretty enough to be in the photo. Slipping out of the frame because we don’t feel we’re good enough, sends a subtle, but dangerous, message to our kiddos. It says that a place inside the frame is something that has to be earned.  Get in the photo.

Unfiltered & unplanned moments are beautiful.

We take photos of our kiddos with abandon. We capture them with bedhead, with boogers in their noses, running around in diapers, wearing mismatched clothes and ridiculous costumes.  We love how brash and bold and free they are.  We love how they ham it up, but we shy away from immortalizing our own silly unfiltered moments.  Your family’s photos aren’t for the cover of Vogue!  These are for you and for them.  They are to help you remember the beauty of the life you are sharing.  Photos of the unfiltered, spontaneous chaos are often the best.  I promise you, your family wants you to get in the photo, not just for now, but for their memories in 10, 20, 50 years.

Take up space, you deserve it.

So, let’s pledge to work harder to take up (well deserved) space INSIDE the frame. Sometimes there isn’t an extra hand to take the photo, but when that nice stranger asks if you want to be in the picture too–Say yes!  When you have the time to schedule a family photos session–Say yes!  Selfies?-Say yes!  You need to get in the photo because your family’s story doesn’t exist without you.  The photos shouldn’t either.