Saturday is picture day for the munchkin soccer program my son is enrolled in.
This means I have the opportunity to spend considerably more money than I spent signing up for the entire eight-week program just to have my kid photographed in a team shirt that hangs down below his knees. At least I don't have to worry about washing his shorts.
There are no less than twenty different photo options and combinations to choose from. I can get my kid on a Wheaties box. I can get pennant flags with his mug on it, a photo button, trader cards, magazine cover, or a three-dimensional 5x7 statuette.
In high school I remember being excited to be able to get a dozen wallet-sized prom photos of me and my date, I think I still have eleven of them left.
I'm feeling some photo day peer pressure - Is everyone else doing it? Am I crap mom if I don't buy into this? Will he wonder thirty years from now why there's no photo in the album of him and his teammates from the good old days of munchkin soccer?
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3 comments:
Photo day peer pressure? Are you "crap mom" if you don't? Oh please. Do you really need validation every time you don't do what everyone else does? If you're truly feeling that, then just open your wallet and be done with it.
This kind of stuff will continue to be pushed at us as long as there are people willing to throw money at it. Don't encourage it. Take some pictures yourself and buy the kid a savings bond. :)
Dear Joanne,
I know what you mean! Just want to let you know, it only gets worse. I have spent plenty of money through the years buying school pictures, dance pictures, softball pictures, and sure I still have a lot of them after giving some away, but pictures are "worth a thousand words" and the cost of those memories...priceless!
Don't be swayed, Joanne!
I have chosen this forum to make my Crap Mom confession: I didn't buy the newborn photos the hospital offers when my firstborn came into the world! Gasp!
I saved the money I would have spent if I caved to the pressure of cheesy photos with terrible backgrounds and put it toward a really cool black-and-white photo session with a professional photographer in a home setting. My son was 2 months then, alert and smiling somewhat, and we have beautiful documentary-style photos of him with each family member and all of us together.
It was expensive ... but we'll forgo a few more "must-have" photos to help make up for it.
Besides, who wants a team photo? You can't even see their faces. I'd rather a closeup of my son on the bench or field with a friend in his uniform in the actual game setting.
S
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