I Take Pictures Of My Kids To Be Present In The Moment

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LJ Herman: Oct 19, 2018Updated: May 23, 2023

Dear Super Enjoyers of Kids,

I have something to admit. I am totally, unquestionably, 1,000% that mom.

I take and share a ridiculous number of pictures of my kids.

And I know that it might seem like I’m trying to capture picture-perfect moments or present myself to the world in some special kind of way on social media.

But the truth is quite the opposite.

You see, my life is insanely busy, as I’m sure you can relate.

And when I stop to take a photo of my children, so stops the incessant to-do list running through my head.

I stop for a second and soak in a moment.

Yes, a moment through the lens of my camera.

A moment that I can thankfully look back at later to remember, because these days spent parenting young children are so often such a blur of snack-fetching, boo-boo-healing, time-out-giving, sibling-refereeing and no-more-water-get-in-your-bed-and-stay-there-ing that I can barely remember my own name at the end of the day.

I’m pretty sure if I didn’t use up all 47 seconds of my children’s’ attention spans for photos, I would rest my head on whatever pillows they didn’t steal from my bed each night wondering if I’m doing anything right.

But instead, I lay down and open up a camera reel that reminds me that today, there were smiles.

There was blonde hair glistening in the sunlight and there were blue eyes looking up at me with wonder (or contempt or confusion or all of the above).

It reminds me that there was gum stuck in hair and there were Cheerios stuck to foreheads, or pools splashed in and swings swung in.

And it all makes me smile.

Of course, only my favorites make it to social media. (You’d really be surprised if you knew how many photos actually live in my cloud.)

I post them to share with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, the majority of which live states away.

I share them to save myself from sending 8 group texts with funny pics or videos.

I share them to make other people laugh or smile.

I share them because I can feel this stage of life fleeting faster than I can grab ahold of it and it’s just another way of capturing and holding onto a moment in time.

So the next time you scroll past my smiling or crying or swimming or zooing or sleeping or playing child and assume I spent the whole day trying to capture pictures, please remember I probably spent 47 seconds capturing a few moments to remind myself at the end of each day, that even in the midst of all this whining and nagging and fit-throwing, there is joy.

Love,

Megan
Wife, Mom, Writer, Super Enjoyer of Kids

3 images of children smiling outside — Courtesy of Megan Brammeier

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Megan Brammeier. You can follow her journey on Facebook. Be sure to subscribe to our free email here for our best stories.