The proofs for my children's school photos were released last week.
As I was reviewing their forced smiles and strange expressions, I saw something that caught my eye on my daughter's photo.
"What on earth is on her head?" I ask my husband, bewildered.
"That's what I thought too," he said. "The teacher was also surprised." Nestled in amongst her bangs, which she had carefully brushed off her forehead, contrary to how she left the house in the morning, was a skinny purple headband with a small white flower. I believe the headband belonged to a doll and it must have been uncomfortably tight, strung across her forehead, Rambo-style. She looks very pleased with herself. She must have snuck the headband to school and put it on right before the photo.
Since her teacher was also surprised at the appearance of the headband in the photo, my daughter must have taken it off again after the photos. It was just a secret between her and the photographer. I am not getting retakes. I will proudly display the Rambo Kindergarten photo on my photo shelf and I will distribute the rest of the photos to my friends and family to their delight because she looks adorable.
I failed at photo distribution last year. I recently found the virtually-untouched package of my son's school photos from last year. I put the package on the photo shelf, intending to send the photos along with my Christmas cards. I did not do Christmas cards last year. Now I have a ton of out-of-date photos that I do not know what to do with other than feel guilty every time I look at them. I hope to do better this year but I would not bet on it.
Photo packages are deliberately organized to be the opposite of helpful. I have a large family and, whether they like it or not, they are going to receive pictures of my kids for Christmas. Not one parent wants 16 wallet-sized photos in their package. Throw in some extra 8 X 10s and some 5X7s and we will all be happy.
I have to buy the packages with the stupid wallet-sized photos because it is the best deal and I will keep these tiny photos forever because I feel weird throwing out photos of my children. The photographers are selling digital prints now, however I know myself well enough to know that I will never get them printed. Perhaps if we banded together to demand sensible packages from the school photographers, we would not be left with ridiculously-sized photos good for only those school years photo frames that remain stubbornly empty at the back of closets because, really, who has the time?
Likely, nothing will change and many years from now I will be receiving strangely small photos of my own grandchildren because their parents miscounted the number of photos they needed to give away.
What goes around and all that.
