IMG_7748:
IMG_7749:
Those are the default titles my camera gave these two photos, which were taken in succession. IMG_7748 and IMG_7749. One moment all is harmony. The next…less so.
Awkward Family Photos may have taken the internet by storm (and rightfully so), but I feel like there is a niche opening for someone to start Honest Family Photos. Maybe a seemingly perfect family portrait is ruined by an obviously high teenage son. Perhaps another might be an engagement photo, where an up-close shot of the fiance’s ringed hand reveals fingers-crossed.
Most, I imagine, would show young siblings embracing with something less resembling love than, say, combat.
The odd thing is that our two kids love on each other plenty throughout the day. Yet they have their dust ups on the regular as well. The triggers never make sense – they can be anything. Proximity isn’t even always an element. They can be a room apart and suddenly, it’s on. Which is frustrating, because most of the time they are good or at least OK to each other. Occasionally they are great to each other – like that first photo, which captured an actual moment.
But parenting is nothing if not a constant reminder of the definition of “moment.” Children live in them in a way that we as parents can barely comprehend. From the highest highs to the lowest lows in under a second. I’ve seen it. It’s manic. It’s passionate. It’s baffling. And it makes me crazy.
So what’s the answer?
There isn’t one. This is parenting. Our job is to deal with it – all of it – and hope they turn out ok. One minute all is calm, the next is euphoria, the next is catastrophe. Here’s hoping you’re good enough with a camera that you catch some of it to laugh at later. Also, alcohol.
by 
