… til Someone Gets Hurt, Mother
Recently, we (that would be me) here at Atlantic Beachlife subjected the children to the annual Christmas card photography torture session.
The good times start with Mother in a calm state. She tells her children of her plan for the day’s activity which is met with much grousing and bargaining for postponement, but she will not be deterred. They are smart children. They know that mother’s calm spirit is a contrived attempt to infuse this obligatory photo session which will be lengthy and repetitive, with false cheer. That Mother’s happy and upbeat demeanor will crumble at the first sign of their resistance, and she will become the tense and hissing woman they remember from previous family photo sessions. They wisely cooperate. She promises early to take them to McDonald’s so as to prime their moods and elicit the facial expressions and body language that make for a happy looking trio. She promises that if everyone plays their part well, it will be over quickly.
Because they are now older children she tells them straightaway that she means to take many photos, like, a lot, like, hundreds, because it takes hundreds, in fact, to get that one perfect shot (the one that will please her). They get it. They understand. They allow their hair to be combed, pony tailed, gelled. They wear the clothes she commands them to wear. They get into the car.
All is going well so far. Mother feels optimistic. She drives to her favorite site; a place that allows for changes of scenery beachside. Dune grass. Palm trees. Bench. Sand and sea. This gives Mother the options she wants.
Soon she has the children posing, and her voice remains friendly, coaxing. She remembers to smile when she directs them to stand over here, no, no, put her in the front of you two…closer, turn your head just a bit…no, not you, you keep looking straight at me and keep smiling, just keep smiling, now you, will you put your arm across his shoulder, yes! just like that, great, okay, oops, your eyes were closed, okay you two just stay like that…hey! look at me, there we go, good, great. No! Stop doing that, you are trying too hard, look relaxed, don’t clench, okay that’s better. Everyone! Look at me and smile, okay, let’s move over here, why are you squinting? Okay, yes I can see that, the sun’s in your eyes, let’s move to the dune but no! Stop climbing the dune, stop it now, it’s a crime to disturb the sea oats so come down now, there we go, now why don’t you all hold hands, keep them low, down by your sides, put the little one in the middle and just hold hands in a relaxed way. Stop squeezing her hand, that hurts her, oh no. NO. Don’t cry, please don’t cry, if you cry it will take longer and I won’t let you get the milkshake, okay? Okay? Good, good, here we go now… And so on.
Mother commands pose after pose, and the children, they are good, they cooperate so nicely. Mother is thinking that this is going much better than last year, when she screeched and berated the children when they fussed and fidgeted. Mother is determined to be a better mother this time out as she does not want their childhood holiday memories to be of her scowling on the backside of a camera. Mother thinks this should be fun! And if not fun, at least, bearable. Capped with a happy memory of a Happy Meal. Mother is old enough to realize that memories can be selective, so she does her best to maintain her photographer’s composure. She cajoles them when she feels like snapping at them. She only curses to herself. (She knows they are only children and cannot read her mind.)
For an hour she has them standing, prancing, sitting, looking at her, looking away from her, and finally, running toward her. This elicits another round of directions from Mother as she sets the camera to ‘continuous’ and urges them to come running toward her time and time again, back and forth. She shouts the appropriate encouragement: look at me, keep holding hands now, look over at me, look back at me and keep smiling! she repeats, as the camera stutters off round after round of these splendid poses. And then, it happens:
On perhaps their twelfth or sixteenth pass by her in her favorite ‘running toward me’ pose, the little one skids to the sand. Face down.
This is a child who does not shake things off quickly. This is the child who generally cannot be wheedled out of a crying snit. Crying snits come easily to this one. In an instant she is awash in tears and snot. And sand. All mixed up.
Game over.
This injury is more emotional than physical, the humiliation of falling suddenly face down into the sand, mid-run, mid-smile, camera catching her startling thud so perfectly. She would not like seeing that.
Mother attempts vainly to staunch the flow with soothing words, but she knows this child is unlikely to acquiesce to mother’s urging her toward composure before she herself is ready to leave her wounded feelings behind. So they quit the session for good, Mother thinking that if she didn’t get at least one good picture from these tens of hundreds she shot, well…
Well, she didn’t have to think of the options. When Mother transferred the photos she noted that she only shot exactly 201, and of those 201, precisely two made the cut for Kid Photo 2008:
To these lovely children who suffered Mother’s whims all afternoon (because she made them go to Target with her after all that): thank you.
Mother loves you!
oh my gosh, these are awesome. i can’t believe how grown up maggie is!
You are so much more patient and aware of the potential for permanent psychic scarring than me and you got the BEST photos, you have a knack.
Cute story.
Marji
very cute pictures your kids are beautiful 😉
The pictures turned out great! You are more patient than me – I give up after about 10 tries (201 – wow!).
Merry Christmas!
Colleen
情趣商品,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣用品,情趣商品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣用品,情趣商品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣用品,,情趣,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品.情趣,情趣,情趣,情趣,視訊聊天室,情趣,情趣用品,情趣,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣麻將,台灣彩卷,六合彩開獎號碼,運動彩卷,六合彩,遊戲,線上遊戲,cs online,搓麻將,矽谷麻將,明星三缺一, 橘子町,麻將大悶鍋,台客麻將,公博,game,淘,中華職棒,麗的線上小遊戲,國士無雙麻將,麻將館,賭博遊戲,威力彩,威力彩開獎號碼,龍龍運動網,史萊姆,史萊姆好玩遊戲,史萊姆第一個家,史萊姆好玩遊戲區,樂透彩開獎號碼,遊戲天堂,天堂,好玩遊戲,遊戲基地,無料遊戲王,好玩遊戲區,麻將遊戲,好玩遊戲區,小遊戲,電玩快打情趣用品,情趣,A片,AIO,AV,AV女優,A漫,免費A片,情色,情色貼圖,色情小說,情色文學,色情,寄情竹園小遊戲,色情遊戲,AIO交友愛情館,色情影片,情趣內衣,情趣睡衣,性感睡衣,情趣商品,微風成人,嘟嘟成人網,成人,18成人,成人影城,成人圖片,成人貼圖,成人圖片區,UT聊天室,聊天室,豆豆聊天室 ,哈啦聊天室,尋夢園聊天室,聊天室尋夢園,080苗栗人聊天室,080聊天室,視訊交友網,視訊借錢,黃金,黃金回收,黃金價格,黃金買賣,當舖A片,A片,成人網站,成人影片,色情,情色網,情色,AV,AV女優,成人影城,成人,色情A片,日本AV,免費成人影片,成人影片,SEX,免費A片,A片下載,免費A片下載,做愛,情色A片,色情影片,H漫,A漫,18成人a片,色情影片,情色電影,a片,色情,情色網,情色,av,av女優,成人影城,成人,色情a片,日本av,免費成人影片,成人影片,情色a片,sex,免費a片,a片下載,免費a片下載,成人網站,做愛,自拍