Fun For a Buck...or six

So if you have nothing to do on exam week, you can always grab the kids and head off to WalMart and get their school pictures done. This is not fun if the kids are little, but it's piles of fun when they are big. Who knew? Wish I had.

When my first born son was eighteen months, and I took him and his sister for pictures. It was a very stressful experience. For one thing, he bounced around like a rubber ball and very nearly bounced right off that faux-carpet box that every photo studio has. I caught him just in time. In the picture, he is teetering on the edge of the box - I am outside the picture gasping just before I grabbed him.

When he was three, I took him and his sister to get their pictures done. Somewhere in the parenting manual, there is a paragraph that states if you are a good parent, you will commit to annual photographs to document the children's growth. So there I was, eight and a half months pregnant, trucking off to get a three year old and a four and 1/2 year old's picture taken to prove I had read the manual.

He was darling. In the picture. He had a baseball glove and ball in his hand. And he had a big smile on his face. But before the picture was taken, I was ready to .... do what every parent wants to do when their kid is bouncing off the walls in a very small space where other parents and their (well-dressed, well-behaved) children are sitting watching the spectacle.

On the way home, I ranted and raved to him and his sister and the passing motorists about his behavior. . "How could you...what in the world....why didn't you...I expect you to....I was so embarrassed......" I turned up the motherly lecture knob to high, getting more and more heated, until I finally realized I was the only one who was paying attention to myself. So I finished off my ranting with a very stern "You have manners. What happened to them?????????????????????????????"

After a short silence his contrite little voice in the back seat spoke.

"Those manners. They keep disappearing".

Fast forward to today. Picture Day for a soon-to-be "L" driver. When they are that old, you don't have to worry about them bouncing off the carpet. You don't have to worry what the other parents are thinking about your lack of control over that boy. By that time, it's too late. Two more years and he'll be on his own. (God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise). So, although he was taking the toys and making them talk in different accents, and doing rotten things to their limbs, I was able to successfully pretend I wasn't his mother.

As it turns out, WalMart has quite a number of fun little backgrounds. You can look like you are on a beach, or swinging on a tire swing, or sitting in front of the Christmas tree. I asked him which background he wanted. The one that appealed to him the most, was the HOT WHEELS background. So there was my almost sixteen-year old sitting on a stool which had to be lowered several times, so he didn't completely cover the HOT WHEELS car on the background. There was something very endearing about it...in a "I'm- a -big- kid - now" way. Then he decided to pose like he was a salesman for "Big Jim's Automobeel Warehause". It was so much fun watching him. I laughed so hard. He had more poses than the photographer had film for.

I wished I would have had a little more mercy on him when he was little. He really was no different today than any other day. I just pulled back a little and didn't let my "What are people going to think" mother out. It truly was fun for a buck... or six.