Memories you didn't even know you had swim to the surface when you see yourself wearing Mork and Mindy suspenders. You remember the board game, the sting when someone snapped your suspenders or the new friend you made that year. In my second grade year, I was sporting the "The Dorothy Hammill" do. (As were many of the other girls.) Fourth grade brought glasses AND the cool factor with it. (Not!) Another year, my too short bangs tell the story of a self- trim gone horribly awry...
Every Fall, my kids bring home order forms for their own school pictures. Now, I am the mean mom who tries to bully people into combing their hair and wearing something I deem decent. Usually I fail, give up and let them wear whatever they are comfortable in. For someday, they will look back at their pictures and laugh over the clothes they are wearing and the way they used to do their hair. (More likely, they will admonish ME for letting them go out like that. There is no winning in parenting...)
The last couple of years, there has been a new option offered on the forms: photo retouching. It shows a before and after picture of a poor teen with a tragic zit on picture day. So sad. But for $, zit be gone! I wonder how many people pay for this feature. It bothers me on so many levels:
1. I'm cheap and already annoyed that I have to buy a package with more pictures than I want or need.
2. Okay, I know no one wants to have a zit on picture day. But there is something weirdly nostalgic about looking back at those unfortunate years. Those feelings come rushing back. You remember exactly how "devastating" it was and remember the drama that is youth. (And wish for such "tragedies" now...)
But the most disturbing part for me is,
3. We complain about how everyone is judged by their looks and how society is so superficial. Then for a parent to say, "You're beautiful, honey just the way you are! But... let's get you retouched this year...." (Maybe it would be better to say, "No one really looks the way the ads make them look because they're photoshopped. Let's retouch you too and level the playing field!")
If we photoshop everyone into perfection, how will they remember those awkward stages? The metamorphosis over the years? The road that took them from awkward child to self assured adult? (Still waiting on that one...) As a mother, it is sometimes a tempting thought when their hair is sticking up all over and no one will listen about clothes selection or hair styles. BUT, if my mother had the opportunity to retouch my pictures I would never have had this gem to show the kids...
My oldest said, "What a nerd! You're wearing a Star Wars shirt!" As if that's the thing that made me look nerdy- the shirt. Hey, back then Star Wars was new. The shirt is what made me look so cool! [Shut up!] Yes, this picture is totally embarrassing but it's also really funny and I'm glad I have it. I don't think my kids have had any really bad pictures yet. Or maybe they have but as their mother I just think they are beautiful? I would love to know what my parents thought when this came home in my school bag!
P.S. Anyone out there a 30 Rock fan? The young Liz Lemon picts always remind me of my old pictures...
They are portraying her like this for comedic effect but I really looked like this... Humbling...
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