27 October 2017

Perfect

I raise my camera to my eye and frame my daughter Sophie within the viewfinder. She grins before raising her own camera. I almost protest and say, “Hey, I look terrible! Don’t take any photos of me!” But I don’t.

A mother and a daughter out on a picnic, enjoying each other’s company. Joy rises up within me. It chases away any thoughts of my appearance. I don’t care what I look like. I just want Sophie to capture this moment forever.

“Smile!”

My lips rise. My hair is rising too: There’s a breeze.

Sophie’s finger descends. The shutter release button moves. Click! Click! Click!

“How many photos are you taking?”

“Loads!”

Loads of photos of wrinkly, crinkly-eyed me with my messy breeze-rising hair.

“Yes, I did it! I got a perfect photo of you!” Sophie grins. She turns the camera towards me. What do I see?

I see me wrapped up in a perfect moment of joy.

READ  Parenting Without Fear

Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

17 Comments

  1. What a marvelous post! I was in the middle of far too many activities this evening (all at once once!) when this popped up my screen. THANK YOU!

  2. By allowing imperfections, you made a perfect moment.
    It really is a gorgeous portrait. Congratulate Sophie for me!
    I love your story as well. xo Jazzy Jack

    • Jack,

      I often let my perfectionist side get in the way of enjoying life. It also holds me back from creating. Nothing is ever good enough. “By allowing imperfections, you made a perfect moment.” I like those words very much. I shall remember them. Thank you for your encouraging words. I know Sophie will appreciate them too.

    • Charlotte,

      I did feel happy and Sophie is indeed clever. She’s very good at getting me to relax while she’s taking photos. It’s so lovely to swap comments with you. Thank you for stopping by to say hello!

  3. You look so beautiful! Thank you for sharing this sweet moment! I am sadly too worried about dark rings under my eyes and I didn`t take photos of myself with our children for quite a long time.. which is just sad. I want my children to have warm memories and lots of photos with mum and dad. Yes, we should be just ourselves and for our dear children and other lovely people, who can recognize real beauty 😉 we are always beautiful. I am waiting for the moment when I will not feel so tired and look tired.. but, maybe this waiting is not worth it. I cherish every photo I have with my parents and for my sweethearts it would be the same! Thank you for reminder! I hope I will write you that this weekend I let my children took some photos of me, or me with them 🙂

    • Luana,

      You are right: We always look beautiful to those who love us. That’s all that’s important. I’ve stopped worrying about my appearance and just let my kids take photos of me because I want everyone in the future to look back at our photos and know I was part of the family too. It’s not obvious I was at some of the important events of our family life because there are no photos of me. That’s sad.

      I hope you managed to find time this weekend to have your photo taken by your children. “…or me with them.” Now that’s a reminder for me! I haven’t had my photo taken with all my children for a very long time. It’s a bit hard to get all my family gathered together in one place, but I could get the tripod out and have my photo taken with my four at-home girls. I’d like doing that!

      Good to chat!

  4. I love it Sue! Enjoying the moment with Sophie! I enjoy spending time with my kids and granddaughter as well. Far too few pics. Sometimes. Nancy

    • Nancy,

      Thank you! I hope you get the chance to be in lots more photos. As Luana said, they’ll be cherished by your children and granddaughter!

      • Hei, I did it! I took a few photos of me with my children, well, my youngest didn`t want to but still – I did it!

        And it does make me happy 🙂 Thank you for inspiration!

        • I wanted to edit my replay –

          my youngest didn`t want me to take photo of him (he made such sweet pouty faces), so I took few photos with my older children and it felt fun and special.

          I am all grown up now 🙂 but I would still love to have a photo of just me with my mum and dad. I hope I will remember to do it when I visit my parents the next time.

          • Luana,

            I’m so glad you got the chance to have your photo taken with some of your children. Maybe your youngest will want to join in next time.

            My children think it’s very special when they have me all to themselves, even though they are very generous towards each other and don’t mind sharing. Maybe one-on-one photos are special too. Don’t forget to get one of you with your parents when you next visit them!

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