The Photo Temptation that Always Backfires
April 5, 2022
Spring is here! This is usually the time families start thinking about updating their family photos. So as you prepare for your next family session I want to share a common temptation parents face that often ends in disaster- bribing your child to smile with treats! It seems like such a good idea, it gets me too; but it almost always backfires.
Once a kid sees a treat, smells a treat, or hears a wrapper open you can say goodbye to natural smiles. The one and only thing on their little mind is TREATS! Sugar is like a homing beacon for children; as soon as they see it they are locked in and start salivating like Pavlov’s dogs. There is no turning back! Now you are going to get one of three responses. I’ve seen this happen so often I’ve named each response and made self portraits to illustrate what it looks like. Hopefully it’s obvious already, but I find kids’ response to treats hilarious! So don’t take this blog too seriously. This is a cautionary tale told through ridiculous self portraits and laughing is very much encouraged.
The Lab Rat is probably the most common response. You introduce a treat and you turn your kid into a lab rat. They are now trained to perform a very specific task for a very specific reward: awkward forced smile, sugary substance, repeat. Once you introduce the reward The Lab Rat is unresponsive to all outside stimulus- kisses from mom, tickles from dad, funny faces from a sibling- no response. The Lab Rat has laser focus and between awkward smiles will resemble a deer in the highlights. This one gets even more fun when the sugary substance is something that will build up on the child’s teeth or cause them to salivate profusely.
The next response, The Baby Bird, is what happens to my youngest kids who don’t have many words yet. The little one feels uncomfortable in this strange new setting with this strange lady using an odd piece of equipment. So the parents introduce a treat, surely that will put the child at ease. It does NOT put them at ease. In fact, now they are actually even more unsure about what is happening than before, but they did learn a new skill- Stress Eating. So the kid does the only thing they can think of to do, they tilt their head back and open up their mouth for more treats. So you are alternating between puffy cheeks stuffed full of food and an upward gaze with gaping mouth. Neither look is what you had in mind for family photos.
The last response is my favorite! It reminds me of that squirrel in The Ice Age movies, which is why I call it The Scavenger. If you are in the market for family photos you’ve probably seen at least one of the many Ice Age movies and know exactly what I’m talking about. Once you introduce that treat, it’s like that Squirrel’s acorn- they must have eyes on it at all times. The Scavenger’s one and only objective in life is to get those treats! It turns into a crazed hunt for where the treats have been hidden. That’s already funny, but what makes this response even more exciting is that while the kid is completely focused on finding the treats the parents are simultaneously focused on keeping the treats out of the photos.
Sometimes families with three of more children will pull out the treats and we get all three of these responses at once. It’s amazing and definitely holiday card worthy!
As you can tell, this is quite amusing to me. When parents pull out the treats, I like to predict which response we are going to get from each child. I genuinely LOVE photographing children waiting for treats. However, if genuine smiles is your motivation for bringing treats, rest assured this almost always fails.
This doesn’t mean you can’t eat during your session. But if you are doing to have food, I recommend you go all in! Family meal time, picnics, baking, and trips to the ice cream shop are amazing childhood memories. I love it when families want to incorporate these activities into their family photos. I can’t wait to see you and your family this spring, with or without treats!
