We don’t think much when taking pictures of our children for celebrations, vacations, or just because they are acting silly. Sometimes we take pictures of our children when they aren’t doing anything exciting but it’s a moment we want to capture because it’s still special to us. What about taking pictures of your child during those times you might find questionable.
My youngest son is in the 5th grade. When he was in 3rd grade he had surgery on his collarbone. He was born with a non-union collarbone which basically means it didn’t connect all the way across. So they had to take a bone from his hip area and fuse it into his collarbone. He ended up being in the hospital for a couple of days recovering.
It was during that time I took what some might consider questionable pictures. Of course, there were the “before surgery” pictures, my son smiling in his hospital gown as he held a special stuffed dog my mother bought him. But then it was after surgery when he was lying in the hospital bed in great pain and discomfort that I also shot some pictures.
I have to admit that I remember feeling a little guilty. I mean, what do you say? “Smile for the picture!” He was in pain and he was unhappy. He knew I was taking his picture and it possibly bothered him, I don’t know. To be honest I didn’t even ask. I guess I knew that despite this being a difficult moment in his life, I wanted to capture it. It was a difficult time that I knew one day we would look back on and probably laugh about.
I ended up taking all those pictures, along with the cards he received and created a special scrapbook for him. One of the most precious pictures to me is the one where he is lying in the hospital bed and his big brother is sitting on the bed next to him trying to play a card game. I say trying because my son who had the surgery was still uncomfortable during that time and wasn’t really up for a game but was appeasing his big brother anyway. Now that my oldest is almost 16 and his younger brother about to turn 11, they don’t always get along so well. I look at that picture and it brings back a happy memory during a difficult time.
It might seem questionable to do so but I do believe that taking pictures of difficult moments in time are okay. Memories are about events in our lives that we have experienced and even though some of them are painful, they are important all the same.
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