Picture-perfect parenting during the first week of school
Picture days were held at San Benito High School this week,
bringing back those memories of my childhood days when I prayed my
pre-picture haircut wouldn’t go terribly wrong.
Picture-perfect parenting during the first week of school
Picture days were held at San Benito High School this week, bringing back those memories of my childhood days when I prayed my pre-picture haircut wouldn’t go terribly wrong.
It often did, unfortunately, as for some reason I let my mom trim my hair – I had bangs back then, so straight lines were imperative. More than one of my elementary school pictures from the 1970s features one exposed eyebrow or an off-kilter bowl cut as my Mom didn’t get her lines perfectly straight.
I still participate in picture days, as all staff members are required to sit down, back straight, chin up and smile as we pose for our yearbook shot. The stress is less than it was back when I was a student, as I’ve settled into a consistent haircut (meaning my mom doesn’t cut it anymore) and I no longer buy a picture package to exchange photos with classmates or pass them out to family.
As yearbook advisor, I remind my students that every picture and word that they put in the book will live on in perpetuity. Many of them enjoy looking at the classroom archives to search for their parents or relatives in old books and laugh at the crazy outfits and crazier hairstyles that they wore.
They particularly like looking at my pictures to comment on how young I looked or how big students’ hair was in the 80s. I lived through that era and I still can’t believe what some people rocked. Some do’s filled the entire picture box with Aqua-Net puffiness.
My wife and I do our best to avoid immediate contact with our teenage boys during the school day morning rush to get ready. They are grumpy and hungry and tired, so any interactions tend to be short both in duration and in depth.
When our older son walked down the hall with a slightly wrinkled white T-shirt on picture day this week, my wife did her best to encourage him to wear a “nice shirt” for pictures, since we were paying for a package to share with the grandparents.
I agreed with her and quickly jumped in to add my yearbook wisdom that a shirt with a little color would be better for the photo so he wouldn’t look washed out. With the mumble and grumble that is a teenager’s morning communication style, he slogged off and changed into a “nicer” T-shirt that he decided upon. It was Parental Teamwork 101: we got our suggestion across without igniting a teenage blowup and he got to pick the shirt he wore so he didn’t feel like Mommy and Daddy were telling him what to wear.
My wife then walked into our younger son’s room, opened his closet, and started making suggestions about collared shirts that would look good in pictures. Again, she meant well, but I could sense the tension rising as he felt his space was being invaded.
As with many parental suggestions, the kid knows Mom is right, he just doesn’t want to show her that she is. We quickly got out of there and a few minutes later he walked to the kitchen wearing one of the collared shirts that she suggested, feeling as though he made the choice.
It was picture-perfect parenting.
Adam Breen teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School and is a reporter for The Pinnacle. He is former editor of the Free Lance. He can be reached by e-mail at
ab****@pi**********.com
. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamPBreen.
