Credit Card, please

I am aware of how ironic this statement is, but it has to be said. Those children photographers really play a mean game. Seriously.

So, Hudson had his first school pictures taken. They were two weeks ago. Of course I knew the pictures were going to be cute. My little man is naturally a fabulous model. And I expected that the pictures would be a bit expensive and it would probably pain me to actually pay for pictures that I can easily take at home. I set myself up to say no to their high pressure sales pitch by having Hudson come home from school and pose for ME before changing his clothes. Just a couple simple pictures at the old in home studio. Here is one of my favorites:

In case you have not had any dealings with school pictures recently, let me fill you in. No longer do you have to suffer worrying that your kid's clothes will clash with the backdrop. Most companies let you choose what color background you want. Soft focus is a popular trend. And (at least at the high school level) for a nominal fee, retouching is done to clear up your sweet teen's acne. Basically, they are prepared to make your kid look better than you thought possible. These new techniques come with a pricetag. From my own photography clients stories, I knew school pictures had to be expensive. I have a couple of consistent clients each fall who get professional family pictures taken (by me, thankfully) instead of buying a school picture they may or may not like. I, of course, think this is money much better spent! All contributing to my stance that I was prepared not to buy a thing.

Then today came. I went in to my picture viewing time armed with the knowledge that I had some super cute pictures of my big boy on my home computer ready to be sent to a professional printer with just a click. I was a couple parents back in the line so I heard the sales pitch and the prices early on.  Amazingly I still found the strength to stand. The cheapest package was (prepare thyself) fifty-four DOLLARS. This was my least expensive option...seriously? Packages quickly escalated to $125. Ugh. I was confident my credit card would remain tightly locked in my hoodie pocket.

The sales pitch was standard heartstrings "rip your heart out".  They have all the pictures already printed (this is key). They display them in their ready-made easels-- a 10x13 and three 8x10s. (This is a nice touch too.) I think they even paid for fake parents to dawdle around the back of the room and "oooh" and "aaahh" over all the images too. I was doing just fine with all these stressors until they slid in the last 8x10 into the stand. That is when I felt the lump in my throat.

Little Man had another bad time leaving me the morning of school pictures. Because he was so near tears I asked his teacher if he could get out his buddy, Mr. Owl, out of his backpack. Mr. Owl was in school that day for Hudson's first show and tell. He was to bring two things that were meaningful to him and he chose a picture of all of us in the hospital when Tucker was born and Mr. Owl, a sweet little bird I bought for him about five months ago. So, there is my Little Man looking so happy with his little pal in tow. In my mind's eye I can see him at school carrying around Mr. Owl just like he does here at home. 

Oh you evil overpriced national chain picture people!! You managed to capture personality with your big box store-style photography. The sweetest little personality in the whole town too! I am disgusted and smitten all at the same time.

Sheepishly I admit, I bought one picture for $23.