7 reasons to take photos of your kids (and Instagram ain’t one of them)

Taking photographs of your kids can have big benefits for everyone. I want to talk a bit about the reasons we take photos and how capturing our cherished moments can affect us for the rest of our lives and our children’s too! Of course it’s important to also live in the moment, to experience moments directly and not always be worrying about getting the perfect picture. There’s a good balance between living memories and capturing them. Here are seven reasons you should take photos of your kids. Let me know what you think in the comments.

To help bring back cherished memories that you can relive

This has to be the main one for most parents out there taking photographs of their children. You want to relive that moment. Having an image of a moment can be so important for our memories, which can fade so quickly, or forget crucial details. Looking at a photograph can bring back so many memories of the day we thought we’d lost and not just images either, but connect us with the smells, sounds and even tastes that we experienced that day. I love looking back at photographs of my son and feeling so lucky to have captured those moments and be able to relive them.

Sometimes you want a special memory that includes a picture of you and then it’s worth getting a third party to take the photos too. As parents we often find ourselves behind the camera and not in front of it, so don’t forget to sometimes turn the lens around or even hire someone to take memorable photos, like our first birthday cake smash shoot.

To document their growth, changes and milestones

It amazes me how much my son grows and changes all the time. Taking photographs allows us to document that growth, to notice those changes and keep track of milestones. Every time I look at photos of just a few months ago I marvel ago at how much he’s changed – changes I don’t notice on a day to day basis. Having photographs to look at help us see the details and connect with our families.

Here’s a good tip that my sister in law gave me – when your kids bring something home from school or nursery, such as a painting, a piece of craft, a new badge, certificate or medal, take a photo of them holding it. Then if this artwork gets lost (or let’s face it, thrown away – there’s only so many paintings my two year old does that I can keep) you’ve always got the photo. Seeing the item next to your kid also reminds you of when, and helps you document their growth and changes!

To remind yourself how precious the time we have is

Photographs remind us how precious the time is and how important it is to cherish the moment. This ties into the above two points, as it’s reliving those memories and realizing how quickly they change that remind us to cherish every moment we have with them.

To share moments with family who can’t always be there

This is a big one for me and I think for a lot of people. In today’s global world, families can be spread out far apart. From the birth of my son we connected with close family across the world by sharing photographs and videos and giving them the gift of experiencing the things we experience, that they can’t always be here for. One app that I’ve been using from the first week he was born and will continue hopefully for the next decade is a photo sharing app called TinyBeans which lets you share photos with multiple family members quickly and easily without uploading them to social media. You’ll find it in my list of must have free parenting apps.

So they can look back on them when they’re adults and share their childhood with others

I love looking at photos of me as a child, especially when it’s photos of me with family members who have passed on. It helps bring back my own memories and reminds me of things I’d forgotten. I think having photos are important for your children to look back on as adults, as well as for yourself.

To pass your memories on

I love the fact that in todays digital age, we will be able to pass our memories on to future generations, even after we’re gone. I would love to have been able to see photos of my grandma’s youth, or my great grandmother, or even further. Think of being able to look back on photos for the last 100 or even 200 years of your family. This is going to be the future – now that the world is fully digital, photos can be easily taken, easily stored and can survive millennia (hypothetically anyway… ) Right now we’re just at the start of the digital sharing of memories and I’m excited for future generations.

Because taking photographs can be an enjoyable hobby

Finally, my seventh reason to take photos of your children and your family is that photography can be an enjoyable, creative hobby. Creativity gives us an outlet that’s often sorely needed. Learning to use a camera, thinking about composition, enjoying the moments we’ve captured – this all feeds into our creativity, which helps our mental health. Learning to use different editing programs can be a fun and useful skill, although photography doesn’t always involve editing. After we look at something we created, we get a feeling of satisfaction, of a job well done. As well as watching my son grow up and note his growth, I also take pride in how much improvement there are in the quality of photos I take these days, though my favourites are still those quick phone grabbed candids, when no one even notices you’re taking one.

I hope that these seven reasons to take photos of your kids have inspired you to grab the camera and capture those happy memories, or to give you confidence in the photos you take. They don’t have to be fancy, professional shots, just happy moments that you can relive and share in the future.