One of my main professions is photography and I absolutely love it! I get to meet with families and capture beautiful memories of kiddos growing up, families loving on each other and changing year by year and it is so wonderful to see. But the number one thing that I notice is mamas are SO hard on themselves and how they "look" that they choose not to be in photos. "It's fine just get the kids" Okay. That is great and all but don't you want to be a part of the memory too?

And it always comes down to them saying "Oh I look fat, my hair is a mess, I am not dressed".

Let me tell you something. Your kids do NOT care about how you look. They do not care if you are 20 pounds heavier than normal do you know what they care about? Having that photo in 15 years to show their families of them and their beautiful mother. That memory when they were briefly so little loving on their mama who took care of them day to day. They will say "this is me and my mom isn't it a great photo! I was just a child I am so thankful for this photo" and you will be too! They don't care about your hair, what your weight is or even what you are wearing they care more about having that forever memory.

I am so guilty of this. Not being in photos because I too am REALLY hard on myself. I criticize myself every single day to where it almost becomes part of my normal vocabulary. I have all of these awesome photos of my kids and my husband and I am not in any of them....I don't mind taking selfies with my children because I can control the angle. But do you know who doesn't care about "the angle"? Your kids! and I am learning that every time I do take a photo, the regret sinks in weeks later.

Just get in the photo and stop caring about how you think you look because in the eyes of your children you are perfect and you should see yourself as that too.

Don't miss out on that memory because in 5 years when they are older and different you would have wished that you stopped caring so much about how you looked and cared more about the fact that you wasted a memory being captured because you picked yourself apart so much.

You are beautiful so get in the photo!