How Family Portraits boost your child’s self-esteem

Raising confident and self assured children is incredibly difficult! Most of us are fumbling our way through this parenting journey and we are constantly being thrown challenges to overcome. But noone gave us a manual for this right? Our children are inundated with media messages about how they should look, what they should eat and wear.  It is frightening to think that our little ones’ self-worth can be influenced so much by a world of people they don’t even know nor have ever met. As parents the best we can do is help fill our little ones with the love and self confidence they need to feel secure enough to question all the influences out there and develop their own strong minds and self-worth.

DISPLAYING ACCOMPLISHMENTS
What did your mum do with the very first drawing you brought home from school?
She more than likely hung it on the fridge.  Soon the fridge was plastered with so many of your beautiful pictures you could no longer make the fridge out.  Can you remember how proud you felt when you saw your hard work there, displayed for everyone to see? Displaying these little accomplishments and praising our children for their efforts are beautiful little ways that we tell our children that their accomplishments matter and that their hard work is recognised by us.
We are living in an ever expanding digital world. Rather than printing and displaying family photographs, families are increasingly sticking to enjoying the images in a digital form, be it a mobile device, Facebook or laptop. But does an image on a tablet, computer screen or social media site have the same impact for helping families boost a child’s self-esteem?
David Krauss, psychologist from Cleveland, Ohio said…
“My bias is very simple. I think family photographs should be on the wall. I am very conservative about self-esteem and I think placing a family photo someplace in the home where the child can see it every day without having to turn on a device or click around on a computer to find it really hits home for that child this sense of reassurance and comfort. They have a certainty about them and a protecting quality that nurtures a child. It let’s them know where they are in the pecking order and that they are loved and cared for,”

​When put like that it sounds so logical, doesn’t it? Children see their image at home on a wall, framed  by their parents or made into wall-art of some kind and they see and understand their place in the world and the people who love them the most.  It serves as a daily reminder of who they are and where they belong. This in turn strengthens their self-esteem and confidence. 
Krauss also went on to say, ”I think it is really important to show a family as a family unit. It is so helpful for children to see themselves as a valued and important part…A photographer’s job is to create and make the image look like a safe holding space for kids where they are safe and protected. Kids get it on a really simple level.”

DISPLAYING VALUES
How do we let our children know that they matter?  We say “I love you” but is this more about how ‘we’ as parents feel rather than about them?  We tell them they are destined for great things and can achieve anything they set their mind to.  That’s not the same as showing your children that they matter or that they really belong.  
“When a child sees a family portrait with them included in the photograph they say to themselves: ‘These people have me as part of what they are, that’s why I belong here. This is where I come from.”
Judy Weiser, licensed psychologist 
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​WORK OF ART
Our children are changing every day, learning and growing. Sometimes we don’t even notice these changes in our crazy busy lives…but a photo reminds us. Unfortunately time isn’t endless and moments we cherish will pass, but seeing family photographs and having them in our everyday lives makes us feel special and reminds us how lucky we are to have and ‘be’ a family. 

I love being a family photographer in Stockport. I love being a part of each journey. I love being able to create memories that will be treasured for generations to come. But please, if you only take one thing from reading this blog….get in front of the camera, build memories, build that self-worth and feeling of belonging and get those images off your PC and on your walls!!

If you would like to book a Family photo session or some beautiful portraits of your children I am based in Cheadle Hulme/Bramhall and photograph all over the Stockport and Cheshire area. I have clients visiting me from Poynton, Marple, Cheadle, Woodford, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge to name a few. As well as family photography, I also specialise in newborn, baby and cake smash photography. If you are looking for photographers in the Cheadle area then look no further!