Ways to Reduce Stress when Taking a Family Portrait with Young Children

A few weeks ago, I was hanging up photos in our bedroom (as a surprise for my wife) and realized that we did not have a recent family portrait. This was something we did on a regular basis when our oldest child was born but, for some reason, stopped when our second daughter was born; choosing to just have pictures of the kids together.

I wanted to correct this oversight and restarted the tradition this past holiday season. Because both of my girls are still young, this actually proved to be much more stressful than I thought and, as a result of that, I came away with some important lessons.

First, pick a photographer that knows how to work with kids. I actually managed to do that by accident this year and I'm glad I did. Our photographer knew what to expect from the kids and, as a result of that, was able to get them to smile quickly before they got antsy. As a result, we had a nice portrait (plus a couple photos of just the kids together) without any major problems. I remember past photos when it was just our oldest daughter that didn't go as smoothly.

Plan and buy what you're going to wear weeks in advance. Even though we have never reached the point where we wear matching sweaters, my wife and I have always preferred photos where everyone matches color wise. But, this year, we didn't plan this out very well. I had already purchased my shirt and tie because I needed them for work and a good chunk of the stress we had was trying to find outfits for my wife and the girls that matched that. My wife and oldest daughter didn't find their outfits the night before the photo.

Schedule the photo for a time that fits your kids' habits. My youngest daughter is ready for a nap by the afternoon and, in the time leading up to that nap, she isn't the easiest person to work with. Not to mention, both kids always seem to get hungry at inconvenient times. Because of this, we scheduled our photo for a time that wasn't too late in the day so our youngest wasn't tired and cranky and I made sure both kids ate something before we left the house.

Put together a game plan for the day of the event. This was something we didn't do and it was the closest thing to chaos we have had in a long time. In fact, between my wife trying to get ready and us trying to get the kids ready, we almost ended up just calling the thing off. Next time, we are going to take the time to sit down and chart out what needs to be done so we can figure out what order to do them in.

As I said before, I do intend on making our family portrait an annual tradition again. Hopefully, next year, I'll be able to eliminate some of the stress leading up to it by following these steps.