Raising Your Child’s Self Esteem Through Children’s Photography

Why do we have photographs of our children?

Because we want to remember that very moment, it is like a video plays in our mind as though we live that experience again and the same emotions felt at that precise moment come flooding back. We are lucky that in such a modern, digital age we can capture our own photographs of our children and store them forever. Each little thing they do, right from their very grand entrance into the world, we capture their first yawns, tiny details, smiles, giggles, laughter.. the list is endless. Very rarely do we print our mobile phone snaps anymore because we can share them so freely on social media. Many of which they won’t see for probably several years.

There is something special about photography but empowering and instilling self esteem has been researched greatly and the evidence shows that when children see photographs of themselves, it improves their confidence and self esteem. After all, we want to nurture our little ones enough so that when they are ready to spread their wings and fly out into the world, that they are strong enough, confident enough and love everything about themselves to really make a difference in their own way.

Professor Geoff Beattie, currently the Professor of Psychology at Edge Hill University said:

“We cannot underestimate the power of photographs to keep us feeling linked to others and belonging. They cement us into our networks.

For children in particular, looking at photographs is part of the socialising process; learning who you are and where you fit into the family.

By displaying photographs of our children at different stages of their lives, we are making a very public statement that we are proud of them.”

Here is a beautiful wooden Photoblock of my daughter, Olivia. She loves it dearly and although she does not yet associate her name with her self image, she says ‘baby’ and her face lights up! I can agree with Prof. Beattie’s words that there is a value in print and displaying images from our children’s photography sessions. I wish I knew more when she was younger, although I have so many images of her, I have lost some because I didn’t store them safely but I know for sure if they were printed, they’d be less likely to go missing.

This is Lake, an energetic and fun-loving 2 year old who came for a maternity/family session with his Mum and Dad, you can read more about their session here. He was nervous to begin with but as he got used to me and the camera, lights and set up, he really was having fun! He was really engaged and interested in seeing the images on the back of the camera. His face lit up and he was keen to take more!

Beautiful little Ava came to trial new Fine Art styling for children’s portraits and you can see that she is just beaming! Her Mum says the response she has had from friends and family has been wonderful! Confidence just oozes from her and I am just as pleased to see it.

Dr. David Walsh, founder and director of Mind Positive Parenting and founder of the National Institute on Media and Family in Minneapolis, whose mission is to advance the well-being of adolescents and children. He says –

One of the reasons that photography is so powerful is that we’re a very visual species.

Thinking about this, when we see group photographs from a night out, we look for ourselves don’t we? Or when our little one comes home with the school photographs and you open the class envelope, they frantically search to find themselves. ‘It’s me!’ They will tell you, excitedly!

Here is Olivia again!

I smile so much when I see this, so I can only imagine how happy others are to see their own children’s portraits.

To help with this, I have a limited time offer for children who are booked in for a Self Esteem Child Portrait Session for £49 including one 10×8 Fine Art Print.

Social media is great for sharing with family and friends, for likes and shares but why not take advantage of the emotional and psychological benefits of seeing photographs on large format frames and products around your home? A sense of belonging and togetherness. Touching that photograph or print or album stimulates our brains far more than looking at them on Facebook when someone likes or comments on it.

Remember, they won’t stay little for long and it is always time we wish we had back, we wish we did more, we wish we’d spent more time together. Put an end to those regrets and live for now, build up that legacy of love and memories.

Let’s see their images up on our walls! To find out more about booking these sessions, please click here.

For now, see you soon!

Tianna x