Photographer's Child Syndrome

Over the past week, an unusual syndrome has made it's presence in my home and family known: Photographer's Child Syndrome. 

This rare and puzzling syndrome is not contagious, but develops over time. Symptoms include: 1.) Being the child of a professional photographer, 2.) The inability to sit still while said parent photographer takes the child's photo, 3.) One- or all- of the following: covering of the face in photos, making silly faces in photos, or making grumpy faces in photos, 4.) Pretending to be a photographer, and 5.) Telling EVERYONE that their parent is a photographer.

Evidence of Photographer's Child Syndrome is often captured in photos. Many photos.

Diagnosis of this rare syndrome is easy: one simply observes the children of known photographers. Currently, there is only one plan of treatment available: the photographer parent stops photographing their child. So far, no photographer parent has agreed to do this. With luck, most children who develop this syndrome outgrow it during their teen years.

Despite the fact that this syndrome has become present in my home, I will continue to photograph my children. At least I'll have evidence of how silly they are to show my grandchildren some day!

Update 9/20/23:

Christopher is now 13, and it’s only gotten worse. Now he runs for the hills when I pull out my camera! Josh still ignores me, or makes grumpy faces. And Andrew? Well, he’s just a ham! We’re taking family portraits in a few weeks, and I’ve at least managed to get them to behave for other photographers- sort of! We’ll see how this year’s photos turn out!