I was so touched by this story, along with millions of moms, about Allison Tate’s Huffington Post essay, “The Mom Stays in the Picture.”  I saw the story on Katie, and Tate was as surprised as anyone that her discomfort about taking pictures with her kids was shared by so many moms around the world.  Who hasn’t pulled a, “I don’t have any make-up on,” or, “No, I’ll just take it of you kids” ?

But Tate writes, “Too much of a mama’s life goes undocumented and unseen…Someday, I want them to see me, documented, sitting right their beside them:  me, the woman who gave birth to them, whom they can thank for their pretty hair…”  She talks about how important it is to be a part of your kids’ photographic history, which one day, will be all that’s left for them…

She writes, “I want them to see the way I looked at them, see how much I loved them.  I am not perfect to look at and I am not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother.”

Lisa Belkin, The Huffington Post’s Senior Columnist on Work/Family, wrote a lot about this essay, including some behind-the-scenes and personal reflections on the topic, including the fact that this post became this year’s most viral one on the Huffington Post.  Belkin writes, “Allison’s essay resonated because we all recognized our own absences.  Not from our children’s lives – we know we are there, in spirit and in person…But from their memories – the ones that will be sparked by photos decades from now…But we can change that.  Starting now.”

What are you waiting for?  Go take a picture WITH your adorable kids!  🙂