Picture Day

Today was picture day in my son's class.  Form filled out weeks ago, check sent (for sizes of pictures we wanted and ones we didn't), background picked (thought about sunset or forest, picked basic blue).  Now, just the question of what he should wear.

My middle schooler's picture day was fairly drama-free this year--she wears a uniform, so there's not a lot of wiggle room.  And in the past, my son has frequently gone into picture day with very specific ideas about the look he wanted.  From a tuxedo--yes, really--the year he had gotten one for a family wedding, to a tie and sport coat last year.  Last night, the word I got was "jeans, my wallet with the chain (a tag sale treasure) and a shirt that looks cool with jeans."  As any parent who has bought school pictures knows, the jeans and wallet would be irrelevant.  A school picture is essentially a headshot, seeing nowhere near the waist.  So it was really up to the shirt.  And what shirt, in the mind of an 8-year old boy at a new school, would look "cool" with the jeans and still be something I'd want to see in my $40 pictures?  And what shirt would even fit--I've been realizing over the last week that my boy has grown since last wearing long sleeve shirts--most of his drawer is full of things that barely reach his waistline.

Before he ever got up, I took a deep breath and laid out two shirts with his jeans--one with a collar, one without--again, what do I know about 8-year old cool?

When he woke up and looked at my two choices, he rejected both, returning with a golf-ish shirt that looked as though it had been balled up in a drawer (and was the right fit two years ago).  And he wanted a stick-on tie to go with it.  I'm no stickler, really, but I don't need $40 pictures of my son in a red striped golf shirt and a stick-on tie.

Maybe he kind of agreed with me, because before I knew it, he was putting on my collared choice.  And asking for a real tie (and a sport coat, but he decided against that).  And on his way out the door, he added his Mets jersey as a jacket.  I told him he could keep the jersey on for the picture or not, his choice.  That seemed to make him happy.  So his $40 pictures will either look like a dressed up 8-year old or a sports player at a pregame press conference.

I can live with that.