How to Mentally Prepare Your Kids for a Photo Session

I hate feeling unprepared. It's the classic dream where you're sitting in class and the teacher announces that it's Exam Day and you realize you haven't attended a single class or even know what the topic is, oh and by the way you have to give a speech in front of the class, and then you wake up in a cold sweat.

It's the dread of not knowing how to react to questions in a meeting, or becoming a parent and not knowing what you don’t know. I hate that feeling. I like to be prepared. I like knowing the materials for the test, I like knowing the best way to do something, and I like knowing the best route to get there. GPS was a real game-changer for me.

It's the same for a photo session. While you're picking out clothes and I'm picking out locations, it's just as important, if not more important, to simultaneously mentally prepare for a session. I need to be mentally prepared to step outside my introvert self and be prepared to initiate conversation with people outside my home. I need to be prepared to think fast and react faster while working with kids. I need get into the right mindset with each client, so that everyone is getting the best experience possible. I send each client a questionnaire to help get all the details we might not have covered on the phone as we were getting to know each other, which is really helpful for me.

Likewise, you have similar responsibilities. Mentally prepping yourself, your partner, and your kids for our time together doesn’t have to be hard, and it can really help once we’re together. Here are some easy, practical ways to mentally prepare your kids for a photo session:

Hype it up.

How do you tell your kids you're going on vacation? How do you tell them you're going to the doctor for a checkup that may involve shots? How do they react in both of those situations? Excitement vs dread, right?

How you talk about the session with them directly affects how they will feel when the time comes. Is it “so exciting!” as my 3 year old daughter exclaims? Or are they terrified that they’re going to get poked with sharp things?

"We're going to see Ms Allison this week while we play" typically gets a better reaction than "You'll need to put on nice clothes and sit still or no dessert later."

Give them all the details, including what’s expected of them, but talk about it in a fun way. Talk about where we’re meeting, and what we’ll be doing. Am I coming to your house? Talk about the activities we have planned! “Ms Allison is coming over and we’re going to bake cookies!” Or, “Allison is coming over and we’re going to read books - can you go pick out a couple for us?”

If we’re meeting in the wild, talk about the location. Show them pictures, talk about the cool things we’ll see, and highlight the fun we’ll have.

Plan it out.

Account for nap and snack times when we schedule your session, so we’re not skipping something and ending up with a hungry or tired family member. If your session is later in the day, don’t pack a lot of shopping and errands in the hours leading up to your session. Schedule your session with bumper time after a nap - if a kiddo oversleeps, you won’t be rushed to get ready, and they won’t be summoned from Dreamland early (and therefore, be cranky).

Snack it up before you leave your house, or before I get there. Remember the rule that if you’re wearing nice clothing, you WILL spill something on it, and plan for non-messy snacks right before the camera arrives. Goldfish, white grapes (sticky but not stainy), a granola bar without chocolate chips (my child wouldn’t even eat that, let’s be honest), gummy fruit snacks,

Let them be in charge of something.

Give them some approved clothing options, and let them choose what they’ll wear. Or, if there’s only one clothing option (my kids outgrow their clothing behind my back, too), maybe let them choose their footwear, as long as it won’t hurt their feet if we’re walking outside. If they feel more in control of their situation, they’ll be more relaxed (same, child, same).

If we’re meeting at your house, let them pick the books we’re going to read, or the recipe you’re going to bake together (that will likely need to happen ahead of time, so plan ahead!).

Keep up the good work!

As you get closer to the date of your session, continue to hype it up and remind the kids and yourself of the fun time you're going to have when you get your pictures taken. It really does make a difference!

Next week I’ll come back and talk about how to mentally prepare yourself and the other adult(s) in your household for your session, which is just as important (if not more so). In the meantime, here’s a blog on how to prepare the night before your session.