Dads, Just Take the Picture

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Remember this little Facebook post from a few months ago that made its way around the internet, urging men to "just take the photo"?

Kaylin Maree Schimpf starts her request, "It doesn't matter what she looks like, or if she tells you no, take the photo. You may not think about it often, or at all honestly." She asks how men how many photos their wives have taken of them and of the family. "But when she is gone those photos won't show your children the (woman) who was behind the camera."

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It was a post that tugged at the heartstrings of many moms, because frankly, we're never the ones in the photos. We're always the one snapping the pictures, posting the pictures or yelling at our kids to pose for the pictures. Somewhere along the line, we dubbed ourselves Official Keeper of the Photographs, a role which kind of sort of sucks and is also pretty darn lonely.

I know some moms rock the pictures with their kids and have mastered the art of self-timers or selfies, or maybe are married to a photographer, but for me, I feel like I mostly look like a trash bag floating around in life and I avoid the camera at all costs.

But I know it's a decision I will come to regret someday and I think some of the most beautiful sights in the world are those candid moments of a mother truly enjoying her kids. I think there is something about a partner taking a picture of us, completely unguarded and totally immersed in the guts of mothering. It's able to reflect something back to us that we can't see on our own, something that lets us take pause and say, hey, maybe I'm not so bad at being a mom after all.

The photos that happen when we least expect it are the photos that show us our true selves as mothers. And as these pictures below prove, what happens when the men really do "just take the photo" is absolutely breathtaking.