5 Ways Printed Photos Strengthen Your Child’s Sense of Belonging within the Family

Like adults kids just want to be seen, heard and loved. They want to feel like they belong. And I'm not just talking about when they are at school and with friends, but family too. Was there ever a time you didn’t feel like you belonged within your family?

There were times I felt like the black sheep, but I knew my family still loved me. One of the ways I knew they loved me was through photos. I saw photos of me and my family around the house smiling, laughing and hugging each other everyday! It was important to my mom that she honored the time we spent together because these photos were a display of love.

So here are 5 awesome reasons why you should print your photos and add them to your home's decor, if not for you than at least to honor the love you have for your children!

Kids Learn About Where They Come From

Did you have maternity photos done? I did. I have them around the house in frames. When my son first noticed these photographs he asked “why is your belly so big?” I said “that’s because you are in my belly growing into a baby.”

Of course, the conversation stemmed from there and we talked about how mommy’s grow babies in their bellies, so on and so forth. Don’t worry we didn’t have the birds and bees talk yet. He’s only three! That time will come, but not now, not now.

Here are some of the things we talked about.

• What does being born mean?
• Where was he born?
• How big was he? (Which led to looking at his newborn photos)
• Can I go back in your belly? (Best question in my opinion)

They Learn Their Place in the Family

When I read that sub-header I thought of some angry father yelling at their child saying stuff like “you will know your place and follow my rules because you live under my roof!” But that’s definitely not what I mean here.

What I mean is simple. They learn that mom and dad are their parents and that they are loved by them! They also learn that mom and dad are their safe place. A place where they can talk about when they are hurt, sad, mad or happy! A simple family photograph can remind them of this concept because can understand that just from a little photograph.

They Learn About Genealogy and Structure of a Family

Often family portraits are not just of mom, dad and children. Many families take photos with grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles. So get a couple of extra prints of those extended family portraits and build this cute family tree for your scrapbook (coming soon).

Use this project as a teaching tool. It'll help your child understand how the family structure works. You can talk about where mom and dad came from and what aunts and uncles are. 

Photographs Show Children that They are Respected and that Time Together is Honored

I’m sure you have some photos where the boyfriend was cut out or ripped off and you threw them into a fire to watch them burn! Wait, is that only in the movies? We, and movies, do this because that photo honored a time in our life that we want to forget. So having photos of mom and dad holding each other or kissing each other honors their relationship together and the fact that they have photos together shows they respect one another.

The same goes for having your children in photographs. It shows a child you respect them and the time you spent with them. It reinforces the positive memories with your child and honors that memory by displaying it on a wall for them to see everyday. It’ll remind them that spending time with family is important and fun!

Which leads to the next point.


Putting a Family Photo in the Child’s Room Reinforces the Sense of Belonging and Importance of Family.

I am actually guilty of not having family photos in my son’s room and I blame Pinterest! I blame Pinterest because they have all these cute baby rooms that are themed and when you’re designing your nursery you’re not thinking about family photos. All your thinking about is the cute design and how can it be perfect for them. I don't remember one single Pinterest idea having family photos in the room.

I wonder without photos in the child’s room are we encouraging an importance of material things like toys and movies? Lots of baby and kids room are themed with Disney movies or cartoons or stuffed toys and is not family oriented. I would love to see themes that include more family photos, even if it's just of the parents holding baby's first toy. I think that is an idea for a future project and blog post.

Bonus Tip:
I know most of us take pictures on our smartphones, but what do you do with those pictures later? How often do you review those pictures? If you are anything like me (before I became a professional) you may have looked back at them once a year. You only did that when you were trying to free up storage space.

I think there are very few us that actually print them. If you don’t print them you should at least review them. It’s another way to show your child that you honor them and what they were doing when you took the photo. Hopefully, you share those photos with them as much as you share them on your Facebook and Instagram account.

Places you can print your smartphone photos:
On the Shutterfly app you can print unlimited 4x6 prints. You have no excuses now!

For higher quality, but affordable prints check out Social Print Studio. They also have an app where you can print photos right from your phone.

So how many family photos do you have in your house? 

Do you have any in your child's room?

Tell me about your favorite ways to display photos in the comments below. 

Until next time!

Thanks to the Arbaugh family for scheduling a half day session with me to capture their morning routine. It was amazing to see such a big, loving family just having a great time!