Picture Perfect

Newsletter 2023-10-12

I fail as a parent in many, many ways. I’d write them all out here, but it might be faster to go through the ways I’ve succeeded. I’ve kept my kids alive. That’s the end of the list. I probably shouldn’t brag about that because someone will complain that I’m shaming them for raising ghost children. If you’re currently caring for a little brood of Caspers, I have nothing but respect for your mixed living/spirit family. Beyond that, I’m doing subpar compared to the moms and dads around me. Nothing makes that clearer than the messages I’ve been getting from school this week. Today is picture day, and I’ve received at least nine urgent texts about how to log in and order copies. That’s not going to happen. My kids have been going to picture day since preschool, and I have yet to purchase a single package. Based on the tone of these alerts, I’m the only one. The school can guilt me all they want, but I won’t budge. This is the part of my bad parenting that I’m the most proud of.

Why don’t I order the pictures?