Is It Bad That I Take Pictures of My Son Asleep In The Car?

I suppose I am like most parents, snapping photos of their kids in an effort to document every moment of their life. When I was growing up, I had one photo album of all of my childhood pictures. One. Now with smartpones and social media, it is possible to capture even the most mundane life experiences. I have managed to not only fill up numerous facebook albums but also a half of an external hard drive following my son's every step. And I know I am not alone. Admit it. Parents out there love their kids and love to take pictures of their kids. It's not a bad thing, but looking back at all of the folders of saved images on my hard drive, it's pretty easy to figure out why my son stopped smiling in middle school. How many photos can I possibly take of one kid? Not only did he stop smiling for picutres, but he started really showing that middle school attitude. Put simply, taking his picture stopped being fun--I still did it, but it wasn't nearly as fun as when he readily hammed it up for the camera.

Enter the sleeping boy picture. There is something innocent about kids sleeping in the car that I love. Maybe it's that finally, there is some quiet, there isn't any teen drama, or the excitement of reaching the desitination was just too exhausting to think about and finally there's some peace and quiet in the back seat. More than likely, it's a combination of all of these, but whatever it is, I love it. There really is nothing quite like watching your kids sleep. And I'm not talking about standing above them while they sleep in their rooms or anything creepy, it's just peaceful. So this blog is dedicated to all of the road trips we've taken over the years and those moments when you look up into the rearview mirror to see that peaceful sweet, sometimes, drooling face.

I guess I started taking these pictures in 2006-ish and I always would try to get at least one picture on road trips if I could manage it without killing anyone. I know I have more pictures somewhere, but this is a pretty good documentation of the past 7-8 years. The last picture was taken just this summer on our way back from Michigan. He joined the US Navy Sea Cadet Corps and I can thank them for getting him good and tired once a month as well as getting him to cut his hair!