12.04.2012

The Article (Part Two)

Shortly after being interviewed for the article in Southwest Metro Magazine, I was contacted about doing a photo shoot. They wanted to take pictures of me cooking with my kids. Just about nothing could be farther from my comfort zone than being photographed for a magazine, except maybe being photographed for a magazine with five kids while we pretend to be doing something we aren't actually doing while getting everyone to not only behave but smile like they mean it. (It's amazing how kids can be so completely excited about their mom's worst nightmare.)

Imagine how that photo shoot went. It was EXACTLY. LIKE. THAT! For a full hour. Good, good times.

Actually, after the initial phone call with the photographer, low grade panic set in as I questioned: How can this be an authentic picture when they want me to cook with my kids for an article on stress management? Seriously! Managing stress means NEVER COOKING WITH CHILDREN! At least in my house and with my kids. How can you be authentic when the very nature of the picture is not realistic? And to complicate matters, what does a person who only wears jeans and/or workout clothes wear for a magazine picture? I started having images of me in yoga clothes doing funky yoga poses while the kids tried knocking me over. Now THAT would have been authentic!

And I had very little help from Kurt. The conversations went something like this:

"Kurt, what am I supposed to do for clothes and hair?"

"Whatever you want. Just don't do that alien hair," he said.

I was about to argue that if I am to be me then the pig-tail knots in the back of my head is the most fitting for my personality and not really alien-like at all and then I recalled dropping off my kids in the gym childcare on Halloween. A little boy looked up at me and then, pointing my way, said to another kid, "Hey look! An alien!" Ok, maybe Kurt has a point.
Usually I don't wear the antennae...

"So, what do I do? I don't ever wear it down." (I'm still wondering why I need it at all actually.)

"Just pull it back," he suggested. "No alien knots though."

Again I wanted to argue the cute-ness of the alien hair when I remembered a conversation I had with a friend. She had tried to get her second grader to put her hair up like mine. "Look how cute it is on Karen," she said. Her daughter replied, "I am NOT wearing my hair like THAT!"

"Ok," I said in defeat.

After deciding that we would make pizza, the only meal other than pancakes that my kids actually help with, and deciding that for the sake of being me I had to go with jeans and a t-shirt, any t-shirt would do, and that the kids would wear whatever their little hearts desired, we were ready to go.

And it was fantastic despite Solly running around looking for stuff to eat and Liam announcing half way through that he was done and walking out of the kitchen only to come back when bribed with extra screen time. The very young photographer told me several times how good the kids were and how she wished all her subjects were so well behaved. I assured her I had threatened the happiness of their entire childhood if they behaved otherwise. She laughed. (I was not kidding.)

And for those of you who have made it this far and would like to see the final outcome, click here keeping in mind that the online version is only a snippet of the entire print article. Gimme a shout if you would like to see it in print. I have plenty to go around.

The Alien Hair
(Seriously, how is this not totally cute?)


2 comments:

  1. Yay Karen. Read the snippet article and would love to see the whole thing. :)
    Miss you!
    G.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay Karen. Read the snippet article and would love to see the whole thing. :)
    Miss you!
    G.

    ReplyDelete

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