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Original poster

Baby photo regret

19 replies

LateGreatJC · 15/04/2025 08:04

Our son is 6 and most of the photos of him as a baby are terrible quality. I have no idea why.
I lost a lot of photos and videos when I had a laptop failure. I now don't have any videos of him before six months.

It makes me really sad. I know there's nothing to be done and it's just life but I don't think I took many videos anyway and I'm wondering what I was thinking :-(

Can anyone else relate?!

OP posts:
redgingerbread · 15/04/2025 08:07

I also lost a lot of my early photos when my phone broke - it’s a horrible feeling, I’m sorry Sad

BucketFacer · 15/04/2025 08:09

I'm sorry that would upset me too. I would remind myself that photography was only invented a couple of hundred years ago and wasn't in common usage for a long time after that, but I'm not convinced it would make me feel better 😭 How old is your DC now? Do family or friends have any pictures/videos on WhatsApp etc. they could send you? I'm sure you've thought of that already but when a family member had a similar tech failure everyone sent all their photos across and they were able to recover quite a decent photographic timeline.

LivingLaVidaBabyShower · 15/04/2025 08:11

Other people must have photos on their phones... I'd ask around

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Families
crumblingschools · 15/04/2025 08:12

Did you share any with relatives?

Original poster
LateGreatJC · 15/04/2025 08:12

No we've asked around.i have a solid timeline of photos but no videos before six months and the quality of most of the photos just isn't very good.

I dont know what I was thinking :-(

OP posts:
Original poster
LateGreatJC · 15/04/2025 08:27

redgingerbread · 15/04/2025 08:07

I also lost a lot of my early photos when my phone broke - it’s a horrible feeling, I’m sorry Sad

Oh I'm sorry. It's horrible isn't it.

OP posts:
flutterby1 · 15/04/2025 08:32

I didn’t take any videos…well maybe I think I have 1 maybe 2 very short ones. but you know what? People take millions of them now and photos and NEVER look back at them. So if you have one or two, even if they are bad quality they become precious this doesn’t happen if you have millions of them. Also, yes ask friends/ family. Ask on Facebook x

Sprogonthetyne · 15/04/2025 08:32

Would it make you feel better to go through what you have, get a selection printed and put it in a physical album? What seems like not many on a scrollable screen might actually fill pages, and quality might not be as noticeable with physical copies.

comoatoupeira · 15/04/2025 08:34

I understand. When my eldest was a baby I only took a few photos (not very good) because I didn’t want him to see me with a phone and I wanted to be present.
regret now!

MaggieBsBoat · 15/04/2025 08:35

I was in the same situation (still am) with my older children. I then got an iPhone and so my life and that of my younger kids is completely recorded since birth.
I feel like there is something missing and my older kids (now adults) resent the fact I don’t have photos or videos of them when they were small. After a glass of wine they accuse me of not loving them enough when they were small 😞

AndImBrit · 15/04/2025 08:35

LateGreatJC · 15/04/2025 08:12

No we've asked around.i have a solid timeline of photos but no videos before six months and the quality of most of the photos just isn't very good.

I dont know what I was thinking :-(

Presumably you were thinking you wanted to live in the moment with your son and bond with him naturally, instead of him constantly seeing a square phone in front of your face when he wanted to communicate with you.

Not taking videos does not make you a bad mum. If anything it’s an indicator you’re a good mum.

Original poster
LateGreatJC · 15/04/2025 08:40

I wish, I think I spent most of it worrying about his sleep

OP posts:
Happyinarcon · 15/04/2025 09:13

Have you checked through the sent folder on your email? I always find a bunch of photos there

QueefQueen80s · 15/04/2025 09:27

Are there any videos in your whatsapp/messenger/texts etc? From sending them to family members etc

helpfulperson · 15/04/2025 09:33

Regarding the quality Im always surprised by how much the quality of phone cameras has improved in the last few years. Its likely thats why your photos arent as good as ones taken now.

pictoosh · 15/04/2025 09:38

When we were babies our parents had cameras and film and they had to wait for the photos to be developed to see whether any of them were any good. A spool of 24 might have two decent pictures, the rest all blurry and poorly taken. That was normal.

I don't remember anyone stressing over it.

Perhaps there's a pressure to capture every moment now, with the arrival of digital and phone cameras because you can take as many photos as you like.
Our parents managed fine without it.

HarryVanderspeigle · 15/04/2025 10:03

Photo quality depends on light. I have much better early photos of my summer born child than the winter born one. It's just one of those things.

DancingLions · 15/04/2025 10:07

My DC are in their 30s, so there are no videos of them and very few photos tbh. Certainly not in comparison to all the pictures people take on their phones now. I cannot remember the last time either I or they, looked at them. I was at my mums a while back and we looked at a couple of old albums, but for the first time in decades!

It feels like a big deal now, but it really isn't. Does anyone really look back on their own baby pictures on a regular basis? I can't imagine so. Photos and videos are just moments in time. They're visual prompts for memories but in of themselves, are not that significant.

AlexanderThomas · 30/05/2025 14:59

A bit late to this thread, but if anyone ever has this issue, laptop failure doesn't always mean you cannot recover the files and restore them. I am a Photographer and have had what appeared to be lost, recovered. Just search - computer file recovery or similar. It happens in our line of work. Also to note, if you ever used a photographer, some keep massive archives of their jobs, and you might well just be in luck!

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