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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not want to buy school photos?

36 replies

ThingsThatGoFlumpInTheNight · 19/10/2011 12:44

I feel like I'm being a tight old grump - but I have 3 DC. That's 3 x £25 for the cheapest option for each photo set. Then another £25 for a joint photo as two of the DC are in the same school. All the pics are lovely - in an ideal world I would buy them all. But I just can't justify spending £100 on four photos

What makes it worse is that DD keeps looking at them and saying they're lovely and she wants them in her bedroom when I get the 'big ones' .

Does everyone else buy them? I having bad mother guilt

OP posts:

CogitoErgoSometimes · 19/10/2011 12:46

I only buy the nicer ones. The ones where he looks pulled though a hedge backwards, I don't bother. I can remember what he looks like usually...

cakesandale · 19/10/2011 12:53

They are very expensive and often not that nice. I only buy these days if dd looks especially nice. I agree with Cogito, I know what dd looks like, and I can take my own photos at a fraction of the cost.

cuteboots · 19/10/2011 12:55

I only buy the nicer ones otherwise it would be really expensive. Last time I think my mum wanted some as well so we brought the book marks instead of the photos...

Disputandum · 19/10/2011 12:55

I think your school needs to use a different photographer...we had a choice of packages from £8 to £25, so I am amazed that £25 is your cheapest option!

We also get a letter the week before asking whether you want your children photographed separately or together, and the school opens an hour early so that siblings who attend other schools can come along and have their photo taken together.

So last week I took all 3 DC for a group photo and bought the £15 package, which seemed reasonable.

Having said that, I certainly don't always buy them..sometimes they are rubbish..so you don't need to feel guilty at all.

picnicbasketcase · 19/10/2011 12:57

Get them all dressed up in lovely (non uniform) clothes and take a really nice photo of all three of them together and put in frames. Useful for giving to relatives as an extra Xmas gift and even including buying frames, probably a lot cheaper than buying school ones.

We haven't had the proof copies home yet but since DC school changed photography company, the price has doubled and the pictures are usually shite, so that helps me to stop feeling bad when I don't buy them...

CointreauVersial · 19/10/2011 12:59

Good lord, no, you're not being mean.

I have three DCs and only buy the really nice ones, and always the joint photos. Usually the smallest possible pack so I can give one to each of the grandparents.

DS1 had his Y7 one done the other day, and it was terrible (and he agreed with me!). No way am I buying that.

limitedperiodonly · 19/10/2011 13:00

Do they let photos go home any more?

My mother never paid for school photos. She saw them as part of the school's service like providing desks and chairs.

Teachers used to ask me for the money or the photos back every day for a few weeks and then give up. I can't remember what I used to say.

I'm not condoning theft at all but it has made me very thick-skinned.

Callisto · 19/10/2011 13:03

I just don't buy the school photos. You don't have to you know.

I loathe staged photos like this, DD hates sitting for photos and both DH and myself are capable of taking really good pics of her. Therefore I tell her teacher that she is not to sit for a photo if she doesn't want to as I won't be buying the results.

LittleMissWoodscommaElle · 19/10/2011 13:08

They send mini proofs with PROOF stamped across them limited.

ninjanurse · 19/10/2011 13:09

I only buy he photos if they are good. And only the one of the pair of them together. The photographers at our school does a deal where you can buy the image on a disc for £15 and then I just just get print offs from tesco in different sizes for family.

squeakyfreakytoy · 19/10/2011 13:14

Dress them in their uniforms, put a white or black sheet up to make a backdrop, and take your own photos. Much cheaper.

gothicangel · 19/10/2011 13:16

i only buy them if they are nice, and dont bother with the class ones unless they are nice too, ds looks soo grumpy in them or is pulling a silly face,

limitedperiodonly · 19/10/2011 13:23

Littlemisswoods thank God that never happened when I was at school. My mum would have probably sent me in with a strongly-worded note for the teacher.

Scholes34 · 19/10/2011 13:25

Certainly your school needs a different photographer. £25 is taking the mickey.

We're currently stuck with these awful staged photos for the class photo. They put the children into groups of five or six, some with a teacher or TA and make them do silly poses and them put all the images into one long shot that won't fit into any standard frame or photo album. My children hate them, I hate them and and I just wish they'd bring back the one of the class all in rows on chairs or standing. They are good fun to look back at.

randomness · 19/10/2011 13:45

I usually don't mind paying for them (our photographer offers a range including a cheaper package that's only available if you go on their website that I'm not supposed to tell anyone about because the school doesn't get a cut, according to the school secretary who told me off for blabbing last year )

The photos this year are horrible though, all forced smiles and messy hair, so we'll probably head to a studio to get some decent ones done for about the same price and school will get buggerall, sod 'em

DuchessofMalfi · 19/10/2011 13:52

DD's Reception year photos were awful, and really expensive. I sent them back and refused to buy any. She's moved schools since then, and I'm hoping this year we'll have something a bit better. Although, I think DH has done some better photos of our children for a lot less money, so we'll see.

picnicbasketcase · 19/10/2011 13:57

I couldn't agree more Scholes34 - My DC's school does those stupid long photos too, and I refuse to buy them. I have no wish to buy a picture of other people's children lolling about all over the floor playing marbles and leaning on each other's schoulders. What on earth was wrong with normal class photos in rows with the teacher in the middle?

SeamStitch · 19/10/2011 14:00

Our mother and baby group do them, just like school photos but they come in a big pack and you can take them home just like you used to do at school.

One mum had a nice photo of her toddler and baby together and shamelessly said she is going to scan them onto her computer and then send them back saying she doesn't want them. All the other mums made all the right 'gosh, I can't believe she is doing that' type noises but I could tell half of them were thinking 'mmm, should I do that?' !

zipzap · 19/10/2011 14:14

ds1 is having his done at school today. I was able to take ds2 in at the start of the day to do the two of them together and this year - for the first year ever (ds is now 3) he actually is smiling and not red faced and screaming his head off :)

However, the photographer took 4 shots and had her camera linked up to her computer and printer so she printed off proof shots onto her pre-printed cost sheets so you could order a gazillion different sets (half of which were only available if you bought a standard pack first ) and handed them to me saying ooh look here's a fantastic one, don't need to do any more (by which time both boys had dispersed and there was no chance of doing any more). But the one she thought was the best was the worst one of ds1, he was doing a screwed up smile with his eyes all slitty instead of open. OK so it was the one that was the nicest position of the boys in the frame and there was one that we both agreed was a bad moment. Other two - one was nice but the boys were a long way from each other, the other one they are crowded in and lent too far in so they are squashed together a bit.

But it just depressed me that she was choosing such a rubbish shot of the two of them as the best one - if I hadn't been there I wonder what would have been sent home.

And when ds2 had some photos done at nursery, they used props. [erughhh] Which happened to be 3 manky dirty soft toy footballs which were in prime position in most of the shots. They seemed really surprised when I rang up to ask if they could send me other shots without them on - I was there when she got them out but had assumed that they were just a distraction to help get the kids into the right place rather than going to be the main focus of the pictures! Apparently everybody else had loved them and thought that they were wonderful and artistic and amazing for having these manky balls in . I hate football at the best of times - I certainly don't want to have pictures of the ruddy balls on my walls when I want to see my ds instead!

and breathe.... sorry, rant over!

sparkle12mar08 · 19/10/2011 14:22

Oh I never buy school photos, complete waste of money No one's ever yet managed to make me feel guilty about it either!

alison222 · 19/10/2011 14:39

I often don't buy them. They usually look hideous. The funniest one we got though was of my two DC together, DD looking straight at the camera and DS side on arms folded and the darkest deepest scowl you have ever seen. It was priceless - all my family wanted a copy of that one!!!

flicktheswitch · 19/10/2011 14:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

blackeyedsusan · 19/10/2011 14:56

get her a mirror then she can look at herself everyday.

we are buying first photos reception for dd and nursery for ds. we will buy one set about y3 and y6. I hope they turn out ok.

anonymousbird · 19/10/2011 14:59

Last year I didn't, rubbish shots. This year I bought small set of one of them together. £12 gets me one 7x5 photo for us plus a few little ones for the rellies and some mini ones for the wallet and the odd fridge magnet! I seriously begrudge how much they try and get you to part with.. even the £12 I was umming and ahhing about...