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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Family photos in the home.....

117 replies

deliakate · 05/09/2013 18:21

Are they tacky? I think my parents thought they were and consequently, we had none on display of anyone.

What do you do? Do you have lots of nuclear family/you and dh only, or are there lots of extended family too?

Maybe it's a class issue - I always see loads in upper class homes and in more working class households too.....

OP posts:
flipchart · 05/09/2013 19:13

I haven't got any photos up at all.
However we have a computer in the hall that is almost permently switched on so the pictures I have taken rotate as a display. I have over a 1000 pictures since the boys were little, holidays and events.
I prefer that to picture frame clutter.

youbethemummylion · 05/09/2013 19:17

I have just counted I have 56 family photos in my living room/dining room. The wall above the fireplace has 30 6x4 black and white pics of the kids and a few of DH and myself together or with the kids.

The two dining room walls have a selection of various larger pictures of the kids and me and DH on wedding day these are mostly professional shots eg when the photo people came to nursery or when we have had pixifoto vouchers off family.

I don't care what people think I love them I think pictures are for looking at not staying unseen on your computer.

raisah · 05/09/2013 19:19

My gran when she was alive didn't allow photos up on display particularly of deceased relations. Her reason was that their soul couldnt settle and be at peace and she hss burnt all pictures of her (apart from one that I rescued from the fire) for that reason. She was lovely my gran, a bit batty and I mias her loads.

cushtie335 · 05/09/2013 19:21

I don't like them. I know what we all look like. I have my parents' wedding photo (it was taken in 1944 and is very stylish). My Grandad in his chef's whites in 1930 and that's it. All the ones of us are stored on discs.

FurryDogMother · 05/09/2013 19:22

If it's good enough for the Queen, it's good enough for me! Her office has loads of family pics in it :) I'm sitting in the spare room at my Dad's at the moment, looking at photos of me when I was 22, me when I was 26, Dad, Mum (RIP) and me when I was 19, Dad, me and my husband when I was 43, my cousin and her husband, and it's lovely! There's a load more photos of the family on the sideboard in the front room, and a great one of my Dad and dog (RIP) in the kitchen. I find them comforting. Not in the slightest bit bothered what anyone else thinks of them.

Nancy66 · 05/09/2013 19:22

Family snapshots I love.

Professionally posed photos nearly always look naff though (including wedding ones)

gaggiagirl · 05/09/2013 19:23

No photos on display in our house, my parents didn't have any either. My mam always says 'we were too busy bringing you up to take photos of you'.

We have lots of art on the walls though as do my parents.

SupermansBigRedPants · 05/09/2013 19:28

My mum had none, I have millions on the walls Grin all of my dc either singly, with each other in some order or with dp or I. The wee buggers are my proudest achievement and I love looking at fun/happy/gorgeous photos of them.

ToriaPumpkin · 05/09/2013 19:31

My mum always had lots of photos up, my in laws have a grand total of three up, my wedding photo, BIL's wedding photo and one of DS.

When we bought our house and I said I wanted to put loads of photos up on our blank kitchen wall DH told me it's "studenty" to have photos up but couldn't explain why.

We've now got loads of photos up in the kitchen, our son, wedding pictures of ours, my best friend, my great grandparents and any other shots that we particularly like. They're in brightly coloured IKEA frames in various sizes.

FreckleyGirlAbroad · 05/09/2013 19:32

My ex mil had massive framed canvases of studio-posed family shots of parents and 3 grown-up sons. Exdp looked soooo uncomfortable in them and they made me cringe just looking at them. Especially the soft focus around the edge and the gilt chair ex mil was sat in surrounded by her "boys".

HerrenaHarridan · 05/09/2013 19:32

I have one big framed print off dd in her bear suit. Professionally done, with a black background, she's old enough to be sitting up, looking at the camera and smiling. It's beautiful

(and i don't give a fuck if anyone thinks its naff because I'm an single parent so it doesn't matter what any one else thinks Smile)

I have a couple more of dd on rip of the fire place.

In dds room there is a couple of me and my ex (martyr emoticon Grin)

There is a cluster frame containing pics if all the family she doesn't see that often.

I love the idea up thread of doing a collage a year, brilliant.

NannyOgg
that is a lie, you have hundreds of pictures and ornaments crammed onto every surface. The pictures are subtly arranged in order of favouritism with prime punishment being on an end table in the hallway by the cat bowl. Wink

SunshineMMum · 05/09/2013 19:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

waltzingmathilda · 05/09/2013 19:34

Are they tacky? I think my parents thought they were and consequently, we had none on display of anyone.

love her! has she thought about writing to HM Queen and telling her that her televised Christmas Message is a bit pikey with all the polaroids on the piano? let alone all the oils of the ancestors collecting dust on the walls

spiderlight · 05/09/2013 19:36

We have quite a lot - a canvas of a gorgeous photo of DS that my friend took, several of him as a baby/toddler, several of him with his grandparents and of my dearly missed mum, and loads of the dogs! Also a big frame with a collection of friends' kids/babies. Photography is my hobby and I also have three friends who are amazing professional photographers, so given free rein I could probably completely cover the entire house!

Bunbaker · 05/09/2013 19:37

I once read that a home without family photos was a very cold and unfriendly home.

Everyone I know has photos of family in their homes.

I have never heard of it being regarded as tacky or non-u. I would find it odd if anyone didn't have any.

animaniac · 05/09/2013 19:38

I love having photos on display, they're for looking at and enjoying every day aren't they? not for shoving in albums or staying on the computer. However I dont like the huge photo shoot type ones particularly, all ours are from casual snapping!

BadRoly · 05/09/2013 19:40

I have 2 photos of the dc and 1 of dh and I on our wedding day in the living room. I have 2 old school photos of the dc on my mirror. Dh has a photo of me the night we met on his bedside table.

That's it!

My parents aren't big photo people - dining room has graduation photos of me and sibling (now replaced with wedding photos). 1 group photo of each set of grandchildren. 1 photo of my Dad and his grandchildren on the kitchen. Mum has a picture of him by her bed since he died.

My sibling has loads of photos up all over their house including me and my gang!

Bakingtins · 05/09/2013 19:42

Never really thought about it but my parents have v few - one big frame above the piano which has a photo of each grandchild in it that they update every year, a small gallery of old photos of long dead rellies, and that's it. None of us, though there are lots in albums.
MIL chose a particularly unflattering wedding photo of us to display, from amongst many lovely ones....
We have several mainly professional shots of the family on display, our wedding photographer has become a friend and she's done a shoot for us every few years. In the office which we would be unlikely to take guests into lest a tottering heap of paper fatally injure them we have several poster size compilations of our amateur shots. I also do a yearbook in which I make a point of having photos of wider family so I have a record of the cousins growing up, for example.
I wouldn't think it was U or nonU at all. I do hate the school photo in cardboard frame though!

CHJR · 05/09/2013 19:43

We have a gallery of pics of close family and DC when tiny, but it's upstairs where guests won't usually see them unless they're staying overnight, though we do see them every day on way to bed. I guess I have an overdeveloped sense of privacy... anyway why should dinner visitors care? (Not good on FB either BTW.) Nothing to do with class (this is a class thing too??? is anything not in my adopted country??? and you wonder why we immigrants have trouble fitting in!)
Now I think of it DH has recently-ish requested to put some in frames on surfaces. I haven't paid much attention as I hate dusting bits and bobs on every surface.

CoolStoryBro · 05/09/2013 19:45

What does U or nonU mean?!!

I have a huge canvas of my kids trick or treating as soon as you enter the house. All I ever get is compliments, but tbh I couldn't care less what other people think of it. I took that photo and I remember that every single one of us was laughing when I took it. It always makes me smile.

exoticfruits · 05/09/2013 19:46

I don't care if they are tacky- I have lots.

fairylightsinthespring · 05/09/2013 19:47

We have three very big black and white canvas photos on the wall. They are beautiful pics taken by us. Its a massive wall, about 5-6 metres long at least and needs something big. I don't understand why its tacky - its our home and our kids.

BadRoly · 05/09/2013 19:49

Oh Shock I be just remembered the massive Nirvana style picture of dc3 doing underwater baby swimming in our hallway!

thesaurusgirl · 05/09/2013 19:49

It was David Hicks who made the class observation about photographs.

He deemed them correct on surfaces and unacceptable on walls.

But there's nothing naffer than employing an interior designer for your own house, so he's hardly qualified to advise on matters of 'u' and 'non-u'.

sydlexic · 05/09/2013 19:50

I don't have any, I don't like them. Loads on PC, but not on display.

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