Cake smash...

[SleepingStandingUp]

I know I am. But if people can convince me I'm not I'll be much happier 😁😁

When DS was 1 I was opposed to cake smash photoshoots because it was a waste of cake. And he was tube fed all wouldn't have touched it and was actually in the middle of a 4 month awful hospitalisation for his birthday and when he came out he ate even less than when he went in and he had/has sensory issues that just would have made it not viable.

Now I have twins who would devour a cake shop between them, who don't seem to have any issues touching messy stuff or eating ANYTHING and I really want one.

But I know they're terrible.

Would I be unreasonable to bury my principles for some cute photos of fat babies covering in icing and cream?

I've just googled cake smash photos. I've never seen anything so fucking twee in my whole life. All pink or blue and you can even buy a special cake smash outfit for £37.99!
I mean, seriously, WTF?

I've just googled cake smash photos. I've never seen anything so fucking twee in my whole life. All pink or blue and you can even buy a special cake smash outfit for £37.99!
I mean, seriously, WTF?

That sums it up 💯, it's got mug written on the parents foreheads!

And don't forget OP had twins so it's £75.98 and OP are you going to have two cakes as well?

Kerching!!

Like I said at the very start, OP... people are going to absolutely moralise the fuck out of this, despite there being absolutely no moral value to it. I'm surprised it took this long to get to the "my photos are so sincere and genuine, yours are contrived and false", or maybe it didn't, it's all one long exercise in projection and insanity.

I truly do not know why people get this nutty about it. Maybe they want to do cake smashes but won't because they think it'll make them drop five social classes? Nothing more discreet and humble than letting everyone know how discreet and humble you are, I guess.

Just do the shoot. You want to so you'll be glad you did, and the kids will enjoy it. It probably is a good idea not to use a chocolate cake but apart from that... It's a photo shoot, not a virgin sacrifice. You'll still be a good person afterwards.

@Corono

*I've just googled cake smash photos. I've never seen anything so fucking twee in my whole life. All pink or blue and you can even buy a special cake smash outfit for £37.99! I mean, seriously, WTF?*

That sums it up 💯, it's got mug written on the parents foreheads!

And don't forget OP had twins so it's £75.98 and OP are you going to have two cakes as well?

Kerching!!

I must have missed the bit where it came with a mandatory outfit so yeah sure, maybe I'll buy one for the whole family 🙄. I appreciate you think I'm stupid bit not quite enough to smush £75 is came fondant.
And why would they have their own cake??

@ShebaShimmyShake

Like I said at the very start, OP... people are going to absolutely moralise the fuck out of this, despite there being absolutely no moral value to it. I'm surprised it took this long to get to the "my photos are so sincere and genuine, yours are contrived and false", or maybe it didn't, it's all one long exercise in projection and insanity.

I truly do not know why people get this nutty about it. Maybe they want to do cake smashes but won't because they think it'll make them drop five social classes? Nothing more discreet and humble than letting everyone know how discreet and humble you are, I guess.

Just do the shoot. You want to so you'll be glad you did, and the kids will enjoy it. It probably is a good idea not to use a chocolate cake but apart from that... It's a photo shoot, not a virgin sacrifice. You'll still be a good person afterwards.

I promise no chocolate cake and no virgin sacrifices 😘😘

Like I said at the very start, OP... people are going to absolutely moralise the fuck out of this, despite there being absolutely no moral value to it. I'm surprised it took this long to get to the "my photos are so sincere and genuine, yours are contrived and false", or maybe it didn't, it's all one long exercise in projection and insanity.

Nah, mine were all sincere and genuine... each to their own!

I'm happy to be told us bit for all those who don't understand the staging aspect, would you be equally critical of a newborn shoot, a family shoot, a superhero or fairies about, posed wedding photos?

Yeah, I don’t really like any of these for the reasons lolasmiles describes. I have never seen a cake smash photo and thought cute. I’ve thought ‘gross’ or ‘what a weird thing to do.’

But I couldn’t care less if someone else wants to do one.

@LolaSmiles

Cloudtraffic My thoughts entirely.

I have snapshots of genuine family walks to look back on with fondness and real memories of places we've visited. Why would I need a staged professional photoshoot on a fake family walk to remind me of all the excellent memories on trips that actually happened?

"Hey kids, let's all look at these photos of us walking in a line several ways down a narrow road, you throwing leaves several times and choreographing your puddle jump as a reminder of totally different trips out where we actually did the outing instead of pretending we did the outing. I'm sure the photoshopped images of our pretend outing where we all got dolled up are a brilliant reminder of all the real outings we did".

Like I said earlier, each to their own but it's not a mentality that I can identify with.

Well, speaking as a non professional photographer with some experience, the whole point of a session like that is to get the family enjoying themselves in a setting that feels natural to them. Portrait photography 101.

But I couldn’t care less if someone else wants to do one.
Same here.
If people want to do it then do it and people who don't see the point/think it's a waste of time/think it's another excuse to get dolled up as part of photoshoot culture will just scroll on by when they see them.

If people ask what others think of cake smashes and photoshoots then it's a bit silly to get annoyed and defensive if people share their thoughts.

On cake smashes I don't see the appeal in buying a special cake for the purposes of having a child smash it in order to get photos. A child having a slice of birthday cake would still go everywhere, so the only reason to get a special cake for it is so the parents can stage a set of photos and say they've done a cake smash.

It's amazing on here how defensive people get. We've already had claims that disliking something and the associated culture is projection🙄, that replying to the OP asking a wider question about opinions on photoshoots is 'speculation', considering staged shoots to be staged is 'moralising' (when several people who do them have said they're staged), give it a couple of pages and we'll probably tick the next box of Mumsnet defensiveness: 'they're just jealous'.

I haven't got defensive or annoyed, I've answered the comments and questions. I've had one poster say that once she's given her opinion I'm not permitted to reply and a few replies that have just been funny, altho clearly unintentionally.

Do it op; the photos will make you smile and the babies will have fun. I haven't had cake smash photos done but I wouldn't think any less of anyone who has and I don't care whether they're for the social media 👍 or fun photos taken simply for display in their own houses for their own enjoyment. Sometimes it's nice to have nice, well lit, well presented photos rather than just a quick iPhone shot.

The people who are judging photoshoots: what do you think of graduation photos? Mine is of me holding a plastic tube with a ribbon around it, taken before the ceremony where I got the actual certificate itself so it's obviously fake and set up. I still love it though because 2 family members are on the group shot that have since died and it's a much clearer, sharper and better photo than any of the hundreds of family snaps we have of them.

Erm, odd concept imo, from a practical point of view, can you cut cake in half and let your little one go crazy with just half so it's not a total waste?

@IdblowJonSnow

Erm, odd concept imo, from a practical point of view, can you cut cake in half and let your little one go crazy with just half so it's not a total waste?

But there's two of them, they'll fight over half a cake 😂😂😂

SleepingStandingUp
You haven't OP.

Others have though.

My favourite was when you asked about how people felt about other photoshoots, I answered and the later others started claiming projection and speculation about a cake smash, having evidently not read the thread where some of us were replying to your question.

It's one thing to catch your children smashing a cake that was left within their reach by accident, ahem, but another to go to a photographer to get cake smash photos.

But the chances are photos of me catching the babies will be blurry or badly lot, I don't see how it's weird to want some decently taken photos

Cloudtraffic

No I think the conversations have just massively veered 😂😂

Obviously - do what you want then OP - you raised the emotive issued around wanting to do this as a consequence of DC’s difficult start in life

The fact you reduced my genuine concern for you and them to shite emojis tells me all I need to know about you

Why are you keeping this thread going when people were initially sympathetic and now have no idea about what you’re motives are beyond wanting to sign your other two up to some social media-sequel photoshoot

I agree totally with this

The OP did mention the first child having an "awful hospitalisation" and being tube fed.
While I think cake smashes are horrible I could sort of see the OP's point.
And it made sense of the repetitious "fat babies" and "four chubby thighs" as well.

But, yes - now it's obvious it's just another "AIBU? I am, am I? Well, I'm doing it anyway" which always seem pointless.

Do it, if you want to, OP.

I would just suggest that, given so many people on here (including me) hate the sight of babies (fat, thin or average) smeared in food, you either tell people in advance what pictures you want to show them or don't mind if they involuntarily recoil.

Still, you'll probably just find any such reactions funny, so that's okay.

@Hatscats

I really don’t get them, what’s the point? Weird!

This sums up my opinion perfectly

I do think social class comes into attitudes to dirt (in the sense that a baby covered in cake and icing is 'dirty').

My mother is from a very deprived background, and I've seen her too ashamed of having mildly muddy trousers and shoes after a winter walk to go into the local cornershop to buy a carton of milk, because she thinks people would judge her. Because, in her heart, she still equates 'dirt' (even in the absolutely benign sense of muddy trouser legs after a Sunday afternoon walk) with poverty and fecklessness.

I think she would be deeply shocked at someone who put a photo of a cakesmash on the wall, but that is to do with her own hangups. She both envies those who are socially secure enough to not worry about self-presentation or their children's self-presentation, but also judges them for it. I'm always relieved she's never been called for jury duty, as she would absolve a well-presented defendant in a nice suit of anything...

So you're saying people from a lower social class dislike cake smashes because they're dirty? But middle class people mostly dislike cake smashes because they're tacky . So what category of people like them then?

Sorry @Cloudtraffic I missed your previous post and I am sorry you felt I was dismissing glibly genuine concern. It wasn't meant that way. And maybe when I said to Lola I hadn't got defensive I wasn't entirely genuine about that.

either tell people in advance what pictures you want to show them or don't mind if they involuntarily recoil. Do you think I'm going to invite people over and force them to watch a 3 hour screening of the babies smeared in cake? I get that people on the thread think I'm just a chav who is trying to grow my Instagram (??) and I guess that does then make me want to respond. I haven't told anyone who doesn't like them that they're wrong or that ianbu, just have continued to respond to replies. Presumably I should just agree with all the posts telling me I'm a skanky chav using my kids to make myself popular because I'm not allowed to disagree with posters?

Do it!

Is this a thing? Blimey.

I'd never heard of it until this thread but WTF?
Absolutely beyond pathetic....pandering to the 'like' obsessed SM junkies...