Is it awful of me to not buy my ds's school photo because I find them expensive

[chocaddict]

Hi
This has always troubled me for some reason but do you think its terrible to not buy my ds's school photo because I just find the price of them too much every time.
I know its a silly thing to worry about but I do every time.
Its not that I don,t want the photo I do but I am on such a tight budget that I always end up not buying them.
Am I missing out on a valuable piece of memorabilia by not buying it I do feel like a bit of a cheapskate at times.
Any opinions please do you buy your dc's photos every time.

i usually get all the DC done together at school, if its nice buy a package, get cheap frames from wilkos and give them to the grandparents at christmas

I buy the reception yr one but not after that. I'll get one of all 4 of them this yr too.

The individual ones are almost identical photos yr after yr so its pointless.

DD's reception photo was so awful i didn't want to buy it but felt i had to or i would have face explaining to her why i didn't want to buy hers when i had bought DS1's

she is beautiful (obviously!!) but looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards! I spent ages doing her hair but she told me they had PE before the photos and it got messed up so she tried to re-do it herself, bless her, i asked the teacher why they never helped her do the ponytail and she said it was because they aren't allowed to touch the children is that true?

I never buy them. The are not only expensive but horrible and cheesy. My kids are unusualy good looking (yes yes I am joking) and even they look wierd in these pics.

I just keep that sample one with SAMPLE printed across it. Its just a reminder of what they looked like in that year.

One year the pre school did those horrible 'victorian urchin' type ones YUCK. They look particularly strange if your children happen to have dreadlocks btw.

dd2 (yr9) has just brought home her photo and this is the first time ever that I'm not going to buy it. I wouldn't mind a 7" x 5" but for that option I have to spend over £20 and have lots of smaller sizes thrown in.

For £28 you can have 15 various sized shots plus FREE 9 mini-prints and a calendar with 3 prints across the top !! Who would want 27 photos of their child in a school uniform??

I have 3 children in 3 different schools and I work in another school and they all use different photographers. The prices range from a reasonable £10 for a large and two small to the ridiculous I have mentioned above. You can't buy them all.

As others have said - we only buy them if they are good, and if we can justify the expense.

We bought a couple of sets in Infant School, a couple in Junior, and each twin's class photo in the last year of Junior. We aren't buying any of their first in Secondary as they didn't impress me that much (and are more expensive).

It's a bit difficult really as sometimes one twin looks really pretty in their photo but the other one hasn't brushed their hair and is pulling a funny face

I only buy if I like the photo. Even if they were very very cheap, if the photo was rubbish I wouldn't buy.

I used to buy the nursery ones - the photographer at least used to make an effort getting the kids looking good/relaxed.

At school the photographer made no effort at all, - hair not tidied - kids looking all tense and uncomfortable - so if I didn't like it, I didn't buy it. (Felt faintly uncomfortable but it didn't last!!!)

Wow! And there was I thinking school photos were cheap!

No, I never buy them. When you add whole school photo, choir photos, sports teams photos, play photos and so on, you'd end up paying the equivalent of an extra term's fees.

Why on earth do they do this for preschoolers though, we were asked to buy DD's photo - she's 3. She had paint in her hair and it looked like they'd just taken whatever she was doing off her (she's looking askance into the middle distance with a quite cross face).

If I want to see a pissed off toddler I just wake them up half an hour earlier

We only have class ones here in reception and year 6 which is great - start and end of school. They seem to agree no need for a yearly one.

Individual ones are done yearly and I do always buy, more if its a nice one as they do bookmarks etc but always a basic one. I have no pics from my school days and its something I would really have liked so at least DS will have the choice if he wants them when he is older.