It’s The Most Stressful Day of the School Year in the Quad Cities

As an adult (in age, not level of maturity) I'm stressed out every day.  But it's a different kind of stress.  Money and work and why that part of my body hurts when I didn't do anything yesterday.  But thinking back to my childhood, there was always one day that was more stressful than others.  School picture day.

Yes, it's that time of year when kids put on their best outfits for one picture in front of a grey background set up in the school gymnasium. Serious question that maybe a teacher or school admin knows; do the schools get kickbacks on these?  I feel like that is the only way the chaos of picture day makes sense at schools.

Let's start with the outfit.  First off, if you came from a family without the ability to dress you in nice clothes, you were already feeling bad.  Other kids come in wearing nice new stuff and new haircuts, meanwhile you've got on the t-shirt from two birthdays ago.  Of course the outfit never really matters cause the picture is shoulders up.  Like a mugshot.

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Now when you are a younger child, it was still fun and maybe you didn't notice that.  But as you get older, everything changes.  Including, how your face looks.  You knew it was coming.  You've been looking good for weeks.  Then, the morning of the photos...bam there it is.  A zit.  Being a teenager sucked.

Then the pictures come back to the parents and it's that instant judgment.  "What kind of weird smile is this?"  "How did your hair get that messy?"  Maybe this wasn't to your face, but now as parents, you know we do it.

Some kids have fun on picture day.  Some dread it.  For parents, we just know it's time to get a form from the school asking for $70 for our child's mughot.  Just wait like 20 years and you can get a free one from the Sheriff's Office website.