MICKI BARE Advertisement

Say "cheese." It is time for school pictures. The first challenge for parents during school-picture season is to determine the actual date for picture day. Usually the date is on a piece of crumpled paper stuck together with jelly and something that might be chocolate at the bottom of a book bag.

Parents, if you have not received a notice and money envelope yet, start searching book bags, pockets and any other hiding place a notice might be shoved by a child who is mentally devising tactics for the next trading card tournament when the teacher is passing out important papers for parents.

Once you have the date secured, it is best to go ahead and put it on your calendars. Pencil it into your date book, type it into your electronic calendar, and get a brightly colored dry erase marker and add picture day to the refrigerator calendar.

A few reminder sticky notes are also advisable. Place them on your mirror, on the coffeepot and in your car. Treat the importance of this day as you would a family wedding or 50th birthday extravaganza.

For parents of kindergarteners, you get the added convenience of a reminder pinned to your child's clothing on the afternoon before the big day. Bless those brilliant and thoughtful kindergarten teachers.

I cannot stress enough the importance of knowing exactly when the photographer will be at the school. You absolutely do not want to send your child to school with uncombed hair that needs a trim. You want to be sure your child is wearing clean, neat clothes. You want to check for oatmeal and toothpaste on their shirt.

You do not want to pull up to the school on picture day and drop off a child in a wrinkled Braves T-shirt and cutoffs only to find that other children are dressed as if they were headed to Sunday School.

Yes, your child will be easy to pick out in the class picture wearing the wrinkled Braves T-shirt, but the grandparents will open their Christmas card to find a wallet-sized photo of a child that has unfit parents.

Grandma and grandpa will then proceed to spend the holidays questioning your priorities and parenting abilities as they compare your child's picture to that of the child's well-dressed, perfectly manicured cousin.

Once you have the date pinned down, reminders in place, hair appointments made and clothes picked out, washed and ironed, you must then decide on a package.

Packages have come a long way since I was a child. My oldest came home with a flier that offers 15 different packages. The packages range in price from very affordable to if you have three kids, you might have to dip into your 401(k) plan.

Somewhere between package No. 1 and package No. 15, you can usually find something that will please your family, the grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents, other close relatives, friends and neighbors.

But then, picking the size and number of pictures is the easy part.

You also have to consider many, many choices. Do you want the background to be a particular color or shade? Do you want something traditional, classic, or modern? Do you want your child's name and the year embossed in the corner? Do you want your child's portrait framed in a soft, oval blur so it takes on a more rustic appearance?

Speaking of rustic, you could choose to have the pictures printed in black and white. Then there is the antique coloring, like the Old West pictures for which you and your family posed to create a fun souvenir of your summer vacation.

Many parents like to include school pictures in holiday cards, so now you can also choose to purchase pictures with "Happy Holidays 2006" printed across the bottom.

I realize school picture day seems stressful and overwhelming. But there is a reprieve. If after all your consideration and preparation, the photos of your beautiful child are unacceptable, there is always picture re-take day.

When all the perfect pictures are finally sent home from school, you can dig them out of the bottom of your child's book bag, wipe off the jelly and something that might be chocolate, and begin cutting them apart for distribution.

And if you find you did not order enough, do not distress. You can always order more with the convenient re-order envelope. Or, you can simply wait a few months until spring school picture day.

Micki Bare is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau and the Courier-Tribune in Asheboro, N.C., and author of the book, "Relative Expressions." She lives in Asheboro with her husband and three children. Her e-mail address is mickibare@earthlink.net.