Taking family photos is scientifically proven to boost your child’s self-esteem

We now have a great excuse for some new family photos.

I love photography. I worked in and out of photography studios for years and I think a big part of that had to do with growing up in a home full of photographs. Having professional photographs taken was a big thing in my house, so much that we had a family photographer that took my mam's baby photographs as well as my own. Photographs are a great way for us to connect with our family and memories but research has also found that taking regular family photographs can boost a child's self-esteem. According to recent research by child psychologists being involved in the taking of family, photographs give young children a great sense of comfort and security. It reinforces the idea of the family unit making them feel more secure, happy and ultimately more confident.

"It lets children learn who they are and where they fit. When a child sees a family portrait with them included in the photograph they say to themselves 'these people have me as part of what they are, that’s why I belong here. This is where I come from'."

With most of us now owning devices like smartphone and tablets, this generation of children is the most photographed out of any other generation of children so there's really no excuse not to grab some family snaps. One child psychologist Dr David Krauss says that it's just as important to display these family portraits as well as taking them. He went on to say that it's particularly important to keep family photographs in your child's bedroom so that it's one of the last things that they see when they go to bed at night.

"It says we love you and care about you. You’re important."

This part really struck me as even though I take photographs almost every day I almost never remember to print them out. I will definitely have to make more of an effort to do so going forward both for decoration but more importantly for my child's self-esteem.