Week 24 of My Project 52 Photography Challenge: Freedom

Week 24 of My Project 52 Photography Challenge: Freedom

I’ll admit that I have actually already posted this photo on my personal Facebook. Quite frankly, I love the image and I just couldn’t wait to share it with friends and family. It was photographed last week, in week 24 of my Project 52 Photography Challenge for the theme: Freedom.

Now, I’m guessing with the 4th of July approaching, this theme was intended to be a bit more patriotic. However, in today’s day of over-parenting, hand sanitizer and “don’t get dirty” mentality, I wanted share my personal parenting style- and it goes a little something like this:

I don’t own hand sanitizer and if my kid doesn’t NEED a bath at the end of the day, it simply wasn’t a good day. Period.

Kids are meant to be gross. This is a picture of my son, Simon, playing with a *dead crab. He actually played with it for about 2 hours! (It doesn’t get much more gross than that) You see, I think it is important to allow children the freedom to be children. They should be free to get dirty, play with gross things and just have fun exploring. It makes me sad when we are at the playground and I overhear parents reminding their children to make sure they don’t get dirty. We keep a change of clothes in the car, and with a few exceptions, Simon is free to get dirty whenever he pleases. I’m glad my son had fun at the beach… playing with this poor little dead crab. I’m glad he has the freedom to be a kid, just as I did when I was his age.

So, parents- relax. Let your kids jump in that puddle, crawl in that drainage ditch, climb that tree and taste their mud pies! Give your kids the freedom to be kids!

This image also ties into freedom in a less obvious way. During our trip to the beach, I only took this one photo. Which, if you know me, is sort of astounding. And, while I do wish I photos of Simon and his grandma playing in the water, I am glad that I gave myself the freedom to be truly present that day and not wrapped up in trying to document it!

Anyway, what gross things do your kids play with?

*Disclaimer: The crab was already dead. No crabs were harmed in the making of this image.

Don’t forget to check out last week’s Project 52 Photography Challenge on the blog!

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