You’ve got your outfits planned, you’ve hired your photographer and your kids are threatening to ruin it all…

Here are six tips on how to help your kids act like angels during a family session… well almost angels…

Tip 1: Make them excited about the session. Tell them it will be FUN and they will get to play and explore new places. The power of positivity is the foundation for a good experience.

Tip 2: Feed them a high protein snack before the session. This will help their blood sugar to stabilize and it will vastly improve their attitude for the 45 minute session. Cheese sticks, nuts, chicken nuggets, peanut butter, power balls, and beef jerky are a few of my favorites for my active boys. It fights off those HANGRY outbursts during the session.

Tip 3: Stay positive. A good family photographer will know how to redirect, re-engage and let a kid who is having a melt down calm down before asking them to take more photos. This is a good opportunity to do individuals of the other children who aren’t distressed until the upset child calms down. Most family sessions FEEL like chaos, you are NOT alone! An experienced photographer can still get GREAT photos even though the kids are acting coo-coo!

Tip 4. Bribe them. Yep. Parenting at its greatest, I know. Children are highly motivated by small toys, ice cream cones or candy. It doesn’t have to be big, but it does need to be meaningful to them. This comes in handy after about 30 minutes when the kids are needing that final push to listen and give a few more laughs and smiles.

Tip 5. Leave the discipline at home, just this once. I have seen kids go from engaged and then to a little distracted and barreling towards downright grieved when their parents threaten and get angry about their lack of perfection at a family session. Having three young boys myself I know how exasperating this can feel to lose control when the kids are NOT behaving at a family session… again, it is SO normal. From the moment your little ones step out of the car my radar is up, and I am gathering information about their personalities and how to best interact with them to get the best photos possible. I have MANY ideas to re-engage with them that will motivate them to cooperate without negative discipline.

Tip 6. Give them grace. Sometimes our kids are just having a bad day and nothing we try to do will brighten their mood. If all of the other tips fail and the session flops (which has only happened once in the 8 years I’ve done family photography) then I either reschedule for another day or refund the family session fee and wait until the child is older. There are some days when we all could use a little more grace, don’t you think?