Sep
19
For the last couple of months I’ve been doing some community management work for Cherokee USA, which is a fancy way of saying I’m in charge of the stuff that appears on their Facebook page. For all my complaining about Facebook (seriously, would it KILL them to add an edit function? Does this not exist because of the fear that someone will post “I LOVE puppies, don’t you?” and 10,000 likes later, swap out puppies for “child pornography”? Because okay, that WOULD be sort of funny, not that there’s anything funny about—anyway, all I’m saying is I hate that I can’t fix a typo without deleting the whole thing and starting over), I’ve really been enjoying the gig. I’m basically just there to try and make the page a non-sucky place for parents to visit, so it’s pretty low-key and conversational—much more fun than the sort of corporate brand-bot weirdness where the writer attempts to pretend they actually ARE the product, not that I’m pointing fingers, BIZARRO-LAND MIRACLE WHIP TWITTER ACCOUNT.
Cherokee and Cozi have teamed up to offer up some Target gift cards to blog readers, and today I’m jumping on the giveaway bandwagon. I’ll get to that part in a minute, but just so everything’s all up front and tidy: not only is this a sponsored post, it’s sponsored by a client of mine. I’m just saying, if I was selling out any harder right now I’d have to launch an eponymously-named fragrance.
The general topic for the giveaway is back to school clothes—specifically, first day of school outfits, and how parents choose to capture the moment. This isn’t a subject I’m much of an expert on, frankly. On Riley’s first day I mostly looked for an outfit that wasn’t wrinkled or stained, and while I’ve seen plenty of inspiration for first day of school photos, I sort of phoned it in with a last-minute printed speech bubble:
So I didn’t exactly knock it out of the park creativity-wise for his first day photo, but I think I’ll try this idea from Kim (aka Miss Zoot): I’ll take the exact same photo—same outfit and all—on his last day, too. Check out how Kim’s first day/last day photo of her daughter turned out:
Cool, right? I would love to have a photo like that to see how Riley changed over the year.
I’m not super fussy about what he wears to school, but I do set out Riley’s outfit the night before. It makes things easier in the mornings, and also ensures that he’s not heading out the door in a pair of swim shorts with a Spiderman pajama top. My standards may be low, but they do exist.
Here’s my question for you, if you’ve got an opinion on the subject: what do you care about more, your kid’s outfit for the first day of school, or their first school picture day? I see by our calendar that our picture day is on October 21st, and I suspect I’ll be in a tizzy the night before trying to find a photogenic outfit for his FIRST PICTURE DAY OMG. Hopefully they have a different backdrop than the Infamous PenisTurtle Theme of ’07.
And with that unsavory image, on to the giveaway! The prize is a $100 gift card for Target, which you can of course use to buy a stack of new Cherokee clothes—or, you know, whatever else captures your fancy. To enter, leave a comment on this post (any comment will do, just be sure and include your email address). Contest ends . . . let’s say Wednesday morning, okay? Two days from now on the 21st.
Good luck!
PS: there’s another big giveaway going on where you can win a $1000 shopping spree from Cherokee and a $300 smart phone from Cozi. Contest info is here.
PS part deux: if you’re a Facebook user, I’d be super honored if you would visit Cherokee’s page and maybe even hit that Like button—only if you want to! No pressure!—if you’d like to see my updates appear in your, uh, stream-hole.
*** Contest now closed, winner to be announced soon ***
Comments
-
My product review site:
[
I love the first day/last day pictures. I also LOVE Target, so there ya go! Thanks for the giveaway!
My 2.5 year old just started pre-school last week, and I was happy what she chose was a) clean, and b) matched. I just hope we make it to picture day….she rocked the first few days, but has been having a drop-off breakdown every day since then.
I might use the gift card for kleenex and uppers (do they sell those at Target?) for me…it’s so heartbreaking leaving your despondent toddler every morning!
Thanks for the giveaway. We’re big fans of target, both for clothes/shoes for the kiddo and lots of other random stuff.
Picture day for sure, that’s the picture I display in my house, not the picture from the first day of school.
I cared far more about my son’s kindergarten outfit than I did this year for the first day of first grade. This year all I cared about was him not wearing one of his garish Star Wars/Spiderman/Insert annoying TV character here t-shirts. (Oh! But I did iron his shorts so he wasn’t a wrinkly mess as usual! That was a new experience!)
Of course, he’s making such a goofy face in the picture, anyway, you don’t even notice what he’s wearing.
My daughter wears a uniform…lucky me!
School photo day is way more pressure. I look at my old photos and cannot understand how my mother let me out the door. Gah.
I try to go more casual for the first day of school, so he can be more comfortable (t-shirt and shorts) in a new environment, and step it up a bit with a button-down shirt and khakis for school pictures.
(I make sure it is a solid-color or striped t-shirt, not one with a cartoon or anything on it. My standards are low, but I do have them!)
I don’t worry a lot about the first day of school, the kids do that for me. I do try to make sure my daughter’s hair is looking nice on picture day. I love the pics I take of the first day of school. Someday I’ll have to put them together on one page, my son is a sophomore now and my daughter is in 7th. That ought to get me all depressed and nostalgic!
Love Target! This gift certificate would go to very good use!
Pick me! Please and thank you. :)
School photo would definitely worry me more.
LOVE Target and could use that gift card up in a snap.
I definitely agree that the turtle backdrop is one of the worst I have seen. Although I remember one of mine one year was so dark that my brown hair completely disappeared into the background. It was supposed to look like library shelves but it was too dark to even really see the “books”. Definately a weird photo – I guess the photographer did not know about the importance of adjusting the lighting to suit the background.
Thanks for the Target opportunity!
I just have experience with “first day at daycare” clothes – I wanted her to look “normal-cute” – leggings and a little sweater. AKA – no “Mommy’s Milk Monster” onesies.
As the mother of three and a half year old twin boys who attend pre-school, matching is a bonus in the mornings, however, I TOTALLY work myself up for picture day outfits every year. I don’t know what those photographers do, but every year they are the ONLY people able to get both boys in one picture BOTH looking at the camera with *kind of* smiles on their faces. Again, not sure what bribery they are using (crack covered lollipops maybe?) but whatever it is, I LOVE THEM!!
I love the first day/last day same outfit picture idea. It’s really cool to see the changes!
I love your posts! You hit everything on the head each time. I have an 18 month old girl and am starting to relate to many things you say.
For the first day of school, I promised my first-grade daughter that she could get something from Justice – this store all the “cool kids” are talking about. She picked out a shirt she liked. It wasn’t until I WAS PAYING for it that I realized it was $32. THIRTY-TWO DOLLARS MY GOD. But too late; I had to keep my promise. Never again. Clearance rack, only.
Otherwise, she’s pretty fashionable. For picture day, she picked a dress off her closet hanger, I approved, and we were done.
I guess I just figure there are much more important things to get stressed over, and also given that I have a GIRL, I’m sure the first day of middle school and the first day of high school will be a lot more difficult, so might as well save my energy to combat her dramatics over those fashion disasters that are sure to come.
School picture day – hand’s down
I take more time in picking out (or “guiding the selection”) of the school photo day then the first day of school. I remember it being a big deal to get a NEW outfit for the first day of school. But my boys don’t really seem to care, so I’ve not made it a big deal. Just something clean, a bit nicer. They’re already complaining how I don’t let them wear “play” shorts to school–I tell them to wear “nicer” shorts, or jean shorts that aren’t cut offs or stained. I’m so hard.
He will never top that mushroom/crying picture. Sooo pathetic and hilarious at the same time!
I don’t yet have to worry about school pictures because my oldest isn’t in kindergarten. As much as I’d like to think that I’ll care about their outfits, I’ll probably be lucky to put them into something clean. This mothering thing is hard sometimes!
Awesome giveaway!
I so didn’t have to worry about first day of school outfits because my daughter’s school has uniforms. I love that – it takes away all the drama in the mornings! She still gets to pick her clothes, but it’s just between navy or khaki instead of all the drama that a 6-year-old girl’s wardrobe usually provides. Hurray. :)
Oh man — I could sure use this. My youngest is a senior in high school this year and LOVES Target for her jeans and tee-shirts
(which happens to be all she will wear to school).
-Janet
janetrosedavis@yahoo.com (just in case I win!)
Me please!
First day of school is definitely more important for attire on several fronts:
a) I hold the camera (and can insist on retakes)
b) I control the hair-do (rather than using school photo day as a great excuse for “let’s race in the hot sun” gym class)
c) I don’t have to pay myself in advance (!) for horrible head-shot only pics.
Wow. I had no idea I had that much to say….
Oh, Target, I have tried to spend less time with you, but it is just impossible for me to resist you.
The daughter is 15 now, and I do not get any input in 1st day or picture day, other than “please go to your room and remove the shorts you are wearing. I think I know a 7 year old who could use them.”
I personally love the 07 pic. We just started preschool so I am new to all these documentation requirements, but I definitely think picture day is more important than first day of school. That being said, I did take those photos. In front of the school, on my phone.
Have school backdrops changed that much since I was a kid?
Both! I’ll be looking at them forever!
Yay giveaway!! I must agree with some others and say I love the 07 photo. Then again I also loved the photo of my godchild crying his fool head off on a super tiny roller-coaster ride the other day. I’m not a terrible person (pinky swear!) I just love seeing photos of kids in real expressions as opposed to frozen pasted on smiles. It’s always more endearing! :)
first day of school. Photo day pictures can come home horrible, but you can take multiple first day of school pics to hopefully get one useable one!
It seems like I stop by Target at least once a week, so a gift card would be great!
Kindergarten is still a couple of years off for my kiddo, but hopefully I’ll remember to take the first day/last day pictures because I think it’s a great idea.
Picture day, definitely. Because of the horrible ones from my childhood!
Seeing as how my son has already outgrown the jeans I bought him before school started, I could totally use a shopping trip for new school clothes. (That is, if they ever go back to school from this teachers’ strike. Omg, please let that be tomorrow!)
Our wonderful public elem school has uniforms, YIPPEE!!! so first day of school is less about clothes than it is about maybe a new hairbow or some other acceptable accessory…so definitely school picture day is a whole other ballgame!
My daughter was born a week ago, so I’ll have to pick out first day of school clothes, like, tomorrow. How does time go so fast???
I have to go w/ the 1st day of school, but that’s because *I* control those pictures, and so I want them to be good! The school ones may or may not be any good, so we might not buy them, but the 1st day of school HAS TO go in the scrapbook, so those pics have to be great! :)
have to go with picture day as well. Who even remembers first day outfits with all the rushing around to get there.
How timely. Today is my kindergartener’s school photo day. On his first day of school I let him wear what he wanted – I make sure I like most of the stuff in his drawers, and that it’s seasonally appropriate, and he chooses his own outfit in the morning. Last night, though, with his approval, I put out the jeans and the shirt I wanted him to wear today, so clearly I care more about the photo. Of course, he’s gone and done up all the buttons on his plaid button-down shirt, because if there’s a button it should be done up, so he’s going to look like a dork. But he’s my dork.
thankfully my kids wear a uniform. i would put more effort into school picture day. making sure that he had a clean and stain free shirt to wear
great giveaway
Oh, school picture day. I had a great one where I wore my awesome new sweatshirt with giant sparkly kitten face, but didn’t brush the tangles out of my hair (so there were visible tangle lumps standing out from my head in the actual final picture).
Definitely picture day!
Dude. Target is my life. Also, I am way jealous of other parents’ creativity with the first day of school photos. My son is 3 and this is his second year of preschool so maybe I’ll pick up some better ideas before he starts real school.
One can always find a way to spend some money at Tar-JAY. Ba-dum bum.
The first year I got to go school shopping all by myself and pick my own clothes (my dad dropped me off at the mall with, like, $200 — I was the oldest and he was still learning), I went to Target for most of my shopping. I still remember some of the things I bought. Think 1989.
I can’t even imagine being ready to send my kid off to school! Riley looks adorable, even though I am pretty sure you guys were in a timewarp somewhere, because I remember when he was just born and it seems like yesterday.
I care more about the school picture day because that’s the only control I have over how that one is captured. For his first day of school (kindergarten and, this year, first grade) he chose his clothes. Not what I would have picked, but he felt comfortable and in control. For the pictures, I chose three shirts and he chose from among them. He still gets some control but not as much as he thinks. I like him dressed up a little more for those because (I’ll admit it), I want those pictures to look kind of dorky and forced in 20 years. Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen? (If I could comb his hair over to the side with Brylcreem, I totally would.) (I am mean.)
My first day of school pictures from my childhood are some of my most cherished. And Riley could TOTALLY be a model…look at him in that picture…so handsome.
Also, FB does have an edit tool, albeit a shitastic one. When you post something, even a comment, for about 30 seconds after you post, you can click on the “x” that you would usually use to delete it, and it will reopen the comment box so you can edit. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t know that it works for your own status updates, but it definitely works for comments.
OOh, I rarely let myself go to Target because it seems like money just disappears there. I’d love to win!