When a heavily pregnant woman decided to equip her 3-year-old son with a camera so he could document his first experiences as a “big brother,” she could never have predicted the impact his pictures would have.
Victoria Yost, a stay-at-home mom from Maryland, wasn’t sure how her son Gabriel would react to the arrival of his little sister, so she and her partner got him a camera.
“We were anxious about how our son was going to feel about becoming a big brother and having another baby in the house,” Yost told Newsweek. “So, to help him get excited, we got him a present that we said his baby sister ‘brought’ him.”
In the weeks prior, Gabriel had shown an interest in taking pictures on Yost’s phone and also the camera, so she figured he would enjoy having his own camera. She was right.
“He took to it right away, and we presented it to him the evening he met his sister for the first time after she was born,” Yost said. “He took the camera everywhere with him that first week, documenting his time with his grandparents while we were at the hospital and then once we got home.”
Writing on the Cornell University website, Professor Laurie Kramer, from the University of Illinois, noted it is important to “prepare children for a new child.”
“Children will adjust better if they have been included in the preparations for the new arrival and have had the chance to explore their feelings and anxieties,” Kramer said.
Gabriel’s camera gave him that outlet. “It made my son feel more included and not left out once we brought the baby home,” Yost said.
There was an extra layer of significance to Gabriel’s experience with the camera, though, one that revealed itself only when Yost and her partner started looking back through the pictures the boy had taken.
“It really warmed our hearts to see what the week looked like through his little eyes,” Yost said. “Everyone he took a picture of always gave him their undivided attention and a genuine smile.
“He also took some candid photos of just us with the baby after we came home that are really special, as well as pictures of my husband and I. There’s something about seeing us from his eye level that makes it special.”
Yost loved the pictures so much that she decided to share them as part of a video posted to her TikTok @thymeandtenderness. It has already been viewed more than 1.9 million times.
“I definitely got very emotional, seeing the photos; happy emotions, though. It was very heartwarming,” Yost said. “My favorite picture he took, though, is just of his sister in her bassinet. It was a total surprise to me when I went through the photos.”
Yost said she would encourage other expectant parents with soon-to-be big brothers or sisters to “go for it” and get them to document their experience on camera. “You’d be surprised how creative your kids can be!” she added. “Let them express themselves.”
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