EACH WEEK, A different Irish parent chats us through a family photo from Instagram and explains what was really going on outside the frame – from tantrums to toilet disasters.

Fancy taking part? Email amy@thejournal.ie with a few lines about yourself and your kids for a chance to feature.

Source: Melissah Mullins

Melissah Mullins (@themindofamammy) is on maternity leave from her job in telesales, and shares with us this sweet photo with her two daughters, six-month-old Daisy and two-year-old Evie. 

Tell us a bit about this photo. What inspired you to take it? 

I took this photo pretty late one evening. The four of us lay in bed all snuggled up watching Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I just remember us all being squished into the bed and thinking to myself how lucky I was to have my little family. Then Evie’s little feet started kicking the back of me so I decided to take a quick picture. I had been joking in previous days about our family not being very Instagrammable, so I decided to join in on the face-pulling.

What’s one thing that’s going on in this photo that you wouldn’t know from looking at it?

It had been a mental day. Evie wasn’t well and she was on an antibiotic for an ear and throat infection, I hadn’t been well the previous few days with similar symptoms to her. Throw a three-month-old baby into the mix and, well, let’s just say there was a whole lot of tears, tantrums, explosive nappies and snotty tissues, like any other regular day for us really.

If I’m honest, most of the tears and tantrums were from me, but I remember after dinner, we were all pretty exhausted. My partner Dan’s poor ears were melted off him listening to all the women in the house giving out, so we decided to go hang out in mammy and daddy’s room.

Did it take many attempts to get the right shot? 

I think I took a couple of pictures, this was the best of a bad bunch. It’s not hard to get individual pictures of the girls. Our Evie is a little bit of a diva, she loves to pose for the camera – I have no idea where she gets it from! But getting a photo of the two of them actually looking at the camera is a very rare occurrence. I love capturing the real moments – the two of them staring lovingly at one another, poking each other in the eyes – whatever is happening at the time.

What do you love about this photo? 

I just love this photo because Evie and I are just being messers, pulling faces and being silly, and poor Daisy looks a little scared. I always think she’s saying, “Am I really stuck with these two forever?” She’s definitely going to be the sensible one.

Was there any editing done to the photo before it was posted?

I didn’t edit the photo. It’s not often I use editing, and if I do, it’s mostly to brighten a picture if the lighting was bad. If they happen to be wearing their dinner or are a little dirty in the picture, so be it. As the saying goes, “a dirty child is a happy child.” Life isn’t picture perfect. Evie is one of the messiest kids on the planet, our kids aren’t spotless all the time (well mine aren’t anyway, that’s for sure), so I wouldn’t make us out to be any other way. I feel its very important to show the good and the bad, because let’s face it, motherhood is by no means a walk in the park. 

How well does this photo reflect your family life in general?

I think this picture sums us up as a family perfectly, a little bit crazy, a little bit messy but we’re happy, even if Daisy doesn’t look it.

More: What You Don’t See Here: Mum-of-six Nicola shares the truth behind this family photo – illness, exhausted kids and all>