Other parents are praising a father for sharing his brilliant trick for getting his son to smile naturally in photos—and it only takes yelling out the word “poop.”
On September 14, children’s book author Adam Perry, 37, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, shared two side-by-side photos of his preschool-age son posing for the camera on his first day of school on Twitter.
‘My son when I tell him to smile vs when I yell out “poop!”‘ he tweeted.
My son when I tell him to smile vs when I yell out “poop!” pic.twitter.com/ui6TuPOaC5
— Adam Perry (@misterperry) September 14, 2022
Perry’s son is adorable in both photos, but his smile in the first is a little strained. In the second, he has a more natural open-mouth grin, which he got from his father.
In one week, the writer’s post went viral, receiving nearly 300,000 likes. Fans have praised him in the comments for the technique, which a number of parents found useful.
‘You’ve mastered parenting,’ one person wrote, while another joked: ‘Ha! You should be a school photographer.’
‘So that’s the secret to getting a good picture,’ someone else added.
Others were moved to share how they get their own children to smile for photographs, and some even included photos.
Perry discussed the viral post with Good Morning America, saying that they always take pictures on the first day of school.
However, they were in a hurry that day and were having difficulty getting a good shot.
‘My son always has the funniest smile when he’s trying too hard,’ he explained. ‘I learned at some point that if I just yelled out “POOP” and snapped the picture quick, it always worked out way better.
‘In this case, it was a pretty dramatic comparison, so I thought I’d share it,’ added.
Perry’s post has since gone viral on Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook. He admitted he only ‘expected five to 10 people to like it’ — and then it took off.
‘This post must have really resonated with people, and I’ve gotten tons of messages from people that are using this trick and getting great pictures of their kids, which to me, is the best part of all this,’ he told GMA.