Behind The Awkwardness: Hockey Mom
January 21st, 2010
“This is a photo of my mom, my brother, myself, and my soon to be born younger brother. I’m awkwardly in the hockey equipment on the bottom left. A family friend talked mom into having us all pose for this photo. It went on to win some sort of award in a Newport, RI photo show. It also hung in our house while I was growing up, which made for some awkward moments when friends came over.”
(submitted by Sean)
Click here to buy now!
Subscribe!
I love this photo. It is so wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin. This photo is exactly why this site is here. Thank you! This has to go down in the awkward hall of fame. I don’t know what the photog was thinking when he came up with this idea. And the fact that it hung in the house…..awesome.
Bring on the shrinks!
OOOH , It’s a beautiful photo
It’s very very beautiful yes , I love this picture !
please don’t tell me you are of the type to see a sepia photo and immediately think, “wow, thats gorgeous!”
It goes without saying that Mom always has your back. However, in certain cases, it’s best if you don’t turn around.
hahahaaa…great comment, Don!
Ha hahahaha!
Is the family friend still a family friend?
Exactly what I was wondering!
What is it about these pregnancy belly shot photographers that makes them pose the mums with such vacant expressions? You’d think if they were going to go for something gutsy, they’d want the woman to look like she was up for it. Instead, it looks as if the photographer shot her with tranquilizer darts, propped her up between the kids, and snapped her all dazed and confused. Which, really, is the only way I’d be willing to be photographed in that gear (really, the stretch bra and socks just MAKE the hockey ensemble).
Perhaps that ‘vacant look’ in pregnancy photos started with that Demi Moore cover shot on Vanity Fair back in the 90s. It just doesnt work here.
Perhaps its because pregnant women are suppossed to be radiant and serene, quietly meditating on the gift of life that is growing within them?
If I had to pose like that with my two sons and a third on the way, you bet your arse I’d have a blank what the heck is happening stare.
Ummm… have you ever been pregnant? That woman is exhausted and can barely stand (or SIT for that matter).
Actually, yes I have. And felt the same. Realizing I looked like hot cooked death on toast, I didn’t memorialize it in an awkward studio photograph. And if I had tried, I had enough nice people around me to suggest that no, maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea.
Hee!
One question: Why?
Yeah, I’d gladly wear a mask too if I was forced into this photo.
The look on her face could be telling. As soon as the photo is taken, she realizes this was a HORRIBLE mistake. . . one she would live to regret. And what’s that shadow on the right, on the sheet? This photo is quite twisted.
apparently not, they hung it in the living room or somewhere so
everyone who came in would see it.
It’s the ghost of good taste slowly dissapating
Ah, Lynda, that’s the perfect response!!
Uh, I might handle this better if not for the see through bra. Awkward indeed.
wearing a bra in a family photo = never ok
better than NOT wearing a bra..
oh I dunno. It made me hungry for Silver Dollar Pancakes.
You are too funny. No, I really mean that. You are too funny.
and the ‘bra’ is ever so flattering.
I have nothing against the belly. I think pregnant women are more beautiful. But I would have had the father in the photo. Without him, it leaves one with the question…Hockey team groupy? And proud of it?
Yeah, there’s SO much left to the imagination! Maybe she birthed an entire hockey team and these were the only 2 players they could get to pose with her–hahahaa.
I have nothing against pregnant women, and being a woman myself, I’m all for a woman wanting to celebrate motherhood. However, there is something kind of icky and tasteless about anyone posing for a picture with an exposed pregnant belly. At least this picture takes it to a hilarious level.
I live in Newport. I must have missed that show. I would have remembered that photo.
i wish i was born in newport….
If only she could have been smiling, with a few teeth blackened out.
LOL, just I just choked! Thanks!
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
THAT… would make it perfect!
The fact that it won some kind of photo award in RI causes me some alarm….
hahaha!
There are a few places in the world where hockey-related photos would be given special consideration in awards shows, regardless of artistic merit, and New England is one of them…
Must have been an awkward award.
Oh Sean, you poor thing. I have some cookies and hot cocoa waiting for you and your brothers.
This is how they do family photos in Twin Peaks….in fact, I think that might be the Log Lady.
My log has something that it would like to say to you…
It’s time to shut this site down for good. No photo will ever top this one for its awkwardness. There are so many awkward points to this photo, it would require a year to fully dissect. This is the Holy Grail of awkward family photos.
I sort of agree, looking at this photo makes me feel violated and as though i am looking at bleak picture of abuse behind closed locker doors, but then i see that it is actually hillarious and those empty feelings go away.
Since the photo won some sort of prize and hung in a show, I guess that makes it art, so
This MEANS something…
…but I don’t think I want to know what that is…
I agree w/ the consensus of the posters:
1. Unfortunately, this family may need a shrink to find out the meaning.
2. The Newpoert, RI gallery jusges and the photographer have issues also.
3. This photo deserves a prize position in the Awkward Family Photos Hall of Fame.
4. TG the kids’ faces are mostly obscured by the hockey face guards!
Some things simply cannot be unseen.
I’m so uncomfortable looking at this for many reasons, not the least of which is what artistic expression was satisfied by not wearing a shirt? If you’re going for the life-is-awesome belly shot, go the whole way and take off the bra! BY YOURSELF, then, not with your kids. And not in hockey gear. But most disturbing to me is the way she’s holding their heads, and if she’s pushing them down to the ground and won’t let them get up. Too much sub-text in this shot for me. Most definitely AWKWARD.
Actually, this one is rather mild compared to some of the other pregnancy ones on this site.
You know, one thing that really doesn’t work here is the wedge hair and the narrow shape of her face and her neck. That is just ALL wrong and gives the photo even MORE “awkwardness.” Her facial expression doesn’t match her body language either. It’s like she is trying to look commanding, yet she appears weak and shackled. This is an amazingly strange photograph. Thanks to the gentleman that shared it!
why is she in a bra and hockey shorts?
And now it is on the internet for all to see.
wtf awesome
Just when you think it can’t get any better, a picture like this comes along. Bless you, AFF.
I just want to put a shirt on her SO badly, and tie it up over that belly to show it off and hide that bra. I’m going to be obsessing about that all day now.
That, and the mall in Newport with the art award winners on display…
is there a reflection of someone behind the sheet? a photographer or something?
is it me, or does she look like she’s about to clank the poor boys’ heads together in a Stooges-esque maneuver? super duper awkward!
I think this photo is great! The composition, subject matter and humor is terrific!
On top of everything else wrong with this photo – why are they in socks?
At least now parents have a visual aid for when their children ask, “where hockey players come from?”
If this one won, I want to see what 2nd and 3rd place were like.
I think if dad was in the pic, wearing a cup, this pic could have gone to the Nationals.
Already reeling, now an imaginary dad wearing a “cup” is part of this scene seared into my brain. Thanks, thanks a lot. I hate you.
Yes!
BAHAHAHAHAHA! BONUS!!!
the best comment ever – thanks – Nationals! Yikes!
They’re gonna use it in the next Safety Training Fair in Newport!
The fact that this pic won some sort of award makes me want to see the other entries in that particular contest… not to mention the contest from the following year, which I’m sure was filled with even more pregnant gals trying to “one-up” this pic!
This is clearly a hall of fame photo.
So many things are just wrong with the mother. Those poor boys will never live this down.
The pregnant belly shot would have been OK if not for the sports bra that shows a little too much. The lack of a smile, the socks, the hands on the boys heads. No skates on for the boys when they have all their gear on, except the stick and skates.
LOL.
The white socks are the best part. Sexy!
All this picture is missing to make it perfect is a rifle, some cats and a regulation-sized casserole dish.
I had no idea that casserole dish sizes were regulated!! Hope the “Potluck Police” won’t be knocking on MY door….
And a compound bow.
The shadow on the right is the pregnant lady’s shadow – the light must be on the left. It’s a pretty shocking photo….I’ve done maternity ones before and I’d never suggest getting you semi-naked with your sons in the pic in hockey gear – it’s the absolute height of awkwardness.
Hope the kids came through it un-traumatised – imagine having buddies over
It was the 80’s…….. anything went back then!!!! I know the family well (no I’m not the photographer!) But I can add that it was a brave favor that the mother took. That photo has been hidden in the very back of a closet since the early 90’s!!!
LLOL @ no I’m not the photographer – really…..if you were would you admit it??
Didn’t someone up there say it was on their wall?
The shadow on the right is clearly the photographer’s. Those poor kids. How does one deal with the trauma of living with a photo of your mother hanging in the living room for all to see?
Do YOU BELIEVE in MIRACLES??? NNNNnnnnOOOOOOOOO!
At least she wasn’t wearing black socks with those shorts. That would have been embarrassing.
The only thing that would make this more awkward if if the brothers were holding Mein Kampf and The Exorcist.
I’m really not into pregnancy shots, but I have to admit I like this one! Awkward for her kids, but delightful for the rest of us!
Oh my. Guess it was a little awkward explaining to friends why mom is up on the wall, huh? I suppose it is a good ice breaker for dinner conversation.
This one should win for Most Awkward of all the photos that have ever been on this site.
Gives new meaning to Don Rickles’ comment, “You hockey PUCK!”
Where is the big kid’s right arm?
Ewwwwwwwww – shudder, this is just another reason I want to move FROM RI.
Where’s the kid on the right’s arm?
That’s what I was thinking……kinda hard to be goalie with one arm.
I was wondering the same!
I was really hoping the kid who sent it in was still 8