For those of ya'll who grew up with you JNMIL, I have question:

How were photos handled?

(people who have a MIL problem can also chime in, I was specifically curious about childhood though)

My therapist made a comment a few months ago that stuck with me. She said that when she tried to picture me as a kid, with my family, she couldn't really picture it. She couldn't get a good mental lock on what that would look like. And I thought "Huh, funny you say that, every single picture from my childhood is staged, so there ARE no 'real pictures".

There are literally no candid photos taken by Empty Ellie from when I was a kid. No random snapshots. My earlier memories of having photos taken, even "supposed candid" were her directing how it would look. To the level of "turn your head slightly to the left...now tilt your chin down...ok, your left hand looks weird, relax it...no, that's still not good, just put it behind your back".

I went and looked on FB at the photos that me and Empty Ellie have both posted from when I was a kid, and they are all staged. Every last one. Most of them, I can actually remember them being staged, because I had to stop (or radically change) what I was doing, in order for Empty Ellie to get the shot she wanted.

Also, there were certain weird themes in her photos.

• There are endless photos of me "asleep" in a white nightie under the Christmas tree. Complete with her rearranging my hair after I shut my eyes, so it was "artfully" falling over my face.

• There are a ton of photos of me "asleep" in or on certain pieces of furniture.

• There are ton of photos of me in the pool, in a swimsuit, in bizarrely "adult" poses. Not "porn-level" adult, but like...on my side, with my legs at very swimsuit-model-like angles.

• There are a bunch of photos of me next to a Lladro collectable or some other collectable (I think she liked Hummel too) in similar clothing, striking a similar pose.

Even photos of vacation that are supposedly candids, they are all really carefully staged. I learned that if I didn't play along, she wouldn't take a photo, so even things like photos of me at a swim meet, after I won, if I didn't follow her instructions, she wouldn't take a photo of me with my medal (and yes, the other people on the swim team totally made fun of me for my 'weird mom' after that shit. every time).

I think she really just wanted a perfect little living doll and never an actual, live daughter.

Does anybody else have a mother or JNMIL with a similar weird photo fetish?