A stunning, intimate photograph of a mother holding her sick baby in the shower is sweeping the internet. The image of Kelli Bannister, a 30-year-old blogger and photographer from Perth, Western Australia, cradling her daughter, Summer (20 months), is one of those incredible, stripped-back, completely natural parenting moments we'd all love to capture on film. As Bannister herself says, it's "such a raw emotive moment of motherhood in all her glory."
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What makes this photograph even more amazing is that it was taken on Bannister's smartphone by her 5-year-old son, Taj. The little boy brought the phone into the bathroom to tell Bannister she had a text, and then snapped a few pictures before setting it down and going back to his movie. It wasn't until later that his mom remembered he'd taken the shots, and she couldn't resist sharing this one on her Facebook page.
Barefoot Mum
Bannister describes the response to her image, which has received over 10,000 reactions in only 24 hours, as "extremely overwhelming" and "unbelievably humbling." She told SheKnows, "The amount of beautiful stories people have shared has been heartwarming."
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"I just received a message from a new mum thanking me because her baby was sick and had a fever last night, then she remembered my post and jumped in the shower with her baby, and it worked wonders for them both. This really made me appreciate why I had posted the image and story in the first place."
The mom of two says she is still in awe when she looks at the image that's been viewed by so many people all over the word. "It's not how I often see myself, meaning I'm usually in the moment when it comes to these Mummy moments... not looking at how real and emotional it is."
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It's a beautiful image and a reminder that the moments that best encapsulate what it means to be a parent are usually the ones we don't think to capture on our cameras. Perhaps we should.
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