Ep. 04 – My Son’s Advice for Keeping Kids Busy (and Some REAL Suggestions)

[00:00:00] Kam (2): Welcome in to episode four of the Maker Space. I hope you guys are having a great week so far. I know that sometimes life can get in the way and life can be kind of hard and trying to build an online business, do crafts, take care of kids, just live life right now, especially, it can be hard, and so I just want you all to know that I’m praying for you.

[00:00:27] Kam (2): I believe in you, and hopefully I can bring something to the maker space that does help you in your journey to build that online business. Ultimately, I hope it’s just going well. So for episode four I, we decided to have a little bit of fun. I had asked our youngest biological child a couple of weeks ago what moms should do to occupy their kids when they’re trying to get the, their inventory built up, crafts made and that kind of thing.

[00:01:02] Kam (2): And so his suggestions were a little funny. So, and I know he also enjoy listening to the Duck Dynasty podcast, and that’s seriously kind of, kind of his personality. And so I think ultimately he should have his own podcast but he kind of needs to be broken in. So we had some fun with this one and I cornered him.

[00:01:26] Kam (2): He didn’t wanna do video, so I did just do audio, but I asked him some questions and some of them are about going to real in person craft shows and what we used to do with those. And then what moms can do and he had some good tips for in-person shows and some things that he remembered, but then also to kind of transfer over to ideas for now in doing virtual. And so I hope you, you enjoy this. It wasn’t terribly long, but we had fun doing it. I did kind of get him warmed up a little bit, so maybe I can get him on in the future, expressing some more opinions. And I hope you enjoyed this episode. We had fun doing it.

[00:00:00] Kam (2): All right. Are you okay? Mm-hmm. You’re all right? Mm-hmm. Okay.

[00:00:04] Isaiah: More or less.

[00:00:05] Kam (2): Okay. Okay, so I decided this week I am going to interview one of our kids. This is Isaiah.

[00:00:18] Isaiah: Good morning,

[00:00:21] Kam (2): for episode four of the Maker Space. And the reason that I chose Isaiah to interview this week is because

[00:00:29] Isaiah: I’m the only one home

[00:00:31] Kam (2): You’re not. That’s not now. No, because. He is our youngest biological and he suffers from FOMO which means fear of missing out so

[00:00:45] Isaiah: sounds like a sickness or a disease. I don’t have cancer.

[00:00:51] Kam (2): No, but you’ve always suffered from this. Even as

[00:00:54] Isaiah: cancer,

[00:00:54] Kam (2): Even as a child, he would not take a nap if his brothers were up or anybody was doing anything.

[00:01:03] Isaiah: Which I find weird cuz my brothers would just sit on me.

[00:01:06] Kam (2): So like, and as much as you like sleep now, fact that you wouldn’t sleep. I know now. Now you sleep all day.

[00:01:13] Isaiah: Have to catch up on it.

[00:01:14] Kam (2): Yeah, for all the, Now you mess since I didn’t do it as a kid. So anyway, I wanted to get his take because he was with me the majority of the time. I went to craft shows and he is been the one that I have taken the most with me when I have been doing business stuff. because

[00:01:38] Isaiah: yay,

[00:01:39] Kam (2): he hates to miss out on stuff. So he’s always gone with me

[00:01:43] Isaiah: and I’m the only one home .

[00:01:45] Kam (2): You’re not the only one home. That’s true. There is nobody else in our home currently. However, , he’s not the only one I could have asked. So anyway, here is some of my questions for you. What was your favorite part about going with me to the craft?

[00:02:06] Isaiah: I got free food.

[00:02:07] Kam (2): Okay.

[00:02:08] Isaiah: I Free food. And a toy bone arrow. That was that it’s probably broken, but it’s still fun.

[00:02:15] Kam (2): I don’t did it even make it home.

[00:02:20] Isaiah: Next question.

[00:02:21] Kam (2): Yeah. What was the least favorite?

[00:02:25] Isaiah: The long drive.

[00:02:27] Kam (2): Okay. Well to that one, the one in particular. Otherwise,

[00:02:33] Isaiah: Well, it wasn’t necessarily cold. Just took forever.

[00:02:37] Kam (2): No. Okay. So that was your least favorite was traveling? Cause you’re always the one like to help me load up. And even when you were, what? Eight, You were helping me load up all the totes and stuff like that. You’re such a good helper.

[00:02:55] Isaiah: Mm, thank you.

[00:02:58] Kam (2): Okay, so when you were little, did you learn anything about?

[00:03:03] Isaiah: Not really. Okay. I learned that cinnamon rolls are $7 a piece. Other than that, and mom will, the kids will really enjoy the cinnamon rolls, but you will not

[00:03:17] Kam (2): or ha go to a show that’s at a park so they can run around. Okay, so now that you’re older and we have spent the last couple of years because Isaiah’s been the one that has been. So last episode I was talking about being in a food truck, having the shaved ice trailer. Isaiah’s been the one who has been, my biggest helper with that and, I, So for the last two summers we’ve been hanging out.

[00:03:48] Kam (2): So what was your favorite part about doing the shaved ice trailer?

[00:03:54] Isaiah: Getting paid. No. Yeah. Meeting people, getting free snow cones. That’s always a plus.

[00:04:02] Kam (2): That does help.

[00:04:02] Isaiah: It does help.

[00:04:04] Kam (2): What was your least favorite?

[00:04:07] Isaiah: Talking to people.

[00:04:08] Kam (2): Yeah. Meeting people,

[00:04:09] Isaiah: meeting people as a pro and a con in a lot of instances.

[00:04:14] Kam (2): Uh, he’s not the outgoing one,

[00:04:18] Isaiah: nor am I really the introvert. I’m more like an omni vert.

[00:04:22] Kam (2): You’re an introverted extrovert or

[00:04:25] Isaiah: omni vert.

[00:04:25] Kam (2): You’re probably an extroverted,

[00:04:27] Isaiah: omni, omni vert.

[00:04:29] Kam (2): What’s an omni vert?

[00:04:30] Isaiah: Both an extroverted introvert or an introverted. .

[00:04:34] Kam (2): All right. Okay, so what would you recommend for moms who are trying to build their business and have little people, what do you recommend giving them? Lord, I’m almost afraid to ask this.

[00:04:51] Isaiah: This is a good question. I like this question.

[00:04:56] Kam (2): Okay, so little people, what do you mean?

[00:04:59] Isaiah: My decision could either make or break an entire. I say buy more kids, more cinnamon rolls cuz they like that. I like cinnamon rolls.

[00:05:08] Kam (2): No, not at , not at the crab. Shows like the moms who have to make their stuff, they’re at home. She’s trying to get stuff done.

[00:05:20] Isaiah: I think salmon rolls could be a breakfast, lunch and supper kind of thing.

[00:05:23] Kam (2): Entertainment for whatever. Exactly. Any, any

[00:05:27] Isaiah: sort of, get them into Legos. Those were fun. Okay, so Legos. Nice plug. That’s yeah. Not sponsored.

[00:05:35] Kam (2): Yeah. , it’s not, Yeah. But if you want to let me know.

[00:05:40] Isaiah: Lego. Hey, I’m, I’m just saying

[00:05:44] Kam (2): building blocks. So we’ll just go with that.

[00:05:46] Isaiah: Lincoln Logs were,

[00:05:48] Kam (2): You never used Lincoln

[00:05:50] Isaiah: Logs? I never did. No Geo TrackX. Those were fun.

[00:05:54] Kam (2): You can’t find geo trackX though.

[00:05:55] Isaiah: I’ve got, I think I threw one at Ethan one time probably.

[00:05:59] Kam (2): But you can’t find the, the build buildable geo tracks anymore.

[00:06:04] Isaiah: Well then we’d give all of ours away to the one family.

[00:06:07] Isaiah: Well, I don’t know. Prob probably,

[00:06:10] Kam (2): you know, the one family, the the one family, you know,

[00:06:13] Isaiah: line with, with people with kids line.

[00:06:18] Isaiah: Last name enter here. Oh yeah.

[00:06:21] Kam (2): Okay. So what would you do for the moms who have older kids and her children keep coming into her office while she’s trying to work or her craft studio and, and show her TikTok videos?

[00:06:37] Kam (2): What do you do with those people? ?

[00:06:38] Isaiah: First of all, keep your kids away from your phones.

[00:06:42] Kam (2): Yeah. Okay. I

[00:06:44] Isaiah: don’t use TikTok and I don’t regret a thing. Look how I turned out.

[00:06:50] Kam (2): He’s on YouTube though a

[00:06:51] Isaiah: lot. Am not.

[00:06:54] Kam (2): Mm-hmm. . So what would you do with, with other, maybe not 15, but maybe 11, 12, 13?

[00:07:09] Isaiah: Get ’em like an Xbox . Buy ’em everything they want.

[00:07:14] Kam (2): Wow. Wow.

[00:07:15] Isaiah: That’ll not spoil them.

[00:07:17] Kam (2): No, you’re not helpful in this at all. Okay, here’s a, here’s a legitimate question though, and since you’ve been with me while I have built businesses, serious question, would it be easier to wait until the kids are asleep? Is that something that the moms need to be aware of? Like if you guys are up, do we just need to be present with you

[00:07:48] Isaiah: or immediate answer? I’d say yes, but that ultimately depends on what kids you would have and what personality type they are. So I mean, If they’re a type of kid like Ethan, they’ll just amuse themselves in their room, just like play on their phone, play their Xbox, do whatever.

[00:08:07] Isaiah: Buy $400 shoes. like, like normal kids, you know? Cause Ethan’s normal. But if you’re more like an extroverted kid, you probably want to get ’em around friends or other people to interact with. If you’re not going to do your work while they’re. So, Cause extrovert kids won’t really amuse themselves. It, it’d be better if they’re around other people to amuse and, Okay. So like to be amused too.

[00:08:40] Kam (2): So do you feel like I should be present, like when you’re around? I should. Because you’re kind of

[00:08:49] Isaiah: extroverted. I mean, Sure. but I also have my phone to amuse myself with. Right.

[00:08:57] Kam (2): Okay. Well, so what about when you were younger? Like,

[00:09:02] Isaiah: that’s a great question.

[00:09:03] Isaiah: Thank you.

[00:09:04] Isaiah: You’re welcome.

[00:09:05] Kam (2): I’m just, you know, like curious what type of, you know, advice maybe we should be given to moms. Even though you’re exhausted , you, you have fed and kept these tired people alive today, very tired. Now that the children are asleep, you need to now also go do your crafting.

[00:09:30] Isaiah: For me, it’s hard to give advice because all the stuff that I have to amuse myself or I electronics or taking a nap,

[00:09:40] Kam (2): well, but that wasn’t always.

[00:09:43] Isaiah: Watching tv.

[00:09:45] Kam (2): Do you ever felt, do you ever feel like when I was sewing that, like you were missing out on something? Not at all. Okay. But you had your brothers too sure. That helped. So like maybe if you hadn’t had siblings or you know, as close as you did, maybe like going over to somebody’s house or something like that to kind of.

[00:10:10] Kam (2): Do you think that Yeah. Probably is a good idea.

[00:10:13] Isaiah: Yeah. Are you just saying that? Yeah, cause you want me to, I think going with friends would be the best option if you wanna avoid them being on their phones and television twenty four seven.

[00:10:24] Kam (2): Okay. Do you think you would ever own your own business?

[00:10:30] Isaiah: No.

[00:10:31] Kam (2): Okay.

[00:10:32] Isaiah: Why? No, I don’t. That’s where I want to go. All right.

[00:10:36] Kam (2): Just cuz that’s not where God, you don’t feel God’s calling you. I

[00:10:39] Isaiah: don’t enjoy doing it. Okay. I tried working for you, doing stuff that you wanted me to and I hated it.

[00:10:46] Kam (2): Okay. But that was for somebody else.

[00:10:49] Isaiah: Very true. But how different would it be if it was for myself?

[00:10:53] Kam (2): Well, because you get to make the shots and find your own kid to bus

[00:10:57] Isaiah: around. Sure. But in the end game, it’d all be the same business. It’d all be the. Well root of a plant, you’d be running your own business. Yeah. I mean, I’m sure if you’d feel more in control of what you’re doing, you’d feel more at peace with what you’re doing. I just don’t like staying put on a computer all day. Wow.

[00:11:16] Kam (2): Which, that’s

[00:11:17] Isaiah: this business. Yeah. What I’m doing. So some people have the right calling for it, some people don’t. I’m not saying it’s the right decision for

[00:11:25] Kam (2): like you could, you could build your line, build houses. You could be a train engineer trained. That would be cool. That’s not your own business though.

[00:11:39] Isaiah: It could be my own train.

[00:11:41] Kam (2): It could be your own train. You could, Can you lease out a train ? I

[00:11:46] Isaiah: could be a professional Netflix watcher. Oh geez.

[00:11:51] Kam (2): Here. I thought we were like renting out a train and rent of Netflix or furniture

[00:11:54] Isaiah: tester. Cuz that’s a job.

[00:11:56] Kam (2): Why is that a job? Oh, candy test. , That might be kind of fun. I don’t feel

[00:12:01] Isaiah: like being a diabetic or overweight. .

[00:12:05] Kam (2): Everybody who hates candies overweight.

[00:12:07] Isaiah: Oh, sorry. Is this like duck Dynasty? Mm-hmm. .

[00:12:10] Kam (2): Okay. So what about like when you’re at a live craft show, what are some ideas that you think crafters could have or do? Should they have crafts for kids to buy or do?

[00:12:28] Isaiah: Absolutely. Like what? Anything they can really think of. I mean, if you’re going to a craft show that you know kids are gonna be there, you shouldn’t just leave ’em out and say, No, only adults are gonna look at this. I mean, kids are gonna wander around with their, without their parents permission, and they’re gonna want something to do either like free candy bowl or give ’em like a toy, like a slappy sticky hand thing.

[00:12:52] Kam (2): Okay. That’s a good idea. Okay. Just really got candy on the money.

[00:12:57] Isaiah: What’s the question?

[00:12:58] Kam (2): I, I don’t even remember now.

[00:13:02] Isaiah: This is fun,

[00:13:03] Kam (2): any other advice you have for moms, kids of moms, kids of crazy moms who start businesses.

[00:13:11] Isaiah: See, I already said buy them more. Cinnamon rolls. Mm-hmm. I already

[00:13:14] Kam (2): said that. What about making the cinnamon roll?

[00:13:19] Isaiah: You have the time. Homemade stuff is always better than store bought. That’s

[00:13:25] Kam (2): true. But you don’t always like to help make the cinnamon.

[00:13:29] Isaiah: I usually don’t have the determination to help

[00:13:32] Kam (2): You’re always taking a nap. I would never Uhhuh.

[00:13:39] Kam (2): All right, well, thank you honey. That’s,

[00:13:41] Kam (2): Yeah,

[00:13:42] Kam (2): that’s all I have. Do you have anything else?

[00:13:46] Isaiah: No

[00:13:47] Kam (2): all right, cool.

[00:00:00] Kam (2): I hope you enjoyed that conversation with my son as much as we had doing it. we have a lot of fun together and he, that kid just cracks me up so I. At the end here, I just wanted to put in a little, a few ideas that I had for things that you can do with your kids. Some of the stuff is for little kids, but some of it is the, a little bit older maybe a little bit before school aged, but then after school is done or it’s summertime and you’re still trying to get work done, and they’re not quite old enough to go and entertain themselves or for long periods of time anyway.

[00:00:45] Kam (2): So here are some ideas that I came up with just from my own experience. One suggestion would be to build a fort before you start going to work, and let them play in it. Make sure that it’s secured, that nobody’s going to fall on it and destroy it. But they will play with that for a long. Or let them build it if they want to. But what I have found was that they loved to play in a fort that I had built. And another idea, and I can list these all and have them linked in the show notes,

[00:01:26] Kam (2): but another idea that I had was connect a webcam or baby monitor to your tv or just put the monitor and the camera in one room and let them play on it. They’ll think that’s a riot. They think they’ll think that they’re on YouTube and making their own videos and that will occupy them for quite a while.

[00:01:51] Kam (2): There a YouTube channel that you can actually get stories read to you from astronauts that are in space, which I think is pretty awesome. I’m gonna link that in the show notes. You can have your kids paint rocks. Or do watercolors. A lot of crafting you’re a crafter, so you know, a lot of the things that they can do.

[00:02:13] Kam (2): You could have them make airplanes and that kind of thing. But any of the crafting that we do, they can do. And I would even say, Get some clay and have them make whatever they’re gonna make a cup or a little dinosaur or a blob of something and bake it and let them paint it next time. And you’ll have that for treasure. You can put that on your desk, that little blob of whatever sweet Junior made for.

[00:02:46] Kam (2): Another idea would be to decorate cookies that you could give to somebody, and I think you would probably have to stress that the cookies are for somebody in particular, otherwise they’re probably going to eat them and maybe I don’t know, gloves might be a good idea for that.

[00:03:05] Kam (2): Another idea which I got from another website, and at first I was a little skeptical, but it’s donating toys. Have the kids go through their toys and put aside some that they wanna donate. And at first I was hesitant, but I really think that would’ve worked with my boys had had a box ready, label it. Have them go with you to donate them and to see even if they come up with some of those, McDonald’s kids meal toys. At least they’re getting into that giving mentality, which I think is very important.

[00:03:46] Kam (2): And you can even specify that they need to give one of their big toys up if it’s getting close to the holidays and that maybe they need to thin things out a little bit to make room. But I thought that was a good idea.

[00:04:00] Kam (2): Another one would be to get a digital camera, or you could even get, Do they even sell disposable cameras anymore? That might be fun to have them take pictures, download them, or, I don’t know, do they, if they sell the if they sell the cameras, I suppose there’s somebody that probably still has to process the pictures, so I don’t even know if then it, if that’s a thing.

[00:04:28] Kam (2): If that’s a thing, buy your kids some disposable cameras and let ’em go to town. Go take pictures of yard, whatever’s in the yard and or of each other. Modeling dad’s clothes. That would be fun.

[00:04:44] Kam (2): Another thing would be a sensory bin. This is something that I actually did for my kids when they were younger and I took a whole bunch of rice and you can color the rice. And I think I had three or four different colors. You just get food coloring and you don’t get the rice wet. You just mix in the color with the rice and I had it all sitting in a tote and I had little matchbooks, or I’m sorry, matchbox cars and little dinosaur figurines and little toys that I could come up with in this big tote of rice and they could just play with it.

[00:05:28] Kam (2): They can, It’s it a soothing, relaxing, sensory tote. And we had that around for quite a while. Even their friends would come over and play in the rice and we did have to put a small tarp down on the floor just because it does escape the tote. And unless you have a table with sides, It was pretty easy to just put the rice, pick it up with the tarp and put it back in the tote and then you could just put the lid on it and stash it away for next time.

[00:06:04] Kam (2): Which leads me to another idea, which would be when you are working, have specific puzzles or games, movies, toys. Specific to when you are working, if you have a set time that you like to work, set those aside that you can bring those out when you’re ready to do your thing, and they’ll have a little bit more of an interest because they’re not out all of the time.

[00:06:36] Kam (2): Another thing you could do is have them do their chores while you’re doing crafts. If they need help, of course you can go and help them, but ultimately that way you get all of your work done together and they can fold towels or do dishes. We have our kids do unload and load the dishwasher. Just different things. Sweeping, mopping, A lot of the little kids like to do that kind of stuff. So yeah, have ’em dust, find the cobwebs and get rid of those or have them vacuum and they’d probably love doing that.

[00:07:16] Kam (2): And then my last thing would be pool noodles. If you. The majority of kids, any pool noodles, I even have 16 year olds that will still play with pool noodles as swords. Usually that’s what they use ’em for, but those are always entertaining and they don’t hurt too bad when they hit each other. But they’re fun to have around. And you can even put them on your bed post to keep your toe swelling up when you stub your toe put the pool, little pool noodle. Try to say that tongue times fast on your bed post, and that really helps.

[00:07:57] Kam (2): Anyway, I will have this whole list in the show notes. I hope you have a great day. I hope this helps, and please let me know if there are any suggestions or requests that you have of things that you would like to hear on the maker space. We’re gonna start getting into more of the crafty side of the business. Things that you can do to sell your crafts. Crafts that are pretty popular right now and really expound on the fun, creative side of that.

[00:08:34] Kam (2): But let me know how your business is doing and what you would like to hear more of. I appreciate you coming to the Maker’s space, and we’ll see you next week.