I have 4 but my oldest 3 are teens or nearly so. My youngest is a 2 year old little guy and whenever I have the pans out he sticks close and asks "Cake? Mom, cake? Cake? Mom! Cake!" It's funny. Of course after about a half hour of it it starts to wear thin.

I have a 3 year old son and almost 8 year old daughter. My daughter, Kasey, is not the issue. It is my son, Will! He really does not want to "help"...he wants me to hold him! I sometimes have to bribe my daughter to get him out of the kitchen. Now I owe her a trip to Chuck E. Cheese on Friday for helping me keep him out of the way this weekend when I had the 9 cake orders!!!!!
traci

Wow traci,

Nine cakes...I know you were tired.

Glad to know I'm not the only one with Cake & Toddler issues. I have to tape the fridge shut at night so when my 2 year old son wakes up he will not be able to open it and in the day I have to store them in my brother fridge downstairs.

Jackie

NEWTODECORATING, that is SOOOO funny. I guess now when a cake doesn't turn out I can console myself with, "Well, at least I'm good at something. "

Nine kids gives me a reason to practice up on birthday cakes! And in a few years, hopefully, I'll be starting on wedding shower cakes, and then wedding cakes, and then baby shower cakes! Wow! Think of all those grandkids -- by the time I'm an old lady I'll be professional!

I am glad you still have a sense of humor. My nerves would be worn to a frazzle.
Just think of all the money you have saved and will save in the future. You could probably go on a nice kid free vacation. LOL

I have two children who are now 5 1/2 and 3. This whole cake decorating thing started on my daugthers 4th birthday. It was mostly the dog I had problems with, she ate the cake! I made three cakes that day and shed more tears over stupid cake than any person should, LOL. But I stuck with it.


Another time I made a practice cake and had set it aside to do something else. Well I don't have much counter space but noticed the kids running in and out of the kitchen a lot. I went in later and found they had licked all the icing off one entire side of the cake.

Then another time I made a fondant cake to donate for an auction and it was all done (and pefect if I do say so myself) I caught my son poking his finger into it and about came unglued. He survived and so did the cake. I just put a ribbon rose over the big gaping wound, LOL.

But it's all so worth it when you make the cake for them and you see the look in their eyes. Yesterday I made my son a scooby doo cake for his birthday and he kept making me hold him up to see it as I was working on it. He was very happy. (and no fingers in the cake this time, LOL)

-and the time I made 20 spongebob cookies and could hardly stand upright the next day but the look on my daughter's face meant I would do it all over again. These are the reasons I started decorating.

I think anyone who has kids has these same experiences. It's really hard when they are small, but it won't last forever.

I also keep a cabinet full of play doh in my kitchen. I bought the Wilton ultimate kit, and also a better set of gum paste tools. I gave him the green tools from my kit and bought him a ton on dollar store cookie cutters. He also uses safety scissors to "play fondant". My desk top is also in my kitchen on a built in desk so I park him in his high chair in front of youtube cartoons and let him go at the doh. Still only goes so far, but I do get a few tasks done twice a day this way.

It's certainly not easy being a sugar artist with little ones around, for sure! I have 3 kiddos, but mine are spaced in age.. they are 17, 12, and 4. In our case, my 12 year old daughter is more mature and better with my little man than my 17 year old daughter, so she does help me with keeping him occupied, when she's here. I kind of have to "bribe" my son a little to get him to let Mommy work, usually he'll come in and say, "Can I have a little ball of fondant?" I do give him some but had to cut down on this because he was asking constantly lol. I used to let him lick the beaters too, but twice now, instead of putting them in the soapy water in the sink, he's thrown them away (Kitchen Aid beaters, too! The kind I had are impossible to find! Ugh) so now I just give him a small taste of the icing. Also, once when he was 2, I was completely finished with a beautiful wedding cake on the day she was picking it up, and he walked up to the counter, dug both hands in, and shoved both handfuls in his mouth. It was almost in slow motion.. "Nnnnooooooooo" lol. Since then, I bribe him with a "special family cake" to be eaten for dessert, made with the excess after the cake has been leveled, two layers with icing. He loves it and at least that way he's not touching the cakes intended for my customers. We bake a lot in this house, so they're always decorating something and therefore they don't really feel left out when I'm working. I do have to say though, for the most part, I do my cakes at night, after bedtime. A lot of times I have to work straight through the night with no sleep, then just take a nap when he does in the early afternoon. It's taxing, it can be frustrating, and it's stressful having little ones around while working on a cake, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

That is amazing. You ar4e a stronger person than I am. I need sleep or I kill....lol. 

My toddler (15months almost) is such a sticky beak that there is no way that I let her in my kitchen for more than two minutes, lol, imagine every possible cupboard or drawer open. Luckily she is great at playing by herself and we have a divider gate between our lounge and our kitchen so I can leave her happily playing in the lounge for an hour or so while I do whatever it is that I am doing in the kitchen and just pop my head round the corner every now and again if I can't tell what she is doing from the noise that she is making. I can't wait til she is old enough to help. She has picked up one habit though - she knows what the spatula is and can't wait to lick it when I bring it to her, lol, no more spatula for me :-)