Help!! My Kids Won't Let Me Decorate!!!
Decorating By Uberhipster Updated 11 May 2007 , 3:03am by Uberhipster
I'm so frustrated and need advice! I have 2 and 4.5 year old daughters who always want to be in the same room as Mommy, and want to touch and get into anything Mommy is doing. So when making cakes, it's either late at night when they're in bed, or during the day while they're up. Of course, when they're up they get into everything and I'm constantly yelling "I told you not to touch!" and the whole things is VERY stressful. And really, it's not fair for them because they're young and curious and often can't help themselves - the 2 year old anyway.
So I got to a breaking point and put the whole cake decorating business ON HOLD until the girls get a little older. I've been turning down cake requests like crazy and even put a notice on my website.
Now, not only do I MISS decorating, but we could really use the money that I'm no longer making from the cakes... I'm desperate for ideas on what to do with the kids, since tying them up is probably not legal!
Please, someone give me ideas!!! 
Thank you!
I have 4 kids. My 2yo and 4yo love to play with my tips. They like to place them on the little spokes and then dump and refill. I wash them afterwards with all my other stuff.
But when doing a serious cake, it is always at night. I bake one night, decorate the next night. Box it up and keep it away from prying eyes and fingers.
Another hint, I usually make 6 cupcakes with leftover batter. Everyone wins.
make them feel involved. give them a disposable decorating bag with a medium size tip, maybe an 18 star and load the bag with peanut butter and jelly, or cream cheese and let them decorate sliced apples, cracker, celery, and give them raisins and other 'good' items to decorate with. You could also make edible playdough, think its made with peanut butter so they could do some molding. I know it is very hard with little ones, but they wont be little for long. cherise this time, it is the most precious.
make them feel involved. give them a disposable decorating bag with a medium size tip, maybe an 18 star and load the bag with peanut butter and jelly, or cream cheese and let them decorate sliced apples, cracker, celery, and give them raisins and other 'good' items to decorate with. You could also make edible playdough, think its made with peanut butter so they could do some molding. I know it is very hard with little ones, but they wont be little for long. cherise this time, it is the most precious.
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That is a great idea!
Hard as it may be, you just have to be a mom and teach them "no". When my son (who is now a former Marine, to show how long ago) was 2, I had to lay a dining room chair across the kitchen doorway as a barrier to keep him out. My granddaughter will turn 5 this weekend and she luvs helping gramma make cookies .... but she also knows she has to wear and apron, she has to wash her hands and she has to do EXACTLY what gramma tells her .... and no poking fingers in the batter or she is banned from the kitchen, which she considers the WORST thing gramma can do to her!
I share your pain I have a one year old and a 9 year old. The baby takes up a lot of time rarely naps and doesn't sleep well at night. My boy refuses to listen and put in effort so I have to hover over his school work. Hopefully your oldest will be in school next year. By the time my kids go to bed I am so tired to work on cakes. Maybe set up a playdough station away from your cakes and give them cupcake cups and other tools to use. It may work for a few minutes. Good luck
I have a 4 year old who is very curious as well. He gets his own cake to "decorate for Daddy" with a few colors of his own. He also LOVES to play with fondant. I do NOT like playdoh, but I love letting him play with fondant. It's one thing that Wilton's brand is good for. I put a vinyl mat down, give him several colors, roll some out with him if he wants to, and let him have all of the cutters he wants. This literally will keep him busy for hours AND so will a paintbrush and cornstarch-he can "paint" his special shapes with dry cornstarch afterwards-he pretends it's luster dust!! I can go about my work and he rarely bothers my projects because he has his own!
anytime i have a cake or cookies i make extra for the kids, either cupcakes or a 4 or 6 inch cake or cookies. i make extra icing and let the kids decorate while i'm decorating. we have sooo many sprinkles and other stuff they can use and have a wonderful time. they stay out of my way while still being in the same room and doing what i'm doing.
Amy
I like to take a little coco and flour and let my 5 year old play like its the "sand" box. Sometimes I take beads she makes necklaces from and hide them in the "sand" so she can treasure hunt. I figure I have flour and sugar all over the kitchen as it is, whats a little more!
She loves to play with fondant as well! A few cookie cutters and a ball of fondant has saved me many times!!! 
Good luck! Just remember soon they will be in school all day and you'll miss them like crazy!!!! I've tried to convince my daughter to stop growing but she won't listen!!! 
My kids love to "help" too. So if I have to make a cake I just give them their own stuff.. I love the idea of using fruits and healthy alternatives to frosting.. PB&J is a great idea.. and my son LOVES cream cheese.. LOL. I usually will give them cupcakes, but this is a good alternative to try.
I do lay down the law.. you cannot touch what momma is working on.. you must be polite to your sibbling.. and you must not go insane or you will be washed up and can go find something quiet to do. I sit them at the kitchen table and I am in the kitchen. It usually works and I can get a solid hour of decorating to myself. Sure they make a mess.. but it's worth it. They even like helping to clean up at this age so use it to your advantage.
Making them feel involved is key. When you are immersed in cake decorating you are "ignoring" them (in their eyes anyway) so they will do things that require you to coem to them.. usually something you don't want them to do because.. after all.. that will get your attention the best. It's funny how they are so small yet know how to get what they want.. even if it means ticking momma off.. LOL. SO by making them feel involved you make everyone happy.
Good luck finding something that works for you.
I agree with the concept of "no" which indydebi mentioned. Now, for what it's worth, I have been a high school teacher and wish a lot of parents had been firm with their kids at a young age so they would understand this concept...but keep them included & active.
I agree with the posts on letting kids be involved (with rules established, of course), making them feel helpful if you can or keeping them busy with a separate "project" from yours. I would encourage you to let them be in the kitchen at least sometimes, and teach them what is "off limits". I say this because I wish my mother had let me learn my way around the kitchen. As I was growing up, it was "her" domain and I wasn't allowed to do much except watch...and now I wish she had involved me and taught me how to cook so I'd have a clue!
I would give your little ones something to stir, something to pipe decorations on (as mentioned), something to put into the measuring cups you're not using (in a space where they can fill & dump out something that's not too messy & is out of the way - hey, the might learn about the concept of measurement!) - and they do have "play-doh" cookies which they'd probably love (a girlfriend of mine gave me some, just for fun...not sure of the brand name but I can find out for you).
I'm not saying I relate 100 % and may not be qualified to comment on small children's behavior since I don't have kids, but as a former teacher, I have learned that keeping kids busy at any age is a great thing. I'm amazed at how short the attention span of a teenager can be!! Better to give kids something to focus on besides TV - something creative would be nice - and they may learn to love decorating, baking or cooking if they're given some rules while in the kitchen with you.
I too have two girls (3 and 6) I also have the same problem, they want to be everywhere and in everything. So when I am doing cookies I let them have some of the dough and they play with it like play dough
Also if I am doing a cake and using MMF I let them play with that also and it keeps them busy for hours! I am hoping it will stay like that for a while, hehe!
There is a limit that mom can take.....I undertand this very well.
I have five boys. There were times when I could handle thim being in the kitchen with me and we would have a great time. And then there were times when it was not safe or I just wanted to be alone in my kitchen. 
I would find other things for them to do.....legos, games appropiate for their ages, coloring books with washable markers/crayons, maybe a video or if they were still taking a naps I would set a timer and tell them that they had to have quiet time in bed and were not supose to come out until the timer rang.
The best piece of advice I could ever give you is teach your children that no means NO! You don't have to be mean, you don't have to yell etc.....but you must be consistant and firm! Not only will you be doing yourself a favor but you will also be teaching them a life lesson that will have to be learned sooner or later....preferably sooner
I am a firm believer that a mom is NOT JUST A MOM....we have other things we like to do too. Why should we but those things on the back burner because our children will not obey what we tell them to do.
When my oldest was just little I use to ask him, "are you listening to me" when I was correcting him. One day he said to me "yes, I hear you". Then bells went off in my head and to this day I will tell all of my boys that they must obey......obedience and "listening" are two totally different things. Make sure they know the difference 
Now, go get your decorating things out and get to work........
you know the saying... if you can't beat them, join them. Well let them be involved, just in other things. getting supplies if they can. or working on their own things like everyone has mentioned. I have a 2 yo (girl), 8 & 12 yo boys. The oldest usually helps a bit with the younger one, but not always. When she sees me doing cakes, she wants to be involved. I usually have my cake mixes low, she gets them. along w/eggs, milk and butter. for decorating if it's fondant she always grabs a piece. i have little rollers for her to play with and cutters. She can do that on the table or her little school chair w/desk top. It'll be messy, but out of my way til i'm done. I also hate, hate, hate play-doh so i would suggest it. i have wall to wall carpeting that won't work. BUT that doesn't mean they can't have the play-doh toys to use w/fondant. I'm sorry this is hard for you, your cakes are great - don't give up! My 2 yo daughter is very, very active and into everything. Plus she usually waits for me to go to bed, that makes it harder. i have also found a few toys that look like cake decorating stuff they can play with. from barbie stuff to "chef" stuff. Good luck!
I have two boys a 2 year old and a 5 year old. They both love to help mommie. My husband is a BIG help to me. I like to bake cakes and my husband likes to run everyday. So we work things out so that we both can do what we like and help each other out. The night before I do a cake I bake it so that away the next day it will be cool. Then the next night I decorate it while my husband helps watch the kids. He said it is only fair that he helps.
He said that I have them during the day, and I also watch them while he runs.
So that is what really works for me and allows me to do my cakes.
Sometimes while my husband is watching them he will put the baby gate up in the kitchen doorway and they can still set there and talk to mommie if they want.
Hope that helps
Good luck and happy baking.
I must say I admire all of you who can work with little ones in there with you, doing their own thing! When I have a wedding cake spread out over all of my counter space, bowls of icing and pre-made BC flowers sitting around, I just don't have the time to be sure little ones are ALSO being entertained in the same space, while making sure their dough and play-doh isn't getting mixed in (or coming even close TO!) my stuff.
Children must also learn to entertain themselves. My daughter tells me she never has time for herself because she's always reading to her daughter, or playing games, or watching cartoons because her daughter is always "whining" about wanting something to do .... and that means doing it with mommy. I admire my daughter for being a devoted mom (she really is a great mom!), but I've told her that she needs to teach her daughter to entertain herself. Mommy is NOT a full time entertaintainment center and learning to entertain one's self is a part of your life lessons. It's a part of teaching them independence. I have a feeling this will come into play BIG TIME at the end of this month when she also has a newborn to take care of!
Mommy's also need to learn they are entitled to their own time .... their own space .... their own quiet time. And if decorating is your quiet time, your family needs to learn to respect that.
And if you do this as a business, your family needs to learn that mommy is at WORK!! Does daddy take the kids to work with legos and play-doh? Heck no! Does daddy allow them in his home office space while he's working on a contract, a proposal or other work-related stuff? Odds are slim to none! But when mommy is "working", she's suppose to also entertain the kids????? I don't think so, Tim!
I'm not a hard-a$$ .... I'm a mom of 3 and I spent some time as a single mom, so "been there done that". I know how kids can get and I know it's not always easy to balance all of the things we do.
But that's why we establish rules.
Ah, yes. My DD is 7, and we homeschool, so she's home with me during the day. I do most of my decorating after she's gone to bed. She's old enough to entertain herself, and I would be fine giving her something to do, but ever since she won 3rd for 8 & under at the Mid-Atlantic Cake Show, she thinks she's wonderful. She firmly believes that she should be working on my cakes with me. It's really hard, because I want to encourage her, but she's really not good enough to work on paid cakes. I usually let her make something tiny, or try to incorporate some of her ideas.
Wow, thank you! What great advice - on cooperative decorating, and child rearing in general. I REALLY appreciate ALL of your replies, and I will try each and every one of these suggestions! It would probably help to make a decorating and kids' activity schedule for each cake order... I'm inspired!
, since tying them up is probably not legal!!
it isnt?
I have 5....2 being 2 year old twins....needless to say when I have a cake to do , I dont sleep. baking I can do during the day., but decorating HAS to be done when tey are asleep. I tried setting them up with fondant and their own icing bags.....and what they were working on wasnt anything compared to coming over and working on what I was!!
I did decorate a cake once while they sat and played play-do and watched a movie.....but I felt really bad at the end of it when I realized that they had sat and played with play-do for 2 1/2 hours!!! 
Its hard to lose my sleep, but its just a price Ive decided to pay til they get older cause the only other option for me is to stop for now....and well even though the icing bag goes flying across the room with every cake and I swear off and at the kitchen aid.....I just cant quit
I would miss decorating cakes so much I rather decorate at night! sometimes until 3:30am
I feel your pain this week especially. I have a 1 & 2 year old little girl that looove to be in the kitchen with me. It usually works to keep them occupied playing with their own things (Mine love to play with their tea set in the sink, pouring, pouring, pouring away) but it only works lately if they are by themselves. If they are both around me, they fight and compete for attention and both want the exact same thing the other one has. Its tough, but I also would rather do it all at night then give it up. Count down to kid's bedtime 9 hrs. 10 min.
Since when is tying up the kids not legal? LOL
I also have the problem of having "helping" hands when I try to decorate cakes during the day because I run a day care and sometimes have as many as 7 little ones wanting to "help". Sometimes I can distract them with their own cupcakes and icing. However when things get too messy and they just won't cooperate I sometimes have to hire someone to spend time with my babies so I can get cakes done with a minimum of distraction.
Think about maybe hiring a high school student to give you a hand when you have cakes to make and need to do them during the day. It can work out to be a win-win situation as your children will get to spend some time with someone they will have a great time with, you get your cakes done with a minimum of disruptions and a lifelong friendship can develop. In my area high school kids are always looking for ways to earn some cash. Just a suggestion. HTH
It is very hard! I have a 4 yr. old, a 2 yr. old and a 6 mo. old. I can't do much decorating during the day because I'm constantly being pulled away for something. I do all of my baking during the day. make icings and fillings during naptime and then once my wonderful husband comes home, he keeps them occupied and I can decorate in moderate peace
I am up late most of the time because I help get them in bed too, but that is the sacrifice I'm willing to make right now. I love doing cakes, and I love spending time with my kids so I'm ok with having to be up late after all is quiet.
Of course, when they're up they get into everything and I'm constantly yelling "I told you not to touch!" and the whole things is VERY stressful.
Being a Mom is stressful anyway you cut it, but the phrase "yelling, 'I told you not to touch!'" is the heart of the matter. No, has to mean no- not just Mom is going to start yelling again. Inform them, warn them, then enforce the rule. How you enforce the rule is up to you-a time out in the corner, a chair across the the doorway or a swat on the backside- but you have to do it. Do it immediately and every time.
I am a stay at home grandma. I understand the dilema that young moms feel. But I am not as young as I used to be. I have given up the more extensive cakes do to little hands who think they (one child) have to help. He eats my gumpaste flowers and loves the icings. I know when he has done something to the cake when I find him under the table and not wanting to come out. He knows he is in trouble and is hiding from me. You got to love them, they are young only once in thier lives. So I try not to get to mad at him.
Hard as it may be, you just have to be a mom and teach them "no". When my son (who is now a former Marine, to show how long ago) was 2, I had to lay a dining room chair across the kitchen doorway as a barrier to keep him out. My granddaughter will turn 5 this weekend and she luvs helping gramma make cookies .... but she also knows she has to wear and apron, she has to wash her hands and she has to do EXACTLY what gramma tells her .... and no poking fingers in the batter or she is banned from the kitchen, which she considers the WORST thing gramma can do to her!
Brava Debi! A mother who thinks the way I think. I did all of my decorating at night when the kids were asleep, at least until they got older. I need quiet when decorating so I can concentrate. But my children learned that there were rules they had to follow too. Granted, with a 2 year old that is difficult, so for now I would do cakes at night and as Debi says, box them up and put them out of reach.
indydebi you sound like my mom, she taught us to play on our own and if she was doing something that we couldn't help with we were expected to stay away. She watches my nephews 4 days a week and even the youngest (3 with Down's) can play by himself.
I remember her going to her room to read for an hour or so at a time when my youngest sister was 3-4 and she expected everyone to do their own thing.
I've done the same thing with my kids and they can spend hours in the yard or their rooms. My youngest (4) loves to watch me decorate but he knows better than to touch, he'll spend hours just watching me do cookies. I let him help with some stuff depending on what it's for and if it matters how it turns out but he knows that he has to follow my rules. He can also do his own cookie with leftover icing when I'm done if he wants.
Shirley, I actually did ban her from the kitchen once, and she went into classic drama queen mode! I pushed her thru the doorway and said, "I dont' allow crybabies in my kitchen. When you quit crying and can follow the rules, you can come back in. You dont' even have to ask me. Just stop crying and come on back in."
It took her about 28 seconds to get over it.
(And the gramma's out there will luv this part .... going into drama queen works with her mama .... but not with gramma! heh heh heh heh!) 
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