5 Ways to Make Videos with Kids Around

Making Videos With Kids Around

So you want to make videos for your business, maybe an online course, free training, or even a youtube show. But those little ones are in hand and under foot.

What do you do?

​Well, I’ve been there (actually I still am) and I’d like to share a few ways it can work! ​

Watch The Video, Listen, or Read Below!

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In this episode, I'm going to give you five ways to make videos with young kids around. If you are a mompreneur, you may be thinking this exact question. How do I make videos with kids around?

I know how that feels. I have kids ages 2 to 18. So I've been in many different situations where I had to create videos and figure out what to do with the kids.

Today we're going to talk about a few of those because I don't want you to be held back from making your videos, just because you have kids. We want you to figure out how you can move forward and actually add video into your business. So you can live your dream and get your message out there.

So let's dive into these five tips. Three of them I've actually done and two of them are other options that might be available to you.
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#1 - Ask Your Husband To Take The Kids At Dinner Time 

Or maybe you want to send them away for dinner. Maybe you want to call it "pizza night", maybe you want them to go and have pizza and you can eat before or after you make your videos.

This is what I did when I did my first videos. I actually had my husband go to Mcdonald's and he went to for about three weeks. I know that's a lot of Mcdonald's, now we eat all organic so that's crazy. I would never send him to Mcdonald's now, but at the time he went for four or five days a weeks, so I could get my videos made.

This was 2009 and I was creating a series of videos called Kids Sewing DVDS to teach children how to sew. My plan was to make DVDS at the time because I didn't knew about online classes, yet.

So it was actually 20 hours of finished footage that I got done in that amount of time. We had around 30 projects to make on video, so I could make one or two projects a time. So in 15 days I got the whole series done. He was gone for about five hours.

He would just drive 45 minutes, let them play for a few hours and get dinner, then come home. Sometimes he wouldn't get dinner there, he would just buy la snack and apple pie and then he would come home.

This was in the winter too, so it wasn't great condition for driving up in upstate New York. I think he actually had to get better snow tires for the truck before we made this happen. Okay, so that is is one option to have your husband watch your kids.

#2 - Hire a Nanny or Babysitter To Watch The Kids

Maybe one can come to your house and entertain them and keep them quiet. Or maybe you just actually take them somewhere because I know that that's hard to keep them quiet. I do know moms that have an office and they can close the door and they can have a nanny be in part of their house and she does keep them quiet.

So I've done this too.

A while back, I had two studios right next to each other. I had my film studio in one and there was a door in between. So the kids could go back and forth, but during film time I actually hired a nanny to watch the kids. We put stuff up on the door so the sound wouldn't come through and I filmed another video series during that time.

You probably don't have a studio that you're renting, but maybe you have an office space or maybe somehow you can arrange hiring some help, a nanny or babysitter to help you.


​#3 - Set Up In A Room or Place Away From Your Kids

Maybe you have a separate room that you can go to, like an office. Or maybe you have a basement that you can set up a film studio in. Maybe you have a bedroom that's like upstairs and they can be downstairs.

If you're doing it in the basement, then you may hear them running around upstairs. I have that problem with this studio right now. I'm in a rented commercial space, but there's apartments upstairs and the kids run up and down the hallway.

It's not quite loud enough for my mic to pick it up, so it's okay.

I actually had in this beautiful house that we were living in. It was like a colonial house and then next to it was a rental property that we had on that same property. I would walk across the play yard over to that house. There was a little bit of background noise because it was kind of like a farm with some chickens. I could hear the chickens, but I couldn't hear my kids anymore because they were in the house.

I didn't want to send my husband to Mcdonald's anymore. So that's what we decided to do. Once our tenant had moved out and I said before we get another tenant, let me set up in that room and film some videos. And so I did that for about three months. We actually moved away from that property to where we are now and the plan is to set up in the barn eventually.

Now on to things that I haven't done, but are totally worth a try.

#4 - Call on Grandma to Help Watch The Kids

If you have a mom or grandma around, then call them up and let them know you need them to watch the kids. Mom's always want to help out. If my mom was here living here, she would totally do that for me. Maybe you could even have them go stay with grandma even if she lives farther away.

Remember, we're not making any excuses here.

So if grandma lives four hours away, maybe you drive out there on a Friday, you drop your kids off and they stay the weekend, then you pick them back up on Sunday afternoon. Then you have all Saturday to make videos.

You could do this four times and that would give you four full days to make videos. You can get a lot done in that amount of time. You could get almost a whole course done if you were efficient and did your prep work ahead of time.

You could also get a six months worth of Youtube videos filmed. So that's an option to try. And maybe if it's not just grandma, maybe it's a neighbor or someone else. Maybe you have sisters who'd be willing to help you.


​#5 - Try To Work In Making Videos At Nap Time

I have not tried this, but I know that people have done it. So if there's other moms out there that have done this, then I'm sure it can be done. Maybe this will work for you. What you would have to do is just every day be ready and prepared for that chance.

My kids never really slept on a good schedule, but maybe you have a child that just lays down every time at like noon or two or something. Maybe you know that they sleep for an hour, but either way, whether you know or not, it's a lot easier to do if you just prepare ahead of time.

Make sure that you write your scripts the night before when they're sleeping and then when they're around you can do hair and makeup. I do my hair and makeup mostly at home. Then I come to the studio and just touch up and pull my hair back.

My little daughter is only two and she watches me put on makeup and get ready for videos. So if you do that ahead of time and then as soon as you lay her down, just go quickly to the video room, wherever you have it. Turned on your camera and make your videos.

So, those are my five ways that you make be able to work videos in with having kids. Maybe one of them works for you. I hope so!

BONUS - Wake Up Earlier Than Your Kids To Make Videos

That way you could try to get ready and do some videos. It's not ideal if you're female, because it could take a whole hour just to get ready. So then running down to film might not work out for you if you have no more time left.

But I have heard of a father of four doing this. He would just put on a nice shirt, run down to his basement studio, and film videos while the kids were still sleeping. So it could be an option. Probably not something that would have ever worked for me, but you never know. Maybe it would work for you.

Okay, so that is it on my tips.

I would love to hear which one of these you think might work for you. So please put your comments below. Maybe you've thought of these, maybe you haven't. Maybe there is a way that you're creating videos right now. Maybe one of these tips is something that you're doing already. Let me know that as well.

​Now, I Want To Mention My Course Creators Road Map! ​

​If you are a maker, creative entrepreneur, or coach, who wants to make videos for an online course my road map is a great place to start.

To download it, you can go to http://lightscamerateach.com/roadmap

I'll walk you through the 12 stages of producing and promoting an online course and there's also a free training that goes along with it.

​If you decide we are a good fit and you want to join me in my 1-year program, I'd love to help you create your course!

There are a few different ways to get support, so I'm there to help you through the whole process.

Anyways, that is it! Again, make sure to leave a comment below.

And, I'll see you in another video. Bye!

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