What is your Mission? What do you want to accomplish?
My mission is to create a loving, safe, and educational fine-arts experience for children from high chair to high school. I want to build strong, inspiring, and positive connections within our communities that can better serve the modern family.
What inspired/encouraged your mission?
I began my career as an art educator in public education. During my years teaching I saw a disconnect between quality fine arts programing within our schools, especially at the elementary level. I had always taught privately and in small group settings and this ultimately became my teaching passion. It was from fighting for my art teaching career (as many art positions were and are being cut throughout the country) and spending time working as a private art teacher that Kidcasso Art Studio was born. I saw a need and I created the business to serve.
Was there one specific moment when you knew this was what you wanted to do?
Growing up “the arts” were apart of my everyday. My mom is is an actress and singer…I spent many of my childhood days sitting on top of pianos and watching rehearsals, playing in the aisles of theaters and being surrounded by creative people. I knew at around age 3 that I wanted to be an artist. This idea of art grew and changed over the years, it led me into theater performing, music, and of course visual arts. I also was a child who was diagnosed with a language based learning disability around age 7. This “learning disability” ultimately became the driving force to who I am and how I live my life…I am a fighter, I have fallen over and over again, but I take a challenge and I thrive off of it! The arts allowed me the opportunity to soar as a child and gave me a reason to keep up the good fight. I knew that I was meant to be a creative and inspiring person and to be a leader to those who have fallen and failed…to teach :)
How did life before children influence the mom you are today?
Great question, as I don’t remember a time in my life when I haven’t been with children. I am the oldest of 5 and the oldest cousin of 25 on my Seeberg side of the family. Being the oldest my role has been very clear: I am a leader, a role model, a teacher, and a caregiver. I can’t imagine my life not having children in it. Motherhood was apart of my being at a young age and it ultimately helped pave the pathway to the mother that I would become.
With this role of “mother-hood” seared into my head my entire life I thought having children was a no brainer. However, life has a funny way of flipping on you…my husband and I were diagnosed with “unexplained fertility”…so what did that mean? For the first time in my life I couldn’t see myself getting back up and fighting.
I was frustrated and angry to be “childless” when I was positioned for mother-hood my entire life. Teaching was painful, being with family members and friends who were having children was unbearable. It was a dark time for me. Ironically enough it was my extended family and the children I surrounded myself with as a teacher that gave me the ammunition to get back up. My husband and I were blessed with our two beautiful sons, Shaw 5 yrs. and Tannon 3 yrs. through domestic adoption. We became parents the day we signed the adoption paper work and the days that our sons were born we were their mother and a father. Blessed. Truly Blessed.
What part do your children play in your current mission?
My children play a crucial roll in my business, they are one of the reasons why I continue to build the Kidcasso Brand. I want my children to grow up knowing that “mom” means many things and many different things to different people. I have designed Kidcasso to be an extension of my family…whether you walk into the studio or my home you know that you have a place, a place in the family. I haven’t really thought about it until right now, but I have created the type of childhood for my children as my mother had created for me, the “art” is different, my kids run around art shows and studios opposed to me running around the theater, but the goal is the same…a loving, inspiring, and creative place for my children to grow in. With this being said being a mom, no matter what kin of mother you are, is challenging. I cry myself to sleep, I question if working and raising children is the right thing, I have mom-guilt..mothers are not perfect. I make mistakes daily, but I am teaching my children through my actions and my business to get back up after a fall and fight the good fight. The good things are worth fighting for.
What lessons/values are you learning (did you learn) through this process? What lessons/values do you hope your children learn from you?
As long as I am a voice in this world, I am learning. This is my hope for Shaw and Tannon. I want to teach them to be kind. I want them to embrace education and help to inspire the world around them. To live a life that is honest and grounded in family. You are what you put out in this world, the negative and the positive. Most importantly I believe that I have learned to stand strong and take even the falls as wins…they will ultimately lead you to the role you are meant to play in this world.
In Macaroni Kid, we have a saying “Take care Mama Bear.” So what do you do to take care of yourself and how do you make time to do it?
“Take care Mama Bear” I like that! During our struggles with infertility I asked my husband if he could be happy without children? Could he be happy with just us? I openly gave him an out as at the time I believed that I was not giving him what I had promised when we signed up for this thing called marriage, Chris reminded me of just that, what had we signed up for? To love each other, to be each others best friend. You would never leave your best friend. Our marriage was built on our love for each other, children don’t define that. So to answer your question, for me the “Take care of Mama Bear” idea for is about putting me and my best friend first. I value the quiet time my husband, Chris, and I create for ourselves. It makes us stronger and united. With that we respect each others needs for independence and “me time”. My husband is the first one to know when I need a yoga class or a massage. He knows that being pampered is my being pleasure…I am a sucker for spa days! I in return know that he needs to go for a run or to have a jam session with some of his music buddies. We take care of each other…and when we show our children that we take care of ourselves first it makes us more whole and stronger to help our family, friends, and community. It takes a village.
What can fellow moms and community members do to support you and your mission?
Kidcasso Art Studio Inc. will continue to evolve, grow, and inspire. We will strive for excellence and set the bar high in our communities. We don’t settle for less and our Kidcasso families shouldn’t either. Small businesses exist because the community is fighting right along side of them. Word of mouth and involvement from our community is what has made Kidcasso Art Studio what it is today. We are 9 years in and are looking forward to the next 9 years. Once you set a foot into Kidcasso you are a part of the Kidcasso family, and we take care of family.
