Ep 107: Slumberkins: Using play to support your child's emotional growth ! with Kelly & Callie, creators of Slumberkins

Ask Dr Jessica Episode 107 with educator  Callie Christensen and therapist Kelly Oriard.   They are the  co-CEOs and co-Founders of Slumberkins,  which are essentially characters in the form of a stuffed animal that come with a themed book, bringing these characters to life.  Slumberkins will make more sense as you hear the interview--but  essentially Slumberkins are designed to help kids navigate through different emotions, all with the goal to help promote healthy, positive emotional development.    These Slumberkins first made their appearance on Shark Tank, and they have since gone on to grow into apple original TV series produced in partnership with The Jim Henson company.  Slumberkins are a great resource for parents to be aware of!

website: www.slumberkins.com
Instagram: instagram.com/slumberkins
Facebook: facebook.com/slumberkins
Youtube: Slumberkins
 

Your Child is Normal is the trusted podcast for parents, pediatricians, and child health experts who want smart, nuanced conversations about raising healthy, resilient kids. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Hochman — a board-certified practicing pediatrician — the show combines evidence-based medicine, expert interviews, and real-world parenting advice to help listeners navigate everything from sleep struggles to mental health, nutrition, screen time, and more.

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Hi everybody I'm Dr. Jessica Hochman, paediatrician, and mom of three. On this podcast I like to talk about various paediatric health topics, sharing my knowledge not only as a doctor but also as a parent. Ultimately, my hope is that when it comes to your children's health, you feel more confident, worry less, and enjoy your parenting experience as much as possible. Today I have a fun episode. Joining me are the CO CEOs and co founders of slumber kins, Kaylee Christiansen and Kelly or yard. Now what is this lumber Can you may ask? Well, we'll definitely explain more detail on the podcast. But essentially slumber kins are the soft stuffed animals designed to promote healthy emotional development in children. These slumber kins first made their appearance on Shark Tank, and they have since grown so much. They are now found on an Apple original TV series produced in partnership with the Jim Henson Company. Slumber kins are a great resource for parents to be aware of. And I'm so excited to have Kaylee and Kelly on ask Dr. Jessica today, Kaylee and Kelly I'm so excited to have you guys on Ask Dr. Jessica. I cannot wait to share your story. The story of slumber kins. Your success is so wonderful. And I love your mission. You are growing helping people along the way. And I can't wait to talk about slumber kin. So can we start by introducing yourselves and explaining how you came up with the idea for slumber kins? Sure, thank you so much for having us. I'm Kaylee Christiansen, I am the special education teacher and mom of three behind the brand. And I'm Kelly or yard I am a trained Marriage and Family Therapist and school counsellor mom of two little boys and yeah, therapists behind the brand. Incredible and your best friends. Yeah, we've been best friends since we were 14. And it kind of plays into how summer kids even got started. Because we you know, we both thought we'd retire from our roles as educators. And we serendipitously ended up on a maternity leave with our now eight year old sons back in 2015. From our roles in the world of education. So we had we both had extended maternity leave Oh, we were spending a lot of time together getting out of the house going on walks. Kelly son was colicky so we need to build just, you know, be out and do things. And it was nice to just be best friends were more like sisters just to be able to spend those days together was kind of this moment where we were inspired by our new babies. And we talk a lot about what we're doing in the schools, what we're seeing in the schools and Kelly and we kind of had this epiphany on this one specific walk that we both very clearly remember where we were like, Why don't we try to make something that would actually empower parents in the way that we are doing in the schools that a lot of the times the parents were trying to give their power away to us as the experts are educators. And Kelly as a therapist has always said is way more powerful, the child will always make more progress if the intervention is actually coming from the parent. So that was the whole inspiration behind how we got started. And then we didn't know how to start a business so we ended up teaching ourselves to sew and you know our stories that are now books used to be like published poems on cardstock and we started out in the local Pacific Northwest craft fair circuit sewing them ourselves and like just folding circuit in their wrestling gyms and really, truly grassroots product. Yes. Amazing. Now for people listening that have not yet heard of slumber kins, can you describe what slumber kins are? Yeah, slumber kins are cuddly creatures. So stuffed animals. Actually, our first design was sort of our recent redesign of a lovey blanket so it kind of has a stuffed head and it's a creature with a flat body. So it's easy to smuggle, snuggle, we call those smugglers and then kins which are fully stuffed creatures like Bigfoot, sloth Yeti, different, really fun and interesting characters that come with affirmation cards and really cool books and stories. And now summer kids is a little bit bigger than just the products too. So we are a brand that empowers emotional learning for families. And we do we have content that shows up we have a show on Apple TV plus, where we brought the some five of our characters to life with the Jim Henson Company, which we're so proud of. And then we have, you know, robust community of parents that inspire us every day to and like really even they've built this brand alongside of us with telling us what they need, what they need help with all of that. And then we also have curriculum that is being used in over in all 50 states across the US that is built around each character so and then now we've expanded product lines. So we started out in a very small niche like plush and like book world and built that and then we've just expanded because it's so exciting to think of as an educator and a therapist, different ways that we can intervene or create therapeutic interventions that are proactively being used by family. leaves in any point of a family's day. So let me get this straight. Eight years ago, you were on maternity leave, you had an idea. And since that time you've been in craft shows. And somehow along this journey, now you're having a TV show with your characters with Jim Henson, it has ever looked back and just pinch ourselves 100% of the time, we are pinching ourselves. I mean, we were when we were filming in LA, there was like a 12 week period where we were filming 7am till 7pm in LA for 12 weeks for the show. And we were co executive producers. So we had our like, director's chairs and people were treating us like big shots on the set. And we were like, How is this possible? We were literally in the classroom like two years ago. And now we're like, in Hollywood making a TV show. It's with the Henson Company. And unless I mean, it's really a dream come true. And your mom's? Yeah. Which is no easy job. Yeah, no, yeah, it was wild. Managing that schedule was a little bit wild. For sure. But because we were in it together, you know, that's, I think that what we found through being so close and building slumber kins and being moms at the same time as that community, and the support of other people around you is everything as you become a parent, and, you know, we all need each other and kind of lean on each other as we go through this wild ride. Absolutely. So so what I love about your product is, I think it's really hard for parents to know how to effectively help their children with their emotions. As a paediatrician even though you might think my job is mostly to see things like colds and ear infections and coughs. I would say so much of my day, I have parents asking me how to handle their kids, various emotions, they struggle with how to help them because they want to be there for their kids. But we're not trained on how to be therapists, we don't know how to give the best direction when our kids come home angry or sad or frustrated or anxious. And what I love about your books is that you give direction for parents, you teach how emotions can be healthy, through products that kids love through toys through reading. So I think what you're offering is such a helpful starting point for parents. Thank you. Yeah, we really wanted it to be a proactive approach. And we you know, we, we pride ourselves on the fact that it is pretty stealthy. No one has to read the, you know guidebook on how to do it, you anyone can pick up a book and read it to a child. And so that's where it's so important. Kelly is the therapist oversees all of our books and products, just to make sure that they are therapeutically aligned to everything that we believe here at some Birkins. So it sounds like you guys are combining both of your skills. Yeah. Yeah, this is where we get to live the dream every day. I mean, we we laugh that we ended up selling at the beginning, right, like plush characters and plush creatures as we were learning how to build our business back in the days when we went on Shark Tank, you know, like we we were laughing like, I can't believe we've become people who are selling plush toys. But at the end of the day, we are doing the same things that we were doing in the schools just on a different level and through a different medium. So it allows us to be creative and use our education and use our backgrounds in a really unique and interesting way that keeps every day. Fun. And so cool. And I also you know, kids love stories. Whenever I tuck my kids in at bedtime, they always want to hear a new story. And I think by incorporating stories with smugglers What a fantastic way for kids to get kids attention. Yeah, we really it was interesting when we concept it some Birkins are thinking about it really from a developmental lens as well that knowing at about 12 months right like kids are you know, some lot of them are finding that transitional object that thing that's helping them represent the love of their parents that helps them through these transitions as they start going to daycare or preschool and and we kind of thought what if we could you know, intervene or like be at that moment and have it not just be a random you know, monkey that you got from Target but something that's like really supporting the family system around different skills that you want your child to have? Because you get I mean, I had a blankie for far too long. Till I think I was like 14 and it was like hiding ripped apart under my my pillow. So I know the love that comes with attaching to your early lovey. Have you guys used your products with your own children? Oh, yes. This is where it's like the benefit to myself having a best friend that's a therapist. So like the big foot book was written off of some of my experiences growing up as a six foot tall six writer at the time, and now being very tall. So the self esteem aspect. You know, I had a mom that did positive affirmations with me and was doing everything possible to build my self esteem. So that was inspiration for Bigfoot. And then our Hammerhead, which is our character that helps teach conflict resolution and that man is not bad match, just a feeling what's underneath that feeling. He was actually inspired by an event that happened when my now 12 year old was in kindergarten at five years old on the playground, like a little tiff over the swings with his best friend. And those two needed a moment to learn how to repair but of course, I was still in the classroom teaching at the time. So I'm in my classroom, I get the call from the principal saying, I have Henry here in the principal's office. This is what happened. And of course, that's like a teacher's worst nightmare that your kid is in the principal's office. And so then I call Kelly after school. Oh, God, Henry's in the principal's office, like listen to what happened, what do I do, and then that inspired her to write hammerheads recess challenge, which then became that storyline. So each character, the story always kind of informs what character it could be, which is fun, you know, like, we kind of look at, like, what's the situation or intervention that needs to happen? And then let's look look at the story and then think of what kind of a creature would be a good match. Do you have a favourite one? Do each of you have favourite ones? Yeah, mine's definitely Bigfoot. And then I also love links, like links is self expression and learning how to set boundaries and self advocacy, like tuning into yourself and then communicating. So it just tells you something about the two things that like I need to work on. My favourite is by far dragon. So there's 15 characters, and Dragon was our final character that came into the mix. And dragon represents creativity and sort of manifesting your own reality with your own unique qualities and traits. And, you know, I feel like, we feel so lucky to be doing what we're doing and creating what we love, and just being our authentic selves. And to me, that's I get to live, live life like Dragon. It's amazing. I read the fields book to my kids. And what I loved about that book was we talked about, it talked about different feelings. But within the book, there were practical tips on how to deal with emotions. So they, there was one line about taking deep breaths and counting. And I think what's so cool is later, when I talk to my kids, if they're having those feelings, we can implement that strategy. The fields in particular, I love that book, especially because it really supports in helping parents get on the same team as their child to be curious about their feelings. A lot of times when those feelings in particular that are in the book that feels come up, they're some of the harder feelings to deal with and to hold, right like anger, fear, sadness. And even as parents we haven't, we weren't taught how to process or hold such intense emotions. So it can be hard to support our kids in that in the fields because Yeti meets each one of these feelings and is able to understand or look for what's the message underneath. Once you read that book together, you can start asking your child well, what does your mad need, instead of saying, you know, why are you mad, which immediately de escalates. conflict or tension between parent and child helps you get on the same team and get curious about what that what's going on for them helps you feel connected, and then essentially, regulate that emotion in a really beautiful way. That's so nice. So instead of addressing the emotions in the heat of the moment, and a calmer time, when you're reading a book through a story, you can have conversations with your kids, that might help them open up where you can have meaningful conversations around their feelings and hopefully make the feelings feel better. Yeah. And I think I mean, the fields in particular, I recommend, like teachers set that up in their room, one of the things that I had to do so much as a school counsellor was come in and deescalate and classrooms so that kids could stay in the classroom. So I would recommend that the teachers all read that book and have the fields in their classroom. So if kids start to have big overwhelming feelings, you don't have to call the school counsellor, you don't have to get somebody to come be one on one with that child, they can go over to the calm corner, they can pick out their field, they can look at the book they can, and then when they're ready, they can communicate about what that that feeling needs. And they can learn to take care of it in a less shame shaming, shame based way. So I really, I think it's such a great tool for both schools and parents to have an amazing I was just gonna say that. Yes, it's a way for parents to start the conversation, but it's nice that you found a way for educators to get involved as well. Now I'm curious for people listening, I want to give an example. So let's say a parent knows their child has issues with anger. What would the book offer to that family? Are there any particular phrases that would help a parent or paint a picture for what reading a book like? Anger would look like. So our collection on conflict resolution, the first book in the series is called Mads not bad. And it's our Hammerhead character who struggles with big feelings and often gets pushed into anger quite quickly has a short fuse. And so we went to Mad not bad, first and foremost, because when kids are in this young age, right, anger is such a difficult feeling to hold. And as parents, we try to shut it down, get it get kids calm really quickly. And sometimes the message inadvertently is like, put your anger away. It's not welcome here, actually, that's bad. And because kids have their developmental developmentally where they are, they can interpret that as like, Oh, I'm bad. And because I'm mad, I'm bad. And I see this all the time. And I even for my son, you know, he's the type that, you know, he doesn't like spider man, he likes venom. And he identifies that the bad guy. And so and it's because he also like has some issues with emotion regulation around anger. So I think first and foremost, we we like to reframe anger as drive, it's spirit, it's fire. It's somebody who knows what they want. They're probably a strong leader, they probably have very clear ideas of what their plans are, and have all these great qualities, right. And they just don't know how to regulate themselves yet. So we start off with Mads not bad, this is actually a good thing, you and I want to help you learn how to take care of this feeling. And so then you get more into the coping strategies of taking deep breaths or finding a way to move your energy to like, help yourself calm down, because underneath mad, there's always a secondary emotion. So there's always something underneath. You're absolutely right. So someone who gets angry often you're right, they could be the next leader and how to help a child manifest the good side of that emotion. Yeah, what a cool concept. Yeah, I would also add like, so we have Hammerhead from ads, not bad. And then our Ibex collection is emotional courage. And we wrote that those books with highly sensitive children in mind and repositioning deeply feeling kids is actually, you know, potential leaders, because leaders need to be in tune with their emotions and have that awareness. And so I would hope at least Right, yeah, I want we'd like leaders to have good emotional intelligence 100%. So I'm pairing those two that then just really position deeply feeling kids like with big feelings as a leadership trait or leadership quality, definitely Hammerhead, an ibex, and I'm curious, can you share some of the feedback you've gotten from parents, I'd love to hear some success stories. And I'm just so fascinated with what you guys have done to help families out there. Yes, so we are so lucky to have an amazing robust community that lives in our online communities mainly in our slumber consortial Facebook group has about 45,000 parents. And so we get testimonials posted in there daily, that bring our entire team to tears quite often, by the stories that we hear, you know, and then there's probably we know of about 10 tattoos that are out there in the world of our characters on parents, because what we keep hearing and what we know is that a parent might buy a product for their child and not even realise that the product is also healing their inner child at the same time. And so they're doing their own healing work, and also setting up their child for something different than they experienced around that skill or that emotion. And so we hear that all the time, we hear that the products and the content, the shows, like really help kids. It's not just like information about emotions, but it really allows kids to apply the learning because it puts it in context, outside of themselves and with their friends, their characters that then just allow it to not be a hard thing to talk about. It's like the slumber can just kind of facilitate these, these really natural moments of connection for families that in this day and age of overwhelm crisis, like, you know, crisis overload on the news every day. And just the rise of technology. Everyone is so disconnected. We just know that even five minutes like of connected time with your child a day does wonders in the emotional realm. I just want to show you I'm looking at the last page of the fields book. Oh, yeah. And I love how it has a reflect and connect page so that so that adults can have a chance to reflect on what they read with their child and have a deeper conversation if they if they want you to notice usually we put adult reflection questions at the bottom too, because we always like to try to draw the line that you're interacting with your child and you're supporting them but You're also on a learning journey yourself. And the way that you're showing up is impacted by your own experiences and childhood. So this is where I think, you know, becoming a therapist before being a mom was really, I had big ideas about who I was going to be as a mom, because I was like, Oh, I get this, I can break generational cycles of trauma. And like, I was so deep into it and was like, underneath, so good. And then I had kids, and I was like, oh, no, like, like, Great equaliser, like, you can know all the things that I'm sure that you're laughing Jessica, because you're, you know, a doctor also and like, but you're also a human and a first time parent, and we're all at the same starting point. And I realised, my, my kids, so know how to push our buttons. They were special made just to push your buttons. So that's a cool thing on from a consciousness and emotional healing journey. Like we have a unique opportunity with our own kids to continue continue our own emotional growth, if we take the opportunity of becoming a parent to, to engage in that journey. And so what slumber kins tries to facilitate is that journey is that awareness as we are supporting our kids, hopefully showing up, you know, in a better capacity than we had, but at the same time pushing ourselves to not repeat the patterns that were limiting to us, right? It's so true. And I also find that when you are having an interaction with emotions, and your children, nothing really productive comes in the heat of the moment. So reading a book, having a time when you're calm, and you're snuggling, and you're reading something together, I think, probably is an ideal time to have fruitful, productive conversations. Yes, 100%, that, that moment of, you know, we talk a lot about CO regulation, right. So when babies are really small, we are the way that they regulate themselves in so many ways. And then as they get older, we start to co regulate and teach those skills. And so when they've lost it, and are totally dysregulated, we're not going to help anything coming in, also triggered and upset. You're just going to amplify things. So getting down to a state of regulation with them is the goal to be able to process those emotions. Incredible. I love what you guys have created. And I'm curious what is on the horizon for you. You have such great ideas, such great vision. Is there anything else that you are seeing in the landscape of slumber kins? Yeah, one thing we didn't mention was we just released a music album. And it's really, you know, it's really every song on there corresponds to an episode. And that's an amazing soundtrack. And then we also did a studio brand produced slumber kins album that's more meant for CO listening with adults, because we wanted to make music for adults that that families want to listen to together that teach these different skills. And it was a way for us to show up in the landscape by creating something that's a little bit even more accessible. So knowing that like content, music, we have a free app in the Apple iOS store. That's an interactive practice for affirmations. That's another way that families or educators can use the slumber kins. You know, content for free? And do you have any idea how many kids have now received a slumber kin? Well, we do know that we've sold over a million books. And so that's a stat that we as a self published brand, that we are so proud of. Yeah, I think we're approaching 1.5. Now, which is so exciting to think about because we say thank you, we started out, you know, publishing these as poems and pitching these poems, as books to publishers and to book agents. And we were told, No, thank you. And so, but we just kept getting feedback from customers that these are such meaningful storylines, like Preet, please keep doing this. And so that kind of put us on our path over like, Okay, why not us? Like, why not? Let's figure we figured out how to so I think we can figure out how to publish a book and just kind of kept going. And so I feel like that's now you know, Kelly and I are lucky enough to now we've hired an amazing CEO to help come in and really think about what's next on the horizon and really, kind of comes to the table with a different skill set of expertise than we both come to the table with. And so we feel really good about the future and where we can take some bargains and really help redefine what a healthy childhood means, especially in the emotional realm for families. So incredible what you've done, I cannot believe you sold almost 1.5 million books. I hope you guys are so proud of yourself. I cannot wait to watch your success continue. I just know you're onto something really great as as obviously many people agree with me. Oh, Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much. Where Where can people find you guys? If they want to learn more about slumber kins? I know you have a social media presence. I know that I know. Obviously, they're the books to get. Where else can people learn more about slumber kins? Yeah, everything is on sale. merkins.com. And I would just give a plug to that Facebook group, we have an amazing Facebook community and, you know, daily, a lot of people will write it and we do have Kelly and other therapists that are on our team, proactively are answering therapeutic questions from families so that groups become a true resource and where a lot of parents are finding community online together to have these conversations and engage in these conversations. So I would just like to highlight that group because it's a very special community. You're such an amazing starting point for parents who want to begin having conversations about difficult emotions with their kids, and they don't know where to start slumber kins is the place to go. So thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for listening. And I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Ask Dr. Jessica. Also, if you could take a moment and leave a five star review wherever it is you listen to podcasts, I would greatly appreciate it. It really makes a difference to help this podcast grow. You can also follow me on Instagram at ask Dr. Jessica