MetroMom Kimberly Kirkup
 Owner of BabyHuman and creator of The Play and Learn Baby Spoon. Kimberly has Biology degree, is a 20 year military veteran and only started to invent proactively in the last 6-7 years (since having her son). She saved money to use as seed money for the business. The moral of her story is you can be a single parent, get called to active duty in response to 9-11, find out your son is autistic and still start a business

MM - How did your life change when you became a mom?

Gosh, in every way possible! Like most new mothers, this was a journey that I never experienced and I walked through with my eyes wide open at the utter amazement related to producing a new life and the wonderment of them seeing things for the first time. My experience in some ways may have been different than the typical due to my son having issues as soon as he was born—severe constipation and I was not told by the pediatrician that this could have been due to milk allergies so he was pretty miserable in the beginning. I mean at this point your life is not your own and I do not think it really hits you until you hold this little person in your arms…The responsibility of such hit me like a ton of bricks! But so did my realization that I just want to be the best person for him.

MM - Did you ever think before becoming a mom that you would be inventing children’s products?

I truly would have never thought that my life would have turned in the direction of inventing children’s products if it was not for my son and becoming a mother. It definitely brings some things out of you that are much deeper- perspectives changes, lifestyle changes, and the way you think changes….I mean, I feel that he has made me a better person in some regard as well as wanting to be better. When I would go out shopping for items for him, I wanted to get him the best and not to say that there are not good products out there because they’re definitely out there, but I wanted things that really brought the best out of him and his development and I saw gaps in the market because of this.

MM - What drove you to invent the Play and Learn Spoon?

Well, it originally started when I went to an invention road show and I was showing a totally different item related to children and at the time the reviewer said that it would be really good if I could come up with something in the feeding area because there was not a lot of innovative products in this area back then. Well, that was all I had to hear—I was more focused on dishes and bowls but then when I thought about the issues that I had with Ethan that is when my mind went towards redefining a spoon. With my son’s autism, some skills took a longer time for him to learn—one of them being the ability to coordinate multiple body parts to use a spoon and be successful at self-feeding…He did not consistently use a spoon or fork until he was around four years old. But then I took another step and thought—if such children are delayed, why not redefine the timeline of learning how to use a spoon, introduce it earlier as a toy-like item so that they get more time using and learning the tracking motion so that by the time they have to actually use it-BAM. They are not learning how to use their arm in concert with their wrist and then refining their depth perception to align the utensil with their mouth—They would have already done it all and now it was just applying already learned skills .

MM - What is a typical day in your life?

Well, I still have a “day” job because we all realize the importance of paying the bills. But I have to say my day to day life is somewhat chaotic. I get my son ready for school and get him on the bus and then I get ready and go to work. Then when I come home my son demands my attention (like any child) and it is doing his homework, feeding him and just getting him ready to go to bed—Then after he goes to bed is when I do BabyHuman work or during my lunch or if there is a break in my work day—that is when I do the business related work.

MM - How do you balance work and motherhood?

To be honest, do we ever “truly” balance work and motherhood? I wonder about that a lot. I just try to do the best that I can and sometimes I have to let the laundry pile grow so that I can spend some time with Ethan…But everyone knows, it is a constant juggling act.

MM - Do you have any tips for moms who want to become entrepreneurs?

The one absolute is never give up—if you believe in what you have created-then go with it…And there will be many times that you are put to the test, just ride it out.

MM - Do you have any advice for moms that are faced with the challenges of raising a child with special needs?

Maybe they can give me some pointers as well... There is something special about parents that raise a special needs child—it does require SO much more time that you do not have but you find it somewhere to help your children in anyway possible. In some ways it is the ultimate test and they are driven because they do not have time to think about “oh, my child has this…” but they are doers. I really wish I was as squared away as some of the parents that I have met—I always feel as if I need to work more and harder to make things happen for my son. But for the parents that are just beginning to experience life raising a special needs child and you think that you cannot do it (especially those that are single and have no support network), you will be amazed at where you draw the strength and perseverance to do what you have to for your child.

MM - Do you have a motto you would like to share with other moms?

I think my universal motto is “Never Give Up” and that is from my military days and I apply it to everything from inventing and starting BabyHuman to how I deal with the little silly things I have to endure…Failure is not an option. I definitely agree with your statement on that your life does not stop with having children, but children add so much more that you do not even realize it-it just changes. And in truth, becoming a parent for me enabled me to reassert a certain level of my own independence while also being able to fulfill my parental duties. So it truly is the perfect mesh.