The Holderness Family Says Ice Cream and Listening Is Helping Their Family During the Pandemic

Like many families, YouTube influencers, the Holderness family is doing the best they can to muddle through the pandemic.

Kim Holderness shared with Showbiz Cheat Sheet that her two children are navigating their way through virtual classes this fall. “We are so proud of how our kids are adapting to this new way to do school this year,” she said. “Kids are so resilient and how they are handling everything 2020 is throwing at them is amazing.”

Like many parents, dealing with virtual school is no picnic. But Holderness has some advice. “Show yourself grace and lower your expectations,” she remarked. “Typically, we have very high expectations of what our kids accomplish in school. This year we aren’t even checking their grades. We are celebrating them for trying their best. We don’t believe a report card is the only indication of success for this unique school year we are in.”

Talking about fears and ice cream helps

She also spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet in April about how the family was dealing with the lockdowns. “I’ve really, really, really lowered expectations,” she said about virtual school expectations.

“[The kids] are busy from nine till three,” she continued. “And they’re older, they are 10 and 13. But I used to have really strict rules about screen time and how much reading they needed to do. And that is like gone. And that’s really helping everybody. I do force them outside.” 

She added that months later the family continues to keep the flow of communications open with the children. “We are giving our kids space to feel all the feelings,” she recently said. “We don’t try to tell them how to feel. If they want to talk, we listen. We say things like, ‘tell me more’ and they open up in really awesome ways. Also, ice cream. We’ve had lots and lots of ice cream.”

Time at home means more time doing laundry

Family time 24/7 also means more chores and a growing pile of laundry. The family recently shot a new YouTube video about the perils and pitfalls of around-the-clock laundry duties.

“Laundry can be confusing, so we try to teach the fundamentals – like how you sort clothes,” Holdness said about the video. “Stains are always a challenge though. Many people, including us, didn’t know that you need to adjust water temperatures as different temps dissolve different types of stains, thanks for the hot tip, Maytag!”

“For example, when choosing hot or cold water for spaghetti sauce stains, selecting hot first could cause the stain to ‘cook’ into your clothes before it’s removed,” she remarked. “But lucky for us, our new Maytag top load washer with the Extra Power button helps take out the guesswork. The Extra Power button boosts stain-fighting performance on any wash cycle with a dual-temperature wash. A ten-minute blast of cold helps lift stains that dissolve best in cold water and prevents the rest from setting, then a higher temperature targets stains that need warmer water. It’s nice to fight both types of stains in a single load.”