Getting Kidsplained: How a Notes App Became a Video Series

Sam started recording her daughters’ one-liners after losing her job in June 2025. She films most talking-to-camera videos in 15 minutes — and keeps her daughters’ faces out of frame.

Sam lost her job in June 2025. A communications professional by trade, she needed somewhere to put the work.

“I need a creative outlet or I will lose my mind.”

She found one already sitting on her phone. Scrolling her notes app, she came across three notes — one for each of her daughters — where she had been collecting the funny things they said. She started sharing them.

The name came from a running joke between Sam and her husband. When the girls explain things to their parents, the couple had long said, it feels like being mansplained by kids.

“So kidsplaining was our term for it,” Sam said. “And every day I get kidsplained.”

From cartoons to camera

The series did not start with Sam on screen. Her early videos are cartoon images with voiceovers from the girls and from Sam herself — she originally planned to stay faceless.

She switched to appearing on camera for a practical reason: it let the series grow past the quotes that started it. Getting Kidsplained now covers mom life, family travel, and occasional tips for other mom creators she has met along the way.

Two of her TikToks stand out to her, both for reasons she did not expect.

One took off almost immediately, posted not long after she started. “It is the kind of story people love to share,” she said. The other, which she believes is her most-viewed, built slowly over about a week — and she is still surprised by it.

“It is just snow coming down and text on screen,” she said.

The rule about faces

Sam’s daughters appear in her content. Their names and faces do not.

She films the backs of their heads where she can and covers their faces where she cannot. In the videos, they are Kidsplainer 1, 2 and 3 — or oldest, middle and youngest.

The reason is safety.

“I don’t want someone to be able to come up to them and know their names, acting like they know them.”

The girls ask to be in it — actually in it, faces and all. Sam’s answer is that they may not feel the same way as teenagers, so for now, no.

There is one part of the arrangement they have not been told. If Sam ever earns money from something they appear in, they get a share. It goes straight into their 529 account.

Fifteen minutes, early afternoon

During the school year, Sam films in the early afternoon. During the summer, she films whenever the girls are occupied and don’t need supervision.

A straightforward video — Sam talking to camera about mom life — takes about 15 minutes start to finish. When she has time, she records several in one sitting, then edits and schedules them.

Longer pieces take longer. A trip to the zoo or a museum runs 45 minutes to an hour, most of it spent selecting shots and recording voiceover. For those, she admits to a shortcut: the CapCut clipper.

Her test for whether something is worth making is simple. For the kid quotes: if she reads it back weeks or years later and still laughs, it goes in — “even if I’m the only one who thinks it’s funny.”

For everything else, she keeps a running list. “I feel like if I’m thinking it, someone else is probably too.”

What lands

Ask Sam what other parents bring up most and she names a tie: kids losing things in plain sight, and being the household snack manager.

Parenting in Livonia

Sam is not originally from the area, which she says is part of why the city still surprises her.

“Livonia really is family friendly,” she said. She points first to the parks — how many there are, and how much the city puts into maintaining them, with walking paths and trails at some. She rates the rec center highly, and the library’s activities and story times.

On schools, Sam is careful to say she is mostly going on what she hears. Her family includes a couple of Livonia Public Schools teachers, and by their account the district is strong. Her own daughters attend the school at the family’s church, so she has little firsthand experience of LPS — with one exception. Her oldest did virtual kindergarten through Roosevelt in 2020.

“It was fantastic. Very well thought out and she loved it.”

As things stand, the girls are set to go to Franklin for high school, as their dad did.

Her local recommendation is one she suspects people who aren’t from Livonia likely don’t know about: the story walk at the Civic Center library, a short story spread through the garden to be read while walking. The story changes periodically.

The family’s weekly rhythm runs through Meijer and Aldi, with Costco at least twice a month. Sam and her husband both have food restrictions, so eating out as a family takes some navigating. They like Calixto for street tacos and fajitas, Bad Brad’s BBQ, and Wally’s Chicken for gluten-free options.

What’s next

Sam made one long-form video, then started a new job and didn’t make another. She wants to change that — most likely with family travel.

As for what she’s after when someone watches at the end of a long day, she keeps it modest, and it depends on the video.

“I want them to laugh, feel seen, or maybe learn a little tip.”

Getting Kidsplained is on TikTok at @gettingkidsplained.