Season 1, Episode 10
The Caregiver Trending podcast features discussions on caregiving topics, interviews with thought leaders, and provides expert advice for caregivers from Homethrive’s in-house Care Guides. Episodes are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Sixty-six children a day go to the ER in the U. S. due to shopping cart related injuries. As parents unload their purchases into the car, their carts drift away with children inside, putting them at risk of running into cars, parked or otherwise. An entrepreneur and mother of two children, Kristen Rock Chouinard is the founder of the company KartWheel, which has created a product that prevents your shopping cart from rolling away. Follow KartWheel on Instagram here.
Our discussion today includes topics on how to start bringing your caregiving solutions to life, parenting children with disabilities, and leaning into creativity and problem-solving to make the world a safer place.
Episode Transcript
Ali Habashi: I’d like to start with your caregiving story. We’re recording this in October, which is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, so it feels appropriate to celebrate and acknowledge that while I have you on the line with me. So tell me about your two sons, Calvin and Freddy.
Kristen Rock Chouinard: Yes, well, thank you for acknowledging that.
I am a mother to a four year old boy, Calvin, and a three year old boy, Freddy. They’re my two little angels, and my caregiver journey is quite unique. Four years ago, Calvin was born, and the day after he was born, we found out that he was diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
For me, it kind of felt like the goalpost had been moved. It was uncharted territory, already being a new mom and not having a lot of babysitting or child rearing experience.
And then for us to be delivered that news was traumatic, stressful, and just something that we couldn’t have imagined. So I will tell you now, four years later, and after having Freddy, who’s a typical needs kiddo, I’m so thankful for that day. I’m so thankful for that news, the perspective and the light that Calvin shines into any room that he walks into. He has just completely transformed what I thought motherhood would look like, but I would be remiss to not acknowledge that I have a new set of challenges with Calvin that I don’t have with Freddy.
So it’s been quite interesting, and I’m learning every day, but one thing I do know is every child, no matter what gifts, every child brings its own set of stresses and learning curves and new normals. And so I’m just really excited to talk about ways that I found helpful in navigating being a new parent, and the tool that I created to bring one less thing to worry about and a little peace of mind to the daily grind.
Ali: Let’s talk about that tool. And, let’s talk about the origin story of it, of KartWheel. What happened in the parking lot that made you think of this product?
Kristen: So, when Freddy, my second kiddo, was a couple weeks old, I was making that inaugural Target run. So I’m sure we were out of diapers or diaper cream, or I just wanted to get out of the house and get Starbucks. But as anyone with a kiddo knows, that inaugural outing–there’s a lot riding on that because your body is functioning in different ways.
You have an hour before you need to pump or feed your baby again. You have this new little human that is riding along with you and you want to make sure they’re breathing and there’s a lot going on in those moments. And so we had had a successful shopping trip. I had Freddy and his carrier in the cart and I was unloading groceries into my trunk and the cart started to take off at a pretty high speed.
The parking lot is not flat. It’s kind of known to be a chaotic situation here in Kansas City. So the shopping cart takes off at high speed and I’m two weeks post c-section and now I’m running after the shopping cart in the parking lot. And luckily I catch Freddy before he runs into a car, he gets hit by a car, he hits a rock and falls out of the cart.
There’s so much that could have happened. And I remember getting back to my car and thinking, you know, that it never happened with Calvin. I remember thinking that was seriously a potentially dangerous event that was not even on my radar of possibilities that could have happened. Like your head’s on a swivel for all the different things that you’ve heard of before, but that just was not even in my purview of something that could have happened.
So, I began searching for a product that could solve that problem and there wasn’t anything out there. So that was three years ago. and that kind of planted a seed in my mind. And I will tell you, it just kept happening. Like we would go to Costco and the cart would roll away.
Or if it wasn’t a kiddo, it was a dangerous cart situation where we buy Gatorades and diapers and put them on the bottom of the cart and you’re trying to get those into the car and they get caught on the bottom of the cart and then the cart starts to roll away. I’m kind of a fan of if you have a recurring problem, find a solution to it.
I mean, I think that’s the definition of insanity, right? so I just started iterating a design and looking around and getting inspiration, arguably from the universe and different products and even playground equipment would inspire what we know as KartWheel today.
So, three years later, here we are and KartWheel has officially been born.
Ali: Just thinking about you running after the cart two weeks postpartum, that has to have been insane on your body first of all. But I know for the aging population, I myself wouldn’t want to run after a cart, and I’m in my 30s, so I can’t imagine someone double my age wanting to sprint after a cart in the parking lot either.
Kristen: I, of course taking inspiration from all outlets in the design process, I really was envisioning my Nana.
She could use a little assistance in the parking lot and she could certainly use assurances that her cart is going to be exactly where she left it as she places her purse in the driver’s side seat so that she can unload with two hands, and then get the cart back safely.
So we designed KartWheel with so many groups in mind, another one being grandparents of young kiddos. So a lot of my friends, are lucky enough to have their parents or their in laws watch their kids a couple days a week. And for a lot of these folks, it’s been 20, 30 years since they, you know, had a two year old in a shopping cart.
So we really designed the product with anyone who’s tired of chasing their shopping cart or fumbling with it, or leaning it up against their brand new car, the cases are kind of endless on who the product, could be purchased by, but those kind of key groups for us are new parents, new grandparents, and then the aging population.
And, you know, we talked about Calvin a little bit earlier, but, my lens on what his typical day as a, let’s say 25 year old, are going to look like. And I’m going to help him out and I’m going to give him extra support however, he needs it. And he’s going to the grocery store on his own.
Absolutely he will probably need or benefit from a little extra support and a tool that he can focus on getting the bags into the trunk, and removing any potential chaos from that activity.
Ali: These are all amazing points and it sounds just like a useful product in general honestly. I’m curious about how you got started on this process. Once you knew, okay, this is a product that I need that I cannot find, how did you start to build the idea for KartWheel? How did you start to get the backing and the understanding for how to develop this product?
Kristen: So my first product idea probably came to me when I was four or five years old and I was hell bent on I like to garden with my mommy. Why can’t there be a mommy and me gardening kit? and come to find out, 20 years later, I saw it at a major retailer and it’s licensed by Barbie and probably one of the hottest selling items.
So, I think my mind has always been geared towards seeing something, critiquing it on how it could probably be better or more useful or more efficient, and then kind of taking a minute to dream about that. So I think, firstly, I’m just kind of wired like that. However, I do think for folks who are interested in designing a new product or starting a business or re-engineering a situation that they find inconvenient, it all starts with planting that seed and making space for it in your mind to evolve.
So I mentioned that I encountered this problem three years ago, due to life circumstances, it wasn’t the right time to jump. I’m thankful for that. I’m stronger standing today. And I think it can be more successful than it could have been if I had launched three years ago. But in that time period, it was just constantly thinking about what it could be in my mind.
And if you’ll indulge me, I’ll tell a story. So we went to Mexico on a family vacation and a lot of the larger resorts are built on hills and they have these drainage systems that almost look like cattle guards if you’re from the Midwest or the West and you’ve seen a cattle guard. And it’s for draining purposes.
And we had bought these umbrella strollers for the boys and that’s how we would get around this huge resort. Well, the wheels of those umbrella strollers were just the size of those slots in those cattle guard draining systems. And on that entire trip, and I just had this idea, I just encountered the problem, Freddy was like four months old on this vacation now, so it hadn’t been that long.
And those wheels kept getting stuck in this drainage system. And this is the point where, my family loves me. They’re very supportive but this was the point in the journey that this is Kristen with another one of her crazy ideas.
And so on this vacation, I’m like, you guys, like, see, I’ve been talking about this wheel, it’s perfect. And so, you know, It’s funny looking back on it, but that is why if you look at a picture of the product today, I knew it had to be subsurface in order for it to be safe and not move because we could not get those umbrella stroller wheels out of that draining system.
Those are the realizations that, culminated into the KartWheel product as it is today. So my advice would be that no idea is crazy until you decide it is.
Ali: No idea is crazy until you decide it is, is a great statement. So if you’re in this developmental stage, or rather, if you are constantly thinking about this product, do you think this product will expand in different directions? Have you been thinking about it in terms of what can come next?
Kristen: I’m trying to be very present and make this as good as it can be. However, I spoke about the universal wheel size for most shopping carts is five inches. You don’t factor in your Lowe’s, Home Depot, lawn and garden stores that have a 700 pound cart with a bunch of pallets on it or whatever it is.
I think that could be how the brand might evolve. I also have spent a little time in New York city and everything in New York is on wheels. Every delivery man, every wedding planner, the U.S. Postal Service, their day-to-day is on wheels. Street vendors…a lot of those wheels don’t have locks on it.
So those people are either jimmying something or holding it with their foot or setting it against the curb. And depending on what you’re carrying around, and the potential liabilities at stake, that’s a big deal. I took KartWheel to a hotel in New York and I was just getting content and I saw this wedding planner with a huge rack on wheels.
I was like, hey, can I put this on KartWheel just to see if it works? And everyone has been super supportive and nice, like random strangers on the street in New York, which I just think is fabulous. So I put the large apparatus on KartWheel.
And the person is like, okay, I am a wedding planner, and yesterday I had 70 flower vases on this cart. Like I absolutely could have used this. We were holding this cart for hours outside this hotel yesterday. So I think. I think as a direct to consumer product, it has legs.
I’m trying to stay grounded. I’m trying to focus on the task at hand, but I do see I do see a future, for growth and iteration.
The average American goes to the grocery store two to three times a week.
I think it’s just something we’re used to dealing with because there’s been no solution. There has been no little quick fix tool.
Ali: Okay, so you’ve got the eye for these inconveniences and for these things that could be better, these things that should exist. So, what other gaps in the market are you seeing for caregivers or for parents?
Kristen: We are exhausted. We, meaning caregivers in general, are juggling a million things, people, demands, notifications, stresses, potential crises. And we could all just use one less thing to worry about. I don’t see it as a gap in the marketplace per se, but it’s more just a gap in our daily routines There’s got to be a better way.
Like, there’s got to be a better way, We as caregivers, as moms, dads, working moms and dads, grandparents that signed up to watch the kiddos and don’t know what they got into, the aging population that is dealing with new technology, new aches and pains, new stresses.
I mean, everyone is worried about so much and that is the common theme.
We’re not always supposed to be in a storm. And I’m proud of this product because it does, it does relieve stress, in a way.
I don’t think that our stressful lives need to take the daydreaming, the joy, the moments of peace and clarity, I don’t think those need to be taken from us because we’ve decided to have children or decided to help out a loved one in need or decided to devote our lives to caregiving, like whatever your daily demands look like.
You reserve the right to maintain yourself and that little girl dreaming. We deserve to maintain that too. I would encourage anyone that feels called in such a way to look around and find gaps in the marketplace or find ways to relieve stress. Chase after that, because the world needs more of that tangible good.
Because there’s only so much talking about it that we can do until we start fixing some of these recurring problems.
Ali: You know, now that we’re talking about it, it just seems like there’s just endless small inconveniences that could probably be improved upon that right now that are just too insignificant in the grand scheme of things to worry about. And it seems like you have taken one of those inconveniences for people that maybe they weren’t even thinking could be solved and solved it.
Kristen: I had both boys, they were four and two or whatever their ages were tantrum age.
That’s the most important part. They were tantrum toddler age. And we had the shopping cart that looks like a car, and we went to get donuts, and we were having a great time, and we successfully managed to knock out our entire shopping list without a major meltdown, and Freddy wanted one of the toys that is perfectly positioned on the end caps (thank you grocery stores). So Freddy got an $8 bus that he never played with again, and, we’re sitting in the checkout line, and he sees a large bag of fruit snacks, and that is like gold. And he wants the fruit snacks.
I’m like, we just got you the bus, you’re not getting the fruit snacks. He wants the fruit snacks. We’re not getting the fruit snacks. So it begins. And anyone with kids or that’s been around them knows that you just lit the match and you have 30 seconds to two minutes before you are causing a scene and you are on display.
So we got through the checkout process. I held strong on the fruit snacks. We’re not getting them. And we got to the car and he stands up and he’s tantruming and he’s shaking, going back and forth, rolling his body.
So I get Calvin into the car. Freddy won’t have it. I manage him into the car. I don’t have a KartWheel at this time, so I’m holding the cart. I get all the weekly groceries, the 20 bags into the car. I’m walking the shopping cart. I put it in the cart caddy. I get in my front seat.
And it’s like 11 am on a Saturday. I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted. I’m mad. I’m upset. I’m defeated. I’m like bad mom status, even though I got the bus like we’re supposed to have a nice day. My point is, how many times are we going to get to this completely deflated, defeated point of exhaustion as moms, caregivers, humans in general?
Like, how many of those does it take before you start to reassess what you’re doing and how you’re operating? And should I go seek help? Like how many of these can I withstand?
I think if we just had the tools, I think if we just had reliable things in our lives that we knew would offset some of the stress, then you have a little bit of room to where you have a little bit of energy and you can fight back. And so I just think it’s those points of exhaustion that, if I can alleviate those once a month for people, I’ve done my job with KartWheel.
Ali: I do like the idea of just chipping away at the frustrations until everything just goes a tiny bit smoother. So I’m curious now, have you learned anything more about caregivers since you’ve started this journey with KartWheel?
Kristen: I think it’s an amazing role. It’s an amazing title. It is not our identity. You are a person, you were once a child with big hopes and dreams and excitement.
I think when moms, people taking care of aging parents, whoever rolls up into that caregiver title under that caregiver umbrella. I think that’s amazing. Keep doing what you’re doing. That person needs your help, those people need your caregiving. Don’t make it your identity. You’re a person.
You get one life and don’t lose your identity to that title.
You deserve your own, we save self-care a lot, but you deserve your own free thinking time. KartWheel would have never been created if I didn’t have a partner in life that was supportive of me going running, doing yoga, getting my mental health in check on a daily basis, so you deserve that time, whether or not you signed up to be someone else’s caregiver, and so to answer your question, I think the more caregivers I meet, I want that just to become a title for them, not their identity.
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