What a way to end July with a bang! Doug and Chesca Kramer, a.k.a. the internet famous parents of #TeamKramer, joined Rico and Karla for a FANtastic Friday last July 31. And man, these two are full of wisdom and insights that can inspire parents everywhere!
Raising three young kids at a time like this can’t be easy. Fortunately, the Kramers are used to staying at home because the kids – Kendra, Scarlett, and Gavin – are homeschooled, while Doug just retired from the PBA last November. Even when the family does shoots or interviews, it’s usually at home! But Doug and Chesca explained to their kids that while they’re comfortable at home, our frontliners are still out there working hard.
“We’ve been active in donating and sending out help. We ask our children to join us in packing and preparing things, and also getting involved,” Chesca said. “So that they also have some accountability that we can come together and help each other, no matter how old or young you are.”
Doug added, “We got some materials, we made some face shields, we donated what we can to hospitals. The kids were part of that; that’s part of allowing them to stay grounded and humble, and knowing that God blesses all of us to be an instrument to others.” Amen! That’s a great way of educating kids on the situation, and lending a helping hand at the same time.
It’s not only their kids that this couple has been educating – Doug and Chesca have been helping other parents adjust to homeschooling as well. Many moms and dads are finding it tough to switch to remote learning for their kids, so the Kramers have been helping other parents adjust. So far, Kendra, Scarlett, and Gavin have been doing amazing at homeschool! We’re glad to hear that they’re passing on this knowledge to a lot of those who need it.
Aside from school and efforts for frontliners, the Kramers have been doing a lot to keep themselves occupied in quarantine. Like a lot of us, Chesca has been into cooking and baking, but she’s also been embroidering with her two daughters. She also has a small garden where she plants – fresh veggies for the whole fam! As for Doug, making coffee has been his recent project. He’s loved coffee for years, and now he gets to share his hidden barista talent with others by selling Kramer Coffee to their fellow neighbors. And his little helper, Scarlett, is the ones who hands out the orders. How we wish we could try it ourselves!
And the kids? Kendra and Scarlett have become avid readers. Kendra told Rico and Karla that she’s read more than 20 books this quarantine alone! The sisters’ current fave are the Harry Potter books; Scarlett is on the first novel, while Kendra is already on the last. We think these two would make awesome witches! Gavin and Scarlett have also been doing taekwondo (they made a little appearance during the livestream in their taekwondo yellow belt uniforms, and yes, it was a cute as you can imagine).
The Kramer kids are no stranger to sharing these parts of their life to the public. Most of us know this family because of their hit videos online, featuring Doug and Chesca parenting the young Kendra, Scarlett, and Gavin (We can’t count the number of times we watched the ‘Kendra Wants Wine’ video). It wasn’t even their intention for the videos to become viral! Fans just loved it and kept asking for more, which pushed them to make a Facebook page. “We couldn’t upload longer videos to Instagram,” Doug explained. At the time, IG only allowed 15-second videos. The term ‘Team Kramer’ came from a fan’s suggestion, too.
Once their Facebook page was up, boom, 500k likes in no time! By the time they had a meet & greet even in Glorietta a few years ago, the page had over 1 million fans! Rico wondered if the kids were surprised to see how many fans loved them. Chesca said, “Until this very day, my kids have no idea whatsoever why there are people that like us, or like them!”
When it comes to bringing up their kids in the public eye, Doug and Chesca are very careful about what aspects of their family life are shared. "Everything that we share, we have control over.” They’ve turned down tons of projects – reality TV shows, movie appearances, interviews abroad – simply because the kids are still kids! “We want for them to enjoy their childhood, to get the best education, try out sports, find something that they're good at.” When will they be allowed to get into show business? To that, the parents simply said, “We’ll see!” Their focus right now is to raise their three children to be good, responsible people.
Doug and Chesca took Rico, Karla, and all the fans watching on a little tour of their amazing (seriously, AMAZING) home, as they talked more about how the two became a couple (a very cute love story), the challenges in raising a family, fun questions like “When will the girls be allowed to have boyfriends?” and more! Before ending the show, the Kramers gave a short and sweet message to all their fans: “We love our Team Kramer fans so much, genuinely. That’s why whenever we have any brands that we work with, we make sure we have giveaways to them every single time; it’s a requirement for any brand we work with. Whatever we try and post and share online, our fans are part of it. We love them so much! We love you guys, continue to support our family, and thanks for watching today!”
This family’s hearts are made of pure gold, and we’re excited to see all of them continue to blossom! If you missed it, catch up on the full interview here – check out that house tour, the Doug and Chesca love story, all the banter, and more!