Time and layouts

I am working on a game with multiple layouts. On one of the layouts I have objects set to spawn at "every x seconds". When I start the game on the first layout the timer is running on the other layouts as well.

What then happens is that depending on how long I stay on the first layout is how many spawns will be waiting for me on the other layout when I get there.

How do I set it so that it will not spawn any sprites until that layout is started?

Normally only one layout is ran at the time.

Post your capx so we can check it out and answer your question according to how you implemented your project so far.