Pancake Monsters

I am trying to encourage my 4 year old son C to find his own voice and be a leader. It’s hard when his strong willed 6 year old big sister E is usually the one coming up with what to play and do. A few days ago, C had an interesting game he wanted to play with me - pancake monsters.

I’m not exactly sure where this concept came from since we don’t eat pancakes often. We eat waffles. The game was that I am a monster and I want to eat pancakes. E, C, and their 1 year old little brother L were pancakes. I was supposed to chase them and if I caught them, I would pick them up and wiggle them from side to side. Then I would let them go and they would continue running away from me.

We played this for the last few nights as a family and the kids have a blast. They scream all over the house and get tons more exercise running around. Sometimes, C would pause the game as the game master and introduce new rules or give everyone a break to catch their breath. I’m glad that E loves playing the game also and let’s C determine what changes he wants to make. We all just play along and have a great time. L is also a champ at running around, although he is the easiest pancake to catch!

I really hope this turns into one of their core memories as they grow up. It’s such a silly game to play, but something about everyone being happy and running around the house screaming (with glee not with anger!) is what I want this time marked with. It also doesn’t hurt that they get tons of exercise because I’m also hoping that compounds over time. I’ll also need to get faster because the larger pancakes are already so hard to catch!