91. Let's Play "Would You Rather" - Parenting Edition

Would you trade a few extra hours of sleep for the peace of a morning without chaos? On this episode of the Burnt Pancakes podcast, I whisk you away into a playful world of parenting dilemmas with a special "Would You Rather" game designed just for parents. 

We laugh through scenarios like managing a toddler who absolutely refuses naptime versus a tween who simply won't leave the comfort of their bed. 

From wishing our kids would just eat the same meal every day to dealing with the aftermath of healthy but messy eaters, these light-hearted questions bring the joys and challenges of parenthood into a humorous spotlight.

Join me as I juggle more whimsical questions, pondering whether a self-cleaning house or meals that magically cook themselves would be the ultimate lifesaver.

 I even weigh the allure of a weekly spa day against the sheer bliss of daily, uninterrupted two-hour breaks. 

Each question is sprinkled with personal insights and a dash of humor. 

📺 Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOpw5ui4uxJHx0tLFVtpnfSkpObfc4d-K

You can find Katie at:
website: burntpancakes.com
YouTube: @burnt.pancakes
Instagram: @burntpancakeswithkatie
Email: katie@burntpancakes.com

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Transcript

00:09 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Burnt Pancakes podcast. If you're new here, I'm Katie Fenske, your host, and this is a podcast where we get real about motherhood, all the highs and lows and some of those oh so memorable mess ups that make us laugh and cry at the same time. Well, today I'm diving into something kind of fun and interactive. I feel like life lately has been crazy busy. I don't know. The world is stressful, so I thought we'd do something fun. I wanted to lighten things up, so I'm going to be asking some would you rather, questions, but this is like a parent edition and I'm going to share my own answers as well. Now I just have the list. I haven't actually like gone through and answered them. So I'm going to be doing this with you, so answer your questions along with me. So get ready to join me as we discuss some motherhood topics, things through this fun game. Let's get ready to dive in Question number one would you rather wake up, naturally, at 5am with guaranteed alone time, or sleep in until 7am, but wake up to a chaotic household? All right for me, I feel like this is an easy one. I'm going to wake up at 5 AM and have some alone time. Um, I actually do wake my kids up at seven and from the moment they get up it is pretty chaotic in my house. So, having a little bit of time in the morning, I usually get up, work out at usually around five o'clock and then five or six, and then I come home and do have a little time to myself. So, like I'll read, I will sometimes journal, sometimes scroll, sometimes go back to sleep until seven. But having that alone time in the morning has been so good for my health and for the longest time I did not get that alone time. My boys were super early wakers, like they would get up at like five, 15, five, 30, like consistently when they were like a year old. And then when I did try and work out the whole time I'm either listening for them like oh shoot, I hope I'm not too loud in the house, or if I left oh my gosh, I hope they don't wake up my husband will have to get them up. And so having 5.00 AM and having some time myself, that would be beautiful. But also I did, for a point, just need sleep and so knowing that I could sleep till seven, which is like getting a good amount of sleep. That was nice, but for me I'm picking 5am. Okay, all right. 

02:38
Question number two would you rather have a toddler who refuses to nap or a tween who refuses to wake up for school? Hmm, okay, this one, I think I'm going to pick. The toddler who refuses to nap. Um, I do have a. I guess he's a tween. He's almost 11. Um, he is hard to wake up on a school day. On the weekend he could be up at six o'clock and have no problem. But on a school day, when I go to wake him up at seven, he does not like getting up. But when the boys were toddlers and I would put them down for a nap, that was like the only break I got all day. With toddlers you literally don't have any time yourself. You're like on on all day long, and I was just such a stickler for naps Like we had to be home at a certain times they could take a nap. If my boys fell asleep in the car, it like ruined my day. If your toddler doesn't nap very well, the rest of your day is awful. They are cranky and you're trying to get to bedtime, but it's just awful. So I'm going to pick a toddler? Um, oh, the question was would you rather have a toddler who refuses to nap or a tween who refuses to wake up? I'm taking the tween, cause you can always just rip them out of bed. You cannot make a toddler go to sleep if that would be hard, and then you don't get that break. So I'm choosing the tween who refuses to wake up. That's coming for me, but that's what I'm choosing for right now. 

04:13
Okay, question number three would you rather have your kids eat the same meal every day for a year or have them refuse everything except snacks? Okay, that is pretty much what happens right now. My kids basically eat the same thing. They have mac and cheese or dino nuggets every night Mom, this again, this is what we're having and they love to just snack. That's all they want, and then they never want a meal. So on this one I'm going to choose they actually eat a meal every day, the same thing, I don't care if it's the same thing, at least they're eating it or have them refuse everything except snacks. No, they're already refusing everything except snacks. So no're already they're already refusing everything except snacks. So, no, I'm taking. They eat the same meal every night. That's easy meal planning, right, um, and then they'll actually eat the meal. So I'm picking that one, all right. 

05:05
Question number four would you rather have a messy eater who loves healthy food or a tidy eater who only wants junk food? Um, gosh, I remember that stage. The messy eaters like the worst was yogurt. Remember when you fed them yogurt and it would be in their hair, crusty all over their face. Oh, but to have healthy eaters again. Uh, my husband hated the messy food stage when you had to like clean the clean the high chair, the floor was covered in food. Oh, he hated that stage. Um, mine, are not messy anymore. Um, but they also don't eat very well. Uh, let's see what would I pick. Um, I think I'm going to pick the messy eater who loves healthy food. 

05:54
Like my boys were such good eaters until about one. Like, they ate almost everything broccoli, they had eggs, they ate salmon, they had this, and even though my oldest now is a pretty good eater, like, he'll eat anything we tell him to. The other two are like oh my gosh, it's green, I can't eat it. Like they, they won't even taste it and they'll think it's disgusting. Or the other day I got blueberries, just like a small container at the grocery store and Maverick ate the entire thing for snack. So I was like, oh my God, like normally, the berries get moldy and they don't eat them. So I was like, dude, I'm buying the big pack next time because, wow, you ate the whole thing for a sec, like I'm so impressed. Then the next time I bought them, he's like I'm only eating the big ones because the other ones are gross. And there were like five large ones in that entire container. And then, hmm, did we finish it? No, we did not. So I am for sure going with messy eater who loves healthy food, because I would love it if my kids just ate better. Because they did not, because I was forcing them to. Like, you need to eat a slice of apple before you have anything else. Oh, um, yeah, I don't care about tidiness, that's fine, I'd rather them be healthier eaters. Okay. 

07:13
Question number five would you rather have never ending laundry or never ending dishes? Okay, that is already happening in my house, I think. I feel like I always have laundry to do and we run our dishwasher legit, like every day. Like every day it fills up and we have to run it and unload it. Um, I need to get better at just like reusing. We have those Ikea plastic plates and like they might have a piece of toast on it and we just have them put it in the dishwasher. Why not just like wipe it off and put it back? I need to get better at that, okay. So which do I want? Um, I think I'm going to go with never ending dishes, because laundry is just awful. I hate doing a lot. I hate I hate folding the laundry and putting it away. I hate it. I don't like doing it. And we have all the boys use the same laundry basket, so all their clothes is just mixed up together and you have to sort it all done. Okay, I'm going with never ending dishes. I'll take that instead, okay. 

08:11
Question number six would you rather step on a Lego every day? Doing that already, okay. Or clean up a spilled drink every day? Um, god, the Lego thing is awful. I hate that, and I hate it because you like don't expect it, so every time it does, it like scares you and you're like you get pissed Like why aren't you putting these away? We have an entire bin for these, okay, um, I'm going to go with. I think I'm going to go with clean up a spilled drink every day. That's annoying too. But the Lego thing awful, don't like it. Okay, so I'm picking clean up a spilled drink every day. 

08:50
Question number seven would you rather deal with a public tantrum at the grocery store or a bedroom, a bedtime meltdown every night? Okay, let's see a public tantrum at the grocery store or a bedtime meltdown every night. Um, okay, but this is only one public tantrum, but it's a bedroom meltdown every night. Oh God, neither of these. Um, okay, the public tantrum is just so embarrassing. I have been there before and I'm like I feel like everyone's staring at you. I had one point in the grocery store. My boys were trying to climb into the ice machine you know the one that has sells the bag ice and as we were leaving, like someone said, hey, your boys are in there, and I was like, oh my gosh, boys get out. As we were leaving I overheard a lady say oh my gosh, I had all girls and they would have never done that, and I just felt mortified. Oh, but a bedroom meltdown every night? Oh, this is hard, because by bedtime I'm like I'm ready to check out, like clock out, my job's done. Oh, my goodness, I, I feel like I'm just going to go with the bedtime meltdown. I feel like there's a way we can get through that, but the public tantrum is awful, it's so embarrassing. Yeah, okay, I'm going for bedtime meltdown. So far, right now, like bedtimes have gotten so much easier when your kids get older and you don't have to do the, we're going to do bath and then we're going to do books and we're going to do this Like now that my kids are older, it's kind of like okay, it's your bedtime, which is later than we thought it'd be. Go brush your teeth, get in bed, and we don't have to do this whole like routine thing anymore. So I guess I'm picking the meltdown, I don't know. 

10:44
Question number eight would you rather never be able to sleep in again? Uh, yikes. Or never be able to stay up past nine o'clock every night? Uh, this just sounds like parenthood. You don't sleep in and you can't stay awake at night. Um, would you rather never be able to sleep in again? That sounds awful. I get to sleep in like maybe one day a week, or never be able to stay up past nine o'clock every night. I hate that. Like you get no time at night. This one's so hard, I am gonna pick. Uh, never be able to stay up past nine o'clock, so you're always going to sleep by nine. I would have zero time with my husband if we did that. Okay, I hate to pick this one. I am gonna pick. I would rather never be able to sleep in again. Oh, that sounds awful, but I would love to have time at night, to not have the kids awake and be able to hang out with my husband. Um, okay, I'm going to pick. Never sleep in again. Good thing this is just a game and this is not real. All right. 

11:57
Um question number nine would you rather have a weekly spa day or daily uninterrupted two hours to yourself? Um, okay, well, the stage I'm at right now all of my kids are in school, so I do get two hours of uninterrupted time to myself. Um, so I would definitely pick the spa day. Oh my God, that sounds heavenly. But I'm looking at this from when I had like toddlers. I think I would pick the two hours to myself every day over a spa day. So previous Katie Katie with toddler kids would have picked two hours to myself. Katie that now has kids in school and I can get stuff done during the day, I would pick the spa day. I know that's not fair, that I can't just answer one, but that's what I'm doing. 

12:46
Okay, question 10. Would you rather have a house that cleans itself or meals that cook themselves? Ooh, um, this was a good one. Um, I'm going to go with a house that cleans itself. Yeah, I'm going to go with a house that cleans itself. 

13:06
I don't really like, I don't love making meals. I don't love cooking when I have to. Um, the kids dinners are so basic, like throw on some vegetable, throw on a fruit, throw on like some chicken sausage, or you know, they're very like. I don't make them full on meals and my husband and I have been using a company called factor where they're like, they look like TV dinners but they're pre-made dinners that you just microwave. So we get those for a couple nights a week. So I kind of don't have meals that I have to cook myself. 

13:39
So this one I'm picking. A house that cleans itself. Wouldn't that be heaven? That'd be amazing. Okay, I hope you were able to answer these questions along with me. That's it for this round. We maybe will do like another edition, I don't know. Like sports mom, I don't. This would be fun. I like answering these questions. I'll come up with another theme and we'll do those together. 

14:01
Hopefully you were able to get a few laughs and maybe a little validation along the way. Motherhood is just full of little choices that we make that keep us from screaming every minute or they help us laugh the next. I hope this game gave you a few laughs in the short time you were listening. I would love to hear your answers. So if you want to head over to Instagram, my handle is burnt pancakes with Katie. I would love to know what things you chose. I think I'll try and do this in my stories to find out if you answered the same as me. Um, but don't forget to tag me and um. Share these with your mom. Fellow moms, for a good laugh. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review. Um. Let your friends know that they can listen to um. That helps grow the podcast. So until next time, I want to remind you that everyone burns the first pancake, so just keep flipping. Thanks for watching.