Let me set that stage for you: It’s Saturday morning. Probably before 7 a.m. Your adorable toddler sidles up to your bed with messy hair and their favorite teddy bear, and they say they’re hungry. So, up you go! Time to start the day.
You head downstairs, turn on their favorite show, and beeline it to the kitchen to start your coffee. You yell into the other room, “What do you want for breakfast?”
Now, the answer could be anything at all.
Waffle. Scrambled eggs. Cereal. Toast with jam. It doesn’t matter. Because whatever their answer is, it’s a filthy, rotten lie, you just don’t know it yet.
If you follow parenting accounts on social media, you’ve probably seen memes that talk about toddlers routinely gaslighting their parents. If you’re childless you might think, “That’s not even possible. They’re too young to know how to manipulate people like that.”
If that’s what you think, let me introduce you to Dr. Chell Porter and her 3-year-old son, Savyn.
Chell, a pregnant mom-of-two, recently posted a now-viral video when she found herself in this exact scenario. The breakfast in question? Pancakes. In the video, Porter is whipping up a batch and asks Savyn if he wants strawberries in pancakes to which the 3-year-old replies, “Yes, I want strawberry pancakes.”Â
Already doubting her son’s decision, the mom goes on to ask SEVERAL times as she’s making the strawberry pancakes and each time he confirms that he, in fact, DOES WANT strawberry pancakes. She shows him the pink pancake batter.
She asks him again while she’s prepping if he’s “SURE” he wants strawberry pancakes, each time, the boy assures his mother that he DOES want them.
In the video, Chell delivers two adorable plates to her sons.
 Her 5-year-old son Sy’s plate featuring cut up strawberries and banana pancakes, and Savyn’s plate with cut up bananas and the strawberry pancakes in question.
The mom and her sons say a quick prayer over the food and then it’s time to dig in! Except… Savyn looks at his pancakes and notices… wait for it… that there are strawberries in his pancakes?
His response? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
The boy could NOT be less interested in strawberry pancakes. In fact, with what audacity had his mother decided to even attempt to add strawberries to the pancakes?
Chell tries a few times to get him to eat them, and he turns his head each time. Not today, mom. Not today.
Fellow moms of toddlers ran to the comments.
“This is the most relatable video on the internet,” one person wrote.Â
“This is why my toddler doesn’t get to choose. I almost drove myself insane doing this,” another shared.
Someone else chimed in with: “I’m howling but also crying because WE MOMS ARE ALL LIVING THE SAME LIFE.”Â
One shared, “Studies have shown that boy moms live shorter lives. I’m starting to think it’s the unintentional gaslighting and such.”
Another wrote, “My kid cried for me to make her a burrito. Made her a burrito. She then threw said burrito and said she asked me for buttered noodles.”
“I’m sorry you have to go through this too BUT I am beyond glad to see someone else go through it because I was starting to think my children were defective,” someone else added.
The takeaway? Stick to the basics.
Trust a mom who has been there. Because kids WILL tell you they want something special, and you will abandon your better judgement and pour your heart and your love into making something special, just to have them look you dead in your eyes and swear they never asked for it.Â
