One of the most important skills you must have in order to be a good parent has nothing to do with diapers or shoelaces; we’re talking about pancakes here. When our kids were growing up, it was absolutely essential that I produce “Mickey Mouse” pancakes.

The taste, color and texture were secondary; the most important thing was that the proportion of head to ears was correct, and that the ears stayed on as the pancakes were transferred from pan to plate. Really great parents would also add eyes and a nose, but now you’re talking about the top 1% of griddle masters. This is a problem crying out for a little help from technology.

We’ve come a long way since those early days of semi-precision manual batter placement, and today you have at least two additional options. If you are a true geek and there is a Lego MindStorm kit lying around, you can combine breakfast with a little subliminal STEM message and build your own DIY PancakeBot. For the technically-challenged who happen to have a spare $299, there will soon be a fully-functional turnkey PancakeBot.

And for those 1%’ers who are bored with flying their quadcopters around the backyard, breakfast can be Kickstarted until April 20.