For all the stressful moments of parenthood — the ones that cause you to nearly pull your hair out by the time Friday rolls around, or lock yourself in the bathroom for just five minutes of peace — there are luckily a host of hilarious ones too. Those surprising moments of levity, which come when you least expect them, remind you that kids are pretty much the funniest creatures on Earth. (OK, and also the weirdest.) Such was the case for Carly Cox, of Cambridgeshire, UK, who recently made an amusing discovery when her daughter went to bite into a new "snack." The story is so funny, it's now going viral, because … well, you'll see.
Cox says she'd just gotten home from grocery shopping with her kids when she popped upstairs to feed her baby.
Her 5-year-old daughter, Evie, remained in the kitchen, where she was apparently eyeballing the many goodies her mom had just bought at the store. As Cox had only half unpacked, several of the items sat out on the countertop, and to her 5-year-old, they looked rather enticing.
Cox had told her daughter before going upstairs that she could pick something from the chocolate cupboard as a special treat. But there was one box in particular that was left on the counter, and it quickly caught Evie's eye.
Evie politely asked before dipping into them, shouting up the stairs, "Mum can I have one of those sweets in the orange wrapper?"
Cox tells CafeMom she assumed her daughter was referring to a Twix, so she gave her permission.
Except there was just one little problem: It wasn't a Twix. In fact, it was the furthest thing from it.
Cox didn't suspect anything was amiss until her daughter started asking some unexpected questions.
"Mum how do I eat it," she asked.
To which Cox shouted down the stairs, "Like you do any chocolate, open it and bite it."
"Mum, it doesn't taste like chocolate," Evie replied — which was when Cox decided to head downstairs and see what exactly was going on.
And that's when she saw it, clear as day.
OH. MY. GOD.
The "chocolate treat" her daughter had been munching on was in fact a tampon. (I repeat: A TAMPON.)
Cox was confused. Then stunned. And finally, she nearly doubled over with laughter.
There, at the kitchen table, sat her 5-year-old, "holding a chewed tampon with a face of disgust." (After all, she had wanted chocolate, and this was NOT chocolate. Talk about a buzzkill!)
The hilarious moment did lead Cox to have a conversation with her daughter she likely wasn't expecting to have for at least another five years. But luckily, she got away with having to explain the bare minimum.
"She asked me what it was, so I explained that mummy uses them sometimes," Cox tells CafeMom. "She has a brief understanding on periods anyway so she was quite happy with just knowing that."
Needless to say, Cox doesn't think THIS mistake will ever happen again.
"I don't think she'll ever fancy eating one again and she has now learnt the difference between a Twix and a tampon," her mom says.
Evie might have regrets now, but the internet is pretty grateful for this story. After Cox shared it in the private Facebook groups Motherload and Nubs & Bumps, it went quickly viral (for obvious reasons).
It also prompted other moms to share stories of how their own kids discovered what tampons were. And a lot of those were pretty entertaining as well.
"My 4-year-old walked in on me changing the other day, asking me what I was doing," one mom shared. "I said ladies things!!! His reply was 'Wow you made it disappear!!' He was telling people we know that I was a magic mummy and I make things disappear up my bum!!!!"
Wow.
Another mom also shared an embarrassing story about her toddler's interest in maxi pads.
"I was in a busy public toilet when my two [kids] were still toddlers and in the cubicle with me," she wrote. "I was changing my pads when my daughter shouted, 'Why are you wearing a nappy mummy?'"
Yep — kids sure do say the darndest things. But isn't that part of why we love them? Even when we're the ones turning red hot with embarrassment, we gotta admit: Parenthood is comedy gold.
