Children, quite like Karens, are notorious meltdown makers. In what seems like a fraction of second, they go from little angels bringing joy into our miserable adult world to full-on tantrum machines powered by screaming and crying, rolling on the floor, and cursing like uncle Bob.
But parents weren’t born yesterday. They either have already found a reliable antidote to such meltdowns and proven way to take back control, or they manage to simply not care and save their nerves when it occurs.
So this thread from Ask Reddit has parents sharing the most ridiculous reasons their child had a meltdown, and trust us, it doesn’t get any funnier than that. Turns out that virtually anything can be a trigger for a child’s freakout, and it can just as well be cute and wholesome.
#1
He saw that scene from Spongebob where Patrick was upset because he couldn’t see his own forehead. My son saw it, realized he couldn’t see his own forehead, then had a meltdown.
Image source: Hugh_manateerian
#2
Us failing to believe someone else ( his brother) s**t in the pants he was wearing.
Image source: DaKlipster2, Kelly Sikkema
#3
I’ve got two kids. While driving, a bird pooped on our car window on one side of the car. The kid farthest from that side of the car looked at it, and the other one started yelling “You can’t look at the bird poop! It’s on my side of the car so it’s MY bird poop!” and then a big fight broke out.
Image source: supenguin
#4
My daughter got mad because I cut her sandwich into triangles instead of rectangles. She threw it at the wall, pointed at Santa, and screamed, “PUT ME ON THE NAUGHTY LIST!”
Image source: jeff_the_nurse, Eaters Collective
#5
He dropped his booger in the driveway and couldn’t find it.
Image source: JudyMatt78, Scott Webb
#6
At about age 2, he was trying to get out of his bed, put his hand on the wall, then put his other hand over it, and tried to remove his first hand. The weight/push force of his second hand kept his first hand pinned to the wall. He started screaming in terror, pushing back with all his might… on top of his first hand. I had to grab his second hand, then yank his first hand free.
He was inconsolable for a while.
Image source: punkwalrus
#7
My son cried himself to sleep in the car one time, because he DIDNT forget his toy hammer at home.
Image source: FrikkinLazer, John Benitez
#8
It was my wife’s time of the month, and I asked her if she needed any feminine products as I was leaving for the store. My 2 year old son then proceeded to throw himself on the floor demanding that he wanted ‘feminine prodos’ as well.
Image source: mr_patsy, Alexander Grey
#9
A full on screaming temper tantrum because he didn’t want to go to McDonald’s with us. It was STUPID we’re not going to STUPID MCDONALDS!!! Then as soon as we finished going through the drive thru, through tears he asked for his chicken nuggets and contentedly ate his happy meal soon after. Toddlers are weird man.
#10
I wouldn’t buy him a combine harvester, an axe or a cow. All full sized real things. Not toys
Image source: floydie1962
#11
School was over. That was completely unacceptable. 4yo straight up starfishes himself on the path where the entire school had to step over/around him screaming about how he doesn’t want to go home. It made me look like the best parent in the world.
Image source: Andiwowow, Ivan Aleksic
#12
Because his brother ate his imaginary apple he was holding.
Image source: orangepurge, Priscilla Du Pree
#13
My nephew told me that 7/11 is called that because it’s open seven hours a day, eleven days a week. I told him that there aren’t 11 days in the week and he lost his little mind.
Don’t correct a toddler if it doesn’t matter in the long run.
Image source: Flaky_Tip
#14
The spoon was the wrong color, then when I got the right one it was toxic since I was the one to grab it, so I put it back and then it was too far and they wanted me to get it for them, and after that they wanted the original one they threw on the floor. I picked it up and handed it to them but apparently it was toxic again so they threw it, climbed down the chair, picked it up, then went back to their yogurt and started to happily eat. Toddlers am I right?
You meant just today this morning right?
Image source: Cognizant_Psyche, Harry Grout
#15
Him: I don’t want English peas for breakfast
Me: I’m not cooking English peas for breakfast
Him: *head buried in the couch SOBBING
Image source: Aggravating_Client36
#16
Full on meltdown last week because I wouldn’t let him take a nap with a bowl of chicken nuggets. He’s only two and I know shits about to get wilder than that.
Image source: Alternative_Plate398
#17
I flipped out because my mom used the Native American word for corn, “maïs,” because she is Dutch and they call it that over there. I remember freaking the f**k out because I didn’t want to eat poor baby “mice.” I ran upstairs in a blind panic.
For a few years afterwards I’d sometimes grab handfuls of dried corn from the kitchen to “save” them and I made beds out of cotton balls for the individual pieces of corn lol.
Image source: DameDrunkenTheTall
#18
Oooo ooo oo. Not me, but my brother. Apparently, my mom found him (early 90s) sitting in the doorway between the house and the great outdoors crying hysterically because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay in or go outside.
Image source: OakHallowedBThyAcorn
#19
He wanted to recreate Chernobyl for the science fair.
Image source: permacougar, Vladyslav Cherkasenko
#20
I pretended to feed his hippo stuffed animal jelly beans.
Image source: ChampagneChariot, JaulaDeArdilla
#21
I put the hot dog in the bun backwards. It was a literal on the floor screaming and crying meltdown.
Image source: Mistayadrln, Jessica Loaiza
#22
His pants were too gentle. His cookie was sleeping. He said good morning to the cat and the cat didn’t say good morning back to him. The toilet was yelling at him. (He had flushed it). It was his birthday and he was excited to go see a Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine and then we left the house to go see A Day Out With Thomas The Tank Engine.
Image source: TheYankunian
#23
I have two.
His brother looked at him.
His brother didn’t look at him.
Image source: SignificantView1671
#24
My daughter frequently asks me what a word means (irritated, archery, hilarious, etc), then when I tell her she screams NOOO THAT’S WRONG and cries. Every time. She thinks I’m an idiot I guess. Also, why the hell are you asking me if you THINK you know what it means already smh.
Image source: 796807
#25
Ohhh, man. Let’s see…
*I microwaved her hot dog.
*I wouldn’t give her a second olive
*I wouldn’t let him jump on a trampoline in the rain
*She didn’t want to be buckled into her carseat when I picked her up from daycare. She didn’t want to get OUT of her carseat when we got home 2 blocks later. Then she was upset because all the candy was gone from her 6-month-old trick-or-treat bag.
*The sticker she peeled off my wife’s orange apparently didn’t meet expectations.
Image source: raistliniltsiar
#26
She found out dragons were not real.
Image source: destro23, Vlad Zaytsev
#27
He didn’t want long food. No food that was a long shape whatsoever. It was an interesting phase.
Image source: terminator_chic
#28
Ok I’m not a parent but I was looking after my baby cousin and we were sat on the sofa watching a movie and he cried because he couldn’t hug the cat on the screen
Image source: Separate-Ant-9646
#29
Because she wanted to go to school, at 8 pm, at age 3, never having gone to a school ever.
Image source: ShabbyBash
#30
Not a parent, but a daycare worker.
As soon as I saw this, my mind jumped to the moment I watched a two-year-old throw himself onto the ground, kicking and screaming, because I wouldn’t let him stick peas up his nose.
Image source: CommonGrackle_
#31
His french fries weren’t long enough at McDonald’s
#32
I remember once my little brother was super mad he wasn’t given two of some kind of treat. So my mom took it from him, broke it in half, and gave him the two pieces. Just like that he was happy
Image source: TehAsianator
#33
I asked if he was hungry.
Image source: Nursebirder
#34
I cut her waffle into squares instead of rectangles. RIP my Saturday morning.
Image source: TonyTheLieger
#35
Mine was heartbroken that his gingerbread man had broken after about 6 hours of playing with it.
He also had a meltdown because he’s potty training and he had a poo in the toilet.
Image source: marshmallow-fluff-
#36
Foreword I take these very seriously and we’re working to help her even if the content makes me giggle afterwards.
Not a meltdown per se but some of the things my daughter screams when she has night terrors are less than terrifying.
“NononoNO DONT EAT MY CAAAAAKE”
“THEY CANT DO THAT THE FEATHERS ARE ON THE WRONG STATUE”
“I can’t do this I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t put on shoes I’m wearing sandals””
Image source: Threndsa
#37
She asked me to take a bath and then cried because I put her in the bath.
Image source: kcl086, Jess Zoerb
#38
My son at the time was mainlining string cheese in hopes of not turning him into string cheese he was cut off for like a day. So picked him up from daycare walk into the house not a single word said he went running through the house and dropped down crying his head off. I asked what’s wrong he said “I want cheese!” I told him “no, you can have anything other than cheese.” Well I thought he was in a full on meltdown, I was wrong, he ran across the house dropped like he was shot complete and utter meltdown, I decided this is so ridiculous, I better film this so I started recording. He looked up to see if it was working, I was stone faced, back to meltdown. Then I asked what’s wrong? He promptly stood up not a single tear falling and questioningly said “cheese?”
It became a thing when someone is losing their s**t, to ask “cheese?”
Image source: Omegaprimus
#39
Going through a drive through we asked my daughter if she wanted a breakfast sandwich. When we ordered a bacon egg and cheese biscuit she had a melt down for 30 minutes insisting she wanted a sandwich and not a biscuit.
Image source: SEPTSLord, Jeremy Bishop
#40
My wife brought home pizza for dinner. It had sausage and pepperoni, my sons favorite. He freaked out and refused to eat it because the sausage was crumbled instead of in little balls
Image source: professor_dog, The Nix Company
#41
When I was little, about four years old, I was very upset that my mom was pregnant with my little brother. So much so, that at one night as she tucked me in, I looked her dead in the eyes and said “I’ll miss you so much when the new baby gets here and I have to run away.” I then proceeded to have a hysterical meltdown. This was a few days after I had to be picked up from my grandparents’ house one night because they had a kid’s stool with the Three Bears on it and it made me bawl because that wouldn’t be like my family any more.
Almost twenty years later, my brother and I have a good relationship, but it definitely took some convincing to get there.
Image source: HatchedAttic21
#42
She couldn’t see the moon (new moon. It happens). Insisted “it went to New York city” and sobbed.
Image source: Missprisskm
#43
My son (toddler) got a chocolate puppy for Valentine’s day from his grandmother. My wife broke the head off to limit consumption – he lost it like she decapitated a real puppy. In an attempt to make amends we used the stove burner to sadly melt it back together – It then broke in his hands. 😂
Image source: mcdong
#44
I was drinking some tea and he was upset when he found out I did that without him choosing a type of tea for me. He doesn’t even drink tea. He cried and insisted I make a new pot of tea with the tea of his choice.
Image source: gorogy
#45
My god daughter cried on a trip to the aquarium as there were no “fishies” in the car park. At the end of the day when she was ready to leave she said, in a matter of fact way, that she hated fishies. Can’t please them. 🐠
Image source: Schofief
#46
I was the kid in this situation but my grandpa had bought me a shirt and I didn’t like it. I was like 6 at the time and was always trying to be kind as possible. I thought not liking the shirt was rude because he had basically wasted 10 bucks on something that I would never wear. I started bawling.
Image source: Why_The_Sad_Face_Bro
#47
One day my son got extremely upset because his French fry was too long, so I broke it in half. The French fry was then, too short. Absolute meltdown.
Image source: elmsa517
#48
Not a parent but when my older brother was really young he would cry for hours if his food broke.
Image source: FlippingOffFrogs7482
#49
My daughter (5) hates to buy toys in the toystore. I suggested going to the toystore, her response: “that is the worst place you could ever ask me to go!”
Image source: andersfjog
#50
My brother ‘ran away from home’ because he didn’t get the cinnamon roll he wanted.
Image source: Mad4dog
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