No parent can avoid their toddler’s tantrums, so rather than hand-wringing over them, sometimes it’s important to see the funny side.
A mum who had a stressful day with her child decided to seek reassurance from other parents that she wasn’t alone.
And sure enough, mums on Mumsnet pulled together to share the funniest reasons their kids have had an outburst.
Here are 10 of our favourites, including the cat that wouldn’t talk and the wind that wouldn’t stop blowing.
1. The sausage fell out.
“My son, aged three, once had an hour-long tantrum because the sausage kept falling out of his sandwich.”
2. The wall hurt her.
“My daughter was upset with the wall today as it hurt her when she tried to bite it (and was told not to).”
3. Not going to the restaurant he didn’t want to go to.
“My son cried when we were going to take him out to a restaurant and said he hated the place we were going to. We said: ‘Alright we just won’t go then’. He then had an hour-long meltdown about really wanting to go and loving that restaurant.”
4. The dog looked at her.
“It always surprises me how much anger there is in such little people. My friend’s daughter once had a tantrum because the dog looked at her.”
5. I put the dirty nappy in the bin.
“I put my daughter’s dirty nappy in the bin. We had a very tearful: ‘Bye bye poo poo, love you’.”
6. I made lunch.
“My daughter sobbed big wet tears today because I had made her lunch. She kept crying ‘not eating, not eating’ at the very same time as she crammed her lunch in.”
7. The cat wouldn’t say hello.
“The cat wouldn’t say hello back when my son said hello to the cat. It caused a good 10 minute tantrum.”
8. He wanted to poo standing up.
“My son was inconsolable when I explained I could not put his bum ‘on the front’ because he wanted to poo standing up.”
9. He thought I’d stolen his sister’s willy.
“My son cried for a solid 30 minutes after he saw me change his new sister’s nappy. ‘Why you take her willy?‘, he said. He genuinely thought I’d stolen it and telling him she never had a willy made him cry harder! He still says ‘you can take my boxers off but you leave my willy on’ when I’m changing him.”
10. I couldn’t stop the wind blowing.
“My daughter when she was younger had a big screaming-in-the-street, laying-on-the-floor tantrum. Why? Because I couldn’t stop the wind blowing.”