16 parents share the worst secondhand embarrassment they felt for their kids.

Being a parent is a rewarding adventure that is unfortunately also often filled with temper tantrums, slammed doors, negotiations you never thought you'd have to pitch, and some wildly embarrassing moments of 'is this my real life?'

So, when a Reddit user asked parents, 'what thing has your child done that's caused you to feel the most second-hand embarrassment?' people who are raising the next generation were ready to share the moment they wanted to cringe into a teeny little ball.

1.

Second hand embarrassment...oh boy, my kid is a piece of work. In a public bathroom and I'm trying to pee. daughter is about 2.5 at the time and screams (why do they always have to scream?) 'MOMMY, why do you have so much FUR on your BUTT?!' Sigh...because Mommy has no time for a wax apparently.

In the grocery store, nearing Thanksgiving time, an older man walks up to daughter who's now closer to 4. The man has an extremely large amount of skin in his chin/neck region. 'My aren't you a pretty little girl! What's your name?', He says to her. She replies, 'What's wrong with your neck? Why do you look like that? Why do you look like that turkey in my book?' In that moment I wanted to die. - tish_taft

2.

When I was 5, my parents took me to Denny's one weekend for breakfast. I have a brother 10 years older and he would often feed me lines understanding I had limited experience yet that he was pulling older brother shenanigans...

Waitress arrives and it's my turn to order, I proudly order what my brother described as the best dish on the menu...'I'll have the wham bam thank you ma'am slam'... Waitress stared, parents jaws dropped, brother giggling, and I didn't comprehend the awkwardness... But my parents taught me well, so I add 'Please'. - cixius

3.

My kid at a public playground reached in his pants and chucked a piece of his poop down the tunnel slide. Yeah we left after I bare handed picked it up. - [deleted]

4.

When my son was six we stopped at a convenience store on the way to the airport. We get out of the car to find several people standing outside because the place was locked. Clearly, the solo worker had to use the restroom or something so they locked up for a few minutes.

We are all standing there patiently waiting and this lady walks up and says 'Is the door locked?' My son looks at her in disgust and says loudly 'Why the hell else do you think we are all standing out here!' I wanted to die. - vonMishka

5.

My 3yr old was sitting in a booster at a busy restaurant and goofing around so I told him he either sits on his bum or gets a seatbelt. He didn't comply so my DH started to buckle the seatbelt on the booster up and 3yr old starts yelling 'NOT THE BELT DAD, I DON'T WANT THE BELT!!' - ticketybooo

6.

A couple weeks ago we were at the pool and my 3.5 year old son and I were going up the stairs to the slide. When we got to the platform at top there was a woman looking over the side to see when it was safe for her to go. My son see her and says, 'Mommy, that lady has a really big butt.' - kdozzy11

7.

When my now 6 year old daughter was around 2 or 3. She loved the Despicable Me movies. However she called the minions hippos for some reason. You can imagine what happened.

My wife, daughter and I were at the store, a rather overweight man was walking towards us wearing a giant t-shirt with a graphic of a minion on it. Daughter pointing directly at him yells very loudly , 'look look a hippo.' He noticed and we had to explain what she meant - JimmySiegel

8.

I must have been about 2, but we were in the queue at the supermarket, and there was this elderly lady in front of us, and apparently I was staring at her with a confused look on my face. Then I suddenly came out with 'you're going to die soon.' Apparently she took it really well but my mum must have been mortified - srvrwg194

9.

I was very pregnant with my second child when my first child was probably about five years old and he was very proud of the fact that he knew that I had a baby in my tummy. So we were walking along one day and he would point to random larger women and say 'look mommy she has a baby in her tummy too'. One woman snarled back at him 'I am not pregnant, I don't have a baby in my tummy'. To that my son responded loudly 'oh mommy look she's just fat!' - rjanette

10.

We were standing in the lobby of Wal-Mart looking for a movie on Redbox. Our son was 5 or 6 and our daughter was 2 or 3 and both were with us. An older man walked into the lobby and smiled at the kids. As he passed by our son yelled, 'Why is that man so OLD? ' I was mortified - winochocoholic

11.

Our neighbors were having a BBQ and it smelled good. My sister who was about five, went over and told them that my parents only fed her dog food. - rackfocus

12.

We were at a fancy restaurant with my older daughter who is quirky and socially awkward. She was about ten I think. As we were leaving we were picking up our coats from the coat checker and my daughter said to her totally out of the blue 'Don't you want to be something better...like a manager or something?'

We apologized profusely, made her apologize, and explained to her why it was a terrible thing it was to say when we got home. I really wanted to crawl into a hole. Even now thinking about it I feel bad that a little girl who really didn't understand what she was saying could have possibly really ruined the woman's day. - HumboltQuadrant

13.

My sister's kid was exploring her and my BIL's room and happened upon a pair of handcuffs in a drawer. He asked her why she had handcuffs, and she told him it was because she once wanted to be a police officer. Apparently he was quite taken with this idea and told all his friends at school and his teacher that Mommy had handcuffs from when she was almost a police officer. That is not what the handcuffs were for. - throwaway976285

14.

We were in a stall in a public toilet. My son, very loudly exclaimed, 'Mama... you have a really biiiiiiiiiig FUR-GIN-IS!' FUR- GIN-IS is what he calls a VAGINA... vagina + penis - PM_Me_1_Recipe

15.

Obligatory not a parent, but a nanny. The kids' parents had just had the 'don't let people touch your private parts' talk with the two older boys. I was sitting on a bench with the baby while the boys played on a playground, when I overhear the oldest (he was 5 at the time) telling a little girl, who's mom was standing right nearby, 'you don't let ANYONE look at or touch your penis, okay?' Little girl responds 'but I don't have a penis, I have a vagina.' And then my boy responds with the ever classic 'what's a vagina? Can I see it?' - mundj08

16.

My then four-year-old ran up to a man with a prosthetic leg and poked it and started badgering him about why he had a 'spring' foot (it was one of the blade style ones meant for running, I guess?) While I'm dying of shame while trying to pull her away and apologizing profusely, he just starts laughing and takes it off to show her.

He explained that he had cancer and his leg was 'sick' and the doctor took it away so it wouldn't make the rest of him sick too, then they gave him the new leg so he could still run. Cool dude! - redqueenswrath