35 Relatable Parenting Moments That Prove Kids Are Really In Charge And That They Know It

Mom blogger Biscuits and Crazy shared the story of coming home from a trip to a clean house. She found what had become her family's new favorite bar of soap, but couldn't figure out where it had come from. She enjoyed the scent, holding and inhaling deeply before going about her day and making dinner.

Later, her daughter was expressing her love for the soap when she asked her where they'd gotten it. Her daughter revealed that her son brought it home from the boy's bathroom at his tae kwon do studio. It was then, with horror, that it wasn't soap. She'd been cleaning her whole house, herself, and her children with a urinal cake.

"Did everyone go to the bathroom?" It's the question every parent asks before hitting the road for a significant amount of time. Despite endless reminders and warnings, you'll often still find yourself pulling over for someone. During those times, it's hard not to ask yourself why you created someone with such a small and unstoppable little bladder.

"Perhaps my favorite part of parenting is pleading with my kids to use the bathroom before we leave the house and telling them I’m not going to stop if they have to go 5 minutes after we leave and then stopping 5 minutes after we leave because there is no emptier threat than this," noted one Twitter user.

"My favorite part of parenting a toddler is putting away all the toys while he simultaneously gets all the toys out," shares another Twitter mom. There's truly no end to this vicious cycle. We've all been there. You're so proud of yourself, working on your corner of the room … while your toddler is equally proud of himself, getting all the toys you just put away set up just the way he likes them.

"Parenting is all fun and games until the baby learns to roll over during diaper changes," one parent lamented. That messy discovery is the beginning of the end of peaceful diaper changes. Babies wield some surprisingly destructive power over us, and this is by far one of the absolute worst ones.

"I just caught my toddler baptizing her Barbie in the cat’s water bowl," a mom began. "Then, naturally, like one does, sucked all of the water out of the Barbie’s hair and did a nice refreshed 'ahh!' afterward." Mom must have seen this one go down in slow motion. Can you even imagine? I think this is definitely why the phrase "grin and bear it" was invented.

This parent was so close to a great night's sleep. "Parenting is all fun and games until your 2-year-old comes into your bed in the middle of the night for 10 seconds just to pee on your freshly washed sheets then decides she actually doesn’t want to lay with you anyway," the parent shared.

Between chasing the toddler and changing the sheets, sleep would clearly have to wait.

"It took my toddler so long to pick a spoon for dinner, she forgot what she was doing, I forgot what I was doing, and we just stood there staring at each other until she left," shared one mom. Mommy brain's a thing, but is toddler brain real? This kid seems to think so. At the very least, she definitely figured out how to get one up on her mom.

"My toddler has decided that it's not night if there are still birds out," one mom revealed. "I could work with this logic if we didn't have owls and bats (which she refuses to believe aren't birds) in the area. She's very stubborn, I may never sleep again." I'm not even sure what to say to this, other than I hope that her toddler comes around soon, for everyone's sake.

Six Pack Mom shared a priceless exchange between herself and her 5-year-old.

"Why are there Legos all over the floor?" she asked her child.

"To keep everyone else away; it's my computer turn," she replied. You've got to respect her innovation.

"My kid's grounded so she had to help power wash the deck," shared one Reddit dad. Of course, his daughter couldn't resist showing dad how she felt while working on that punishment. "I came back to this. Grounding extended."

Show of hands: who thinks she was really, really proud of herself despite the extension?

Your kids will always commit to memory something you show distaste for. If it's a word, you can bet you'll be hearing it constantly. In this case, these kids decided to decorate mom's whole room in a word she really can't stand. This is an actual nightmare for so many people I know … I can't even imagine.

"Happy late VD from my Passive-Aggressive Smurf," one mom captioned her child's lukewarm Valentine's Day greeting. The vaguely heart-shaped construction paper boasted the most passive greeting of all. "I live with you," the little girl wrote. I mean … I guess there's not a lie here!

This card is how one mom realized she may have created a little monster. "Mom, I just wanted to tell you that Mother's Day wouldn't be possible without me," it reads. "I'll be waiting for my present in the living room."

What kind of present do you give a child who requests it? Nothing at all. Mwahahaha.

This woman's son drew a photo of her longingly looking at her bottle of wine as two children cling to her. "Soon they will sleep and we can be together," it has mom saying.

His message on the inside is even better. "We do a lot of questionable things in this family but we love you no matter what," he wrote to mom.

This kid was walking through the park with his parents when he couldn't let them go any further. As a traffic cop, he had to make sure the way ahead was clear and safe, even if that meant pushing the crowd back. After, he immediately went back to walking as if nothing had happened.

This kid decided to have a little spooky fun while passing through a hotel. "Piper decided to leave this on the hotel bathroom mirror for the next guest," dad shared. "I’m stuck between disturbed and very proud of her forethought. #funniestkid"

This mom found herself in a bind when one of her kids locked her in a room. Luckily, her other kid was there to show her how to get out. Which one do you even address first?

"Not sure if I should be more concerned about the son who locked me out of my bedroom today, or the one who showed me how to pick the lock," she shared on Twitter. We're exhausted for her.

James Breakwell shared an exchange with his 4-year-old when he was trying to wake him up in the morning. "Why do you fight me every morning?" James asked his child.

"Because you never learn," his kid replied.

The reply is only bested by another Twitter user, who shared his own 4-year-old's technique. When he tries to wake mom at 4 a.m., he replies, "and?"

This mom was just trying to assure her 5-year-old that everyone makes mistakes. When she noted that also means mom, the kid replied savagely. "Oh yeah! Like when you're trying to cook food that tastes good but then it doesn't?" Ouch.

Don't worry, Mom. I feel like this is one that will definitely come back around to your kid.

We've all been in the position where we have to escort a kid out of a store because of a bratty moment. This 4-year-old decided to turn the tables on his parent.

"Four-year-old son was misbehaving in a store, and I told him if he didn't control himself we were going to leave. He escalated, and I picked him up and carried him through the entire store. He was surprisingly putting up little fight," the parent shared.

"As we pass the checkout lanes he loudly says 'Hey mister, put me down!' I didn't hesitate, didn't make eye contact with anyone, just turned beet red and kept marching out the door."

This good samaritan of a mom decided to help clean up her local park, but it didn't quite go according to plan. Dad shared the story with Reddit.

"She decided to pick up some litter to make the park look nicer so she was throwing away pop bottles, chip bags, etc. and [my 3-year-old] wanted to help," he explained. "He stoops to pick up some cigarette butts and my wife says leave those to mommy (she wasn't going to pick them up but didn't want him to touch them either).

“A few minutes later he has gone to play. He tells another mom, ‘I’m finding cigarettes for mommy.’ My wife was so embarrassed and said she got the dirtiest looks from nearby parents who heard this.”

Babysitting for a niece or nephew is fun and easy, unless they’re an evil genius, as this uncle learned. “My niece asked to go play outside with the ball while I was watching her,” he recalled.

“I opened the door to walk out and she dropped the ball which started to roll down the hill. I chased. I came back proudly holding the ball and realized she had locked me outside of the house. She went back to watching TV. She was about 3 at the time.”

Plenty of parents have had their kids distract them with one task while they do something they aren't supposed to. This kid took it to the next level.

"Before he could walk, my son had a habit of tossing his toys across the room then pouting at you while sadly whining 'dropped' until you fetched it for him," dad recalled. "One day he did that to my ex and when she got up to get the toy he'd tossed he speed crawled over to the table, grabbed her beer, and chugged it like the tiniest frat boy."

Car rides with a kid that's asking a million questions can be tough. This dad only got one, but somehow that was even worse.  "…my 4yo son asks his dad 'what's that?' Pointing at a construction vehicle," mom recalled. "His dad says 'it's a bulldozer' to which my son replies, 'no daddy, that's a backhoe.'"

An 8-year-old's prank terrified his mom. The child cut out the silhouette of a spider and taped it to the inside of a lampshade for mom to find. When she turned the light on, she was horrified and her kid got a good laugh. "My 8-year-old is a jerk and almost made me burn my house down," she captioned the image.

"So me and my 3-year-old niece were eating together in the kitchen when she tells me that she has magic to open any door she sees. I told her to prove it and open the door to our pantry that was on the other side of the room, she waves around her arms for a moment then points at the door and yells boom," shared one Reddit user.

" I asked why the door wasn't opened and she said she locked it forever and it can never open again, I wanted to jokingly call her out on her lie so I walked over to the door, opened it, and told her she lied to me. Then she started laughing at me the way that 3-year-olds do when they find something really funny, I was confused for a moment but then I realized… she made me open the door…. she made the door open….she can make doors open from all the way across the room. A 3-year-old was playing mind games with me."

When this dad's drill battery went missing, he questioned his 6-year-old daughter. She denied it at the time. He brought it up to her again months later and was met with a response wise beyond its years.

"She says, 'hey … look … if I woulda stoled [sic] it, Santa wouldn't have brought me any presents .. and I got presents, so obviously I didn't have anything to do with this.'"

One Reddit user recalls her sister's self-defense classes during childhood. "One day, my mum goes to pick her up and she comes out of the gym wearing her normal clothes instead of her gym clothes (which she had forgotten), so my mum asks 'Why didn't you wear your gym clothes in class?'"

“Without a second of hesitation, my sister turns to her and says ‘Mum. If someone attacks me on the street, I can’t say Oh just wait a second I gotta put on my gym clothes!'”

Two parents looking to keep their 4-year-old kid from sleeping in their bed thought installing a lock would be a simple solution. They were wrong. When they found their kid in bed with them the next morning, she calmly explained how.

"There's something wrong with your door," she told her parents. "It was hard to get in." That's when they realized she took a butter knife and jimmied the door open.

Every parent fears the moment that their kid figures out how to get around the baby gates. These parents had no idea they gave their son the tools to do so.

"My kid, I think he was about 2-3, built a staircase out of Duplos to get over the baby gate to the actual stairs," one parent shared. So came the end of the baby gate days.

This parent remembered bringing their 4-year-old kid to a toy donation event during the holidays. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in the kid's head. When he asked why Santa didn't bring those kids presents like everyone else, mom and dad were mortified.

Plenty of parents use a small allowance to motivate kids to do chores. For this dad, it backfired.

"We started giving our kids a quarter when they clean up," he explained. "I just walked in on my 3.5-year-old explaining to my 6-year-old that 'we need to make a big mess tomorrow.'"

They've got two industrious ones on their hands!

A mom helping her 5-year-old daughter make a Father's day card for her dad offered a suggestion. "I suggested my 5yo say 'You’re the best dad ever' on her Father’s Day card," she explains. "She says 'No, I can’t say that, I haven’t tried any other dads!'"