14 Amusing Stories of Fatherhood Moments Gone Massively Wrong

Ask any parent, and they’d have plenty of anecdotes about raising children, be it about the stuff that kids do, or the funniest parenting fails. Like with anything, parenting, or in this case fatherhood, comes with a learning curve. Most dads tend to have some embarrassing and goofy stories to share, and we applaud these brave dads from Reddit, who came forward with theirs to brighten our day.

This Dad shared an embarrassing story that turned out to be an epic tale.

Took my girls (6 and 3) to an indoor play center. They have climbing, games, soft play, and passable coffee (for me, not the kids). They also do kid parties there, and have a couple of private rooms for the kids to do birthdays. While watching them, I enjoyed coffee and scrolled through my phone.

Suddenly, my eldest came and told me that she couldn’t find her sister anywhere. Not great, but not terrible. Pretty sure she can’t have gotten out. So I send the eldest kid back into the play area to look again, and I do a sweep of the place, and pop my head into the party rooms on my way past. No stray kids, no drama, and no sign of my little one.

Eldest comes back and tells me her sister is “missing... maybe dead!” which was reassuring. So I check the toilets, and I’m not going to lie, I’m starting to get a little worried. The wife is outside with her friend, and the idea of having to tell her that I’d lost a full 25% of our family didn’t feel like it would go well. Plus, the paperwork would probably be epic.

I searched all around the place but couldn’t find her. I started to panic when I saw something in the party room. The kid sitting next to the birthday girl, wearing a party hat, eating a plate of food, and helping open presents, is wearing a very similar dress to my daughter. Yep, it is my daughter.

So I casually walk in, find out who the parents of the birthday girl are, and tell them that they have an uninvited guest. They were very polite, but the walk of shame out of the party room, with the other dads pointing and sniggering, wasn’t my finest moment. Way better than my wife literally howling with laughter when I told her. Apparently, I’m an “idiot” and “hilarious.” Alexis_Denkin / Reddit

Plenty of other dads saw the humor in it.

• If that is the most embarrassing day of your life, you are doing better than most of us. Several-Assistant-51 / Reddit
• This isn’t an embarrassing day, it’s a day of joy! Your daughter is a chameleon! She’s the perfect infiltrator. dathomar / Reddit
• The irony of me reading this while on a playground park bench next to my 2-month-old, me looking up and having no idea where my 2- and 4-year-old ran off to! Huardly / Reddit
• “Plus, the paperwork would probably be epic.” I’m so relieved that I’m not the only one who thinks about how much of a pain the paperwork would be in a close call!!! Toby1027 / Reddit

It’s cool to see how the fathers rallied around the embarrassed dad, who ended his post with a simple and heartfelt advice, “Dads...keep both eyes on your kids!” He’s not alone is his parenting journey, and several other fathers shared their hilarious parenting moments that turned into epic anecdotes for the family. Scroll down to read more.

When your little one is an accomplished escape artist.

• Woke up to a knock on my door. My 3-year-old son was being brought back by the neighbor. He had let himself out and walked through the gravel in nothing, but his undies, to go across the street. I’m mortified, as all the doors were locked. Getting an alarm system delivered today. tolegr / Reddit
• Ah yes. My then 3-year-old son managed to Spider-Man his way over the gap at the top of a gate and a retaining wall on a slight angle and escaped the cul-de-sac wearing nothing but a singlet. No pants, no undies. He’d been playing in the backyard while we watched on from the kitchen, but didn’t know it was possible for him to escape that way until he did it.
  We couldn’t find him, and dragged the neighbors and my parents into the search. I eventually found him several blocks away having crossed an insanely dangerous road, being walked down a street by a lovely couple trying to help him find his house. When my dad asked him if he’d tried to walk to the beach, he replied, “No, I runned!”
  The next week he found another way to escape, but one of the other neighbors was driving into the cul-de-sac and caught him. He basically tossed him over the baby gate we had on the front door and yelled out, “Found your kid again,” without even waiting for thanks. We got way better at keeping an eye on the little Houdini. MysteryBros / Reddit
• We moved into a new house. My wife woke up and did her thing. My son heard my wife wake up and needed to do his thing too.
  There are three toilets in the house, but it was our first morning there. He didn’t know where the other two were. So he let himself out into the backyard and did his thing on the steps. We installed an alarm system shortly thereafter. revdubs65 / Reddit

Not every dad experiment is a good one!

• Wife went to go pick up the big kids, so I am home with the baby. I have been on the floor shirtless making farting noises with my back and I can’t stop.
  Why do I do stuff like this? The baby thought it was funny at first but got bored and is now pulling his books off the shelf. So this is now just for me. Footdad124 / Reddit
• My little boy picked up my phone and I punched him in the face. [Accidentally, that is] I went to grab my phone before he dropped it and at the same time he decided to run forwards to hand it to me. I took him clean off his feet. He found it hilarious, but I felt bad. biggreyyobbo / Reddit
• When we were just beginning to introduce food, we were encouraged to try different flavors and not just stick with sweet. The first thing silly old me could think of was, of course, mustard. (Real mustard, too, not that school bus yellow stuff some like to call mustard.)
  I would characterize the reaction as spectacular. No tears, but a lot of flailing. I probably felt the worse of the two of us, but still. SA0TAY / Reddit
• Back when our daughter about 2-years-old, my wife dressed her for day care, and went to work. I picked her up at the end of the day. It was time to put on the PJs. But...
  It was a dress with a hidden zipper, with emphasis on HIDDEN. I couldn’t find the thing. I figured it goes over her head. That was a disaster. I had one arm out & she was howling.
  So I whipped out my trusty pocket knife & cut her out of the dress. My daughter was instantly happy now that I wasn’t cranking on her arm. I put the dress in our room, and when my wife came home, she showed me the HIDDEN zipper. lapsteelguitar / Reddit

A dad’s rite of passage — getting embarrassed in public.

• It’s a dad rite of passage to embarrass yourself for the glee of a little one. I wore a set of paper tiger ears, the entire way through a Walmart shopping trip because my daughter didn’t want to, as soon as we put her in the cart seat. ImNotHandyImHandsome / Reddit
• My oldest (3) is in this phase where he says hello to everything he sees until someone else acknowledges it. We were at the splash pad, and a little girl was using a purple fish turret thing to try to spray other kids, her mother was nearby. My oldest was trying to say hello to the fish until someone acknowledged it, however, he pronounces the “f” in fish as a “b” for some reason...
  I put down my youngest and run over to the girls’ mother saying “he’s saying fish, FISH, he doesn’t know that word.” Leaving my youngest (15 months) to get dumped on by the big bucket with no support. He is a good sport, but he fell down and was definitely not happy. scoo89 / Reddit
• When my daughter was learning to say Fox, she said it exactly how you think she’d say it. She had a winter had with a fox face on it, so it was her fox hat. All day at daycare, she kept demanding her hat by excitedly yelling fox (narrator: it certainly didn’t sound like “fox”). I get there to pick her up at the end of the day, and she comes up excitedly yelling “fox” without pause until I reassured her, “Don’t worry sweetie we’ll get your fox hat” as loudly as I could without yelling.
  The look on her teachers gave was priceless! “Oh! We knew she wasn’t swearing, but we had no idea what she was asking for all day.” They’d been trying to puzzle it out all day! She can now say fox without issue, but is she started yelling frog on repeat, and it has become the new accidental swear word. lopsire / Reddit

A few more gems, including one shared by a Bright Side reader.

• My son’s girlfriend has another boyfriend... But, not to worry, his wife keeps him company while his girlfriend is busy. She’s his “only wife that goes on road trips” with him.
  This is the report my 5-year-old gave his grandpa this weekend. How did he get himself into a polycule? I wasn’t prepared for this. cpleasants / Reddit
• Good way to start the day! I cut myself shaving on my neck pretty badly, so naturally I run into my 6-year-old daughter’s room and shriek, “The vampires are coming!” Queue her screaming and trying to hide under the bed and bonking/scraping her head on the bed frame. Now we both have matching Band-Aids and the missus is giving me that “look.”
  EDIT: Was clearly following the “HEYBARTWANTTOSEEMYCHAINSAWANDHOCKEYMASK?” Parenting Philosophy of Homer Simpson. TriscuitCracker / Reddit
• Yesterday, I gave my little one a bath. I washed him, handed him a full set of rubber duckies, and then left him soaking and playing in a big bowl while I watched my favorite game.
  Usually, his playtime lasts at least 15 minutes, but suddenly he screamed, “Daddy! I can’t see anything!” I ran, panicked, to the door and discovered that I accidentally turned off the light while I walked out the bathroom. The child heroically bathed duckies in total darkness.

Which of these stories made you laugh the longest? Share your anecdotes with us in the comments below. Till then, here are some more sweet but funny anecdotes from fathers who rock parenting.