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parenting humor

Joy

Rob Lowe's attempt to delight kids by dressing as the Easter Bunny goes hilariously wrong

Not even his celebrity status could spare him form this all-too-relatable parenting moment.

David Shankbone/Wikipedia, Oriental Trading

Rob Lowe (left) East Bunny costume (right)

When you’re a parent, sometimes those well-intentioned plans to add a little magic to your kid’s lives go off without a hitch, and other times…not so much. This goes especially for anything involving costumed characters. Santa, clowns, Disney mascots, you name it—they can either be a dream come true, or a living, screaming nightmare.

And that’s why a video showing actor Rob Lowe accidentally striking utter terror into the hearts of a few kids this past Easter Sunday feels like such a “stars, they're just like us” moment.

Lowe, who had apparently been celebrating the holiday with his Parks and Recreation co-star Chris Pratt, attempted to infuse some Easter joy by dressing up in an Easter Bunny costume. It even had a sky blue jacket and matching bowtie.

In an Instagram reel shared on April 21 by Pratt’s wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt, we first see Lowe getting into his ensemble.

“Rob, this looks incredible,” Schwarzenegger says.

Cut to a fully dressed Lowe Bunny making his grand entrance…to the sound of children screaming in horror. No amount of eggs scattered on the ground could quell their fears and pretty soon Lowe Bunny hops away in retreat.

Lowe later shows up, very sweaty and out of breath, to Easter lunch (sans Bunny costume) pretending like he has no idea what just happened.

"I just hopped on over when I heard he was here,” he quips, to which Pratt says "Oh, you missed him!"

Honestly the whole thing very much plays out like a classic Parks and Rec scene. Watch:

Down in the comments, people got a good chuckle at the relatable fiasco.

“The fact that this is real life and not a show is absolutely incredible.”

“The screaming children make it worth it 😂”

“Literally…the greatest Easter moment😂”

“Lmao he tried so hard 😂 poor bunny was falling apart 😂”

“It’s the cottontail and kid hysterics for me 😂”

One person even joked, “OMG John Stamos dressed as the Easter bunny at your brunch? 😋😂” referencing a funny moment that happened not three days prior, where a Hollywood tour guide accidentally mistook the West Wing actor for Stamos. Poor Lowe is having a week.

All jokes aside, it can be easy for adults to forget that young children's fear of costumes, also known as masklophobia, can stem from a few key factors. For one thing, they haven't yet developed the ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality, making it deeply unsettling for a character—whose life-sized version feels ginormous—to suddenly appear in real life.

Plus, masks present a slew of scaries. Kid's facial recognition skills are still developing, and they may find it unsettling to see a face hidden behind a mask or costume, especially if they're not used to it. Even for those youngsters who are adept at facial recognition, the static expression of a masked character can also seem intimidating because they are difficult to read and therefore hard to know what their intentions are.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Lastly, the whole thing might just be a little too much for kids who are sensitive to a lot of stimuli. That’s why it’s helpful for parents to be mindful of where a child’s limits are, and work around them. But hey, parenting mistakes happen. And once the screams are over, we can all have a good laugh about them.

Family

Dad's viral reaction to finding out babies don't have kneecaps has people rolling

Turns out he's not the only one who didn't know this fact about baby anatomy.

When you're a first time parent, you learn something new every day.

Becoming a parent for the first time means learning all kinds of fun facts you otherwise might have never thought of. For instance, did you know that a baby won’t produce tears till its first 3-4 weeks? Or that their stomachs are only the size of a wee walnut? Incredible, right? It’s enough to put any new parent in awe.

Thanks to TikTok, we see one dad’s shock and amazement at learning that babies don’t have kneecaps—at least not in the same way that adults do. Apparently, this was new information to a lot of folks.


In a video shared by Dylan and Shelby Reese, the couple behind the TikTok account @shelbanddyl, we see a bewildered Dylan holding their son (or as Dylan says, their “no kneecap havin’’” son) presumably after Shelby has just delivered this lesser know anatomy fact.

Through laughter, Shelby tries to explain that the kneecaps will develop later, to which Dylan replies, “What kind of design flaw is this?! So you’re telling me this little nugget is kneecap-less until they’re like 2-6 years old? That’s wild!”

@shelbanddyl It only took him nearly 30 years to find this out 🤣 #shelbanddyl #husbandreacts #baby #couples #relationships ♬ original sound - Shelby & Dylan

Dylan wasn’t the only one surprised by this. Several viewers were also unaware.

“I was today years old learning that kids have no kneecaps. I am 31,” one person wrote.

“I have 4 kids, Shelby. 4 kids and never ever knew they didn’t have kneecaps. What in the world,” another added.

Another brought in this very astute question: “is this why we can crawl as children but then it hurts when we grow up?” Seriously—the world needs to know this.

To save you Google fact checking deep dive, babies technically do have kneecaps.

But according to Healthline, those kneecaps are made of softer, more flexible cartilage that will eventually become the bony kneecap, or patella, that adults have. Much in the same way that the nose, ears and other joints evolve. This process begins between the ages of 2 and 6, and ends around the age of 10 to 12.

Having soft knee caps not only helps with the birthing process, but also makes for more comfortable crawling as babies learn to walk. So yes, the soft-to-hard knee transient problem is why adults don’t have as much fun crawling around. You learn something new every day!

Just goes to show that parenting offers new discoveries to delight in all the time.

Family

Weekend weary dad nails exactly what Saturdays are like for parents

“If you really wanna see the difference between a parent and a non-parent, it’s Saturdays."

Dustin Nickerson/Youtube

There's no chaos like a Saturday with kids kind of chaos.

Parenting comes with many blessings, but also many sacrifices—especially when it comes to your weekends. No more sleeping in, no more waking up to peace and quiet and enjoying your day off. No, no, no. You’ll be too busy getting to soccer games and birthday parties and any one of the other many, many social commitments your kids (and therefore you) have. Yay.

Recently, comedian and father of three Dustin Nickerson nailed this chaotic aspect of parenthood in a segment of his “Don’t Make Me Come Back There” podcast.

“If you really wanna see the difference between a parent and a non-parent, it’s Saturdays,” Nickerson said. For him, a typical Saturday means getting his three kiddos to “three different locations by 9 am...potentially in three different cities…each for $3000.”

@dustinnickersoncomedy Saturdays are for the kids! (No, seriously. We’re late for practice) #dustinnickerson #DontMakeMeComeBackThere #parentinghumor #saturdays #weekends #comedian ♬ original sound - Dustin Nickerson

“It’s the same amount of work for a single person to fly across the country as it is for a parent to execute one Saturday morning,” he says, since it requires the same amount of packing, planning and coordinating to make sure everything goes smoothly.

And that’s not even taking the sweet little angel into account, who Nickerson says is like “you’re juggling a thing that gets hungry. And cusses at you in front of your mom. Every Saturday.”

Down in the comments, other parents couldn’t agree more.

“Been up with mine since 5:30. Lived a whole life before 11 am,” lamented one.

“My kids are grown now. People always told me I would miss the sports days when they were over. Nope, I don’t miss it at all,” added another.

And of course #teamchildfree came in to gloat.

“Childless and slept till 11, it was glorious,” one person shared.

One cool dog parent wrote, “I woke up without an alarm and took my dog on my motorcycle to a doggo event at the park.”

All of life’s choices come with pros and cons. This might be one aspect of parenting that unanimously falls into the cons category, but at least all the moms and dads out there can laugh at themselves while dreaming of lazy weekends.

For even more relatable parenting content, you can watch the full “Don’t Make Me Come Back There” episode below:

Family

Mom's passionate rant about why she was late to school drop-off has parents rolling

Over 4,800 parents shared their own equally hilarious “reasons” for being late.

@katlyn.whittenburg/TikTok

Mom lists out the ridiculous reason why her kid was late to school

In a perfect world, everything would run smoothly—including getting kids ready for school.

There would be no spontaneous temper tantrums to soothe, no messes to clean up, no fighting to get dressed. Breakfast would go down without a hitch. Kiddos would be in the car on time. Early, even. And off they would be go to a day of learning.

But we don’t live in a perfect world. And for most parents, this idyllic scenario is but a fantasy. Reality looks way more…chaotic. Suddenly, a cereal that was the favorite yesterday is now inedible today, and there’s a last minute final touch that has to be made for a project and there are no matching pairs of shoes to be found anywhere.

With all of these emergencies happening just before having to leave for school (of course), being late is unavoidable. And to add insult to injury, most schools require that parents fill out a form explaining why their kid was tardy. As if there’s ever a sensible reason for it.


Katlyn Whittenburg recently found herself in this all too common situation, after being asked by her kid’s school to give a reason as to why she was “seven minutes late” while dropping her five-year-old daughter off.

This prompted Whittenburg to bust out a no holds barred, flawlessly accurate and all out hilarious rant about how ridiculous the expectation is for parents to give some sort of logical reason for being tardy, since most of the time tardiness is due to nonsensical kid antics that defy logic in the first place. And it’s a speech that every parent can relate to.

“I was seven minutes late dropping my five-year-old off at school today,” Whittenburg begins.

“And when you come in late, you have to tell them why. Like, I don't understand. If it was like 40 minutes late because it's like oh maybe they had a doctor's appointment or maybe some[thing] crazy happened, but seven minutes late? What do you want me to say? What do you want me to say? Because I couldn't? Because I simply cannot?”

Ramping up, she continues with the actual reasons she fell behind that morning.

“Because my daughter painted a mural using toothpaste this morning, and I apparently I support the arts. Because my other daughter had a bloody nose and sneezed and now got to get a crime scene cleanup crew to come in and get all up in my zone.”

Somewhere in there, the mom also reveals that part of her routine that morning was trying to convince her daughter to wear an actual coat, rather than an “unsanctioned bee costume.” Oh boy.

She then jokes that most parents simply put “traffic” as their reason for being late, but if her school really needs an honest answer as to why she was late, she’s gonna need way more paper space.

“Well how am I gonna fit on this one little line that I was born on a hot summer day in Atlanta, and it's been downhill ever since? Because I'll go into detail if you want to know,” she says, getting more existential by the minute.

“I'm just gonna write ‘see attachment’ and just start carrying around a file folder of all the reasons I can't and shan't. My shan't folder. You just open it up ,and it says ‘Started with a big bang,’” she quips.

“Here we are. Oh, you want me here on time? Oh well, then next time you're gonna get a bee who looks like they just committed a violent crime in a dentist's office.” she concludes.

@katlyn.whittenburg 🐝 #momprobs #parentprobs #parentingbelike #havingkidsbelike ♬ W.A.Mozart, Rondo alla Turca from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major - AllMusicGallery

Proving just how relatable Whittenburg’s situation is, literally thousands of parents chimed in with their own reasons for being late. And they are pure comedy.

Here’s a small sampling:

“Last time I wrote down, ‘life is hard ok, I’m trying,’”

“My mom used to say ‘car problems’ because we weren’t in the car on time and that was a problem.”

“My dad used to always write ‘snow in the driveway’ we lived in Florida. 😂,”

“I’ve written ‘I’m trash’ three times this year.”

“The sleeve was touching his wrist 😂”

“I’ve written ‘family of 4 with ADHD. you’re lucky we’re her this early!’”

“Spilled yogurt drink down pants and purposely sat on 8 blueberries.”

“I’ve decided I’m making a jar of various reasons and keeping it in the car. Then each time I’m late they get a lucky dip reason 😂”

Just goes to show—parenting is about rolling with the chaos. No one is spared.