Many parents will have wondered about the best way to get their children out of sticky situations.
One mum has come up with the perfect way - a 'secret code' that she uses over text with her son, reports The Mirror.
Taking to Reddit, the parent explained how her son was meant to be staying the night at a friend's house - but changed his mind about the idea during the course of the evening. She said: "My kid just texted me a hotdog emoji."
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Offering an explanation, she said: "It's code for 'I want to come home but I want it to be your fault'. Any random emoji when we're not texting each other will work. He was supposed to be staying the night with a friend, so I was concerned when I get this text after I’ve already gone to bed.
"I called him and told him 'you were supposed to unload the dishwasher before you left, now you’ve lost your privilege of spending the night. I’ll be there in five minutes, have your stuff gathered up'."
After saying her son felt uncomfortable and wanted to come home, the mum added: "He didn’t know how to tell the friend he wanted to leave. He thanked me for getting him out of there."
The woman's post has been upvoted about 8,200 times and has received more than 250 comments from parents saying they intend to use this 'secret code' with their children. One user said: "While I'm sorry that he was in an uncomfortable situation in the first place, I'm so glad that you had a system in place beforehand and he used his Spidey sense to tell him that it was time to get up out of that situation.
"Smart kid. My daughter is nine and we've told her that if she ever feels uncomfortable, she can say that she isn't feeling well and we will come get her."
Another user added: "Our code was 'the hamster needs to be fed', I did call my parents once and used it when I thought a sleepover was weird, they picked me up, no questions asked." A third user said: "This is great. Glad to have some additional ideas for what to do with my kids."
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