Parents have been told about a ‘secret’ emoji code that their children could send them if they want to be picked up if they are feeling uncomfortable in a situation.
It was shared on Reddit by a user who said their son wanted to be taken home from a friend’s house but wanted it to look as is it wasn’t his decision.
By sending a random emoji, in this case of a hot dog, their parent could ‘demand’ they come home.
The original poster, u/jtboe79, wrote under a headline saying their had sent an emoji of a hot dog: "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."
Responses included, from mmmmeghannn: "I love this so much. I will have to remember this for when my little one is older."
While Isp2005 said: "I am always willing to be the bad guy for them. If they need to blame me to get out of a situation, to do so before things go sideways."
SweetMilkMan said: "Thank you, I will make a code with my son tomorrow."
The Reddit post also being shared on social media, with users saying they had similar systems in place in their families when they were growing up.
These included one person who uses the letter X in a text as a sign they want to be picked up.
Other parents shared other ways for children to let them know what they really wanted.
One was a subtle twist on a phrase. If they child said ‘so-and-so has asked if I can stay' meant the child wanted to go home. If they said: “can I stay at so-and-so” it meant they wanted to stay at their friends.
