Kids' activities even parents struggle to solve
Puzzles are meant to be fun, particularly those designed for children.
When even parents struggle to solve them, however, something has clearly gone wrong.
Here are some of the tricky children's activities that have left parents stumped.
Can you solve them?
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This puzzle activity proved frustrating, seemingly missing a word on the list of those that need to be solved.
"This puzzle is missing a word," a Redditor shared on the 'Mildly Infuriating' thread.
Commenters quickly deduced the missing word is "transcript."
"I mean, I'm guessing it's designed for kids learning to read and write, so I get how this could be a problem," one said of the missing word.
"It identifies as a script but it's really a synopsis," another joked.
"THANK YOU! That had me stumped," another said.
A simple child's crossword puzzle designed for Valentine's Day left Redditors stumped.
"We can't figure out this crossword clue, does anyone have an idea?" they asked.
The original poster had completed the crossword except for "7 across". The clue read: "A nickname for two people in love."
"I was thinking something like 'love doves' but knew I was mixing it up with something else!" they shared.
Not everyone on the thread was helpful, with one simply commenting: "That's an interesting way of writing 'blue.'"
"Roses are red, violets are… damp?" another commented.
Soon, the correct answer emerged – "lovebirds" fit perfectly into the space remaining on the crossword.
One Redditor simply commented: "Wtf, 99.9% would have known this instantly."
The remainder of the crossword seemed simple enough.
"A heart-shaped pendant you wear around your neck" was answered as a "locket", while "the art of love" is answered as "romance."
A post on Reddit's "mildly infuriating" went viral after a user wrote, "When you can't find the moon in your toddler's activity book. I swear they forgot to add it."
The post included a photo of the page in the hidden objects puzzle aimed at toddlers.
The picture featured a spectacle-wearing turtle reading a book. Below were listed six hidden items toddlers were asked to find in the picture, including a picnic basket, one dollar bill, ladybug, squirrel and cucumber.
But it was one item, a crescent moon, that had the user perplexed. And they were not alone, judging by the comments.
More than 25,000 people voted, with almost 90 per cent agreeing the hidden objects puzzle was in fact "mildly infuriating."
The original poster later added, "It's almost embarrassing how long my husband and I looked and we still couldn't find it until seeing these comments."
Others chimed in, "I would not have gotten it on my own without the comments either. So you're not alone!" wrote one.
"I saw it and was like 'no surely not' and kept looking," said another.
"Really thought I was gonna be the sole person to find it and after 10 mins I gave up expecting the comments to agree it's missing. God dammit," wrote another.
"I couldn't get it. Stupid to have it essentially upside down," was another comment.
"I'm 37 I came to the comments for the answer," said one, while another said, "Pretty tricky even for adults."
Others felt it was unfair the moon was not pointing the same way in the puzzle, or was more pronounced.
A frustrated mum says her son stayed up "an hour past his bedtime" trying to find a hidden object on these pages that she says isn't there.
"There is no yellow paperclip and now my son is up over an hour past his bed time," she wrote on Reddit's 'Mildly Infuriating' thread.
Redditors were quick to rise to the challenge, finding the yellow paperclip.
"Inside the boat on the left page at the bottom center," one quickly said.
She responded by thanking them "so much."
Some people are just better at these activities than others.
"You know it's funny how when you get into a certain mindset and convince yourself it's not there, it might as well actually not exist. Your brain will never see it," one said.
At least when her son wakes up she can point it out to him so he doesn't waste any more time on it.
A kid's colouring activity has left a parent stumped, even though the seemingly innocent drawing of a zebra seems simple enough.
"Kid's colouring page? Not sure what's left to colour," a frustrated parent shared on Reddit's 'Mildly Infuriating' thread.
The photo of the colouring activity shows it completed, the addition of black stripes seeming to be the only requirement.
"I'd make it a rainbow zebra with black stripes," one creative commenter suggested.
"It's not paint by numbers. It doesn't have to be life like. You could teach your kids to be expressive," another said.
"You have to remember that kids still have an imagination," added another.
A 'Solve the Picture Puzzles' activity presents kids with an image they need to spell out. To help them along, additional images that have names beginning with the letter needed are displayed.
A parent shared the activity in question on Reddit's 'Casual UK' thread.
An image of a moon is depicted.
The first letter is highlighted with an image of a monkey, the second letter is prompted with an image of an octopus, the third letter is displayed using an olive branch, and then the forth letter, which is meant to be an 'n' is seemingly demonstrated with the image of a flower which appears to be a daffodil.
"Am I being thick?" the parent wondered, explaining that the puzzle book is designed for children aged four to six.
"Mrs thinks it's Narcissus but I think that's a bit much for the age range," the parent added.
Redditers confirmed the existence of a flower named a narcissus which normally goes by the more common of the species, the daffodil.
According to the Laidback Gardener website, the narcissus flower was named after the mythical Greek youth Narcissus who died of unrequited love for his own reflection.
This tale leading to the much-used term Narcissistic Personality Disorder or narcissist, which indicates a person who has an unreasonably high sense of their own importance, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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