Sometimes words can have more than one meaning. While one meaning may be completely harmless, another meaning by be, well, inappropriate for polite conversation.

Kids often don’t know the inappropriate meanings of words which can create some humorous, although also somewhat awkward, situations, like the one in this story.

A family was shopping when a little girl said a word that has a meaning she clearly wasn’t aware of.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Out of the mouths of babes

I work in a small family-owned shop that sells a variety of hardware and homewares.

Today a family came in with their very small daughter—I’m terrible at guessing ages but she can’t have been older than six or so.

I’m busy facing up the garden section when I hear her loudly and enthusiastically exclaim, “FANNY!”

Whatever the equivalent of a double take is for something you’ve heard rather than something you’ve seen, I did it.

The little girl keeps saying the word.

For context, I live in the UK. “Fanny” doesn’t mean the same thing here that it does in the US. It doesn’t mean “butt”. It means “lady-bits”.

Her mum clearly has the same record-scratch moment that I did, because she asks, “…Did you just say ‘fanny?’”

“FANNY!” announces the kid again. She seems very excited about it.

The whole time they’re browsing around the shop, I can hear her going, “FANNY! FANNY!” and I’m starting to wonder if I’m mishearing her.

They finally understood what the little girl was talking about.

Finally, they get to the till and I go to ring them up. As I’m scanning their things, she points to the box of battery operated handheld fans that we have on the counter. “FANNY!”

Her mum looks relieved to finally understand and tries to give the kid a graceful out. “Oh. You mean fans.”

“Fanny!” says the kid. “Mummy, can I have one?”

It was awkward for everyone.

At this point, the woman is obviously trying not to laugh and the dad looks like he’s dying inside.

I’m trying to keep my face more isn’t that cute rather than out-and-out schadenfreude.

They pay and leave very quickly, and my co-worker and I have a good giggle at their expense once they’re gone.

They did not get their daughter a fanny. I’m very disappointed for her.

They really should’ve gotten the girl a fan considering how excited she was, but they probably didn’t because if they did she would continue to talk about it everywhere they went, causing even more awkward interactions.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

A lot of little kids mispronounce words.

Yes, I thought it was going to end up that she wanted a fanny pack.

This person shares their thoughts.

Another person shares a childhood memory.

Kids can say the funniest things!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.