There are certain things in life that we’d all rather not talk about. Unfortunately, little ones see the world as an open book and don’t realize which chapters are supposed to be off limits. Laughter was bound to follow when these mom’s (very personal effects took center stage.

Sticky Traffic. When my almost 16-year-old son was still a toddler, we were suddenly stuck in heavy traffic after a marathon grocery shopping expedition. While I was worried about the ice cream melting in the trunk, he reached over into the grocery bag on the seat next to him and pulled out a box of “sanitary napkins.” Playing with the box was slightly embarrassing, but when he managed to rip off the adhesive paper and stick them all over the rear passenger window, I was beside myself. I couldn’t reach to pull them off, and there was no way to pull over in all that traffic. I’ll never forget the looks from other drivers when they figured out what was stuck to the windows. – Batavia, NY  

Why ask Why? I decided to take my two sons to the barber for a long overdue haircut. My 3-1/2 year old wanted to go where Daddy gets his haircut. While we were waiting for a chair, my son was digging through my purse for a snack. Since I was in the middle of feeding my younger son, I didn’t notice what he pulled out. All of a sudden I hear, “Mommy, what is this?” I look over at him and he’s waving a tampon around in the air — it was like he was waving the flag around the stadium at the opening of the Olympic games. Keep in mind, we were in a men’s barber shop, not a salon. I quickly grabbed it out of his hand, put it back in my purse and told him I would tell him later. I thought the ordeal was over, but he put his hand on my cheek to make me turn to look at him and said very loudly, “Mommy, I would like to know what THAT was!” I thought if I ignored him and kept trying to feed my 9 month old he would stop, but he asked me again, even louder this time. So, I finally just told him it was a tampon. He said, “Oh, okay.” His final question came after a few minutes of eating his snack, “Mommy, WHY (his favorite word do you have tampon?” I was saved by the barber calling his name. I don’t know if they sped the process along for their sake or mine! – Los Alamitos, CA

Boy Band. A year ago my now 4-year-old son got into the cabinet under the bathroom sink. He found a box of what he thought to be whistles and passed them out to all of his friends. When I heard the noise I went to see what was going on. They had formed a marching band and were parading all around the yard using my tampons! Every kid wanted to take their “whistle” home, so I let them. We still get a little chuckle whenever we think of it. – Mesa, AZ

Working Girl. When my daughter was about 2 years old she was playing with my purse, graciously entertaining herself while I entertained a room full of company. She was emptying the contents of my purse on the coffee table and pretending to be me getting ready to go to work. One by one things went in the purse with an explanation: “Here is my money for lunch,” “Here is my lipstick,” etc. Then, she curiously picked up a couple of panty liners, holding them up in the air for inspection — one in each hand — and promptly she said, “Here are my footprints!” Well, as you might expect she became the instant center of attention as she grabbed my purse and, with all the authority in the world, marched out of the room and “off to work!” – Franconia, NH

There is a certain kind of embarrassment that only a Mom can truly understand. Our MomMoments column is filled with these war stories of motherhood. We’d love to hear your stories so please share with us!