Man Sure Mom ‘Never Going To Let Me Babysit Again' Over What Sister Finds

A babysitting Florida man has recalled how his “stomach dropped” when he realized his 7-year-old sister had spotted something in his apartment that was definitely not suitable for kids.

Having family members you can call on to help look after kids is a huge help not just to overworked parents but also the children themselves. A 2012 study published in the American Sociological Review examined decades of data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to reach the conclusion that extended family resources like grandparents, aunts and uncles contribute meaningfully to children's educational success.

Chris Buhl is a little older than his 7-year-old sister, meaning he is able to help his parents out in this way. One night recently, he babysat his sister. “It was actually my mom's birthday! My parents went out to dinner to celebrate,” Buhl told Newsweek. “They don't get out very often with a 7-year-old so they asked me to watch her for the night.”

Buhl must have thought he had earned himself some brownie points by agreeing to look after his sister. However, as a video posted to his TikTok, @twink_in_the_trenches, the good will generated by his offer to babysit looked under serious threat just minutes into his shift. In the video, captioned “They're never going to let me babysit again,” Buhl highlighted the toe-curling, awkward moment his young sister spotted the neon sign in his bathroom that reads: “Please don't do coke in the bathroom.”

‘Unknown to Her’

“What does ‘do coke' mean?” his sister can be heard asking in the clip. Struggling to maintain his composure, Buhl answers: “Like Coca-Cola. Diet Coke.” “Oh,” his sister replies. “That's funny.” She's not wrong either, though it is more amusing for reasons that remain thankfully unknown to her.

Buhl said he has had the neon sign for about six months now, and it didn't occur to him that there would be any issue until his sister pointed it out. “She noticed it almost immediately after my parents dropped her off,” he said. “My stomach immediately dropped, I thought to myself, ‘How am I going to explain this one?’ Thankfully, she has a few more years before she will begin to understand that.”

Buhl's TikTok video of what happened ended up going viral, amassing over 604,000 views and counting. That was when he sent it to his mom. Though he had feared the incident might mean he never babysat again, Buhl said his mom had a different reaction to the clip. “She laughed,” he said. “She said, ‘she's so smart, that's the problem.'”

Asked to pinpoint why he thinks the video has proven so popular, Buhl cited his belief that it was a “funny and authentic moment” that just so happened to be caught on camera. “I think it's gone viral because everyone has had a moment where a child has asked you a question you just don't know how to answer,” he said.

Some things really are better left unsaid.

Newsweek's reporters and editors used Martyn, our Al assistant, to help produce this story. Learn more about Martyn.

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This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 5:00 AM.