Nothing Prepares Mom for What Toddler Says Going Through TSA—’Never Forget’

A mother was left in disbelief at her three-year-old son’s response when airport security staff asked who he was traveling with.
Morgan Caddell, from Raleigh, North Carolina, was flying to Boston with her husband, daughter and son Stone when the boy claimed to not know either of his parents as they passed through security, causing Caddell’s mouth to “hit the floor.”
“Because my son is only three years old, he doesn’t have an ID yet, so the TSA agent asked him how old he was and then said, ‘And who is this?’, pointing to me,” she told Newsweek.
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“My son looked at me and then looked at the agent and said, ‘I don’t know.'”
Caddell, 35, posted a video about the incident to Instagram, where it has gained nearly one million views since it was shared earlier this week.
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The clip shows Stone’s cheeky smile while sat on the plane, with a text overlay that says, “Never forget when we were going through security at the airport and this little boy, MY SON, was asked who I was and he looked security guard dead in the eyes and said ‘I don’t know.'”
“He’s lucky he is so cute,” she added in the video’s caption.
Luckily, the TSA agents found humor in the situation. “The TSA staff all looked at each other and then awkwardly laughed, and then one pointed to his dad (my husband) and said, ‘OK. Who is that?’,” Caddell said. “And he said, ‘I don’t know.’
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“So then all three of us—my husband, my nine-year-old daughter and I—said, ‘Stone!’ The agents looked awkward again but decided to let us through. Stone, unfazed, smiled and waved bye as we walked past them,” added Caddell, who was heading to Salem with her family as part of a Halloween tradition.
Standard TSA screenings only apply to children aged 13 and above. Children do not need ID when traveling inside the U.S.
Caddell’s experience with her son resonated with other parents on Instagram. “I get scared when TSA ask those questions to my kids. Sometimes when people ask them what their names, they say poo poo and won’t say their real name at all,” said leonor_cynthia.
Another user, negarfromearth, wrote: “I would have died of stress and anxiety, but would definitely laugh about it later.”
And umarlena said: “I took a train with my 4 y.o. son, it was 8 pm and was dark outside. We happened to be alone in our compartment. Suddenly he started screaming ‘help me! Somebody help me!’ and he didn’t want to stop screaming. Of course he did it for fun.”
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