I'm sure this kind of post is not uncommon, and perhaps this specific quote has been posted here before, but seeing this on my Facebook last night, accompanied by the obligatory 'lol' of the person posting it, I was deeply annoyed at the casual sexism.

For all beautiful mums.

I was out walking with my 4.5-year-old son . He picked up something off of the ground and started to put it in his mouth . I took the item away from him and I asked him not to do that . 'Why' ? my son asked .... 'Because it's been on the ground ; you don't know where it's been , it's dirty , And probably has germs' , I replied .

At this point , my son looked at me with total admiration and asked , 'Mum , how do you know all this stuff ? You are so smart..' I was thinking quickly and replied , 'All mums know this stuff . It's on the Mum Test . You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mum'. We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes , but he was evidently pondering this new information . 'Oh....I get it' ! he beamed , 'So if you don't pass the test you have to be the dad'. 'Exactly' , I replied with a big smile on my face .

When you've finished laughing, send this to a Mum !

Accompanied of course, by a few thousand comments all saying 'lol' and 'hahahaha so true!!!11one'.

Because yes, of course, it's hilarious. Except that if you reverse the characters in this little piece of nonsense, and it becomes the father telling the child that only 'test failures' become mothers, then its suddenly a misogynistic diatribe against woman that would never be tolerated.

NB: Terrible formatting of above quote has been pasted as I found it - probably says a lot about the author.