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By Rachael O'Connor
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A parent who took their child out to eat as a treat ended up going viral when they were left stumped by the menu's word search.
Many family-friendly restaurants offer special children's menus, along with a worksheet and crayons to keep them occupied. And while this usually works, in this parent's instance, it ended up being more time-consuming than first assumed.
Reddit user u/rippinlips6694 took to the r/MildlyInfuriating sub on January 12, where they shared a photo of the "kid's menu word search" that had left his child "not pleased."
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The photo showed what first appears to be a simple word search with food-related words: sushi, rice, fish, cake, shrimp, steak, and vegetable.
But despite poring over the puzzle, not a single word was to be found—and led the poster to assume: "I think they put the wrong answer key with the puzzle."
It turns out the parent could be right with this one, as the viral post—with more than 20,000 upvotes—saw commenters finding their own words in the search.
One user shared an image showing they had found words including fantastic, helpful, intuitive, beautiful, calm, generous, kind, excited, and adorable, and wrote: "I'm sure there are more, but this was fun!"
Others pointed out that the words patient and diligent were also hidden in the search, as another said: "This crossword is neither fantastic, helpful, nor beautiful."
One user joked the word search creators were thinking: "This will keep them busy for a LONG time...*laughs maniacally*."
And as another suggested: "Restaurant knows that having the kids trying to find the words reduces noise. Never find the word, never have noise. Works well."
One agreed: "This is to keep the kids busy looking for the words while the parents enjoy conversation without being interrupted!"
"It said word search, not word find," another joked. "Keep searching lol."
According to education website Gifted Guru, there are benefits to kids by doing word searches: they help develop word and pattern recognition, assist in learning context clues to build fluency, introduce and review vocabulary, and help with spelling.
For adults, too, there have been noted benefits of using word puzzles to boost brain health. A medically-reviewed report from Psychology Today points out social, emotional and cognitive benefits of the games, while the brain stimulation can ward off cognitive decline.
Newsweek has contacted u/rippinlips6694 via Reddit for comment on this story.
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