Imagine if you went on holiday and your child did THIS

That's exactly what happened to this poor unsuspecting dad before he tried to fly home to China...

Picture it. You've just enjoyed a week's family holiday and sadly it's time to come home. You conduct all the usual checks and make sure you've got everyone's flight tickets and the family's passports.

Except there's just one problem. Your passport has gained more than just a new stamp since landing abroad, it's become your four-year-old child's new favourite colouring book. Yes okay, the heavily-inflated lips, scribbled-out black eyes and added beard are probably an improvement on your passport picture. But what on earth are you going to say at the check-in desk?

That's exactly what happened to this poor parent, who ended up having to explain himself to the South Korean authorities after they told him his passport photo was no longer recognisable and that he wouldn't be able to travel.

The artistic scribblings included added facial hair and scribbled-out eyes on Mr Chen's passport photo, plus an

unidentified man and a small animal.

Mr Chen, father of the artistic four-year-old boy, turned to Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) for help and was finally allowed to fly home to China after four whole days. We expect Daddy will be keeping his passport locked safely away from prying hands in future!

After thinking this was the funniest thing we'd seen in the news for a long time, we were crushed to learn that it was a hoax! After some sites questioned whether the fine lines had actually been created using a computer rather than a four-year-old child, an official at the Chinese Embassy confirmed the photo was a hoax and that the Southern Korean immigration service hadn't prevented anyone from travelling due to a child defacing a passport. And how we wished it was true. Sob sob.

Do you have any funny holiday stories about your kids? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Lifestyle Writer

Gemma Chandler is a lifestyle writer specialising in kids' educational media across a range of topics including nature, history, science and geography across digital, print, social media and video channels. She joined Creature & Co. at 2015, shortly becoming Digital Editor of National Geographic Kids magazine.