They say never work with children or animals in show business – a principle which everyone from Kim Kardashian to this very author seems to have forgotten, but thankfully, an Instagram power couple has issued a powerful – and totally hilarious – reminder to us all of the perils of mixing offspring with, well, anything.

Insta influencer Stefan Pollman, and his partner Philia Gold, were visiting Sydney from Germany this week, when they decided to post two mirror selfies – one with their toddler son… and oneaccidentallywith their toddler son.

The first snap was evidently a happy family photo, but the second focused just on Gold coyly sitting on Pollman’s lap… with a closer inspection revealing their little toddler lolling on the floor, at his parents’ feet, because he isover it all.

It was an, ahem,minor, detail which of course the internet wasn’t willing to ignore, even though Pollman deleted the photos.

Voiceover artist Summer Ray posted screenshots of the photos on Twitter (in a tweet which was later deleted) with the caption: “Lord forgive me I cannot stop laughing at the discarded baby in the second photo.”

Lord forgive me I cannot stop laughing at the discarded baby in the second photo pic.twitter.com/7hiEPTobXn

— Summer Ray (@SummerRay) January 24, 2019

Screenshots of the now deleted photos. Source: Twitter

It seems many of Summer Ray's 24 000 followers appreciated the humour in the situation, too, with some parents acknowledging the difficultly in getting kids to behave for photos.

ITS ON THE FLOOR

— Tauriq Moosa (@tauriqmoosa) January 24, 2019

Tossed that baby out like a burner phone ???????????? pic.twitter.com/i1kKlQ88R9

— Good Kid, Maad City (@Dat_Boy_Good) January 25, 2019

I love that she's still holding the baby's toy giraffe but the baby's gone.

— misadventures in writing (@a_crappy_artist) January 25, 2019

I threw the BABY ON THE GROUND!!! pic.twitter.com/WThggaPkhr

— oscilloscope (@oscilloscope) January 25, 2019

This is Chucky’s origin story.

— Ziga Sparovec (@zigasparovec) January 25, 2019

It's like a spot the difference

— Ali ???? (@Muggsy14) January 24, 2019

The internet being the internet, some responders took the opportunity to shame the couple for their 'messy' room and for not having their parental priorities straight.

However, Summer Ray responded by later tweeting, "I didn’t post this to shame the couple, so please people stop bullying them. It’s just a funny photo and I’m sure they’re great parents."