A Florida woman was worried about what her infant daughter's reaction would be to finding out how her mom lost her leg.
However, as a video subsequently posted to TikTok shows, the toddler's response was an entirely different one to what she had been expecting.
Addison Strickland posted a clip to her TikTok, @addison_bethea, recalling how she was previously asked how she would "dramatically explain" to her daughter Saylor what happened to her as a teenager on June 30, 2022.
That was the day Strickland came under attack from a nine-foot shark while looking for scallops in five-feet deep water around a mile-and-a-half from the shoreline of Keaton Beach, near Grassy Island.
The shark bit into Strickland's leg, dragging her underwater while she attempted to fight the animal off. It was only thanks to the intervention of her brother, Rhett Willingham, that they were eventually able to get the shark off.
Strickland was rushed to hospital but, despite doctors successfully reconstructing most of her right thigh, the injured leg had to be amputated just above the knee.
She went on to spend several months in hospital and then rehab, learning how to walk with a new prosthetic limb.
But the change didn't hold Strickland back. Within a year of the incident she had announced she was expecting a baby with long-term partner Ashton Strickland.
The pair have been wed since welcoming their daughter Saylor into the world.
Though rare, shark attacks remain a cause of concern, particularly in Florida, where the majority of recorded attacks occur.
According to The Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File, in 2024 there were 28 unprovoked shark attacks and 1 fatal incident in the U.S. 14 of these occurred in Florida while the one fatality was reported in Hawaii.
Strickland's experience was undoubtedly a harrowing one, but it's something she appears to have come to terms with and is even happy to poke fun at.
In the video posted to her TikTok, she revealed how Saylor has taken the news of mommy's experience in her stride.
Writing alongside the video, she explains that the nearly-2-year-old toddler "picks up shark toys and pretends to eat my leg off again."
Proof of this can be found in Strickland's video, which shows Saylor running a shark toy over a section of her mom's prosthetic limb.
"Her favorite song being baby shark is the icing on the cake," Strickland added in the caption accompanying the clip.
The video highlighting Saylor's unusual response has proven popular on social media, amassing over 800,000 views already.
"Are we allowed to laugh?" one user commented, while another suggested Saylor’s reaction was actually a very healthy response. "This is actually how kids process and retain information," they wrote. "That's why unstructured play is so important."
A third meanwhile dubbed Saylor as Strickland’s "own personal desensitization therapist."