Mom asks TikTok for help after 3-year-old son locks them inside bedroom

Never turn your back on a 3-year-old child.

It's a hard-earned lesson for one mom who let her attention drift for "just a second" before realizing her son had locked them both inside his bedroom.

"Reason number 50 million why you should ... practice safe sex," Mayah Hash said, while standing in her son Paxton's bedroom, in a TikTok video with more than 20 million views. (Warning: the video contains swear words.)

"I came in here to grab his dirty laundry and he shut the door behind me," said Hash. "Why is that a problem? Let me leave the room."

Hash walked over to the door, which was missing its knob, rattling the shaft while Paxton giggled.

"Oh!" said Hash. "I can't leave the room ... where's the door handle? In the living room. You know how I know? Because he ... threw it at me earlier."

"Go get it," Paxton coaxed his mom in the video.

"Honey, I would love to," said Hash. "I can't open the door, my love."

She added, "All jokes aside, I really don't know what to do. We are really locked in this room." As Hash shook the doorknob, Paxton rallied behind his mom.

"Just shake it," he suggested. "Come on ... try."

"Wrap it up, baby," joked Hash. "Wrap it up."

Hash, a 24-year-old single mom in the Portland area of Oregon, tells TODAY.com that she was panicking.

"It was 7 p.m. and while we had already eaten dinner .... we would have needed water or the bathroom at some point," says Hash.

Earlier that evening, Paxton had removed his doorknob.

"He was mad at me because he wanted to play on his iPad and I said he had enough screen time for the day," she says. "He threw the handle at me and I asked, 'How did you break that?'"

Hash recalls looking at the object on the floor and thinking to herself, "I'll fix it eventually." Hours later, having forgotten, Hash went into Paxton's bedroom to gather his laundry — and heard the door shut behind her.

"I turned around, holding the basket and said, 'Oh no,'" says Hash. "Paxton was giggling to himself."

Hash called her mom, who lives in Idaho. "I was having a meltdown and Paxton comforted me, saying, 'It's OK, mom,' then went back to playing with his toys," says Hash. "He was so encouraging."

As a "hyper independent" person, Hash isn't comfortable asking others for help. "It might be a mom thing," she says. "It's so ingrained in me to figure out everything myself. (I'd rather) call the fire department than a friend."

Realizing the front door of her rental apartment was locked though, Hash didn't want to risk forcible entry.

"We weren't in immediate danger .... and could have waited it out until my building maintenance department opened," she says.

Hash learned from TikTok that this kind of thing happens.

• "My daughter did this and I unscrewed the hinges with a Barbie shoe."

• "Believe it or not, this has happened to me THREE times."

• "It’s OK, my 3 year old locked me out of my car this morning."

• "My son locked me outside (on) the balcony."

• "I got way too traumatized when my kids did this and now I put the lock ... on the other side. So they never lock me and them up again or anything."

Hash says she and Paxton were locked inside the room for almost two hours.

"I ended up shoving a clothes hanger in the door and wiggling it around," says Hash. "It took about five minutes" to break free.

"Looking back, I can laugh," says Hash, adding, "I learned to fix things right away when they break."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com