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We all have intrusive thoughts from time to time. But we generally don’t follow through with them. Nor do we mention them aloud. Children, on the other hand, often don’t have any filter. Their minds are still developing, and they don’t yet have a firm grip on social norms.
So, many of them say and do whatever is front-of-mind for them. User u/TheEqualizer1212 started a slightly creepy discussion on r/AskReddit, where they asked parents to reveal the most unsettling things their kids have said or done. Scroll down for their stories. It’s a reminder that some parenting challenges are stranger than others and will almost definitely come as a surprise.

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#1

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing When my daughter was learning her ABCs, one morning at breakfast she sang all the way through for the first time. We congratulated her and asked if she'd been practicing at day care.

"No, mommy's mommy taught me when I was in bed"

Uh.. Mommy's mommy died 3 years earlier.

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Bored Panda got in touch with the author of the viral thread, u/TheEqualizer1212, and they were kind enough to answer our questions.

We were curious to learn about what inspired them to start the discussion in the first place.

"I was watching the movie Brightburn one day when I realised how having a child can be a two way street sometimes, with it occasionally ending up in ashes and others ending up beautifully where their parents get to see them grow as a person," they told Bored Panda.
#2

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing My son went through a phase when he was 6 where he would write “Help me! Let me out!” on everything. It was on all his drawings and he’d write it outside on the side of the house for the neighbors to see. Then he started writing “Help me!” backwards, like some redrum s**t.

Turns out he was really into Goosebumps and one of the episodes has a girl trapped in a mirror writing “help me”. To the people looking into the mirror “help me” was backwards. Mystery solved, my kid is just a bit theatrical.

BlackCatAttack666 , Sarah Dietz / Pexels Report

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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Somewhere there is a girl trapped in a mirror being completely ignored because of a goosebumps episode.

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We asked the OP for their thoughts about what parents ought to do if their kids said something truly unsettling.

"Try to explain to them that what they did was wrong and try to get the real life consequences of what they did across," they said.

"Full disclaimer however, I am not a parent. I do not have much say in that matter besides just logical assumptions," they added.
#3

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing When we finally told my oldest, then three, I was pregnant, he stopped and grabbed my stomach intently. He thought for a moment and then said “and we don’t stab the baby with knives?”

….correct, child.

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Meanwhile, Bored Panda was curious what advice u/TheEqualizer1212 would give new parents who are a bit overwhelmed with childcare.

"Be patient. If your child can be seen doing something that isn't right, take your time to explain why and do so in a calm manner. The last thing you want is for your child to lose trust in you and do worse things behind your back," they suggested.

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PsychCentral explains that children develop more and more empathy over time. As newborns, they might start crying when other babies in the vicinity cry. Though this is most likely a response to an uncomfortably loud noise, it’s the starting point of minimal self-awareness and putting oneself in another person’s shoes.

By the age of two, toddlers might try to connect another person’s discomfort with their own. For instance, they might give their parents a toy or some food if they see them crying. However, it’s still unclear if they understand what the adults are feeling or if they’re simply upset by how they’re behaving. By the age of four, though, kids start to associate their emotions with those of others. They might come over and comfort someone who’s in pain.
#4

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing When my daughter was about 3 or 4, she started talking about "the blue lady". My wife and I asked her who she was and were told "I don't know but she wants her hands back". Chills. This went on for a few weeks. The story never changed and it was always the Blue Lady needs her hands. We were seconds away from getting a priest or a witch in to bless the house. One morning, I'm watching TV and there is a woman in a blue US Post Office uniform saying "thanks to blah-blah hand cream, I got my hands back!" and my daughter comes running into the room screaming "That's the blue lady! I love her!"

I relaxed so hard I nearly s**t myself.

EDIT: This comment really blew up! Thanks for the love! There are actually two other unexplainable stories about the time we lived in that house, both of which we can't connect to TV commercials, so as a quick bonus:

She had two imaginary friends while we lived there. One was Samantha, a little girl who she played with. Samantha would leave at night, and my daughter would say goodbye near our back door. When we asked where she lives, her answer was, "in the backyard under the grass, but going there makes her sad".

The other "friend" was a man named "Monsterist" or something close to it. According to my daughter he had long black hair and wore brown pants and no shirt. He used to wear red or blue paint and he carried a long stick. We live in an area that had a large native American population in the past and that's what he sounded like to us. He would also stand on the porch every night until morning.

parkinglotguy , Ksenia Chernaya / Pexels Report

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Helena
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd have someone ground penetrating radar my backyard

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#5

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing My son walked into the room butt naked holding a pair of scissors and asked why his younger sister didn't have a penis. He never explicitly said he was thinking of performing surgery on himself, but we kept a close eye on him for a few weeks and hid all the scissors.

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#6

When she was 3, we’d gone for a meal at a really old pub/restaurant. She wanted the toilet, so I took her and the pub had the kind where it’s a little room on it’s own. Now she was in that phase where they are basically small terrorists and if you do or say the wrong thing, well there will be the most almighty tantrum.

Her big thing was no talking while she was on the toilet (3 year olds are weird!). So I’m standing there silently looking out of this really tiny barred window, while she does her business. It’s a tiny Tudor window and the first thought that popped into my head was that it would be impossible to get out of if the place was on fire. Don’t why but that’s just my brain.

Suddenly I hear her little voice say ‘it’s ok Mummy, there won’t be a fire’.

Now I know 100% I didn’t say anything out loud, she had me well trained. But somehow she heard my thoughts. She did it again a couple of times in the next few months and then has never done it again. It was so bloody weird.

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laura lee
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5 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mom probably mutters to herself unconsciously frequently thus the no talking rule bc it is distracting. My mom did

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Dealing with these sorts of uncomfortable situations is a very delicate thing. On the one hand, you want your kids to understand the importance of honesty and being in touch with one’s feelings. As a parent, you want them to be able to come to you with any problems they have, whether they’re mundane or genuinely bizarre. If your kids know they can trust you and they won’t be judged, they’ll be more open.

On the flip side, being a healthy and functioning member of society requires understanding the local cultural norms and ‘getting’ social clues. If you plan on making friends and holding down a job, you need to understand what (not) to say.
#7

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing I went into check on my sleeping daughter, who was four at the time, and she rolled onto her back, and muttered in her sleep, " I must not eat humans, humans aren't food". And then rolled back on to her side.

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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Kind of reminds me of "fish are friends, not food."

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#8

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing When we first brought our baby daughter home from the hospital. My preschool son walked up to her in her crib, looked at her and said "Hello. Welcome back.".

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Chocolate llama
Chocolate llama
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not creepy. I suppose she had been in mom's belly before, so for the kid's understanding she just was let out of that belly and is now back home.

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#9

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing My son used to talk about when “ he was alive before” and things he did in his “old life”.

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Connie Wade
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Watch the documentary: The Boy Who Lived Before. Very interesting.

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Just as important (if not more) is how we say something. We can be honest about our thoughts and feelings while still presenting that information in a more—shall we say—‘palatable’ way.

In the meantime, let’s not pretend that every thought or feeling we have is stellar. Much of it is fluff and randomness. If someone were to act on everything that came into their mind, they’d probably make their family and friends worried and call the local hospital in the span of minutes.

Not every thought or feeling has to be acknowledged. We need self-awareness and good internal filters to find the signal among the noise.
#10

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing My four year old keeps talking about how her daughter died in the water and she couldn’t fit in the hole and the map got all wet so she couldn’t read it. The daughter’s name was Gina. My kid has never, ever heard the name Gina.

Yesterday she told me that my dead dad “is fine with being dead. He’s ok.”.

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#11

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing My daughter was probably around 4 years old when we had this conversation:

Daughter: dad, you know how water is poisonous?

Me (confused): um, water isn't poisonous.

Daughter: it is if you put poison in it ...

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#12

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing My three yr-old daughter came up to me as I was sitting on the couch, reading. She leaned against my knee and heaved a big sigh...sort of an existential despair type sigh.

'What's the matter, sweetie?' looking down at her curly head, while her face was turned into my leg.

She turned her head up and said, 'I'm tired of this planet...I want to go back to the star where I came from...', looking me straight in the eye.

I picked her up, hugged her close, and said something like, 'I know, sweetie...I know.'

I never asked her about it again; several times I sort of alluded to something that would give her an opening, if she wished it...but, she never brought it up again.

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What parents can do is talk to their kids about how their words and actions affect the people around them. The vast majority of us might be born with a sense of empathy, but it’s still a social skill that needs to be honed. And a kid’s family members are in the perfect position to set a good example.

What’s important here is the willingness to communicate. Parents who take the time to listen and then explain to their munchkins why we don’t do one thing or another show that they’re willing to talk about everything. Even if it’s uncomfortable.

They’re open to hearing their kids’ thoughts, too. This is far healthier than ignoring the situation entirely or telling your children to stop doing/saying strange things without going into detail about why it makes others feel bad.
#13

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing I was putting my 3 year old to bed and she said, “mommy, can you tell me a story where we all get electrocuted."

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#14

This happened last week.

My two year old is sitting down at the table for dinner. It's dark outside. He looks outside and says "What is that?"

He doesn't know how to say "who" yet. When meeting new people he says "what is that?" My wife and I look outside and don't see anything... It's dark. We look back at him. He's staring into the darkness. He's a kid, his eyes are new, he sees better than us.

We freak out. Is there someone outside in a dark outfit and we can't make it out, and he can? I grab a flashlight, go outside, looking for the trespasser. Nothing.

Come back in, he makes the same comment. I sit next to him and look in the direction he is. Like over 200 feet away, on another house, there is a small LED American flag that is turned on. It's barely a foot wide.

"Is what you're looking at red and blue?"

"Yeah!"

"That's a flag, buddy.".

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#15

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing Mine isn't very good, but it creeped us out pretty well. Our 16 month old son was going to bed, and my wife said"say goodnight dad!" and my son removed his pacifier said "goodnight dad" completely clearly, well enunciated, no baby syllables at all, and has since refused to repeat it.

Espelancer , Alicia / Pexels Report

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similarly
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There's a legend in Borneo that Orangutans can talk, but choose not to because they fear humans will use them as slaves. Maybe the son figured the same.

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What’s the creepiest thing that you’ve ever heard or seen a child do, dear Pandas? What do you personally think is the healthiest way to react to situations like this? Which of the stories featured in this post weirded you out the most?

If you're feeling up to it, share your thoughts in the comments.
#16

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing Five year old stares around wide eyed and genuinely asked is this even real? Is this real life or like a game. I had a minor existential crisis.

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TruthoftheHeart
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5 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Imagine if we're all just babies of some kind in the universe, just here to gather life's experiences for our souls and incubate around the Sun. It takes several life spans but eventually our glow will be ready.maybe we will become something truly special. There's so many people with supposed memories of past lives. Makes way more sense to me than a heaven/hell, thats too biased,everyone has a different idea of perfection

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#17

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing A few greatest hits:

When my son was about 2/3, for a few days in a row he told me that there was someone in his room with “no eyes, just ears” the night before.

For a while around age 3, that same son got confused about the meaning of “dead” and would use it to mean “inanimate”. So a stuffed animal cat would be “a dead cat,” and a doll would be “a dead kid” etc.

Now, at 4 years old, when he’s having a tantrum about something mundane, like he doesn’t want to go to bed or doesn’t want to get dressed, he’ll threaten to “make himself not alive anymore.”

Meanwhile, when my daughter was around 5 years old, she discovered the concept of wills and inheritance (probably from the Aristocats movie, if I recall) and went through a phase of asking if various items of mine—usually sparkly stuff like jewelry—would be hers one day after I had died.

Fun times.

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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My children are looking forward to having Granny's gold tooth when she dies😬

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#18

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing While I'm a parent, the creepiest thing I've experienced was while at work at a childcare centre. I work with infants and we have a sleep room, sort of separated from the play area. (I imagine many infant rooms work this way but that's beside the point). The sleep room was dark since we had set it up for nap time while the children ate their lunch when one of the boys looked into the darkness, smiled, waved and said "hi!".

I looked over to the room and there was definitely nothing there. He was pretty friendly though and would usually smile, wave and say "hi!" to people as they walked past the room.

I asked my coworker if she would mind putting the kids to sleep that day as she hadn't heard him say this.

Yes, I sacrificed my coworker to the ghost along with the children. They had a good run.

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#19

More cute than creepy, but still very surprising- when my niece was a baby, she had these little wind-up turtle toys for the bath. Before she was even crawling properly, she would snatch the turtles out of the water with her mouth.

I'm talking full-on predator instincts, slowly tracking the toy with her eyes, and then launching her face towards it and coming back up with it in her mouth. She'd laugh when she got it, but was completely deadpan while focusing on it. Maybe a year old.

And that's why we call her our little velociraptor

Also yes, we made sure she was safe in the bath and pulled her back upright immediately.

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#20

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing My son had an imaginary friend named Xavier... but Xavier was the ghost of a little boy who was in his room. He'd have whole conversations with this supposed ghost. It was f*****g creepy. He forgot all about him within a few weeks of starting preschool and has no memory of him now.

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similarly
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Xavier thought the kid was avoiding him because he wasn't around as much after he started school. Xavier split, man.

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#21

Not my kid, but my nephew. Aged about 3 I was showing him a Sonic the Hedgehog game and he went "I've played that before, with my old Grandad".

His Mum explained that he regularly talks about his old life and she'd pieced this much together from him...

- He died when he was 13
- All his family were very sad
- He had lots of brothers and sisters
- He lived in a flat with his old mummy and daddy who were very nice, but didn't have many teeth
- He picked my SIL and BIL to be his new Mummy and Daddy

He was very consistent and very persistent that his old mummy and daddy were good people when SIL said to someone "It sounds like they were crackheads"

Pretty weird. Not sure if he still talks about them now he's started school.

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Nils Skirnir
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some folks say that until about age 5 or so we have memories of out past lives.

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#22

I caught my nephew bringing food to a dead wolf he named Cody. We all thought Cody was a friend from school because he had a classmate named Cody that he would go hang out with. Nope. I followed him to Cody’s house which was a cave about 50 feet out of town in the woods and there was all sorts of wrappers from snacks and a decaying wolfs body.

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laura lee
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5 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wolf was probably alive and injured to begin with 😥

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#23

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing For a while, when my son was 3/4, he would cry and scream because he dreamed there was a tall man at the end of his bed, who was completely black and had holes where his eyes should be.

His nightmares were really bad for a while, and I can't blame him.

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#24

My daughter (about 2.5 at the time) saying Hi John! to nobody. I said, kind of amused, "John who, honey?"
"John G____!" she declared. A cousin of mine, who had died by suicide across the country 6 years earlier. This was a 2nd cousin, not a last name of anybody she would have known or met.
"Where's John G?" I asked, and she trotted out into the hallway and pointed to the stairs. Not down the stairs, but straight ahead, if that makes sense.
We waved hi to John, and then swiftly changed the subject.

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#25

When my daughter was young, we’d be riding in the car & she’d randomly say: “My sisters are here!” Then animatedly whisper to the empty seat beside her. She was very lighthearted about the whole thing, she spoke of “Ira” & other sisters that she didn’t know their names. She was always happy to see them, being an only child, imaginary friends weren’t a concern to me. What was worrisome was it only happened near cemeteries. It was one of those creepy things you’d try to explain away. She’d say it & I’d look around, relieved to see no headstones in sight, only to find a small family plot buried in the brush along the roadside a few moments later. Once it happened on vacation, she said it at the base of a hill. As we crested the hill, there was a cemetery on the other side. I have no clue why & she never mentioned the cemeteries or ever acknowledged them. It happened frequently & I would just shrug it off, eventually she got older, it stopped.
She’s a teen now, says when she thinks of it, it’s like a dark room full of different girls with the light only shining on the girl she knew as Ira in the forefront.
I googled the girl name Ira, is means ‘watchful’ in Hebrew.

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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They're not her sisters they're her. She's just remembering past lives starting with the most recent

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#26

My 2 year old regularly talks to a “baby brother” in the dark at bedtime. He points at shadowy corners and says baby brother!! He doesn’t have a baby brother. And on more than one occasion my husband and I have heard the pitter-patter of feet at night only to realize our 2 year old is fast asleep. So ya, we have a toddler ghost I guess.

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#27

One day when my son was about 3, he started asking all kinds of interesting questions about his younger sister. He was providing details about the way she dresses and her personality. I kept trying to ask if he meant his cousins or a friend from school, maybe a character on his favorite TV show, but this only made him more upset. By the time my wife came in the room he was nearly stamping his feet asking these questions I couldn't answer. After my wife tried to calm him down and assure him that there was no 'little sister,' he got even more upset and screamed, "Then why does she look just like you?" This caused my wife to run out of the room crying and slam the door to the bedroom behind her.

Just over a year earlier, my wife had a miscarriage at about 9 weeks in. It's an emotional event she still hasn't completely recovered from to this day, and to this day, I still have no idea to whom he was referring.

The good news is that this sort of talk ended that day and was never spoke of again. He now has a real little sister. It was a spine tinglingly creepy conversation I'll never forget.

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Biofish23
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My oldest son spent months talking about his little sister. At first it was excitement that he was going to have a little sister, which we eventually chalked up to one of his pre-school classmates ( who's mom was pregnant ) talking about her impending little sister. Then it shifted to him being incredibly worried his little sister wouldn't be able to find us. She was lost, she was in the woods, what if she can't find us! All assurance that he didn't have a little sister, or attempts to ask if he was just pretending we're just ignored. Eventually he stopped talking about this 'little sister.'. Two years, and a miscarriage, later his little sister was born.

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#28

My partner’s nephew was really into commercial jingles when he was about four. Grandma was babysitting one night and, after she had put the kid to bed, she fell asleep on the couch in the living room.

Now, this was one of those wrap-around couches with a high back, so someone who is the height of a four year old can’t really be seen coming down the hallway by someone laying on the couch.

Well, around 1am Grandma is woken up by a small child’s voice slowly singing “Nationwide is on your side,” from somewhere in the dark behind her.

Scared her silly. Thanks, Brad Paisley!

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#29

I had a 10 yr old who got hit by a car and died.

People meant well but some of the comments were insane. Like well you’re young you can always have more. No bueno.

Anyway I was waiting with my 6 yr old for the bus and made a comment about not getting too close to the road. He said it’s ok Mommy if I die you can get another one.

He knows nothing about my daughter. It was 16 yrs ago. I lost it.

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ConstantlyJon
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm a little surprised OP hadn't brought up their sibling who died? Maybe they thought they were too young but damn.

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EmAdoresHerKats🇮🇪🇩🇿🇵🇸
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a still born. I never talked about it. Even when i married my husband i didn't talk about it for years. Some people find it hard to voice it. Its very painful

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Eric S.
Eric S.
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a coworker say "I don't understand why he's so upset, he can always get another one" when hearing how devastated one of our coworkers was at the loss of his favorite dog. I gave him an earful. That was about a pet. What kind of a psychopathic monster has a reaction like that about the loss of a child? Mind boggling.

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Jeevesssssss
Jeevesssssss
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Jesus. My CAT was hit by a car and died and if someone suggested I could just get another to replace him and it'd all be good I'd have clawed their eyes out, let alone a child you have hopes and dreams for and whom you never expect to outlive. People really fûcking suck.

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Emma London
Emma London
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They didn't tell the six year old that he had a sister? There were no pictures of her in the house?

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Lululoohoo
Lululoohoo
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

your 6 year old son has no idea they had an older sibling who passed away at age 10? I cannot even fathom that...what an opportunity lost for both parent & child to honor the loved sibling/child.

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#30

My two younger ones would talk quite a bit about it before they started school. Who they were in a past life, I just took it as matter of fact, my son had been a German soldier in WW2, and my daughter had been on the run as a little girl with a another little girl with dark hair and eyes in France in WW2. She described running to a house that had a big blank wall next to it out in the country- they were running for their lives on a dirt road before dawn. I did some googling and there was a safe house that was still standing with a big cinder block wall next to it! It made me think maybe it's true that we encounter the same person who we have things to work out still, until we fix things or something. Who can know for sure?

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#31

Oh I've got a good one! So my son was probably about 4 or 5. I wake him up every morning. I go in one morning and he is already awake in bed, his eyes wide open and blanket pulled up to his chin. He is completely still and just staring at the corner of his room. I look at him, look at the corner, wait a couple of seconds, and asked him what was wrong. Still looking at the corner, he says "Somebody crawled on the floor, and up the wall and looked around. When he looked at me his head did this." Then he pointed his finger in the air, and just started spinning it in a circle very fast. I put my hand on his back and said, "lets go get breakfast and watch some cartoons." He looked very freaked out and I wanted to get his mind off of it. As he is walking down the hall in front of me, he sort of half whispers out loud "He just faded away..." I didn't let him know it, but I was freaking out inside! He is 8 years old now and I asked him if he remembers it. He said he does, and that he saw it another time backwards crawling on his ceiling before just fading away again. Freaky.

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#32

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing Watching my nephew. We were playing tag and I was chasing him around the house when he like disappeared. He showed up behind me and I said, “ oh there you are Dylan how’d you get there?” He looked me dead in the face serious as ever and said, “ I’m not Dylan” in a deep raspy voice. I laughed it off and told him to go watch tv.

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#33

When my kid was around 2ish, she told me one morning "mommy, the ghost picked me up last night". I was like wtffff because I've never talked to her about ghosts or used the word ghost or anything along those lines (something she could've easily picked up at daycare or from a kids show or something).

A few years later when she was around 5ish, she was like "mommy, remember how I used to cry at night?" (she was a terrible sleeper and would wake up like 4+ times a night and cry until we came to get her). She said "It's because the ghost used to come into my room and pick me up at night".

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#34

My daughter told me she loves me so much she wishes she could wear my face!

Apparently there’s no returns on creepy kids….

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#35

Me and my 15 month old share a room and sometimes she just stares at me while I sleep. It freaks me out when I wake up and the first thing I see is a tiny child staring at me. To make it worse sometimes she just stares and whispers at me and it sounds like she’s putting a curse on me.

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FrogMan
FrogMan
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When my daughter was 2, she had pajamas that had a glow in the dark skeleton printed on them. So one time, at about 2 am she comes running into our room to tell us she had a bad dream. I woke up and saw a small skeleton standing in front of me. I started screaming, she started screaming, and my wife died laughing. Always hated those pajamas…

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#36

This was almost 20 years ago. My youngest son was about 3 I think. I was up late on a Friday or Saturday night watching TV while the kids were sleeping. My son comes out of his room and says "Dad come see the lady in my room." I was a little freaked out so I went with him. We get to his room and no one is there. He says "she's gone now". I asked where she was or something like that and he says "She comes out of the wall".

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#37

Maybe not very unsettling, but still...

I was pregnant, waiting my second child and my first born was about 2 years old. She had some speech delays and usually formed sentences containing max 2 or 3 words. Anyhow...

I was making dinner and my daughter was in the kitchen with me. Suddenly she looks at me, points up with her finger and states calmly and matter of factly: "I used to watch you from up there."

I had no words for her, I simply turned around and stared at her. She smiled and ran off to play. Now I wish I would've asked her more about what she meant by that...

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#38

My son was almost 3 years old when he called me to his room about 5 minutes after he was put to bed. I asked him what's wrong, and he replied "I'm scared". I asked him "What are you afraid of?" "I'm scared of the old lady with the angry, red eyes!"

I figured he saw something on the telly or his ipad, so I, while bent over his baby bed in the corner, asked him where he'd seen this old lady with the angry, red eyes. "She's standing right behind you".

Damn, that was chilling. Worst of all, I turned around, slooowly, looked around and said there's nobody here - everything's ok. Kissed him goodnight and left him but let the door halfway open. Still feel bad about it, but wasn't going to let some angry old, red-eyed ghost b***h f**k with my family.

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#39

The kids at my son's school have this game where they mock the sewer grates by shouting "YOU CANT GET ME, PENNYWISE!"

The 1st time he did that at home certainly gave me pause considering no one his age should have ever seen IT.

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Kalikima
Kalikima
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Premium 5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My son (7) has never seen It, and somehow he knows who Pennywise is too.. it's amazing what they pick up in school from the other kids..

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#40

My son was around 4 years old. I was driving him to daycare, and he was uncharacteristically grouchy. Didn’t want to go. After around the third time I explained that mommy had to go to work, he got real quiet. Then, his tiny voice piped up from the backseat: “The darkness is watching you. In the night they’ll come for you”

He never explained it. I slept with the hallway light on.

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Eroe Infinito
Eroe Infinito
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"While asleep or while awake. They vow at night your soul to take."

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#41

I was the creepy child. I used to have an imaginary friend i called bibble. One day my mom walked in on me sitting in a chair smiling hella wide at nothing. I told her bibble was taking my picture. She's still convinced I had a demon friend.

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#42

My daughter (4) was playing in the backyard one day and I quickly went inside to do something in the kitchen on our first floor. I did not go upstairs to the bedrooms at all. After a minute or so I came back out. She said "mommy why were you in my room? I saw you look out the window at me!"

This freaked me out because we were the only people home at the time. I said I didn't go upstairs and she insisted she saw me look out her window. With great hesitation I went upstairs to look around but nobody was in my house lol - ghost or otherwise.

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#43

Big brother of 3 here

When I was about 16, I used to sleep in the same room as my first little brother (in a bunk bed) and my little sister (who had her baby bed at the other side of the room) , who was 2 at the time. It was late, around 2a and I was deeply absorbed in a book.

Complete silence, not a single car or person outside, even the cat was fast asleep and I was drifting off to sleep, when my sister suddenly lets out the sharpest and highest scream I've ever heard.

I am simply unable to forget this scream. The amounts of complete and utter horror that were contained within those two seconds bolted me awake like an entire pint of vinegar down my mouth. The pure unfiltered fear my body sensed had my breath hasty and my brain producing enough adrenalin to punch through a steel wall. I couldn't sleep that night. Rigid and on edge until sunlight.

There are still marks of my fingers on the plank of the bed from how hard I gripped it.

8 years later, I've had a fair share of scary and creepy experiences, but nothing prompted a gut response as deep as my little sister's scream.

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#44

My four year old nonverbal autistic nephew likes to randomly look past you and giggle like there's something standing behind you. Sometimes you will try to get his attention, but he's too entertained and focused on what's behind you. He doesn't do it to be funny or anything like that; he's done it since he was a baby. I know there's a rational explanation for it, like he's super focused on a spot of light or a speck of dirt - but it's still creepy as heck when it happens.

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PixxelDust
PixxelDust
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just a theory -- many autistic people, especially kids, show abnormalities in eye contact, most commonly not liking to make eye contact. He's probably laughing/entertained by *you*, hence why you're unable to 'distract' him from it -- he's aready focused on you, he just prefers to look past you to avoid eye contact. Not an expert, just an autistic person.

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#45

I asked my mom and this is what she said.

“you were playing with toys on the couch and kept saying hello to someone. i asked you who you were talking to and you said, “”the man! in all black! he’s walking up the stairs right now. he says hello.””

that house was holy watered up after (laugh).”.

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#46

I mentioned this just the other day.

My bedroom is really dark during the night. Woke up to my daughter right in front of my face whispering "mommy". All I could see was just a big shadow when I woke up. Scared the s**t out of me.

My sons have done it too, just not as close to my face.

She's also snuck in to our room in the middle of the night and grabbed my foot to wake me up. Childhood fear was realized except it was my own little monster instead of one that lives under the bed.

I've also caught one of my sons smooshing his bits in between the toilet seat and bowl. He was taking forever in the bathroom so I got up to check on him and saw him doing that. Think he was 5 at the time.

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SnackbarKaat
SnackbarKaat
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nothing that scared me more than having a feeling when asleep, opening your eyes and noticing a Dark figure - my kid - standing next to me

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#47

My nephew decided he didn't like to walk down the hall at night to use the bathroom. He started peeing in cups and glasses but would dump them out before anyone was the wiser. However pooping was a different matter, for that he would go into his closet and push a pile of clothes to the side and poop on the floor. I discovered this pile of poop once while house-sitting when they were away. I cleaned it up and had a private conversation with him he promised he would stop.

About a year later my brother and sister in law went out of town and wanted me to babysit while they were away for the weekend. My sister in law told me before they left that they caught my nephew pooping in the closet about a month ago and warned me and requested I check in mornings to make sure he wasn't doing it anymore. Apparently he had also done it at a friend's house during a sleepover.

I don't know if he still does it but he was about 7 or 8 when this was going down.

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clairebear
clairebear
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Needs to be enclosed an dark then, so he feels safe. Maybe build something around the toilet to mimic a closet. (Wanting to be enclosed is an autistic thing btw, I would get him checked)

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#48

When my son was 3 yo he was learning the alphabet pretty quickly. One morning he woke up and flawlessly started saying the alphabet backwards. I was half asleep and thought wow that's cool. Later after coffee and have woken up a bit I realized he was never taught to say it backwards...I was in a state of shock thinking how was this possible for a 3 yo to think "let me try it backwards".

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Jinx (she/her)
Jinx (she/her)
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was around 6 or 7, home sick from school, when I randomly sat up and stated the backwards alphabet for the first time. I had a sesame street blanket and sheet set that had the letters of the alphabet as its design, so I just kind of picked it up lol

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#49

Night terrors. 4 year old wakes up screaming, running into the living room, looking right at me as as I try to comfort him and looks right through me and then at me, as if I was the most horrible thing he'd ever seen or could have ever imagined, and then some.

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#50

My youngest slipped and fell in the shower when she was 8. She broke her two front teeth. Fast forward to last year, she told my wife and I that she did it on purpose. She was intending to break her arm so she could get sympathy from her friends at school.

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#51

A couple times my then 1.5 year old would sometimes wake full-on tears running down face, shoulders shaking, sobbing. I'd pick them up, and they'd be dry and decline a bottle. I'd ask them what's wrong, and they would choke out "Dat and dis and and dis and dat!"

They didn't have enough words to tell me about their nightmares, is what we figured.

I'd agree with them how "This and that" can be very rough indeed.

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#52

My son barged into my room at 3 am yelling at the dogs saying they puked and s**t all over his moms office. Half awake I shot out of bed and rushed in to find everything as it should be. I thought maybe he had a bad dream and was in a half awake state too. H started ranting about how they must have eaten it and cleaned it up. By this time I was wide awake but not clear on wtf was going on. Then the weird s**t kicked into high gear.
He started whispering and telling me to be quiet because his cousin was hiding in his closet listening to our conversation. I f*****g freaking out thinking my son has lost his f*****g mind and had a serious mental breakdown and separation from reality.
Turns out the little f****r internationally took 10 Dramamine because he read online it will make you hallucinate. Turns out it does. But not happy dancing forest elves like mushrooms or acid. But s**t eating dogs and nosy laundry monster cousins hiding in your closet at 3 am hallucinations.

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Sian E
Sian E
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Three questions. 1. How old was he? 2. If he was under 10, how did he know where the Dramamine was kept and how was it so accessible? 3. Do you not know what your child is up to online? If he was a teenager I would expect them to do something stupid like this. But 10 Dramamine at once is definitely an overdose for an adult or child, so I assume a trip to the emergency room was required?

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#53

50 Of The Creepiest Things People Caught Their Kids Doing I walked into my daughter's room. She was maybe 3-4. Had all her dolls and figures out and laid face down.

I asked what is with all the dolls?

She was sitting criss-cross and turned her head back towards me and said. They are sleeping daddy.

Then went back to tucking one in.

Walls weren't bleeding so I went back down stairs.

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Me Oh My (He/They)
Me Oh My (He/They)
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If I really think hard, I can understand the logic behind this. They might have been the kind that didn't have eyes that closed when you laid them down, so she laid them face down so it would be dark enough for them to "sleep."

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#54

When my kid was 3 I was woken up in the middle of the night because he was standing in the dark with a dark blanket draped over his head not unlike a tiny sith lord whispering the words to Frozen's "let it go" 2 inches away from my face.

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J K
J K
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I sometimes thought in some of the posters of Frozen 2 it looked like the sisters were wearing jedi robes.

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#55

Not a parent, but an auntie.
My nephew stayed at mine, he was 4/5 at the time and would stay in our bedroom (we had a spare room, but at his home he comes out of his room and turns right to the bathroom, if he did that at ours he'd fall straight down the stairs. Didn't want to risk that in the night). So we asked him to wake us up if he needed a wee (we sleep in the attic, again, didn't want him to risk falling down the stairs) and I rolled over one night to him just stood over me. It took everything I had not to scream in his face because that is a huge fear of mine!

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Stacy Jones
Stacy Jones
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My nephew used to sleepwalk when he was about 8. I lived with my sister and her family at the time, and I had a HUGE zombie phobia right then. This kid would come lurching around the house every night, one arm through his shirt armhole and the other just hanging down at his side, dragging one leg behind him, staring at the ground at nothing, drool dripping down his face. I told my sister she better start locking him in his room at night 😅

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#56

I woke up one night to use the restroom (getting old) and just on a whim looked in on the hallway where the door to my son's room was. The door was open, and he was standing in the hallway, staring at the bonus room door (facing away from me). He was clearly up because he'd wet his diaper or something and needed to have it changed and was simply groggy and lost inside the house, but for a moment there, I thought I was a dead man.

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