Children are amazing. They are so smart, creative, curious and brave, and we should never underestimate them. When our kids speak to us, they deserve our full attention. Just like adults, what they say is important to them, and they don’t want to be brushed aside. Once they say something extremely creepy, however, I think adults get a free pass to say, “Nope. You’re on your own kid!”
As adorable as children can be, they also have the capacity to be extremely frightening. There’s a reason why so many horror movies are centered around little ones turning demonic, ghost children haunting homes and kids experiencing paranormal activity before their parents do... So to bring attention to the terrifying nature of kids, one curious Reddit user asked parents to share the most unsettling things their children have said before, and they did not disappoint.
From seeing frightening imaginary friends to telling adults when they’re going to die, we’ve gathered the spookiest stories down below for all of you pandas to read, as well as an interview we were lucky enough to receive from clinical psychologist Dr. Amy Marschall, Psy.D. Be sure to upvote the responses that make you hesitant to ever have kids, and if you are a parent, feel free to share any scary things you’ve ever heard your kids say in the comments. Then if you’re looking for another Bored Panda article that will convince you how terrifying children can be, you can read some disturbing imaginary friend stories right here.
#21
"So I shouldn't throw him in the fire?"
3 year old daughter holding her baby brother for the first time.
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90points
#22
My kid was in the bathtub one night with the bathroom door open and I was puttering around in the next room. She called out and said "hey mommy, who was that blue guy who just walked down the hall?" She said he was tall and thin and featureless like "the shape of those men on the bathroom door like at a restaurant". Creeped me out!
84points
#23
I was the kid, my mom told me this story once I was older.
My great grandfather died, and because I was so young no one told me.
My mom took me to his grave a few weeks after it happened, and let me play amongst the gravestones while she lay flowers.
As we were leaving, I stopped and asked "why is great grandpa sitting in the tree?" I then pointed to what appeared to my mom as an empty tree, and waved.
The tree was planted so the branches hung right above where he was buried.
TL; DR: Pointed out my great grandfather to my mother without knowing he had died.
My great grandfather died, and because I was so young no one told me.
My mom took me to his grave a few weeks after it happened, and let me play amongst the gravestones while she lay flowers.
As we were leaving, I stopped and asked "why is great grandpa sitting in the tree?" I then pointed to what appeared to my mom as an empty tree, and waved.
The tree was planted so the branches hung right above where he was buried.
TL; DR: Pointed out my great grandfather to my mother without knowing he had died.
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84points
#24
My 3 year old was laying on my chest a few weeks ago and she said "I can hear your heart, Mommy. It was much louder when I was inside there with the poops that didn't come out yet".
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76points
#25
I was tucking in my two year old. He said "Good bye dad." I said, "No, we say good night." He said "I know. But this time it's good bye."
Had to check on him a few times to make sure he was still there.
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76points
#26
My daughter said to me that there is a woman who watches her watch movies in her room and sleeps on the ceiling above her bed when she sleeps. she also says it does not like me and wants to eat my heart. my kid watches Elmo and f**king dinosaur train. where in the hell did she get this from?
75points
#27
I don't have kids but apparently this happened when I was about four.
I shared a room with my older sister and we had huge closets in our bedroom that were about 6 foot tall. My mother would wake up in the middle of the night to hear me crying and she'd come in to investigate what was wrong. She then would find me sitting on top of the 6' closest, cross-legged and rocking back and forth while crying about; "The big scary man put me up here".
Since my mother was tired from it being the middle of the night and being heavily pregnant she didn't really think about HOW I got up on the closet, but would put me back into bed and comfort me until I fell asleep again.
But then my grandmother came to stay with us a few nights and she told my mother that she woke up in the middle of the night because it got suddenly cold and her bedroom door handle was turning. The door opened but no one was there and then the bathroom door opposite her door opened on its own. She stared out the door for a few minutes not moving because she was in shock and frightened, but then heard me start crying.
My mother walked by her room to get to me and of course I was crying about the man putting me up there. My grandmother told my mum what she experienced and my sister slept with my Gran and I slept with mum for the next couple of weeks after that. It stopped once my brother was born, and to this day I have no idea what really happened.
Since my mother was tired from it being the middle of the night and being heavily pregnant she didn't really think about HOW I got up on the closet, but would put me back into bed and comfort me until I fell asleep again.
But then my grandmother came to stay with us a few nights and she told my mother that she woke up in the middle of the night because it got suddenly cold and her bedroom door handle was turning. The door opened but no one was there and then the bathroom door opposite her door opened on its own. She stared out the door for a few minutes not moving because she was in shock and frightened, but then heard me start crying.
My mother walked by her room to get to me and of course I was crying about the man putting me up there. My grandmother told my mum what she experienced and my sister slept with my Gran and I slept with mum for the next couple of weeks after that. It stopped once my brother was born, and to this day I have no idea what really happened.
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74points
#28
My daughter (she's only 3) had a cat (Lexi) and it died a few months ago. One morning I noticed a small scratch on her hand and I asked her where it came from, she said in the most deadly serious face that I have ever seen a three year old pull; "I saw Lexi last night and he scratched me in the dark and then he flew away." I was so creeped out I couldn't sleep that night in case a killer cat came and cut me up while I was sleeping.
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71points
#29
My son when he was about 2... he had a weird fear of being abandoned, which there never was an incident of him getting lost or any type thing. He asked my wife if we have ever forgotten him anywhere, which she replied no. He responds "oh that's right, it happened when you were small and I was big"
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64points
#30
When I was a toddler, my maternal grandparents lived a few blocks away in an older 2-story house with an unfinished basement and a walkable storage attic.
I was scared sh**less of the basement and typically wouldn't go down without an adult. The furnace and the central vac were down there and the noises they made scared me. The attic on the other hand was my playground. All the old toys and abandoned family stuff was up there.
My whole family; parents, grandparents, aunts and uncle, all talk about the multiple times that I would ask to go upstairs to play with grandpa George, or come down saying I had been playing with him.
Thing is, there's no-one in my family that I've known named George...
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61points