Lilah Sturges kicked off the thread by sharing her own puzzling experience. "When my daughter was around 4-5, she calmly insisted that she had once been married to a man named Brad Huffington," she wrote. "When we asked what had happened to him, she replied with a note of sadness, 'He was lost at sea.'"
Later on, she posted an update: "I mentioned this tweet to my daughter (who is now 21) and she reminded me that Brad lost a leg while serving in the Navy prior to his demise and that they had five kids together."
Her question and story received an avalanche of responses, from weird questions to odd statements about the spirit world. While some found the tweets amusing, those who tend to believe the supernatural were quite spooked. Let’s be honest, reading about how children believe they can communicate with ghosts can creep anyone out.
But we all know kids are brutally honest and can sometimes be like sponges soaking up all of the information around them. So they can goofily sneak up on you and act all adorable one day but stare into the void speaking about obscure things that just don't make any sense the next. It leaves moms and dads with a lot of questions in their minds and proves that parenting is a complicated experience with many highs and lows.
If you’re worried your child has been acting strange lately, Anisa Lewis, a positive parenting coach told Bored Panda in a previous interview that you should trust your judgment. "It really depends on your child and what it is that they are doing that has alerted you to their different behavior. You know your child best and if you are concerned in any way and the behavior has not changed for the better then it is always best to intervene," she advised.
“Depending on the age of the child and the behavior, you might wish to start with open-ended questions ‘What is going on for you?’ ‘How can I help?’ as a starting point,” Lewis said and added that more serious behavior changes may need a different approach.
But when the little ones speak about their disturbing imaginary friends or point at something only they seem to see, you can’t help but wonder. There are many theories online about kids allegedly seeing a ghost or conjuring up stories about them. And they caught the attention of Jacqueline D. Woolley, a psychology professor at the University of Texas who researches children’s evaluation and understanding of reality vs. the fantastical.
"There are admittedly lots of reports of kids seeing ghosts," she told The Washington Post. However, the professor added there are many holes in stories like these, namely, the brain. "Our minds naturally make connections between events, whether they’re connected or not. The brain pays attention to evidence that fits our theory and ignores the evidence that doesn’t fit," she explained.
When your child speaks of a visit from the other side, do not freak out. "You want to work with the emotion, not the ghost," Woolley said and suggested you "work within the fantasy".
For example, think about a monster that's under the bed: "Engage with the kid as to what it looks like and what it does. Ask her if she’s scared of the ghost or if she likes it and if she’s seen it before." Try to speak with your child and understand where all of this is coming from. "Then it’s up to you as a parent to decide if you want to encourage or discourage this belief."
