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.
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.
#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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23points
#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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22points
#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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22points
#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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21points
#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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20points
#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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17points
#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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17points
#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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17points
#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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15points
#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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12points