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43 Things That Happened To People As Kids That Sound Like Someone Forgot To Fact-Check Reality
Some childhood memories fade with time, while others become the kind of stories that get more entertaining every time they're told. The problem is that some experiences are so unbelievable that no matter how honestly you tell them, people are convinced you're making the whole thing up. After all, not every kid can say they accidentally stumbled into a situation stranger than fiction.
So when people were asked to share the craziest thing that ever happened to them as children that nobody believes, they certainly delivered. From impossible coincidences and eerie encounters to jaw-dropping accidents and unbelievable strokes of luck, these stories prove that real life can sometimes be far weirder than anything Hollywood could dream up.
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#1
I was sleeping and my bedroom window was level to the ground in our backyard. I woke up to someone whispering “close the window” cause we didn’t have ac and it was summer, i ignored it and started falling back asleep. Then the voice screamed “CLOSE THE WINDOW NOW” so i immediately closed it. The next morning there was dirty fingerprints on the window like someone was trying to open it. 😬
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#2
Not as a child, but my brother who I lost in 2020 called my phone in 2023 the night I got engaged (I was already asleep and missed the call, I saw it when I woke up) His phone/number had been shut off for 3 years, but I refused to delete it. I think he was saying congratulations
#3
As an adult , I lost my dad , and one day I was sitting in the living room , my son and wife were in bed I was just sitting on the couch in the dark thinking about him . My son’s toy that is push button activated that talks. Said out of no where “ I will always love you” and no matter how many times I pushed that button, it never said those words again.
Some childhood experiences remain astonishingly clear even decades later, while countless ordinary moments gradually fade from memory. As The Swaddle explains, the brain is especially receptive during childhood, making emotionally significant events far more likely to be stored for the long term. Moments filled with fear, embarrassment, or joy leave a deeper imprint because they activate the brain's memory-forming processes.
Experiences that help shape a person's identity also tend to be revisited throughout life, whether through reflection, family conversations, or storytelling. Each retelling reinforces the memory, helping explain why some childhood moments remain remarkably vivid long after everything else has been forgotten.
#4
In 6th grade, my teacher, Mr. Mayer, pointed at me and a boy across the room and said, “You two are going to get married one day.” We both immediately said, “Ew!” 😂 Years later, when I was 25, I had a dream about that same boy, our future, and our kids. I just couldn’t get it out of my head it was so vivid the worst part of the dream was I found out my ex had gotten another girl pregnant… and it ended up being true in real life. I left that toxic relationship, reached out to the boy from 6th grade, and now we’re getting married this September. ❤️
OneHappyPuppy 1 hour ago
My (now) husband was a colleague in university that came to study from abroad. He eventually dropped out of that uni, and went back to his home country during the summer break. End of September, I had a vivid dream of us walking and talking for hours, and it made me realize I missed him more than just as a friend. He came to visit again in January of the next year, and I insisted we stay in touch. We got together that April, had a LDR for many years until I finished uni, and we're now married, still going strong
#5
I lost my Papa when I was 5. One night when I was 10 I wrote in my journal about how much I missed him then went to bed. I swore I woke up, went to chat with my mom in the living room and he was there sitting on the couch. I ran up and we talked for hours. Then he said he had to go back, walked outside and ascended to the sky. I woke up the next morning to my journal being open and my mom crying in the living room. She said she had the same dream. I don’t think it was a dream at all.
#6
One night my husband and I were laying in bed. He had fallen asleep and I had just dozed off. I woke up to the sound of a man chuckling RIGHT in my ear but tried to brush it off thinking I was hearing things. Suddenly my husband lifted his head and said “did you hear that?” And when I asked what he heard, he said “a man laughing” 😖
Of course, remembering an extraordinary event and convincing someone else it really happened are two very different things. Psychology Today explains that people naturally strike a balance between trusting others and remaining skeptical of claims that seem highly unusual. Most everyday stories are accepted without much thought, but once an event sounds too improbable, our brains begin looking for reasons to question it.
Past experiences with exaggeration, misinformation, and deception make people instinctively more cautious, leading them to expect stronger evidence before believing something that falls far outside their normal experience. Even sincere accounts can therefore be met with disbelief simply because they sound too incredible to be true.
#7
after we lost my dad my mom and i were driving on the highway and i was just sobbing bc she told me she had a dream about him and i thought it wasn’t fair bc i wanted to see him, i wanted a sign. i was begging for a sign. minutes later we pass a billboard that says “THIS IS YOUR SIGN love chad” (my dads name) we had to pull over for like an hour bc we were so bewildered
#8
When I was a child I had an imaginary friend. Her name was Jane. I don't remember making her up, I just remember her being so vivid. In the 3rd Grade, we visited a 19th century farm on a field trip. Jane told me she was related to me, thus my middle name being Jane, and that she used to live on that farm. A few weeks later I visited my grandmother and told her about the field trip. She got so excited and told me our family lived on that farm and got out a binder she kept our ancestral records in. Sure enough there were photos of the exact farm I had visited. And standing in them? Jane. She was grown up in the photo, but I knew it was her. I never saw Jane again after that.
#9
I was maybe 12, home alone with my 2 younger sisters and we were playing Mario Cart and I was kicking their trash, and during the race I heard this voice that said “Go make sure the front door is locked” And before I even paused the game I went upstairs and checked the door which was NOT LOCKED and I happened to look outside as I locked the door and saw a scary looking man opening our screen door about to open the main door. He knocked on the door and wiggled the doorknob for several minutes. Luckily my neighbors was a cop so I called him and asked if he could come over until my parents came home. It was terrifying.
TheReader19 5 hours ago
It's very strange to me coming from the UK, that in sime countries the front door doesn't lock automatically when closed. Is there cultural reasons behind this?
That skepticism exists even though childhood itself is often filled with unexpected adventures. According to the BBC, children are naturally driven by curiosity and a desire to understand a world that is still completely new to them. Without a fully developed ability to assess danger, they're much more likely to climb unfamiliar places, investigate strange objects, and push boundaries simply to see what happens.
Combined with vivid imaginations and intense emotional reactions, this curiosity can lead children into situations that adults would never willingly put themselves in. Those unusual experiences often become the stories that are remembered and retold for years afterward.
#10
I lost a necklace my grandma gave me when I was little girl. I looked everywhere for it and never could find it. Months later I was thinking about the necklace and saw something quickly fall from the ceiling infront of me. When I looked down right at my feet was the necklace.
#11
anyone else dream of random moments in the future as a child then experience intense déjà vu as an adult with these very specific small moments
#12
I’ve always had a vivid memory of talking and playing with a boy next door during my childhood. In my mind, he was just my regular neighbor, JP. Years later, a close friend of mine bought a house 2 blocks away Curious, I asked her if JP still lived there. She told me she knew the owners well, but they were actually an elderly couple. Shortly after, while out walking her dog, I noticed an old man gardening in the yard and recognized it was JP's dad but never really communicate with them before. I stopped by to chat and asked him how JP was doing, explaining that I was the girl JP used to play with back in the day. The old man looked at me, confused, and asked, "What year was that?" "1993," I replied. He stared at me and said, "That’s not possible. JP has been gone since 1990." I stood there, completely frozen. What?
Perhaps that's one reason the saying that truth is stranger than fiction has endured for generations. As The Book Haven notes, real life isn't constrained by the rules that make fictional stories believable. Writers usually need events to follow a logical sequence, with convincing characters and plausible outcomes, but reality has no such obligation.
It can produce extraordinary coincidences, bizarre twists of fate, and unpredictable human behavior that would seem too unrealistic if they appeared in a novel or movie. Sometimes the most unbelievable stories are simply the ones that happened exactly as they unfolded, proving that real life can be far stranger than anything an author could invent.
#13
I was in my room playing when I was 6, my grandmother came into my room and said I love you. When she exited the room, the phone rang breaking the news that we lost her. She was in hospice, 1,200 miles away.
#14
My dad p****d when I was 10. Around age 15 or 16 I was super into paranormal stuff and every once in a while things would fall off my wall or stuff would be knocked over etc. one day a painting fell off my wall so I ran to my mom and told her. A year later my mom and I went and saw a medium. The medium said “your dad says sorry for scaring you and knocking stuff off of your wall. He was just trying to get your attention”
#15
Not as a kid but as an adult . I was camping alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Around 3 o’clock in the morning I was laying in my tent reading, and I heard my girlfriend calling out my name. The only problem is my girlfriend was in the Marine Corps at the time and she had transferred to Japan six months beforehand. I am immediately knew that this was a Haint because I’d been told about them by her as she was from West Virginia. It went on for 1015 maybe 20 minutes. I didn’t move a muscle. I didn’t turn off my flashlight. I didn’t do anything. I just laid there until the sun came up. I packed everything up and got in my car and got the hell out of there. I’ve never been so scared of my entire life.
Mary Horvath 5 hours ago
Just took a deep dive into Haints. Very interesting malevolent spirit
Looking back, it's often the strangest childhood moments that stick with us the longest. Whether they were hilarious, terrifying, or downright impossible to explain, these stories are the kind that get brought up at family gatherings, only to be met with skeptical looks. Sometimes, reality really is just stranger than fiction.
Some people are lucky enough to have photos or witnesses to back them up, while others are left defending their story for the rest of their lives. As you read through these unforgettable memories, perhaps you might also be motivated to share the craziest thing that happened to you as a child that people still don't believe!
#16
Not sure if this is creepy or not, but there is a tree at my grams house. In the heat of the summer with no breeze in sight, we can wave at the tree and a small branch will slowly start waving back! Then another one. Then a few more! Before you know it, the entire tree is waving at you while the other trees around the yard sit completely still!!
#17
Not as a kid but for the past few months I kept having these thoughts of what would I do if my husband d**d and I could never picture him old. Anytime I try to imagine our life as an old couple I’m always alone. A week ago he was diagnosed with cancer and I’m terrified.
#18
When I was about 6, my mom (she was a single mom), sister, and I were at Walmart and I had been hiding in the clothes rack playing around. I had gotten lost and couldn’t find my mom. This random man found me and asked if I needed help finding her and I said yes. He said let’s go look in the parking lot. As we were walking out the door my mom saw us and sprinted to grab me and the man took off 🥲
#19
I was driving alone late at night and I got to an empty intersection, no cars in sight. I got a red light and when it turned to green, I heard a voice tell me to wait. Somehow I knew to listen. In that moment a car driving incredibly fast passed right in front of me. I never knew who it was, or what it was but it likely saved my life.
Bored Trash Panda 2 hours ago
This is why I always wait a few seconds before I go if I am first in line at a red light. I have had a couple close calls with idiots running red lights. I don't give a d**n if someone honks at me, my safety (and passengers, especially my kid) is more important than your inconvenience of waiting a couple seconds.
#20
This happened when I was an adult but my mom p****d away when I was 5 her name was Mary (relevant). When i went to be induced with my first daughter my aunt got a voicemail. When she played it all it said was “this is Mary”. She tried to find it after and it was no longer there. Then when I went to have my second daughter I got an email the same day and the subject just said “Mary” and all the email said was “Hi, I hope you’re okay.” No one can convince me it wasn’t my mom
#21
One of my cousins, Donnie, passed before I was born. My family didn’t handle his loss well so they never talked about him or displayed photos of him. One day when I was about 3 years old, I answered the front door for a stranger but when my parents got to the door, there was no one there. I told them that he said his name was Donnie & wanted to tell them he was ok, he loved them and missed them. My parents were shaken. A couple months later, we were looking at photo albums and I correctly picked out a photo of my late cousin and said “that’s Donnie! That’s who was at the door”
#22
My aunt has always told me when I was little to say “go away” “you’re not welcome here” to anything that made me feel scared. Anyways, I moved into my house and I had a laundry basket I’d set on top of the dryer and it would always be on the ground and I couldn’t figure out why well one day I was walking out of the room and I heard it fall behind me and I said “you’re not welcome here” and I went to bed. My brother calls me the next morning saying he had a dream our grandpa that p****d away was unpacking a suitcase at his house because I had told him he wasn’t welcome in my home.
#23
My grandmother, who lived with us when she was sick in her later part of life, passed when I was 6. It was my first time grieving losing someone. She was Native American, so she always liked to put my long hair in braids. It had to have been at least a week after her funeral until it all actually hit me that she wasn’t coming back. The first time I cried myself to sleep, I woke up the next morning with my hair in a loose braid and no hair tie at the end.
#24
I will dream about things that that have no meaning to me then maybe a year or years later I will recognize whatever it was from my dream. Anytime that happens I have this feeling I’m in the right place for my life
#25
was sleeping in my older sister's room in her other bed and she woke me up early in the morning smiling uncannily and told me she wanted my hair clip which was right next to me. i yelled at her and told her she could've just taken it without waking me up, handed it to her, and went back to sleep, i woke up hours later and saw my hair clip under my sister's bed so i told my mom that my sister woke me up and that at the end she did not take it anyway, but then my mom looked at me weirdly and said, "your sister didn't even get home yesterday, she slept over at her friend's house and is coming back tomorrow" i never slept in my sister's room ever again😭
#26
A lady used to read me bedtime stories to help me sleep (I was a very sick kid). My sister saw her. My neighbors, also kids, saw her & told their parents about her. I could recite books my parents never read to me. I truly believe it was a nice ghost helping me when I needed it the most. I hope she’s somewhere at peace now ♥️
#27
I tripped and fell down the stairs but was picked up carried and floated down the stairs and gently placed on the bottom . My dad ran up terrified said that was horrible and I said I floated down I’m fine. I was 5 and I feel divinely protected since that day.
#28
I had an old lady who would babysit me. She never really said anything but was always with me when I was alone in a room playing and sat by my bed when I took naps. Asked my mom about her years later and she said I never had a babysitter 😳
#29
I was elementary school age and I was in my sisters room sleeping and I kept seeing a light go by her window and I woke her up and told her and she said it was just a car and I said “you would be able to hear it” so we woke my parents and my dad went outside and it was a man at her window. She later that night told us it had been happening about 3 days straight and she thought it was a car..
#30
As a child I played the Ouija board by myself it told me I would pass at 48 but live to 84.I flatlined twice and bought back I was 48 years old.
#31
I had a reoccurring dream as a child of a house that i bought and lived in as and adult that I never seen before…. In 2020 I bought that house…
#32
When I was around 4 or 5, I had an imaginary friend named Spencer, we’d play around my house and yard, I can easily describe what he looked like to this day. One day, he stopped coming around, I didn’t think about him for years until one day in 2019 I was walking around the cemetery across the road from my house, and I’m drawn to a old grave stone. I walk up to it, and there’s a picture of Spencer. He was 10 when he p****d.
#33
I saw a fairy walk beside the running board in my room. It was carrying a very small piece of twig. It dropped and ran behind my desk when it saw that I saw it. It peeped its head out from around the back of my desk and looked at me for about half a minute, then ran into my closet. Because of its size, I thought it was a leprechaun. Found out when I was older that it was a Brownie fairy. I had the piece of twig it left for years.
#34
I met the love of my life in a dream once and I felt myself waking up and started panicking telling him I didn’t wanna lose him. Gave him my phone number and when I woke up at 4 am, my phone was ringing with a restricted number…I answered but there was just static
#35
Laying in bed watching TV while my infant son slept one room over. All of a sudden the TV went to static. I stared at it for a few seconds and in the static I seen the word BABY. I jumped out of bed to go check on him and our back door ( 2 feet from his room) was wide open. I know darn well it was closed when I went to bed. He slept with me that night.
#36
I used to live in an apartment when I was a kid. My brother and I shared a room. I was maybe seven, and he was five. He would wake up in the middle of the night and go play in the closet with his “friend.” I always thought he just didn’t want to go to sleep and was playing by himself. One night, I woke up because I heard people talking. As clear as day, I heard a little girl say, “Hey, your sister’s up.” I got out of bed and walked over to the closet to see who was in there… and he was completely alone, just playing by himself. Yeah, that’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.
#37
When i was like 6, my fam went to visit my late grandfather at the cemetery, it was sunset so we were making a quick trip. My mom was putting us in the car, to keep us occupied for the moment, she told us to “say bye to grandpa!” So we said it together, then at the same time someone started honking the car horn. My parents were NOT in the front seat. Realizing that the car keys were missing, we went and looked for them. Found the car keys back at the grave stone sitting nicely on top. I believe my grandfather just wanted to see us again before we left
#38
Anything I think about comes up a few days later. For example if I say “I haven’t seen this person in a while” I will see them in a couple days. It would random ppl or a random saying on social media but I see it within days of saying it or thinking about it.
#39
I saw flannel man when I was 11-12 yrs old. Didn’t realize it till I first heard about him last year, I’m 56 yrs old.
#40
I used to wake up in the middle of the night knowing that if I got out of bed, something bad would get me. I'd wake up and instantly be filled with fear and dread, I'd have to pray on my rosary till I fell asleep. when I moved out of the house, my mom moved into my old room. one day she says "I get this weird feeling when I wake up in the night, I'm too scared to put my feet on the floor, i'm too scared to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night." I swear something evil lived in that room.
#41
My dad d***d when I was 4. He had a specific whistle her would do when he came home from work to let us know he was there. A year after he d**d, we moved into a new house and I heard him whistle just outside our back door...
TheReader19 5 hours ago
Can BP put on their big people's pants; and not censor the words died, d**d and passed. It's going to happen to everyone one day, so we all need to accept it.
#42
I was sleeping and my bedroom window was level to the ground in our backyard. I woke up to a horse whispering “neigh” cause we didn’t have ac and it was summer, i ignored it and started falling back asleep. Then the horse screamed “NEIGHHHH!” so i immediately closed it. The next morning there was dirty horseshoe prints on the window like a horse was trying to open it. 😬
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What do you think ?
TheReader19 5 hours ago
Can we be allowed to read "adult" words like died, d**d or passed away without them being censored please. I think we can handle it.
Ace 4 hours ago
passed is an odd one, as it's routinely allowed in comments like these and is not normally blurred out in posts copied here. Someone has deliberately chosen to do so. BUT you have to remember that the censorship is not to protect the reader, it's there to protect BP.
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TheReader19 5 hours ago
Can we be allowed to read "adult" words like died, d**d or passed away without them being censored please. I think we can handle it.
Ace 4 hours ago
passed is an odd one, as it's routinely allowed in comments like these and is not normally blurred out in posts copied here. Someone has deliberately chosen to do so. BUT you have to remember that the censorship is not to protect the reader, it's there to protect BP.
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