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A kid can transform from the sweetest little pumpkin into a frightening messenger of the Grim Reaper in a heartbeat.

Comedian Nash Flynn recently turned to Twitter with a story that perfectly illustrates this dichotomy.

In it, Flynn recalled the chilling time her son told her about wall people. You know, the folks that secretly crawl around your home, keeping an eye on everything you do.

Image credits: itsnashflynn

Image credits: itsnashflynn

Image credits: itsnashflynn

As Flynn's tweets were going viral, other Twitter users started responding to her with similar experiences of their own. From Mr. Boom to the Military Man, continue scrolling to learn about the imaginary (I hope!) creations children come up with.

#1

Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

fightpaindaily Report

Autistic apricot
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Aww, this is so sweet, I swear babies can see ghosts

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    We managed to get in touch with Nash Flynn and she was kind enough to have a little chat with us about her son and the now-viral thread he's responsible for.

    "He's four, and in his defense, one of his parents (me) is a death historian, so he's a little bit more comfortable about the creepier subjects than maybe most kids his age," Flynn told Bored Panda.

    "He spends quite a bit of time in cemeteries looking at gravestone art with me. He's also got a very incredible imagination — currently, he has an imaginary friend called Dude-o who goes on adventures with him — and he is naturally very funny and likes attention."

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    #5

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    LaurenHowl Report

    Izzy Curer
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I heard a reddit story where a lady watched a tiny orb of light enter her pregnant belly during the second trimester, and she said she felt like the baby's soul had entered her body right then. Since she was writing this a few years after the fact, she said that the orb 'felt' like it had the same personality as the kid she ended up having, now that she actually knew them.

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    The mom said that mainly because her son is a good storyteller, she doesn't find his stories creepy. 

    "The wall people was a bit of an outlier, but actually I've seen quite a few people in the thread say their kids had also seen wall people before so it sounds like either we've got a planet earth infestation of ghouls that enjoy a good drywall or it's a bit of seeing faces in patterns or shadows, like humans tend to," Flynn explained.

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    #6

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    RYANtheDRUMMOND Report

    Icy_Question_4977
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I hope whatever the boy is saying is cap because that is extremely creepy.

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    #7

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    YesMissMurphy Report

    Balso Steele
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The ex & I had just bought a house where the upper story went bathroom-landing-kids' bedroom. My PC was on the landing bc it had the only working phone jack for DSL. Couple months later, the kids (9 & 7) couldn't sleep bc when they did, *something* was in their room giving off a "you don't belong here" vibe, so I told them they could sleep in our room til I went to bed. Couple hours later, my screen went black going into a cutscene so it was like a mirror, and someone walked behind me in the dark. There wasn't an outer stairwell. I noped the hell downstairs. The next week's paper came out, and there was the obit for the previous owner...who'd died the evening of the irritated specter.

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    #8

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    LauraNourish Report

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    From the Grady Twins (The Shining) and Samara (The Ring) to Regan (The Exorcist) and, of course, Damien (The Omen), many horror movies terrify us with children. 

    There are many reasons why boys and girls are so effective at this. For example, consider the biological level of a kid who is still developing physically and psychologically—it makes them extremely unpredictable.

    "In a large part, children are unpredictable ... because adults forget what it's like being children pretty quickly," Flynn agreed. "I think I read somewhere that an adult even with practice can’t effectively imitate the art of children, and I think that's pretty telling."

    #10

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    SnoozleH Report

    Pat Ucu
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well, that's nice to know, anyway ...

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    #13

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    snowdropbooks Report

    Flynn finds the creepy kid to be a really interesting cultural phenomenon. "I think a lot of it comes from having very busy brains and an under-developed language that doesn't allow for much nuance," she said.

    "Kids often blur the spaces between dreams and reality, but with no ability to understand that piece or to describe it, what makes it out to adults can seem very eerie."

    #15

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    flexxed_luthor Report

    Izzy Curer
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Eek! I heard a story about two kids in the woods, once. One saw an 'invisible' man, like a heat-ripple disturbance in the air in the shape of a person. They got spooked and decided to go home. They got a little lost, and they got separated for a second. The first kid, the one who had seen the thing, then heard someone calling his friend's name in *his* own voice. He started yelling for his friend not to listen to it, that he was over here. Fortunately, the friend joined back up with him, and they made it home.

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    #16

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    marleymate Report

    BetterBitterButter
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Who's going to tell what happened after that? Don't leave us hanging

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    #17

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    SorenOfAsgard Report

    According to Emily Hopkins, a psychologist who studies how small children distinguish between fiction and reality, "Generally, they're pretty good at telling real from pretend, but they can get tripped up in certain situations and circumstances."

    "Even when kids start to pretend at about 18 months or so, they seem to understand the difference; if they’re pretending that a block is a chocolate chip cookie, they don't try to take a bite out of the wooden block."

    #19

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    cracktestdummy Report

    #20

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    GynaeStruggles Report

    Izzy Curer
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This reminds me of a story I heard once. This kid would tell his parents about the nice old lady who would watch him sleep at night. They actually figured it might be a ghost. Or imagination. Then, one day a neighbor came by to apologize that they'd found out their elderly grandparent had been breaking out of the house at night.

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    By 3, 4, or 5, kids can usually say whether impossible things happening in a book are real or not. "If there’s magic, or things that violate what they know about the real world, that’s what helps them to understand that those characters are probably not real. If a character in the book flies or something, they’ll say, 'That person can’t really exist in real life,'" Hopkins explained.

    But if an adult tries to confuse them on purpose—Hopkins mentions the fact that a lot of kids believe in Santa Claus—they can be confused.

    Kids use information from adults to find out if things are real.

    #22

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    AbbyJH94 Report

    #24

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    CelesteOkay Report

    #25

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    AdamsLilyan Report

    Izzy Curer
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Omg, I used to do this, too! I was really upset when I realized I couldn't hear them, anymore.

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    Hopkins also mentioned that kids use play to think through things that they feel are difficult or scary. That way kids can "work through it in a low-risk way, process it without having to actually experience it themselves."

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    So there may be something that the little ones mentioned in these tweets haven’t been able to express and resorted to witches and vampires to get their point accross.

    #26

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say-Tweets

    emmabrice3 Report

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    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    longkevin112503 Report

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    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say-Tweets

    scretladyspider Report

    #31

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    ricoactorwriter Report

    Izzy Curer
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If prayer doesn't make them go away, they're probably not evil, right?

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    #33

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    godieinapit Report

    Angry little sheep
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Both? I mean if it was just one side but both?

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    #37

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    kaleidojade Report

    Evelyn Fox
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The fact that y'all can still visualize him is the really creepy part!

    #38

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    The_Queen17 Report

    Minath
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My mum jokes (she doesn't believe in anything paranormal) that I am the reincarnation of her mother who died before I was born. Apparently, my mannerisms and speech patterns are just like her, I also look really like her and have the same build.

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    #39

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    emilys_corner Report

    François Carré
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Too bad you didn't let him talk to her, you could have learned some interesting stuff.

    #40

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    Rabbit_Warren_ Report

    #41

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say-Tweets

    ababytino Report

    olx
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    could be a sonic imaginary friend?

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    #42

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    MMC30687 Report

    Penny Kemper
    Community Member
    3 years ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    Really they died in a house fire in the house you later moved into? If people died in it it would have been a pretty destructive fire... so can some move into the same house? Smh

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    #43

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    teresa_franco Report

    Mac
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Awww poor guy☹️ Rude áss men

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    #44

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    mnp_47 Report

    MellonCollie
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ah yes, that sounds familiar. Years ago, I would often lose little things, such as socks, keys, make-up ... and find them back in places I had definitely NOT left them in. That went on until one day I had enough and had a long talk to the ghost(s) that was/were displacing them. I did not really know if they were ghosts, and who's ghosts they were, but I suspected they were, so I talked to them as if they were real people trying to attract my attention. That was interesting. Nothing was displaced again in that appartment, and I am grateful to the ghosts for that.

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    #45

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    Blizaga101 Report

    #46

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    noxidls Report

    olx
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    that was literally your other mother 😭

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    #47

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    babyballadeer Report

    olx
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    reminds me of maybe in michigan (sorry if i messed up the name)

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    #48

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    ktomsfreese Report

    Alex Thorburn
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh, my crush sees dead people in forests to P.S I always have to comfort her ; )

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    #49

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    alanou Report

    #50

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    FreakLimner Report

    #51

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    iheartguitar Report

    Izzy Curer
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Kid's going places. (With mister, presumably.)

    #53

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    hwdsmom Report

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    #54

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    Koaszz Report

    Florida, but without the beach
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    At least this one could’ve been heard on TV and repeated

    #55

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    PTom34 Report

    #56

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    OscarNMFranklin Report

    Evelyn Fox
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sheesh! Don't know why, but this one freaked me out!!!

    #57

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    Sztwilgzerd Report

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    mamecastle Report

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    #64

    Creepy-Stuff-Kids-Say

    DrewMelbourne Report