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56 Incredibly Creepy Things Kids Said And Scared The Bejesus Out Of Their Parents
Most of us have intuitive thoughts, where our inner voice says something bizarre. But being functional adults, we don’t let that voice win. Children, however, haven’t yet developed the ability to filter out what’s socially (un)acceptable when they're overwhelmed. And so, they sometimes say and do truly weird things.
Parents took to a very open and honest online thread to share the creepiest things that they’ve ever overheard their kids saying. It’s the kind of stuff that can really weird you out and even scare you. Scroll down for their parenting stories.
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#1
When my son was about 3 or 4 he didn’t talk very much and when he did it was very hard to understand him, but one day he was telling me very clearly and in great detail about how he used to be one of those guys with no hair and that wore a big orange cloth instead of proper clothes and they used to sit on the floor and be quiet all the time… after a while of trying to work it out I showed him a picture of a Buddhist Monk and he said ”Yeah Mum just like that but then I got trampled by a lots of elephants and it hurt so bad and then when I woke up again I was your baby and it didn’t hurt anymore” 👀 I was glad my older son was there as no one would of believed that I had such an in depth understandable conversation with him if not. He would repeat the story up until he turned 5 and if I’ve ever repeated the story to him since he turned 5 he doesn’t have a clue what I’m talking about.
Heir of Durin 4 hours ago (edited)
The book Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of children who remember Past Lives by Jim B. Tucker goes deeper into stories like this. It’s pretty good!
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#2
When my son was around three, he gazed out the car window and mused, “I remember when this used to all be trees.”.
#3
When we got our house, we did extensive remodelling inside. One thing we did was to cover up a doorway in one room, and build a new doorway in a different location. All this happened years before our daughter was born. When our daughter was born, that room became her room. One night we were putting her to sleep, when she suddenly sat up in her bed, pointed to where the doorway used to be and said "nobody walks through there anymore". No, there was no way of knowing there had been a doorway there, and we hadn't talked about it.
The house was built in 1890.
As Lawrence J. Cohen, Ph.D., points out in a piece on Psychology Today, parents can feel overwhelmed when their kids say terrible and scary things. The important thing is to stay calm, cool, and collected.
“Take a breath, stay calm, and respond to the emotion the child is trying to express. With your empathy and support, children will learn to express their emotions in a less dramatic way,” Cohen writes.
You shouldn’t punish your children for saying these things. Nor should you demand that they stop talking like this or try to convince them that they don’t mean what they said.
“These responses can’t reach a child who is in such an overloaded state, and our own emotional flooding is likely to increase the child’s emotional pressure. Then they may dig in and keep repeating the words that had such a dramatic impact. We, in turn, may panic and react as if our child is at serious risk,” he warns.
#4
Last year. Daughter was 3. Just me and her home in the living room watching tv. It’s after sundown and we aren’t the type of people to leave lights on all over the house, we just have them on in the rooms we are residing (keeps electricity bill down). She’s not afraid of the dark since there are always dark places in the house once the sun sets. Daughter looks to the dark hallway and asks me “what is she saying?” I reassure her no one is saying anything over there because it’s just me and her home. She keeps looking towards the dark hallway, I start to get anxious. She asks “who is that? What is she saying?” Again, I look, no one is there, tell her it’s nothing. She forgets for a bit and I think we are good. She’s playing, laughing and being silly again. Then she turns once more, looks straight into the hallway and very seriously says “mom she’s right there”. This is where I freak out (internally). I convince myself to go turn on the light. I do so, hallway is empty and show her no one is there. That was the last of that and I kept the light on til my husband got home.
#5
My son, 2.5, had barely begun talking in sentences. As I rock him to sleep, “remember when I was the dad and you were the kid? I would do this for you. Remember?”.
#6
My son (4 at the time) and me were having a conversation one day when he said “I can’t wait to be grown again like you Mom.” And so I said “what do you mean, you were never old - you’re a kid haha” and he looked me in my face with a serious look and said “No, I was old like you before my house caught on fire” And it just honestly creeped me OUT. Like I still think about it very often.
He also swears he remembers when he was in my stomach, he always tells me about how I used to poke him and he would kick me back, and that I used to eat alot of good drinks and food that he really enjoyed in my stomach. He says one day he remembers I pushed a lot of times and all of a sudden he was with me. I have never taught him about pregnancy or labor, and he’s never seen anything about it, so it creeps me out.
Some things that parents can say in response to their children using terrible language include phrases like:
- That’s a very strong way to say you’re angry.
- That’s a very strong way to let me know how sad you are.
- Those are such strong words, they really show me you are feeling a lot right now.
The important thing here is to be calm and empathetic. You, as a parent, should show your child that you can handle the emotions they’re throwing out into the world. On top of that, you can help them handle these emotions, too. Then, you can come up with ideas for how to express those feelings differently, in a less scary way.
#7
After "Simon says touch your nose" and "Simon says touch your ear", I got hit with "Simon says your days are numbered".
#8
My toddler once whispered to an empty corner of the room, telling an invisible visitor to leave, sounding genuinely scared.
#9
My mom says that when I was really little I told her that I had picked them out. I was raised by completely atheist academics, it kinda freaked her out, lol.
“Parents often say that their children don’t listen unless the parents yell. Well, the same is often true for children. They often feel that they can’t get their parents’ attention unless they are very dramatic. No need to beat yourself up about this; just increase your efforts to listen and accept what you hear. Remember that acceptance does not mean agreeing. When a child says terrible (and untrue) things about you or their siblings or their life, then you can listen with respect and care, and reflect back what you heard without correcting them,” Cohen explains in a post on Psychology Today.
#10
When my daughter was 3 she would put chairs in a row to watch a movie and told me it was because it reminded her of when she “would go see motion pictures at the movie palace” but that she liked it better now “without all of the people smoking around her”.
#11
My son when he was aged around 2 or 3 was obsessed with feet. He would shout at a particular female children's TV personality "take your shoes off" every time she came on the screen, and when a young female relative would come to our house he would lay on the floor and cuddle her feet. I'm pleased to report that he has grown out of it.
#12
My kid had a really elaborate imaginary friend named Dr. Brown that they'd create whole scenarios around. This is normal. In developmental psych they taught us that it is developmentally typical and healthy for children of a young age to have imaginary friends, and has even been shown to correlate to high intelligence.
Dr. Brown showed up when Charlie was about 3 and a halfish. I was surprised to learn the imaginary friend was a bonafide doctor! A family gp, apparently... This felt oddly specific coming from someone who'd recently declared they were going to be a crocodile when they grew up, but I tried to go with it as I'd been taught to do.
Dr Brown was also a st Bernard dog. This did not prevent our learned friend from becoming a family physician with a thriving medical practice that somehow didn't stop him from always being at our breakfast, lunch and dinners, as well as sitting in my seat and refusing to move.
Charlie: "He's tired, Mom. He worked nightshift."
Me:"🤨That's... probably very tiring, yes." (YOU ARE THREE YEARS OLD WHERE ARE YOU GETTING THIS FROM?!)
I'd observe my kid chattering away at the empty seat next to her, and repeat to myself in the kitchen: "prof said this was normal, prof said this was fine. Who cares if my toddlers best friend is an imaginary dog with better degrees than me😭".
I was really happy when Dr Brown got his much anticipated transfer to the Big City.
Once you’ve finished reading through these parenting stories, we’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments below, Pandas.
What are the scariest, most bizarre, creepiest things that you’ve personally ever heard kids say? How do you, as a parent, react when your kids say these kinds of things? How do you support your partner when things get tough at home? Let us know down below.
#13
My son went through a phase at around a year and a half where he would laugh every time we drove by the funeral home. His infant cousin had been cremated there the year before my son was born.
#14
My son was 3 and kept telling his mom about the metal man who talked to him. She just brushed it off but eventually told me and I was creeped out. I got the house I live in from my great uncle after he died and he had his legs amputated and guess what? He had metal legs. There have been a LOT more things happen that are unexplained but that was the creepiest.
#15
Not a parent, this is a friend's kid. Was teaching french to young kids and a particular boy seemed to gravitate to me. I asked about his weekend (giving me a chance to teach him the days of the week in french) and he told me his parents got divorced. I'm not good with kids so I kinda lock up and then go "Oh. I'm sorry. Did you get to do anything fun?" he states his mom's boyfriend might take him fishing. I say "Oh that sounds like fun! My dad would take me fishing!" and he said his dad divorced his mom because he was "afraid he would do something bad" in the kid's own words.
I still think about him. I hope he and his mom are safe. I haven't seen her since I moved and I only knew her through the school system.
#16
My daughter was maybe 3 at the time. I worked Thanksgiving at the hospital and got home around midnight. She came out of her room sobbing and said she couldn’t sleep because the little boy was looking at her. I took her to bed with me and told my husband we had to move out of that place immediately.
The next morning I discovered that my aunt had given the kids an “elf on the shelf”.
#17
When my niece was like 3, she and my sister were living in a house mate situation with a dude called John. One day, niece started asking for John's lady, where's John's lady, I wanna see John's lady.
Except John didnt have a girlfriend, never brought anyone to the house.
So they ask her, what does John's lady look like? When did you see her last?
And she describes a woman that looks like a long time late friend of John's. Except we're in Australia, the friend lived back in Ireland, had never been over, and John didnt have any pictures of her.
So John and my sister are ready to call an old priest and a young priest, when suddenly she races into the lounge and says JOHN'S LADY IS HERE!! She had been napping in her bedroom, so this freaked them out even more.
Turns out it was a pair of tweezers John had, where the handle had a picture of a lady! Niece had seen it and loved it, so she'd stolen it to put in her treasure box, but forgotten where she'd put it 🤣🤣🤣.
#18
My daughter (2 then) used to talk to and say goodnight to the air vents in our house. She also told me she had another mommy in her room.
#19
My daughter (6): Mommy, what does skin taste like?
Me: .. I.. don't know. Why would you ask that?
Her: You don't know what human skin tastes like?
That's enough thinking for today, sister.
#20
Have a niece that told me one time she had a bloodlust. She was about 8 years old when she said that. She's a bit older now and steals everything she can get away with, been kicked out of school, banned from family members houses, kicked out of every baby sitter within 20 miles. I told her mother one time that I wasn't sure if her human skull collection will be public or private when she gets older. Love her she's my niece but I have a feeling she's going to spend a big chunk of her life in contact with law enforcement.
#21
It's 3am on a dark and stormy night. Nature calls. As I walk to the bathroom I hear a voice coming from my ten year old sons room, no big deal, kid flaps his gums even when he sleeps. I listen in, hoping for a bit of light comic relief.
"You do know there's somebody in here, don't you?"
I don't think my stomach has ever returned to its usual position from how far it dropped in that moment.
#22
One night my son was asleep and sat up and told me "don't look behind you" and lay back down and fell back asleep, snoring and all. Behind me was the window and my curtain rod had been broken at the time so I had nothing covering it. Needless to say I did NOT turn around lol.
#23
Well. Last night I awoke from a deep sleep to my 5 year old 6 inches from my face just standing completely still in the dark. I gasped violently which caused my husband to fly up into a sitting position, also gasping in pure terror.
She wanted a “better blanket”.
#24
My daughter had nightmares about there being a fire in the house. 15 years later and the house caught on fire. She had a nightmare about being kidnapped from a guy in a red truck and a few days later a kid in our area was almost abducted by a guy in a red truck. She also saw her late grandpa in her room.
#25
When I was very young my mum said I drew pictures of her with a big belly in a wheelchair. She asked about it and I told her it was from the day I was born. She has been taken down in a wheelchair for the c section. She asked how I knew what happened. I said I remembered the bumps..... Can't imagine that was very fun for her but also not the absolute creepiest thing here.
#26
Someone I know has POTS and had fainted in a chair, her 6 year old daughter then tied her to the chair, put a bag over her head, and attempted to light her on fire while unconscious. It was interrupted by her father. A 6 year old child doing this? I'm scared for when she gets older.
#27
So im the kid in this story: when i was really young, 6-10 i would have "ghost encounters," twice seeing the grim reaper, seeing an orb fly into socks, seeing a white woman next to me, seeing shadow men riding bikes.. well, one time i was laying with my aunt and we were talking about ghosts and she said they weren't real. so i of course replied with, "then why do i see them?and she freaked out since we were in a dark room alone.
another time after lights went out when i was 2, my aunt was babysitting me and getting me dressed. and my hair was in my fave and i was just.. smiling. she called my mom to come get me 😭.
#28
Not really creepy, but before my son was talking really well, I would read him 'pickles the fire cat' pretty regularly. He got in the habit of saying 'pickled cat' to anyone who would listen. I have to wonder what those people thought was going on in my house.
#29
That if I didn’t take her to Olive Garden, she would crash the car (I was driving at the time) with her mind.
#30
I mean, a lot of these are way more serious than mine.
We were staying in an old house in England and it had creaky wooden stairs. My daughter 3/4 years old woke me up as she was trying to get down them. I get up and she’s standing in the dark at the bottom of the stairs. Now, she was a good speaker but obviously, she was not speaking in eloquent sentences at this age. I asked her what she was doing and she said perfectly: “I misplaced my fox, mommy. Come help me.”
The fact she made such a sentence creeped me tf out. I told her no, I’ll wait at the top of the stairs and she, brave, found her fox and then came up the stairs and went to bed. I still think of it from time to time.
#31
From the ages of about 2-3 my son would wave, laugh and babble to the corner or blank wall in his bedroom. Almost every night. I recall one night he was lying next to me, constantly tapping my shoulder, saying "mum, mum" and then pointing to nothing in the corner of the room. Then offering it his pacifier. Laughing at it. Then hiding from it under the blanket and playing peek a boo.
At least a positive experience for him.
#32
Toddler (1.5 yo) told us she used to be a lesser known Egyptian queen. Indicated that one of her older siblings was the reincarnation of the queen's husband. She then proceeded to ace a multiple choice quiz on Egyptian gods and goddesses and I'm left here wondering how that all happened.
#33
My sweet boy, he’s 4, when he could start speaking would tell us stories of years past. At first, it just seemed coincidental to things we spoke about (“I went to that restaurant before, 15 years ago. I ate noodles with sauce” when WE as a family were going for the first time. Or “I drove in the mountains before. I saw a goat” where we as a family have never been to the mountains but we have spoken to him about them). Plus other things. It’s gotten to the point that we try to ask for more information, see what he can share. He said he had a mommy and daddy before but that they were very very very old. He also told us he worked on a farm.
Anyways. Recently, he told us he had a heart attack. I asked when and he said “15 years ago, before mommy and daddy”.
I personally do no believe in reincarnation BUT a lot of what he talks about resembles my husband’s maternal great grandfather; it’s more interesting than creepy. For a kid who basically just watched Paw Patrol and True and some science show, he talks a lot of surprising things.
#34
One day my baby brother, about 4 years old, was arguing with our mum, he'd woken her up too early and mum was explaining he needed to stay in bed until x time. My brother then informed her very seriously "one day you won't wake up".
Luckily he's 24 now and has actually grown into a very kind young man.
#35
1. My eldest (recently turned 6) is always the creepy one. When she had just turned 4, she had a phase when she would always look at a certain patch of wall in her room and be scared. She did this during the day and especially when we tucked her in at night (usually I did this). One day, she was being tucked in by her dad, pointing at whatever she was looking at, and saying: „I don’t want to be in my room, especially not in the dark, I‘m scared of that.“ My husband tried to calm her, when she suddenly said: „Daddy, I too can let go.“ He asked what she meant, but she was asleep within the second - which is something that never happens!
That same night I had a nightmare: I woke up, saw my daughter in our bed (she used to climb in there during the night), went to go to the bathroom, passing by my daughter‘s room - only to see a second version of her in her bed, grinning!
Okay, nightmare, whatever. But when I actually woke up the following day, my daughter came to me and said: „Mirror-[her name] will visit us very soon“. I shat my pants, but my daughter has never been afraid of that certain spot in her room after that.
2. a few months later, my daughter made a play-doh-person for me. She handed it to me and very casually said: „This is a play-doh-figurine that can walk and talk. And it’s evil. And it wakes up now.“.
#36
Niece on my spouse's side.
1. Her mum's boyfriend on more than one occasion has woken up in the middle of the night to her standing over him just watching him sleep. After he woke up, she would just turn and leave, not saying a word.
2. Our aunt once found one of her cats crying with a swollen paw and found a hair tie wrapped multiple times around it. When they were wondering aloud about what happened as they tried to remedy it, the kid casually and nonchalantly said "Oh I did it." When asked why, she said, "Just wanted to see what would happen."
Both instances happened before she was 10. I refuse to be left alone with her or sleep under the same roof as her.
#37
My then 3 year old niece, who has always been incredibly shy, quietly handed me a piece of folded paper. I opened it up and it was just several different sized green and pink blobs surrounded by purple smoke looking lines, that were apparently supposed to me and my dogs. my mom explained to her again that my dogs had passed away (one a couple weeks prior) and my niece goes "she will too" like girl what.
#38
It happened back when he was three or four, but my nephew and I were playing a game, and he gives me this creepy, almost delighted, wicked, smile, and pretends to slowly cut into my thumb, and makes a chomp noise, as if he were cannibalizing my hand.
#39
One night, points at the door, and repeatedly say ghost(Hantu) in our language.
he meant Hamster, as in a hamster key chain dangling from the key on the door,
he was 2 years old. laughs were had, but for a moment I screamed in silence.
#40
My niece used to have crazy night terrors when she was a toddler to 10 years old. Like earth shattering screaming. I'd have her sleep with me in my bed to help calm her. She also sleep walked and would turn taps on in the house or throw food on the floor. I had to do the washcloth in the door jam trick. Usually worked. I started loosely tying a robe sash around her wrist to the bed frame. Stopped the house wandering. We took her to sleep specialists and psychologists. They suggested heavy sleeping meds. Decided against medicating a small child like that. Luckily she's grown out of that. Now she just talks in her sleep sometimes. And talks to my departed mother, her Gramma who raised her with me.
#41
My son was 2, and at bedtime for like two weeks he kept saying when the house is on fire we need to run out the door. Only at bedtime, and it was every night. I had to assure him that the house wasn’t going to burn down, and not to worry.
My brother in law is an electrician and lives in our basement apartment. One day half the lights went out in the basement and in investigating he found some VERY shoddy wiring, like could easily cause a house fire. He promptly fixed it, and my son stopped talking about the house being on fire at bedtime.
#42
Getting my 2 year old out of the car and she points to the upstairs window of our house and says “mommy look there’s a witch up there”.
Me: what ? Where ? (I knew all too well she pointed to the bedroom window)
Her: in the window
Great.. thanks.
#43
My daughter was a twin. I lost one of the babies during the 12 to 13th week of my pregnancy.
Never told her about it. She has no clue she was a twin. She is an only child and when people asks if she wants a baby brother or sister, she normally says neither and what she wants is a swimming pool.
She is 8 years old now but when she was 5 she started to be afraid to sleep alone in her room. She said that a girl appeared at night and wouldnt let her sleep.
Out of curiosity, I asked her what the girl looked like. She said the girl looked like her. So I said she must be a beautifuk and kind girl, so she didnt need to be afraid.
From then on, she was never afraid again, but I still heard her playing alone in her room as if she were talking and playing with another child.
#44
"Papa wants to come inside the house, and he's angry".
Papa had been gone for like, 5/6 months.
#45
I don't have kids but according to my mum I creeped my 80 years elder granny out (which means she was born in the 19th century, late Victorian age - I think it plays a role for you to imagine the situation) once. I asked her a bit lost in thought if she could remember when we two were at the fair and I won that Teddy I gave to her and described some more. That this was a nice day.
My granny could indeed remember that, the problem was just that it had been 70-80 years earlier and she had been the child being there with her mum.
Another time I answered in a bit of an annoyed way about something "oh, I already told you so many times", and again, it was something her mother had always told her.
Don't ask me, I can't remember that. Unfortunately my mum couldn't tell me a lot about my great grandma when that one had been younger. I am curious if there were similarities. I do look like my grandma though and that means I am totally of the type of the female ancestral line down to my granny (my mum had a lot from my granddad, and my three sisters and I kinda decided to represent one grandparents line each, lol.).
#46
Sleepwalking.
Sure it sounds simple and like no big deal, but nothing will give you a heart attack like being half asleep in a dark house checking to make sure the doors are locked and then seeing a child of the corn / small zombie appear out of nowhere.
#48
Soon after my dad passed away. my oldest son about 5 years old. would talk to him outside his bedroom window. .
#49
My children used to talk about a woman in their closet. All three saw her at various points.. hanging, standing, looking. Also saw her in the garage near the ceiling; the other side of the garage wall is their room.
#50
When my daughter was around 3 she sat next to me down at the kitchen table and explained that she and I planned to come here together.
#51
My nephew, when he was about four, lived in an apartment with my sister, that i had weirdly previously lived in years before. his room used to be my craft room, and i had a sewing machine that would constantly jam when nothing was actually wrong with it, and a downstairs neighbor that would complain about all the noise i was making, when i was literally just sitting at home. annoying but i thought nothing of it. but when my sister and nephew lived there, there would also be all kinds of weird electrical things. my mom was there once and *all* of his toys turned on at once. my nephew would sometimes talk about the boy “who came up from the floor” and wanted to play with him. he saw him several times, and at first he didn’t mind, but eventually, the floor boy got *really* insistent, and my nephew didn’t like it. we asked him about it over the years, and he admitted it always creeped him out, but he wanted to be nice bc the boy seemed lonely. anyway, seattle is haunted as hell.
#52
My partner and I use to play DND and kid would hang around in the room or play outside usually not paying much attention. We had a situation where a teenager stole from a criminal organization he worked for and they planned to k**l him. We were trying to convince them not to. The crime boss said we could be responsible for him but we had to get information from him by breaking his fingers with a hammer. During this pretty intense moment kid pops up from under the table where she was playing with toys and says "It's not a big deal you are hitting him with a hammer. You could throw him in lava or turn him into dust" then she went back under the table.
#53
When she was 4, she was telling me how they made jewelry out of poor people's bones and teeth. No idea who they were.
#54
My daughter once said she had “friends” who lived in our house and described an old woman and an old man. I think she was talking about the original owners of the house, that our older neighbors told us about. Creepy but also wholesome, I assume that the ghosts would probably love to watch a cute little girl be so silly all day!!
#56
My son, while sleeping just stand up and go in front of a mirror and started saying words that we don’t understand.
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