We all have intrusivethoughtsfrom 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 creepydiscussionon 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 someparentingchallenges are stranger than others and will almost definitely come as a surprise.This post may includeaffiliate links.
We all have intrusivethoughtsfrom 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 creepydiscussionon 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 someparentingchallenges are stranger than others and will almost definitely come as a surprise.
This post may includeaffiliate links.
When my daughter was learning her ABCs, one morning at breakfast she sang all the way through for the first time. We congratulated her and asked if she’d been practicing at day care.“No, mommy’s mommy taught me when I was in bed"Uh.. Mommy’s mommy died 3 years earlier.
Bored Panda got in touch with the author of the viral thread, u/TheEqualizer1212, and they were kind enough to answer our questions.We were curious to learn about what inspired them to start the discussion in the first place.“I was watching the movie Brightburn one day when I realised how having a child can be a two way street sometimes, with it occasionally ending up in ashes and others ending up beautifully where their parents get to see them grow as a person,” they told Bored Panda.
Bored Panda got in touch with the author of the viral thread, u/TheEqualizer1212, and they were kind enough to answer our questions.
We were curious to learn about what inspired them to start the discussion in the first place.
“I was watching the movie Brightburn one day when I realised how having a child can be a two way street sometimes, with it occasionally ending up in ashes and others ending up beautifully where their parents get to see them grow as a person,” they told Bored Panda.
My son went through a phase when he was 6 where he would write “Help me! Let me out!” on everything. It was on all his drawings and he’d write it outside on the side of the house for the neighbors to see. Then he started writing “Help me!” backwards, like some redrum s**t.Turns out he was really into Goosebumps and one of the episodes has a girl trapped in a mirror writing “help me”. To the people looking into the mirror “help me” was backwards. Mystery solved, my kid is just a bit theatrical.
We asked the OP for their thoughts about what parents ought to do if their kids said something truly unsettling.“Try to explain to them that what they did was wrong and try to get the real life consequences of what they did across,” they said.“Full disclaimer however, I am not a parent. I do not have much say in that matter besides just logical assumptions,” they added.
We asked the OP for their thoughts about what parents ought to do if their kids said something truly unsettling.
“Try to explain to them that what they did was wrong and try to get the real life consequences of what they did across,” they said.
“Full disclaimer however, I am not a parent. I do not have much say in that matter besides just logical assumptions,” they added.
Meanwhile, Bored Panda was curious what advice u/TheEqualizer1212 would give new parents who are a bit overwhelmed with childcare.
“Be patient. If your child can be seen doing something that isn’t right, take your time to explain why and do so in a calm manner. The last thing you want is for your child to lose trust in you and do worse things behind your back,” they suggested.
PsychCentral explains that children develop more andmore empathyover time. As newborns, they might start crying when other babies in the vicinity cry. Though this is most likely a response to an uncomfortably loud noise, it’s the starting point of minimal self-awareness and putting oneself in another person’s shoes.
My son walked into the room butt naked holding a pair of scissors and asked why his younger sister didn’t have a penis. He never explicitly said he was thinking of performing surgery on himself, but we kept a close eye on him for a few weeks and hid all the scissors.
When she was 3, we’d gone for a meal at a really old pub/restaurant. She wanted the toilet, so I took her and the pub had the kind where it’s a little room on it’s own. Now she was in that phase where they are basically small terrorists and if you do or say the wrong thing, well there will be the most almighty tantrum.Her big thing was no talking while she was on the toilet (3 year olds are weird!). So I’m standing there silently looking out of this really tiny barred window, while she does her business. It’s a tiny Tudor window and the first thought that popped into my head was that it would be impossible to get out of if the place was on fire. Don’t why but that’s just my brain.Suddenly I hear her little voice say ‘it’s ok Mummy, there won’t be a fire’.Now I know 100% I didn’t say anything out loud, she had me well trained. But somehow she heard my thoughts. She did it again a couple of times in the next few months and then has never done it again. It was so bloody weird.
Dealing with these sorts of uncomfortable situations is a very delicate thing. On the one hand, you want your kids to understand the importance of honesty and being in touch with one’s feelings. As a parent, you want them to be able to come to you with any problems they have, whether they’re mundane or genuinely bizarre. If your kids know they cantrust youand they won’t be judged, they’ll be more open.On the flip side, being a healthy and functioning member of society requires understanding the local cultural norms and ‘getting’ social clues. If you plan on making friends and holding down a job, you need tounderstandwhat (not) to say.
Dealing with these sorts of uncomfortable situations is a very delicate thing. On the one hand, you want your kids to understand the importance of honesty and being in touch with one’s feelings. As a parent, you want them to be able to come to you with any problems they have, whether they’re mundane or genuinely bizarre. If your kids know they cantrust youand they won’t be judged, they’ll be more open.
On the flip side, being a healthy and functioning member of society requires understanding the local cultural norms and ‘getting’ social clues. If you plan on making friends and holding down a job, you need tounderstandwhat (not) to say.
I went into check on my sleeping daughter, who was four at the time, and she rolled onto her back, and muttered in her sleep, " I must not eat humans, humans aren’t food”. And then rolled back on to her side.
My son used to talk about when “ he was alive before” and things he did in his “old life”.
Just as important (if not more) ishowwe say something. We can be honest about our thoughts and feelings while still presenting that information in a more—shall we say—‘palatable’ way.In the meantime, let’s not pretend that every thought or feeling we have is stellar. Much of it is fluff and randomness. If someone were to act on everything that came into their mind, they’d probably make their family and friends worried and call the local hospital in the span of minutes.Not every thought or feeling has to be acknowledged. We need self-awareness and good internal filters to find the signal among the noise.
Just as important (if not more) ishowwe say something. We can be honest about our thoughts and feelings while still presenting that information in a more—shall we say—‘palatable’ way.
In the meantime, let’s not pretend that every thought or feeling we have is stellar. Much of it is fluff and randomness. If someone were to act on everything that came into their mind, they’d probably make their family and friends worried and call the local hospital in the span of minutes.
Not every thought or feeling has to be acknowledged. We need self-awareness and good internal filters to find the signal among the noise.
My four year old keeps talking about how her daughter died in the water and she couldn’t fit in the hole and the map got all wet so she couldn’t read it. The daughter’s name was Gina. My kid has never, ever heard the name Gina.Yesterday she told me that my dead dad “is fine with being dead. He’s ok.”.
My daughter was probably around 4 years old when we had this conversation:Daughter: dad, you know how water is poisonous?Me (confused): um, water isn’t poisonous.Daughter: it is if you put poison in it …
My three yr-old daughter came up to me as I was sitting on the couch, reading. She leaned against my knee and heaved a big sigh…sort of an existential despair type sigh.‘What’s the matter, sweetie?’ looking down at her curly head, while her face was turned into my leg.She turned her head up and said, ‘I’m tired of this planet…I want to go back to the star where I came from…’, looking me straight in the eye.I picked her up, hugged her close, and said something like, ‘I know, sweetie…I know.‘I never asked her about it again; several times I sort of alluded to something that would give her an opening, if she wished it…but, she never brought it up again.
What parents can do is talk to their kids about how their words andactions affectthe people around them. The vast majority of us might be born with a sense of empathy, but it’s still a social skill that needs to be honed. And a kid’s family members are in the perfect position to set a good example.What’s important here is the willingness to communicate. Parents who take the time to listen and then explain to their munchkins why we don’t do one thing or another show that they’re willing to talk about everything. Even if it’s uncomfortable.They’re open to hearing their kids’ thoughts, too. This is far healthier than ignoring the situation entirely or telling your children to stop doing/saying strange things without going into detail about why it makes others feel bad.
What parents can do is talk to their kids about how their words andactions affectthe people around them. The vast majority of us might be born with a sense of empathy, but it’s still a social skill that needs to be honed. And a kid’s family members are in the perfect position to set a good example.
What’s important here is the willingness to communicate. Parents who take the time to listen and then explain to their munchkins why we don’t do one thing or another show that they’re willing to talk about everything. Even if it’s uncomfortable.
They’re open to hearing their kids’ thoughts, too. This is far healthier than ignoring the situation entirely or telling your children to stop doing/saying strange things without going into detail about why it makes others feel bad.
I was putting my 3 year old to bed and she said, “mommy, can you tell me a story where we all get electrocuted."
This happened last week.My two year old is sitting down at the table for dinner. It’s dark outside. He looks outside and says “What is that?“He doesn’t know how to say “who” yet. When meeting new people he says “what is that?” My wife and I look outside and don’t see anything… It’s dark. We look back at him. He’s staring into the darkness. He’s a kid, his eyes are new, he sees better than us.We freak out. Is there someone outside in a dark outfit and we can’t make it out, and he can? I grab a flashlight, go outside, looking for the trespasser. Nothing.Come back in, he makes the same comment. I sit next to him and look in the direction he is. Like over 200 feet away, on another house, there is a small LED American flag that is turned on. It’s barely a foot wide.“Is what you’re looking at red and blue?““Yeah!““That’s a flag, buddy.”.
What’s the creepiest thing that you’ve ever heard or seen a child do, dear Pandas? What do you personally think is the healthiest way to react to situations like this? Which of the stories featured in this post weirded you out the most?
Five year old stares around wide eyed and genuinely asked is this even real? Is this real life or like a game. I had a minor existential crisis.
A few greatest hits:When my son was about 2/3, for a few days in a row he told me that there was someone in his room with “no eyes, just ears” the night before.For a while around age 3, that same son got confused about the meaning of “dead” and would use it to mean “inanimate”. So a stuffed animal cat would be “a dead cat,” and a doll would be “a dead kid” etc.Now, at 4 years old, when he’s having a tantrum about something mundane, like he doesn’t want to go to bed or doesn’t want to get dressed, he’ll threaten to “make himself not alive anymore.”Meanwhile, when my daughter was around 5 years old, she discovered the concept of wills and inheritance (probably from the Aristocats movie, if I recall) and went through a phase of asking if various items of mine—usually sparkly stuff like jewelry—would be hers one day after I had died.Fun times.
While I’m a parent, the creepiest thing I’ve experienced was while at work at a childcare centre. I work with infants and we have a sleep room, sort of separated from the play area. (I imagine many infant rooms work this way but that’s beside the point). The sleep room was dark since we had set it up for nap time while the children ate their lunch when one of the boys looked into the darkness, smiled, waved and said “hi!".I looked over to the room and there was definitely nothing there. He was pretty friendly though and would usually smile, wave and say “hi!” to people as they walked past the room.I asked my coworker if she would mind putting the kids to sleep that day as she hadn’t heard him say this.Yes, I sacrificed my coworker to the ghost along with the children. They had a good run.
My son had an imaginary friend named Xavier… but Xavier was the ghost of a little boy who was in his room. He’d have whole conversations with this supposed ghost. It was f*****g creepy. He forgot all about him within a few weeks of starting preschool and has no memory of him now.
Not my kid, but my nephew. Aged about 3 I was showing him a Sonic the Hedgehog game and he went “I’ve played that before, with my old Grandad”.His Mum explained that he regularly talks about his old life and she’d pieced this much together from him…- He died when he was 13- All his family were very sad- He had lots of brothers and sisters- He lived in a flat with his old mummy and daddy who were very nice, but didn’t have many teeth- He picked my SIL and BIL to be his new Mummy and DaddyHe was very consistent and very persistent that his old mummy and daddy were good people when SIL said to someone “It sounds like they were crackheads"Pretty weird. Not sure if he still talks about them now he’s started school.
I caught my nephew bringing food to a dead wolf he named Cody. We all thought Cody was a friend from school because he had a classmate named Cody that he would go hang out with. Nope. I followed him to Cody’s house which was a cave about 50 feet out of town in the woods and there was all sorts of wrappers from snacks and a decaying wolfs body.
For a while, when my son was 3/4, he would cry and scream because he dreamed there was a tall man at the end of his bed, who was completely black and had holes where his eyes should be.His nightmares were really bad for a while, and I can’t blame him.
When my daughter was young, we’d be riding in the car & she’d randomly say: “My sisters are here!” Then animatedly whisper to the empty seat beside her. She was very lighthearted about the whole thing, she spoke of “Ira” & other sisters that she didn’t know their names. She was always happy to see them, being an only child, imaginary friends weren’t a concern to me. What was worrisome was it only happened near cemeteries. It was one of those creepy things you’d try to explain away. She’d say it & I’d look around, relieved to see no headstones in sight, only to find a small family plot buried in the brush along the roadside a few moments later. Once it happened on vacation, she said it at the base of a hill. As we crested the hill, there was a cemetery on the other side. I have no clue why & she never mentioned the cemeteries or ever acknowledged them. It happened frequently & I would just shrug it off, eventually she got older, it stopped.She’s a teen now, says when she thinks of it, it’s like a dark room full of different girls with the light only shining on the girl she knew as Ira in the forefront.I googled the girl name Ira, is means ‘watchful’ in Hebrew.
See Also on Bored Panda
My two younger ones would talk quite a bit about it before they started school. Who they were in a past life, I just took it as matter of fact, my son had been a German soldier in WW2, and my daughter had been on the run as a little girl with a another little girl with dark hair and eyes in France in WW2. She described running to a house that had a big blank wall next to it out in the country- they were running for their lives on a dirt road before dawn. I did some googling and there was a safe house that was still standing with a big cinder block wall next to it! It made me think maybe it’s true that we encounter the same person who we have things to work out still, until we fix things or something. Who can know for sure?
Oh I’ve got a good one! So my son was probably about 4 or 5. I wake him up every morning. I go in one morning and he is already awake in bed, his eyes wide open and blanket pulled up to his chin. He is completely still and just staring at the corner of his room. I look at him, look at the corner, wait a couple of seconds, and asked him what was wrong. Still looking at the corner, he says “Somebody crawled on the floor, and up the wall and looked around. When he looked at me his head did this.” Then he pointed his finger in the air, and just started spinning it in a circle very fast. I put my hand on his back and said, “lets go get breakfast and watch some cartoons.” He looked very freaked out and I wanted to get his mind off of it. As he is walking down the hall in front of me, he sort of half whispers out loud “He just faded away…” I didn’t let him know it, but I was freaking out inside! He is 8 years old now and I asked him if he remembers it. He said he does, and that he saw it another time backwards crawling on his ceiling before just fading away again. Freaky.
Watching my nephew. We were playing tag and I was chasing him around the house when he like disappeared. He showed up behind me and I said, “ oh there you are Dylan how’d you get there?” He looked me dead in the face serious as ever and said, “ I’m not Dylan” in a deep raspy voice. I laughed it off and told him to go watch tv.
When my kid was around 2ish, she told me one morning “mommy, the ghost picked me up last night”. I was like wtffff because I’ve never talked to her about ghosts or used the word ghost or anything along those lines (something she could’ve easily picked up at daycare or from a kids show or something).A few years later when she was around 5ish, she was like “mommy, remember how I used to cry at night?” (she was a terrible sleeper and would wake up like 4+ times a night and cry until we came to get her). She said “It’s because the ghost used to come into my room and pick me up at night”.
My daughter told me she loves me so much she wishes she could wear my face!Apparently there’s no returns on creepy kids….
Me and my 15 month old share a room and sometimes she just stares at me while I sleep. It freaks me out when I wake up and the first thing I see is a tiny child staring at me. To make it worse sometimes she just stares and whispers at me and it sounds like she’s putting a curse on me.
My son was around 4 years old. I was driving him to daycare, and he was uncharacteristically grouchy. Didn’t want to go. After around the third time I explained that mommy had to go to work, he got real quiet. Then, his tiny voice piped up from the backseat: “The darkness is watching you. In the night they’ll come for you”He never explained it. I slept with the hallway light on.
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.
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.
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).”.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
Continue reading with Bored Panda PremiumUnlimited contentAd-free browsingDark modeSubscribe nowAlready a subscriber?Sign In
Continue reading with Bored Panda Premium
Unlimited contentAd-free browsingDark mode
Unlimited content
Ad-free browsing
Dark mode
Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?Sign In
A couple times my then 1.5 year old would sometimes wake full-on tears running down face, shoulders shaking, sobbing. I’d pick them up, and they’d be dry and decline a bottle. I’d ask them what’s wrong, and they would choke out “Dat and dis and and dis and dat!“They didn’t have enough words to tell me about their nightmares, is what we figured.I’d agree with them how “This and that” can be very rough indeed.
My son barged into my room at 3 am yelling at the dogs saying they puked and st all over his moms office. Half awake I shot out of bed and rushed in to find everything as it should be. I thought maybe he had a bad dream and was in a half awake state too. H started ranting about how they must have eaten it and cleaned it up. By this time I was wide awake but not clear on wtf was going on. Then the weird st kicked into high gear.He started whispering and telling me to be quiet because his cousin was hiding in his closet listening to our conversation. I fg freaking out thinking my son has lost his fg mind and had a serious mental breakdown and separation from reality.Turns out the little f****r internationally took 10 Dramamine because he read online it will make you hallucinate. Turns out it does. But not happy dancing forest elves like mushrooms or acid. But s**t eating dogs and nosy laundry monster cousins hiding in your closet at 3 am hallucinations.
I walked into my daughter’s room. She was maybe 3-4. Had all her dolls and figures out and laid face down.I asked what is with all the dolls?She was sitting criss-cross and turned her head back towards me and said. They are sleeping daddy.Then went back to tucking one in.Walls weren’t bleeding so I went back down stairs.
When my kid was 3 I was woken up in the middle of the night because he was standing in the dark with a dark blanket draped over his head not unlike a tiny sith lord whispering the words to Frozen’s “let it go” 2 inches away from my face.
Not a parent, but an auntie.My nephew stayed at mine, he was 4/5 at the time and would stay in our bedroom (we had a spare room, but at his home he comes out of his room and turns right to the bathroom, if he did that at ours he’d fall straight down the stairs. Didn’t want to risk that in the night). So we asked him to wake us up if he needed a wee (we sleep in the attic, again, didn’t want him to risk falling down the stairs) and I rolled over one night to him just stood over me. It took everything I had not to scream in his face because that is a huge fear of mine!
I woke up one night to use the restroom (getting old) and just on a whim looked in on the hallway where the door to my son’s room was. The door was open, and he was standing in the hallway, staring at the bonus room door (facing away from me). He was clearly up because he’d wet his diaper or something and needed to have it changed and was simply groggy and lost inside the house, but for a moment there, I thought I was a dead man.
Modal closeAdd Your Answer!Not your original work?Add sourcePublish
Modal close
Add Your Answer!Not your original work?Add sourcePublish
Not your original work?Add sourcePublish
Not your original work?Add source
Modal closeModal closeOoops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.UploadUploadError occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermarkInstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermarkFacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermarkChangeSourceTitleUpdateAdd Image
Modal closeOoops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.UploadUploadError occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermarkInstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermarkFacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermarkChangeSourceTitleUpdateAdd Image
Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
Upload
UploadError occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermarkInstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermarkFacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermark
Error occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.
TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermark
InstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermark
FacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermark
ChangeSourceTitle
You May Like“I’m No Contact With My Parents”: 30 Parents’ Mistakes Millennials Swear Not To RepeatJustinas Keturka30 Of The Most Hilarious Posts From Parents That Made People Laugh This FebruaryIlona Baliūnaitė“Putting Their Child In A Beauty Pageant”: 30 Behaviors That Scream “Trashy Parenting”Shelly Fourer
Justinas Keturka
Ilona Baliūnaitė
Shelly Fourer
Parenting
