1. The Man With The Snake Neck

While changing my daughter in front of the open closet door. She kept looking around me and laughing. I asked her what was so funny. She said, “the man.” To which I replied, “what man?” She then pointed at the closet and said, “the man with the snake neck.” I turn around and nothing was there. I’m afraid to look into the history of my house to see if anyone hung themselves in the closet. At least she wasn’t scared.

2. That’s Not Sleep

“Daddy sleep” then pushing my head underwater at the pool.

3. Soon, Very Soon Now

Not to me, but to his grandmother.

He was cuddling with her and being very sweet (he was about 3 at the time). He takes her face in his hands, and brings his face close to hers, then tells her that she’s very old, and will die soon.

Then he makes a point of looking at the clock.

4. More Than Jealous

My 3 year old daughter stood next to her new born brother and looked at him for awhile then turned and looked at me and said, “Daddy its a monster..we should bury it.”

5. Way Too Deep And Weird

I was on a bus recently and we were stopped outside a walk-in clinic. A little girl in the seat in front of me turned to her dad and said, “Death is the poor man’s doctor.” And that was that.

6. The Bad Man

Why are you crying?

“Bad man”

What bad man?

“There.” Points behind me at a dark corner of the room

Lamp on bookshelf next to said darkened corner falls off as soon as I turn to look.

She slept in our bed that night.

7. “Dangerous Tools”

This sort of relates… It still makes me laugh hysterically… My childhood friend recently found his journal from when he was about 6 or 7… One entry said something along the lines of, “Sometimes Mommy gardens. Sometimes Daddy works inside the house. When Daddy thinks I’m with Mommy, and Mommy thinks I’m with Daddy, sometimes I like to go into the neighbors garage and play with their dangerous tools.”

8. What Do You See?

My five-year-old son asked me last week “what do you see through the black circles in my eyes when you’re controlling me when I’m at school?”

9. Fire

“So I shouldn’t throw him in the fire?”

Three-year-old daughter holding her baby brother for the first time.

10. Leatherface

I was sound asleep, and at around 6am I was woken up by my 4 year old daughters face inches from mine. She looked right into my eyes and whispered, “I want to peel all your skin off”.

The backstory here is I had been sunburned the previous week, and was starting to peel. In my sleep addled state however, it was pretty terrifying for a few seconds. I didn’t know if I was dreaming, or what was going on.

11. The Watchful Eye

I don’t have kids, but once, visiting some friends on a farm, my buddy’s youngest girl (5 or 6) at the time, was afraid of the chickens. I tried to explain to her that the chickens weren’t there to hurt us but she wasn’t having it.

So I’m sitting around the fire pit, looking at one of the chickens a few feet in front of me when I feel hot breath in my ear as she whispers:

“See. He’s always watching.”

Horrific and hysterical all at once.

12. Don’t Encourage Them

My co-worker’s four year old daughter always thought that the rattling of the water pipes in the kitchen cupboards were “white wolves” and the sound always scared her.

One day she was sitting at the kitchen table and she said, “Mom. The white wolves aren’t bad… they’re our friends!”

Her mom encouraged the idea by saying, “Yes! The white wolves are protecting us. They are our friends.”

Then her daughter added in, “They’re our friends, but not the man who crawls on the floor and stands by my bed.”

13. Time Out For Baby

I work in a preschool. Creepy shit gets said and done all the time. The one that sticks out to me happened last year. There is a small kitchenette area in our classroom that the kids use during free time for playing house or whatever pretend games they think up. There was one little girl that I was keeping a close eye on, mostly because of how withdrawn from the other kids she was. I noticed she was playing with a babydoll in the kitchenette, rocking it back and forth and singing to it.

She then took the baby, shoved it into the play oven and slammed the door shut. She turned around, looked straight at me, and said, “Sometimes bad babies go in timeout” in the creepiest little girl voice I’ve ever heard before smiling and running off. That one kind of shook me.

14. It Can’t Scream

When I was a waitress, I watched a little girl (4ish) stab her plastic fork into her sandwich repeatedly, saying “die die die die die die”. When I asked her what she was doing (her mom was in the bathroom for a minute), she replied with a straight face, “I like to kill things, but mom says I shouldn’t. So I picked the ham because it can’t scream.”

15. Carson Is Gone

When my son was little he, maybe 3, he used to do this weird crawl where he would slide his forehead along the floor. That was pretty creepy in itself. Then one night he crawled across the hallway into my room like that and stood up a few inches from my face and made a weird meow sound. He got into bed with me and went to sleep. Another time he was freaking out about a monster in the basement so we went down and saw nothing, of course, and as I turned out the light and headed upstairs and he said “Hes right behind us now.” I might have peed a little. Possibly the creepiest thing he did was one day I scolded him for misbehaving so he hid his head under his blanket. I pretended I couldn’t find him by saying “Where is my little Carson?” He slowly lowered the blanket and with a dead evil stare said, “Carson is gone, I am Rick.” I’m certain he’s possessed. We never knew any Ricks, as far I can remember. Still don’t. Never figured out where he picked up the name.

16. “We Need To Get It Out”

My noticeably pregnant sister and I were having a conversation at the dining room table. My 4 year old son was also present and asked my sister if there was a baby in her belly. She affirmed. He, completely straight faced, slid from his chair and headed for the kitchen saying “We need to get it out. I’ll go get the knife. ” I don’t even know…

17. The Pretty Girl At The Cottage

My 3 year old nephew was at my cottage. He’s asked me numerous times about the “girl over there” while pointing at one of the back bedrooms. The place is small, and there is definitely nobody there so I just dismiss it as a really active imagination (he has lots of imaginary friends).

Then some friends are visiting and they have a daughter around the same age. She has never met my nephew. Twice in the one day she asked about the “pretty girl” while pointing at the exact same room. Definitely caught me out and I didn’t know what to think.

Then at Christmas my family was over at my place and my nephew points at a picture of my wife and asks if she is coming to visit us here or does she just stay at the cottage. My wife died ten years ago. Personally I don’t really believe in paranormal stuff so it’s probably just my logical brain putting together a bunch of kids ramblings but it definitely got my attention.

18. Playing ‘Social Worker’

My five year old adopted little sister has a game she would play, where we would pretend to go around to people’s houses and take their children. Once we rounded up enough we would eat them, violently and maliciously. This was her idea, through and through. The name of the game? Social worker.

19. Still Shiver At This One

“Go back to sleep, there isn’t anything under your bed”.

“Hes behind you now”.

Still haven’t gotten over that one and shiver at the memory.

20. Chicken Skin

We were having roast chicken for dinner. Son (3) has lightbulb moment. Holds up chicken skin. “When we say ‘chicken skin’, is this really the skin of the chicken? Like my skin?” Next day after some Sunday nappage we play cars. I see a fresh scar on his foot. Straight line with a little dry blood. Ask the little sir about it: “I cut myself. I took a knife because I wanted to see what my meat looks like under my skin but it hurt a little so I stopped. I still don’t know.”

21. Looking For His Sister

My wife was getting my 2yr old son up one morning. He was standing in his bed/crib. As she said good morning and walked over to him he picked up her shirt a little and crooked his head to the side. She asked him what he was doing and he said, “looking for my baby sister in your tummy.” She laughed it off as a weird kid imagination thing. We found out later that at the time she was 2 weeks pregnant and it was, in fact, a girl. We are due in September. We had never really had the talk about where babies come from nor did we talk about having another child at all around him. So spooky.

22. Dead Babies

A good friend of mine and her husband bought what is considered an ‘old’ house around here. (Western Canada…not many houses over 100 years old). They were renovating the basement one day while I was visiting. I was down there alone with their son, who was barely 2 at the time, and could not yet speak in full sentences. He took my hand and led me over to a brick chimney-like thing thing, with a rusty metal door on it. He looked up and said “That’s where the dead babies go.”

I was horrified. Firstly, because, like I said, the kid could barely talk, let alone say something like that. I doubt he even knew what ‘dead’ meant. I’m positive that no one would have told him that, and there were no older kids around that would have said that as a joke. Still creeps me out to this day.

23. The Car Fire From A Past Life

“Before I was born here, I had a sister, right? Her and my other Mom are so old now. They were ok when the car was on fire, but I sure wasn’t!”

He was maybe 5 or 6 years old? It was totally out of the blue..

24. “Come Here Buddy”

When my son was in Kindergarten I received a call from his teacher while at work saying he refused to go outside at recess time and was sitting there terrified. He said there was a guy named Otie who had brown hair and a brown beard who kept telling him to “come here buddy” over and over while he was playing outside before school started. They reviewed tapes and didn’t see anyone. Scared the crap out of me that some man was trying to abduct him but I’m pretty sure he either sees ghosts or has a very active imagination. He also said this guy talked to him at the bus stop or outside his window (on the 2nd floor). He also refused to go anywhere near an entire half of one of our old homes when he was 1-2 years old. He would just stand in the doorway and point.

25. The Voyeur

Not my child…but, my 3 yo niece told my wife to dance in the middle of the room while she hid in a closet watching through the crack in the door.

26. Where Did She Get This?

My daughter said to me that there is a woman who watches her watch movies in her room and sleeps on the ceiling above her bed when she sleeps. she also says it dose not like me and wants to eat my heart. my kid watches Elmo and fucking Dinosaur Train. where in the hell did she get this from?

27. Missing Harvey

When my little sister was younger she used to walk around the house with a picture frame with a picture of my great grandpa in her hands crying and saying “I miss you Harvey.” Harvey had died before even I was born. Other than this common occurrence my mom told me that she would constantly say things that my great grandma Lucy would say.

28. Down In The Hole

I have a three year old who says some pretty strange stuff….

Last night: “Mommy.. the man, the very big man with big yellow eyes is looking at you.”

I look.. nothing. I tell him there is no man and he is make-believe. My son laughs, “Oh he is hiding now.” — 2 minutes later, “Oh no Mommy, you made him very mad. Now he says he will come when you are sleeping.”

Few weeks ago he tells me, “I’m not going to be four. I’m doing to die. And you will put me down, down, down in the hole.” I tell him that isn’t true, and who told him that. He gets quiet and goes, “The man told me. But I will be scared, so after three night-nights you die too and come with me.”

Sheesh. As if I didn’t have bad dreams already.

29. The Digger

My four-year-old nephew doesn’t talk much. But when he does, he says some of the weirdest things. Best one I can think of off the top of my head:

He was outside playing near the edge of his parents’ yard, digging holes with a little plastic shovel in the dirt. He looked very focused and was making each hole the same size and shape. His mom went outside to check on him, and asked “Hey there Z, whatcha diggin’ for?”

He looked her right in the eyes, and with a completely straight face said, “My soul.“

30. Did Not Expect That

He said that he had a dream about a school shooting the previous night. I asked him what happened in the dream and he responded with, “Hmm…Let me think. I forgot who I shot first.”

31. Now Scared Of The Dark

One time my husband and I went to his friends house for a bonfire. Anyway, his son Lane was sitting on my lap, I went to get up, and he screamed then told me to sit back down. I asked him what was wrong and he said that “it” was watching me from the dark corner of the house and if I got up “it” was going to hurt me. He pointed to it and even described what it looked like.He said it was a tall monster with more teeth than a shark, it had no eyes. Very large claws. Apparently it was as big as the house.

I stayed there for 2 hours until he fell asleep. Told his dad to take him, and ran to the house. Scared of the dark ever since.

32. Babysitting

Was babysitting my little cousin. We went to the park, and I had to stop at the Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a cutting board for my mom.

I find the one she needs, and look up to see my cousin in the next aisle, absolutely stunned by the big wall of knives before her. She looks at me, and very cheerfully says, “Look at all those murder weapons!” She’s just a creepy child in general….

33. All The Girls Were Normal

I used to nanny for this family that had 3 kids. Two older girls and a boy about 3. The girls were normal. The boy would only ever talk about death. If we played with Legos he would kill all the Lego people and his voice would get this weird deep sound to it as he described their individual demises. Play with the dog and he’d eventually talk about breaking it’s neck. Coloring would just be him with a black or red crayon filling in a whole page. He would whisper threats to his sisters. If we read a book he would suggest murdering characters.

He was the most morbid child I’d ever met. And I don’t know where it came from since his parents were real hippy dippy. I mean all organic eating, no tv watching, in love with nature people.

He either had gone through some serious trauma or he was possessed by the devil. Either way I quit shortly after when they laughed off my concern over his mindset.

34. From One Imaginary Friend To The Other

My half brother used to have an imaginary friend named Jerry Brusher who was really friendly and did nice things all the time. Then he made a new imaginary friend named Terry, who was mean and got blamed for all the bad things my brother did. Eventually Terry murdered Jerry.

35. Two Weeks Notice

I was babysitting my 4 year old niece. And, we’re watching cartoons when she looks over, dead serous and wonders, “So what’s gonna happen to us when we die in two weeks?”

36. The Girl Without A Face

When my daughter was 4, she woke me up on a dark morning with this gem, “Mom…wake up….mom. There’s a girl in my room who doesn’t have a face.”

The sun wasn’t up and my tired brain was like wtf, I let out a small giggle from my unease. She pulled me by my arm out of bed, and took me to her room to show me the girl. She tells me it’s under her bed, and I’m thinking when did her imagination get so creepy. So I look under her bed, knowing if this was a horror movie this would be a stupid move. And then I see the girl without a face, it wasn’t her imagination… It was one of her dolls, with a pair of doll pants pulled over her face. I laughed, and my daughter was belly laughing so hard because she loves doing silly things. But seriously in those few moments she freaked me out so bad.

37. In Mommy’s Tummy

When my daughter was bout 3 years old she had a sound machine in her room to help her sleep. We typically had it on the babbling brook, or night time crickets sounds. One night I was putting her to bed and turned on the sound machine, she had been playing with it earlier and the sound was left on the sound of a beating heart. After a few minutes of laying there with her in the dark, she looked at me and said “I didn’t like being in mommy’s tummy, it was dark and wet and I don’t want to go back in there, ok?”

38. The Visitor In The Sun Room

The house I bought belonged to a recently deceased couple. The lady was an avid gardener, and they built a beautiful sun room to house their indoor plants. She spent a lot of time in that room, as I hear it.

I’ve found my 4-year-old staring at that room from afar a few times, and when I asked what she was doing, she whispered, “Is that mommy?”

39. “Was She Nice?”

Not a parent, but when I was growing up my family lived in a really old house. Odd things would happen such as doors being cracked open. Never really freaked us out since there were so many of us kids that we figured someone had opened the door and forgot to completely shut it. Anyways, one day while we were having breakfast, my 3 year old sister looks at me and says “Was she nice?” And everyone looked at her like wtf? So she says “the lady that went in your room at night. Was she nice? She told me she saw you sleeping. She goes every night and leaves the door open.” We moved out shortly after.

40. The Boiler Room

When my kid was four, we were watching a documentary on the Titanic. The scene was a picture of the boiler room and the camera panned from left to right. He pointed at the TV and said, “That’s wrong. The boilers were on the other side, and I was right here.” He pointed to a small space in the boiler room. “That’s where I was. And that’s why I don’t like water now.”

41. The Man Outside The Window

When my son was young, he came and climbed into bed with us, crying. I asked him what was wrong. He said that the big fat man with a bloody hole in his head kept trying to open his window.

42. Roger’s Last Day

My little brother’s imaginary friend, Roger, lived under our coffee table. Roger had a wife and nine kids. Roger and his family lived peacefully alongside us for three years. One day, my little brother announced that Roger wouldn’t be around anymore, since he shot and killed himself and his whole family.