Kids say the darndest things. We know this. And their imaginations are essentially boundless. But sometimes, kids say things so unexpectedly creepy and so shockingly morbid that there's really no rational way to explain them. They might not know what they’re doing most of the time, and they probably don’t mean anything by it when they send these shivers down our spines, but come on—we've all seen enough horror movies to be just a little skeptical of these little rascals and their motives by now.
Maybe they’ve been poking around in the the darker areas of Netflix in secret, maybe they’ve been hanging around the wrong kids at the jungle gym, maybe they’re just talking random nonsense and seeing what sticks. Or maybe, just maybe, they really do know things we don’t know.
Whether it’s the variously freaky things their own children have said to them, the things they said to traumatize their own parents back in the day, or the things nieces and nephews and neighbors and other little monsters have said to spook them out at some point over the years, these Redditors have some supremely spooky stories to share.
43. Don’t Lose Your Marbles
I freaked my mother and grandmother out when I was about 3. I'd randomly stopped playing with whatever I was playing with (dolls or something) and walked up to them and said "I don't like marbles," and when asked why I'd said "they hurt" and rubbed the side of my head. Mum kissed it, asked if it was better now, and I went back to playing.
It stumped them because when my mother was 10 and her brother was 8, they'd gotten into a fight over a bag of marbles and she'd smacked him around with the bag and he had a big bruise. My uncle (her brother) passed away when I was a few months old, and we had no marbles in the house, at least none that my sister and I were allowed to play with—my sister was about 6 months old, though our brother is around 10 years older than us—choking hazards, etc.
It was a creepy, creepy thing to happen.
42. Oh Hardy Har Har
"I'm never moving out" is the scariest sentence my 14-year-old has uttered.
41. The Girl With The Yellow Raincoat
My dad is the owner of a hostel in Buenos Aires. We have plenty of people from all over the world, but specially from South America. More often than not, there are no kids around, but every once in a while we receive families.
So, there's this family in the hostel. One little boy and his parents. The little boy is the only kid in the entire place. Chilly winter night, he appears in the common room asking who is the little girl with the yellow raincoat in the bathroom. Once again, HE'S the only underage in the entire place.
The spooky moment comes 6 months later. There's no kid this time. Forty-something lady from Spain asks us "whose child is the little girl with the yellow raincoat in the bathroom?"
Oh, BTW: the door for that bathroom constantly closes by itself—it must be the wind. Also, the building used to be a nursing home and a mental asylum before that.
39. I Said What Now?
I said something pretty damn creepy to my parents when I was about 10.
So, apparently I was making strange noises in my room and my parents both came in to check out what was going on. The moment my parents come in I scream "Ghost, Ghost! Go away" I had a cross necklace so I put it out in front of them and continue to scream "ghost."
Then I scream "Sit down!" and apparently it scared my dad so much that he actually sat down.
The next morning my parents asked me if I was alright. I had no clue what happened and had no recollection of ever saying any of that.
37. Creep in the Corner
When I was 3 I was sleeping in my parent's bed when I sat straight up and asked "Mommy, who is that man in the corner?" She was terrified. This happened every night until she went to the corner and talked to him asking him to leave us alone because he was scaring me. Still believe in ghosts because of this.
36. Grandpa’s Haunted House
My mom tells me that when I was a really small child we would visit my grandfather's house and often spend the night. She says that once, in the middle of the night, she woke up and I wasn't in the bed (young enough to co-bed).
She got up and I was standing in the living room with my hand in the air like I was holding someone's hand and I said something along the lines of "I can’t go with you because my mom didn't say I could." We didn't spend the night at my grandfather's house again for another decade.
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35. Furry Guardians
My grandparents had a bedroom that everyone thought was haunted (some suspected it was the bed itself). Over the years, many people claimed to hear voices in the room and see people in there or about the house. I never really bought it.
Well, my parents moved just before the school year was over, so I stayed with them until I finished that grade. I slept in that room every night for about a month and without fail every dog in the house would sleep on the bed with me. This was about a dozen medium to large size dogs and they would completely surround me from the time I laid down right up until I woke up and got out of bed.
My grandma (and others) claimed that they were protecting me.
34. Culinary Creep
Playing tea party, little one keeps passing me "cake." I dutifully eat each piece she passes me.
"It was poison. You died." Oh, okay then.
She then proceeded to "chop me up," mix my chopped parts with some spice in a pot, and then serve the resulting stew to her mother.
33. Double Whammy
My sons were about two and four when their pet goldfish died. I attempted to use the situation as an opportunity to discuss death and mortality. After I finished my explanation, my four-year-old looked up at me with his big, blue eyes and asked, "Mommy, someday, will you die?"
My heart filled with love and a little sadness, knowing this was one of those pivotal moments when the first bit of childhood innocence was lost, and I told him yes, someday, mommy will die.
"Good," he said with a totally deadpan expression, and walked out of the room.
Later when we were about to flush the fish, he asked if we could eat him instead. I said no, we don't eat pets because we love them, and he said, "When you die, I'm going to eat you."
32. Well That’s One Possibility
Three-year-old brother: "If God looks after people, who looks after God?"
Mom: "Well, I don't know..."
Five minutes later—brother: "I think the Japanese."
31. Spooky Role Reversal
I'm the child in this story, but let me tell you about when I was four.
I'm named after my maternal grandmother who died about two years before I was born, and it's worth mentioning that I was the first grandchild born after her death. I was always very curious about her as a young child... one day my mom laid down for a nap and when she woke up, I was standing at her bedside and looking down on her. Apparently, I said, "Do you remember when I was the mommy, and you were the baby?"
cue twilight zone theme music
30. Feeling Blue
My kid was in the bathtub one night with the bathroom door open and I was puttering around in the next room. She called out and said, "Hey mommy, who was that blue guy who just walked down the hall?" She said he was tall and thin and featureless like "the shape of those men on the bathroom door like at a restaurant." Creeped me out!
29. Maybe It’s Your Clothing Choices?
My six-year-old son, when asked what he wanted to do when he grew up, said, "I think I want to be a fighter pilot, or maybe a funeral worker like daddy."
I am a software engineer.
28. Past Life Horrors
This one actually just happened with my four-year-old a week or so ago. I woke up to her laying in the hallway whimpering and crying while still asleep. I woke her up to put her back to bed and asked if she had a bad dream. Barely awake she said "No. I remembered. Before I was born here I was a really bad dog and they made me go to sleep." and then started crying and saying she didn't want to remember it. When I asked the next morning she said the same thing and got visibly upset again. I even have audio of her starting to tell me the story, getting upset, then changing the topic.
27. Hannibal Lecter Jr.
My one son was eating chicken nuggets and he would always eat the breading off it first. He takes a bite of the breading and then says "Oh no! Your face is missing!"
26. Waking Nightmare
My son was two. He was in a pattern of waking us up at about 5:00 am every morning. One morning I took him downstairs and plopped him in front of the TV so I could try to go back to sleep for about 30 minutes on the couch (right by him).
I woke up a few minutes later and he was standing in the foyer, pointing into the kitchen, laughing. He then said, "Mommy is floating in the kitchen."
I didn't think much of it...went back to sleep for a bit.
About 30 minutes later his mom came downstairs having just woken up, saying she "had one of those weird dreams where she flew out of her body, went downstairs and found herself in the kitchen."
Freekay.
25. Perched and Petrified
I don't have kids but apparently, this happened when I was about four.
I shared a room with my older sister and we had huge closets in our bedroom that were about six feet tall. My mother would wake up in the middle of the night to hear me crying and she'd come in to investigate what was wrong. She then would find me sitting on top of the huge closest, cross-legged and rocking back and forth while crying about; "The big scary man put me up here".
Since my mother was tired from it being the middle of the night and being heavily pregnant she didn't really think about HOW I got up on the closet, but would put me back into bed and comfort me until I fell asleep again.
But then my grandmother came to stay with us a few nights and she told my mother that she woke up in the middle of the night because it got suddenly cold and her bedroom door handle was turning. The door opened but no one was there and then the bathroom door opposite her door opened on its own. She stared out the door for a few minutes not moving because she was in shock and frightened, but then heard me start crying. My mother walked by her room to get to me and of course I was crying about the man putting me up there.
My grandmother told my mum what she experienced and my sister slept with my Gran and I slept with mum for the next couple of weeks after that. It stopped once my brother was born, and to this day I have no idea what really happened.
24. Not Really a Laughing Matter
My cousin's kid when he was around 4 or 5 came into the bathroom as I was straightening my hair. He closed the door, looked at me and said: "I don't want to kill you."
Creepy. He's 13 now and whenever I tell him the story he just laughs his ass off.
23. Hungry Little Monster
My four-year-old son said, "Daddy, I want to drill into your tummy, crawl inside, and eat your dinner." The food was okay, but I didn't think it was worth that much effort.
22. Fair Enough Really
My three-year-old daughter was in the bath playing with her toys with me and laughing. Suddenly her face deadpans, she looks me in the eye, and tells me in a serious little voice "mummy, if you bit and ate all my fingers off I wouldn't love you anymore"
21. Back to the Future
When my son was small, I was talking to him about growing potatoes. I described how you bank up the earth around them as they grow, and he said: "I used to do that when I was an old man."
20. Premeditated Murder
My six-year-old daughter in the passenger seat a few days ago looked at me and said "Dad. When I'm seven I'm going to kill you. No, wait, when I'm eight."
I had to ask so "How are you going to do that?" She smiled and said, "I'm gonna drive over your head with this car."
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19. Telling It Like It Is
I was explaining to my niece the difference between things that can and can't change about people- she was confused because she'd met a set of three siblings and the eldest wasn't the tallest.
So I told her that one day even SHE, an itty bitty four-year-old, could be taller than me, a big huge grownup. But even if she was taller, I would always be older.
She looked me serious as you like and says "you'll be dead sooner too."
18. Okay That’s Just Genius
Not a parent, but a former teacher.
I taught English in a school in Spain, and I wasn't supposed to let the kids know that I speak Spanish, so that they are forced to communicate in English. A 10-year-old girl comes up to me one day, grabs me by the hand, and says, with the most horrifying straight face ever, "Te vas a la muerte" or "you're going to die." I was so shocked at the randomness of it that my jaw must have dropped. She then laughed her head off and said, "HA! You DO speak Spanish!". She then skipped away, laughing and smiling.
Creepiest thing a kid has ever said to me. And probably the most clever thing a kid ever did while I was a teacher.
17. Afraid of the Dark
Sure. Why not.
"When you turn off the lights, that's when the black circles come. They come down like this (holds his hands in the air above his bed), and they stay for a second, then zoop! they go inside! (slapping the hands to his chest)."
Then, barely holding back tears, "I hate it."
16. Wise Beyond Their Years
When our dog died, without us yet having properly attempted to explain death, our then two-year-old said, "All her thoughts left her body."
15. The Secret Lives of Four-Year-Olds
When my niece was around three or four years old, she told me she used to have a baby but it drowned. The baby was called Peanut Butter, but still.
14. Parents, Meet The Evil. The Evil, Parents.
My daughter had some imaginary friends for a coupl ofe years named Dodo, Ghana, and the Evil. They just sort of appeared out of nowhere when she was about 2.5 years old. It started with Dodo and Ghana, then a few months later (she was about 3 at this point) she came up to me and told me with a creepily expressionless face: "The Evil is coming over today" and just walked away.
Turns out, The Evil was actually a pretty nice imaginary friend, she just had an unfortunate name.
13. Something Smells Fishy
When I was little, my grandfather, whom I called Pop Pop, always promised to take me fishing. Things always came up or I wasn't in town to go with him when he went, etc. He died when I was 7 and I never had a chance to go fishing. I had never gone fishing, and have not since he died either.
Fast forward 20 years, my wife and I have a 3-year-old daughter. I've never spoken to her about my Pop Pop, and I've never talked about him in front of her. I haven't brought him up to anyone since before my daughter was born. One day, I'm off with my daughter and she's in her room. Suddenly, she comes running into the living room where I'm sitting, and says the following:
Her: Daddy, we have to go fishing! (We don't live near a lake or anything so this was kinda weird for her to say in the first place).
Me: Why do we have to go fishing?
Her: Because Pop Pop says you have to take me!
Me: Wait, what? Who told you?
Her: Pop Pop says you need to take me to go fish.
I'm not really a believer in an afterlife or anything, but I damn sure took her fishing. She has not mentioned Pop Pop since then, and it's been almost a year since that happened.
12. Anger Issues
When my niece was 3, she covered up my head with a blanket and held it down. I moved my head out where I could see her. She said "You can't come out" and smothered me again. I laughed and said, "Why?" She gritted her teeth and angrily said: "Because I don't want you to."
11. Singing Spirits
I was with my sister, her husband, and their two-year-old daughter. We were talking about loved ones that had recently passed—my father had died sometime recently. My brother-in-law went and grabbed a picture of his mother, who had died in a car crash when he was six, to show me. When my niece saw the picture though she started laughing. We asked her what was so funny and she looked at us and said: "that's my special friend who sings to me." I still shiver a bit just thinking about it.
10. Apocalyptic Visions
My niece drew a picture "of a man in her room" that she kept telling her parents about. He had two different colored eyes, and one was grey. When asked why it was grey, she responded: "because he can see the storm coming."
9. “You're Welcome” Would've Been Fine, Son
Recently actually. My son always says odd things. Usually, they're funny but this one threw me for a loop. He is 8. I was telling him how much I love him and thanks for being in my life. He said “I didn't choose this life. I couldn't control how it began. But I can control how it ends.”
8. From Beyond The Grave
My then three-year-old daughter walked downstairs in the morning and said "Look what I can do!" and she crossed her eyes.
I asked her how she learned to do that and she said, "The boy taught me at night"
Me: "What boy?"
Her: "The boy with the glasses.. he did this" and she held her finger up and zoomed it to her nose and crossed her eyes. She said he laughed and laughed.
Not too scary right? Only... that's how my brother taught me to cross my eyes when I was five years old. He died when I was seven years old.
7. Final Destination
We were driving down a dark, snowy highway late one evening—the final stretch of a 16-hour-long road trip. My son, who was around 4 or 5 at the time, was in the back seat and becoming a bit restless. He suddenly covered his face with a blanket and announced loudly, "I don't want to get glass on my face!"
A few moments later, a pick-up truck towing some snowmobiles pulled out in front of a tractor trailer a few cars in front of us and got hit, spinning out into the median. Fortunately, we avoided the accident completely. It was indeed a bit creepy, though, almost as though he predicted there was going to be an accident right in front of us.
6. Just So You Know...
Child had woken up early so she was watching cartoons next to me in my bed while I tried to wake up.
I'd heard a funny sound downstairs earlier that I mentally blamed on the dogs.
Then kiddo leans over to me and remarks "Oh, there's a man in the house."
AWAKE AWAKE AWAKE!
(I never found anything and never got any further details from her).
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5. Still Nana’s Room
My mum stayed with us for a few months when my daughter was 3 or 4. When she moved out, the spare room was still called "nanna's room." I asked my daughter to get something upstairs one day, she did and came back to me and said: "who is that old lady in nanna's room?". Didn't go in that room ever again.
4. Frighteningly Accurate
My dad watched his mother die of a ruptured gallbladder when he was 12 and still remembers it vividly. My sister, one day, randomly gets up almost an hour after she's gone to bed and goes up to him. The conversation went like this:
Sister: Daddy, your mommy died in a red sweater, jeans, sneakers and with her hair in a ponytail, right? And her hair was blonde?
Dad: Drops book he's reading and stares, wide-eyed, and then says Yes...
Sister: What color were her eyes?
Dad: Blue... why?
Sister: Oh, she doesn't have them anymore, just empty sockets. I was curious.
And she goes right back to bed.
Lspro Intertek
3. Strange Happenings
Once I was taking a nap on the couch. I was waking up, and just as I'm opening my eyes, I see my 2-year-old son walking toward me with a serious look on his face. He leans in close and whispers, "It happened." He then leaves without another word.
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, WHAT HAPPENED??
School of Natural Health Sciences
2. The Cursed Child
Not me, but my father.
When my father was a kid in the ‘60s, he would go into the living room in the middle of the night, turn the TV on to static, climb on his rocking horse and slowly rock back and forth in the dark room only lit by the TV static and slowly say "I hate mommy. I hate mommy. I hate mommy." over and over again. My grandmother says it was the creepiest thing she's ever seen. Well, that and the UFO.
1. Not Cool
I had a music teacher who took his 4-year-old daughter to an old theater in Alaska. She started crying immediately when she walked in, so he took her outside and she stopped crying. He took her back in, she started crying again, so he took her outside again.
He asked why she was crying, and she said: "That's where the people with no eyes watch you."
Sources: Reddit,
