Let’s face it: Children might be cherubic and cute some of the time, but they can also be downright creepy. They make chilling predictions, say nonsensical things that send shivers down our spines, and can get angry in the blink of an eye. Still, nothing quite compares to the blood-curdling moments these Redditors had with creepy kids.
1. The Unseen
I was babysitting a three-year-old one night who I usually take care of when his parents are out on the town. We were playing and suddenly he pointed at a painting on the wall of a woman with her head turned away so you couldn't see her face. His next words made me want to scream. He said, "I don't like her, she's scary."
I asked why and he said, "I don't like her eyes. She has bad eyes."
2. The Shadow Man Cometh
When my daughter was three, she had a disturbing imaginary friend. She called him “shadow man” and he mostly would stay in the corner of the room. Sometimes he would walk around and her little eyes followed the entire time. At first she would just casually mention him and she didn't seem bothered by him, but as time went on she would express how mean he was becoming.
One night, being desperate to fix this situation for her, I was going to beat the heck out of shadow man. So I go into the corner swinging and my daughter gets more upset and says shadow man is laughing and now showing his sharp teeth. She was terrified. I was terrified.
3. No Laughing Matter
So he didn't say anything exactly, but during this time my brother was around eight or so. My mom and I were sitting on the couch in the living room, and his room was right behind the living room walls. All of a sudden, I hear laughing. Not just any laughing, either. It was a high-pitched little girl laugh. I'm not joking. I go to check on my brother, and he's finishing a laugh, then goes silent. He never laughed in his sleep again.
4. For The Love Of Ice Cream
My niece is currently four years old. I'm convinced she's going to be either the next Stephen King or the next Zodiac Killer. Latest incident: We found her with her dolls seated all around the table, she's at the head of it, holding forth. She's got a bit of a lisp, so it's not easy to make out what she's saying when she's talking fast. I go over to ask her what they are playing.
She was getting a battle plan ready on how to kill everyone in the house and take all the ice cream from the freezer. I was to be done in by her teddy bear stuffing itself down my throat. Sorry sis, I'm not staying the night, got plans. See you later (hopefully).
5. It’s Them Or Me
One of my cousins and I were born 15 days apart. Before that, his sister was the only grandchild in the family, so naturally, she got jealous when all of a sudden she wasn’t getting any attention with two little babies around. One day she apparently went up to my mom and aunt with a very serious look on her face and a KNIFE in her hand saying, “I shall kill them.”
6. The Blonde Beast
Little blonde girls still freak me out to this day because of this story. I had the window seat on a quick one-hour flight, sat next to a little blonde girl with her mom on the aisle seat. As we're taking off, the girl points out the window and exclaims, "We go up and die!" Her mom quickly corrects her, "Yes, we go up in the sky!" A few minutes later, she's points again and says, "I see pain!"
Quick on her feet, her mom corrects her again, "You see plane, very good." No, Sheryl, that's not what she said and you know it!
7. Peek-A-Boo
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.
8. Mischief Maker
Apparently, when I was a kid, I used to say "When I was an adult..." I did this and that. I don't remember why I was saying that, but I definitely remember I said I used to own a store when I was an adult. Another thing my dad says often was that he had an out-of-body experience where he saw me as a two-year-old looking and giggling at him.
He was trying to grab me but his hand just passed through me, where he realized he's asleep. So he woke up and went to check on me. I was still giggling and running away from him just like my dad saw. He believes I could actually see him while he was asleep.
9. Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before
Before I could talk, for months and months I would be humming in my sleep, the same tune, over and over. I would hum it when I played with toys, was waiting for something, but the creepiest was when I was asleep and humming it. A few months later my aunt and uncle were watching TV and they recognized the tune: it was the commercial jingle.
10. Decisions, Decisions
My nephew came over and my dog Wiley nipped him on the leg. He was OK and we won't have kids around the dog anymore. Anyway, he asked me if Wiley was going to get in trouble.” I said yes he will. What do you think should be his punishment?” In his a very sweet, high-pitched little boy voice he said, "I don't know. He could get a spanking or get yelled at..." and then his voice suddenly dropped very low and he said, "or kill the dog.”
Then his voice went back to normal and he went on, "or take away his toys or tell him he's bad..." It seriously freaked me and my brother out!
11. Hide And Seek
I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my 18-month-old running around her room. I walked to her room, opened the door, and saw nothing. It was almost completely dark, and there was no toddler running around. I called out to her playfully. "Erika? Where did Erika go?" Silence. And then, from behind me, "SSHHHHHHH!!"
I almost screamed. She was standing, completely still and quiet, in a dark corner of the room the whole time. And decided that shushing me as loudly as possible was a good idea. I lost 10 years of my life. She's three now and continues to be the child out of a horror movie. I'm hoping I can raise her to be a productive demon member of society.
She also yells "Fix the cat’s tail! Fix it mom!" whenever I am using scissors for anything.
12. Girl Gone Wild
When my daughter was a year and a half old, she got out of her bed in the middle of the night, came up to me while I was sitting at my desk, and goes "The fire. It's coming. Shhh..." with a finger to her lips. And then goes back to bed. Then when she was two, she and I were playing with her baby dolls on her bed, and I ask her "Sweetie, do you want mommy to have another baby?"
And she looks me right in the face, takes a pillow, holds it over one of her dolls, and whispers "Nooo..." At three she comes up to me, strokes my ear softly, and whispers "Take your ear off, Mommy. I do it." Finally, on her third birthday, she was in her room popping balloons from her party and I hear her go "Pop all the balloons. Pop all of the joy." She's harmless, that I know of, but she's a little creepy somebody sometimes.
13. Spirit Medium
My mom told me how when I was a baby in nappies and could talk quite well for my age (not sure how old I was). One day while she was changing my nappy she said I looked her in the eye and said, “I used to do this to you when you were a little girl.” She said the hairs on her neck went up and was creeped the heck out, but just replied “Oh did you?”
Then I went on as a baby again like I never said a thing. She thinks maybe it was my deceased great nanna appearing through me for a second.
14. Furry Friend
My four-year-old daughter was going through a Cinderella phase and had a very active imagination. One night after reading a bedtime story, she sits up and looks towards the foot of her bed, and starts calling in a soft sweet voice "Lucifer? Luuuciferrrrr?" I was in that instant, very aware of my pulse. Took me a while to realize that the cat in Cinderella is named Lucifer.
15. Dearly Departed Friends
I was a little kid when I said something creepy. I heard this from four family members (my mother, father, and grandparents). They were having breakfast and I came into the kitchen and said how "Uncle Sal" and I were talking last night. There was one thing horribly wrong with this. This was my grandmother’s deceased brother who passed 10 years before I was born.
My grandfather turned white and almost fell out of his chair.
16. In The Shadows
One time, my husband and I went to his friend’s house for a bonfire. 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.
I stayed there for two hours until he fell asleep. Told his dad to take him, and ran to the house. Scared of the dark ever since.
17. Hunter And Hunted
If someone here lives in the Philippines, then you know about a “duwende,” which is a sort of garden gnome that attracts and abducts small children, and they never return. So I was babysitting my three-year-old niece at that time and it was in the middle of the night, around 1-3 am, and she woke up for whatever reason. She suddenly looks at the window and goes “Hey, why is there a small garden gnome in front of the tree?
I instantly froze and told her to ignore it and just go to sleep. I closed all the windows and told her to never go near that tree during nighttime.
18. Silent Partner
Our daughter was premature and dysmature, and had a problem with fluid in her ears that we unfortunately discovered a bit late. This lead to her having delayed speech development. When she was about two years old, she started smiling and waving and saying hello to a certain point on the wall above one of our windows. This happened from time to time, over the space of about half a year.
Because of her speech impediment, we could never get her to tell us who or what she was talking to, and after those problems were fixed she couldn't remember.
19. The Never-Smiles Kid
When my son was in kindergarten, there was one kid (who he'd also gone to preschool for two years with) who just...never smiled. Like, he constantly looked angry about something. I was helping at their Winter Holiday party, helping my son, the never-smiles kid, and a few others with an ornament they were supposed to make and take home. It took a creepy turn I’ll never forget.
Never-smiles kid pointed his blunt-tipped kiddie scissors at me and says "I'm gonna cut your eyes out" in the creepiest way possible. I was totally freaked out, but managed to at least LOOK calm. "Uh…no. We're not going to cut anybody's eyes out. Not today, ok?" Never-smiles kid was constantly bugging my kid and I asked for them to be in different classes the next school year, which the school agreed to.
I lost track of never-smiles after the end of first grade, because our district redrew the attendance zones and my son ended up at a different elementary school after that. I heard the next school year (so second grade), never-smiles had been caught shoving damp paper towels into one of the hand dryers and holding the button down, to see if it would catch on fire.
I also heard his mom had to pay for the school to have an anti-bullying assembly because of him. Another rumor, a couple of years after that (so like 4th or 5th grade) said that he'd gotten kicked out and that not even the local "alternative education" charter school had even kicked him out.
20. Shared Illusion
This was something I said as a kid. Years ago, the theme of ghosts came up, and my mom told the story about how my brother (he's built different and sees ghosts/is haunted often) several times saw a girl with pale skin and black hair. He said that he thought it was me for a minute until she ran upstairs and started making him run around the house.
What did little me say? "My imaginary friend used to look exactly like me, it was probably her."
21. All Good Questions
When I was like five, I was watching the History Channel at like 4:00 am and their intro at the time was a bunch of things from around the world and questions like "Who were they?" And "Where did they come from?" And "Where did they go?" I was hanging out with my mom the next night, playing with some Legos, and repeated those questions.
My mom asked me what the heck I was on about and had this really concerned look on her face.
22. The Ghost Knows
I was sat on a bench in a cemetery. I had just had an argument with my then-girlfriend, and I was looking at the ground when I was aware of someone in front of me. I looked up and there was a little girl, about seven or eight years old maybe. She looked at me and said “Where is your beautiful wife?” I think I said “I don’t have one” then put my head back down.
I looked up a second later as I thought perhaps I didn’t want to look like some weirdo talking to kids in a cemetery, but she was gone, like vanished. I looked around and there was no one in sight and it was a bit away from the exits. Very odd and I never forgot it—but there was one final twist. I split up with that girlfriend, but we met again 15 years later and got married.
23. It’s Coming From Inside The House
When I was little like five or six, I used to stay with my grandma for family reasons. Her house is old I think—I haven't looked up the history and frankly, I don't want to—but me and my little brother used to be very scared to be alone in the backyard at night. It was like someone was watching us. We also had a den of chickens in the corner and one night they just straight-up disappeared.
Like, gone. The cage was torn but nobody knew what happened to them. Also, my brother would say he could hear babies crying outside at night and that someone was under the bed ready to get him. I also recall him saying someone was banging on the window when he was taking a bath but nobody was outside to do so. I don’t know, that house was very creepy.
24. Didn’t See You There
I used to do short-term foster care. I had a couple of brothers at one point and was sitting alone with one of them who was eight years old. He stared into the distance and very casually and with no sense of emotion detailed how he was going to stab his brother and suffocate my partner in her sleep. He spoke about it for about 10 minutes before looking at me and asking how long I had been sitting with him.
25. A Family Affair
My three-year-old niece would often tell us about conversations she had with deceased relatives, two of which she never met and the third passed before she turned one. She was able to recognize them in pictures (unprompted), tell us the nicknames my sister and I gave them when we were little, and told us details that were accurate and that she couldn't have possibly known.
Hanka: Passed in 2015. she referred to him as Mr. ****** (his last name, but not hers). She told us he wears a suit and walks around with his hands behind his back. He wore a suit every day even after he retired, and he would frequently walk with his hands behind his back. He did get to meet her a few times when she was an infant, but he was bed-bound at that point and was never able to walk and didn't wear anything but pajamas in the few times they were able to meet.
Gran: Passed in 2012. Didn't name her but pointed her out in pictures. She told us that Gran wanted to make sure she grew up "proper and courteous." My grandmother was a big stickler for etiquette and made sure all of her grandkids studied an etiquette book as children. Poppy: Passed in 1991. She named him and knew who he was in pictures.
She said he was funny (he was known for his pranks) and had one finger that was shorter than the others...he lost half his right index finger while working on a lawnmower in the 70s.
26. The Burden Of Dreams
I used to sometimes babysit a teacher’s kid in my teen years (they were friends with my family). The kid was highly anxious and talked about having disturbing dreams which weren’t necessarily violent as such, but just had smaller disturbing details, such as mold growing out of people’s faces. She used to talk about a “rat man” she saw in the corner of her room.
I would often get very off gut feelings when she talked about this stuff.
27. That’ll Drive The Property Value Down
We were visiting a family friend’s house. My oldest son was about three at the time and all the kids were playing in the kids' room. They started getting loud so I went to check on them. They were laughing at the closet, running up to it, and then running away. I figured playing hide and seek or just being silly, so I left to talk to the adults. It got way too disturbing way too fast.
A few minutes later, another boy runs to me and says my son is climbing in the crawl space in the closet. I ran and found him with just his feet sticking out. Pulled him out and he told me he was going to find “her” and she told him to come get her. Apparently, they had been playing with something/someone in the crawl space.
“She” was making them laugh through the crawl space, they all see her, and then she told my son to follow her. I told the homeowner what happened and she told me her kids know not to open the crawl space door and the kids swear they didn't open it. But that’s not all. The owners of the house laughed it off, but in so doing revealed that it used to be a daycare/orphan home in the 1900s.
Something bad happened back then where a lot of kids went missing and they had to shut it down. It was an old house right off the train tracks in East Texas. All the rooms connected with a door together and they all had crawl space openings in each room down a long hallway. It was so weird. They don't believe in paranormal stuff at all but would tell me about hearing crying, feet running up and down the hallway, and books falling off shelves.
28. Twice Too Much
When my daughter was "booster seat" age, she sat at the end of the table that ran along the railing to the basement stairs. Every so often she would get incredibly squirmy and frustrated. Until she could talk better, I never really thought much of it. Then one day she tells me she doesn't like it when the man tickles her when she's eating at the table...the heck?
I ask if he scares her. She says no. Just didn't like him bugging her. Fast forward four years to when my son is that age and now sitting in that chair. Same squirms. Same frustrations. AND TOLD ME THE SAME FRICKIN' THING!!!! HE DOESN'T LIKE THE MAN BUGGING HIM!!!! We don't live there anymore.
29. A Wild Goose Chase
I didn’t hear this but it’s a story from when my aunt was a little girl visiting her grandparents’ farm in Ireland. She had been sent out to collect eggs from the geese and when she came back she was covered in bites and scratches. She said to her grandmother “The geese won’t hurt me anymore, they’re sleeping.” What really happened was utterly horrific.
It turns out she literally killed them all with a big stick. She was six years old.
30. Making Light Of It
My little brother and I shared a room together while growing up. One night I walked into the room. It was bedtime, I had school in the AM, and I was tired. The lights were on for some reason. On the top bunk my little brother, who was probably about six or seven years old at the time, was asleep. I hit the light switch and began easing myself into the bottom bunk.
As I began to lay down I heard, ‘’Turn the light back on.’’ I stood up and turned to look in his direction. ‘’What?’’ I said. ‘’Turn the light back on.’’ I flicked the light switch. He was sitting up, his eyes were wide open and staring at nothing. He was sleep talking. I asked, ‘’Why do you want the light on?’’ ‘’Because...I was born in the light.’’ And then he eased his way back down, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
31. Das Creep
My son was terrified of his bedroom. He said the “snake-neck lady” wants to “hurt Mommy so she can be my mommy, but she scares me and I don’t want her to be my mommy!” Just a side note, the snake neck lady didn’t walk. She would only “fly back and forth all the time.” Oh, it gets creepier. She couldn’t leave his room because her “snake neck is attached to ceiling.”
My kid also suddenly started speaking German around this time. I don’t speak German, and no one in our extended family speaks German. But, my toddler had a very...colorful German vocabulary. I was mortified when I heard a translation of what he had been saying! He only used German when he was upset/frustrated/angry, though. He didn’t go to daycare or have a sitter.
He was only ever with me, his dad, or my mom and dad. Where the heck did he learn to rage in German??? I love my son more than life itself, but kids are truly creepy sometimes.
32. Wise Beyond His Years
My then-three-year-old son casually told me one morning after brushing his teeth that "When I was an old man I smoked. And there was a fire." A few months later while getting dressed, he just blurted out "You're a baby, then you're old, then you're a baby again. Like a circle," and he then proceeded to draw a circle in the air with his finger. I still get chills thinking about these conversations.
33. Special In A Creepy Way
A couple of weeks ago, I was babysitting my four-year-old little cousin who I had never met before. She came up to me and said "Did you know that I strangled my hamster? His name is Fred! He is currently on my shoulder but nobody else seems to see him! It was funny watching the life leave his eyes." I didn't really know what else to say other than, "Can you tell me more about Fred?"
I was terrified but I love that girl and I didn't want to make her upset. Later in the night, she was telling me about how graveyards are scary because she usually sees old people floating around. I just sort of went along with it but honestly I think that girl is special. I am babysitting her again in a few days so I am going to ask her more about it then. Poor girl must see a lot of things she doesn't want to.
34. The Man In The Corner
My daughter woke up screaming one night. Like, SCREAMING. I knew something was wrong, but I could have never imagined the reality. I went into her room to find her curled up in a ball against her crib kind of "pushing" or "fighting" things off. I pick her up and she smacked me in the face. I held her head and calmly said her name, but her eyes were wild.
She slowly came to, hugged me, and was shaking. The following morning I asked her what happened. "The man was here." I asked her where and she pointed immediately to a corner of the room. I then asked what the man looked like. She pointed at her skin "black" then made goggles around her eyes with her hands, or binoculars (you know what I mean) and looked at me. "Red."
It hasn't happened since. But other things have. I'm convinced she either sees things, or has sleep paralysis. But sleep paralysis doesn't usually involve her moving around, or running away from things. She's a creepy little girl. However, since we moved out of that house and my wife and I split there hasn't been an issue. Maybe I had my very own Babadook.
35. Always Planning Ahead
I asked my seven-year-old cousin if she was excited for my sister to have her baby. At first, she was kind of sad, because she wouldn't be the youngest in the family anymore. Moments later she brightened up. "Oh! That'll be good because if they're younger than me then I won't be left alone when Nathan dies!" Nathan is her 12-year-old brother.
36. Little Goth
This is just yesterday alone: "Mom here is my drawing, it’s a man robbing old people, see the fire." "Mom my life is terrible, its full of sadness and lies." "Fine why don't you just bury me somewhere then, at least it will be quiet there.” He is six.
37. My Little Monsters
I have two kids and they are both creepy. When my son was four, he told me he wished he could cut my head off and take it to school with him. A couple of weeks after her fifth birthday, I'm putting my daughter to bed and she asks "Why doesn't the lady in my wardrobe like you daddy?"
38. Well, That Settles That Then
While waiting at a crosswalk for the light to turn green, my three-year-old was asking why I don't just cross right away. I tell him that I might get hit by a car and get hurt if I am not careful. He turns to me and says "But daddy, you don't die on the road, you die in a fire."
39. A Message From The Grave
Apparently, when I was about three or four years old, I had an imaginary friend who was a British soldier in WWI. I would tell my parents about the things he'd tell me, one of which was about being stationed in India. My mom then pulled out a map and asked me to point out where India was. That’s where it got really weird. I got it right, obviously without having known before.
40. Any Last Words?
The other night, I went to tuck my five-year-old daughter into bed. When I said goodnight and gave her a kiss, she said to me: "I'm going to be dead in the morning." Thank goodness that wasn't the case! I watched her like a hawk all night, though.
41. Whatever You Want, Sweetie
My wife left the house and my daughter turned to me and said "Mom's gone we can do bad things." This creeped me right the heck out. I asked her, "What do you mean do bad things?" My daughter replied, "We can jump on the bed and use the sharp scissors to stab things." I let her jump on the bed, and use the sharp scissors…for arts and crafts.
42. Do Go On
A couple of hours ago, my three-year-old very casually was like, "I'm going to be sad when this home catches fire." That was an interesting conversation.
43. Somebody’s Watching Over You
“You can sleep with my teddy bear mommy. I don't like when its eyes move.”
44. Man’s Best Friend
A kid at the pet store said: "We need to get a dog that can eat a lot, so when you die they can eat your body. Then it'll be like you're still with me."
45. Goodbye And Goodnight
I was tucking in my two-year-old. He said, "Goodbye dad." I said, "No, we say good night." He said "I know. But this time it’s goodbye." Had to check on him a few times to make sure he was still there.
46. A Visitor From Beyond
We asked my five-year-old cousin who she was talking to in the den. She said with excitement "I was showing pap my dolls!" This was utterly terrifying for one reason. “Pap” was what we called our grandpa, and he had passed that morning but we hadn't told her yet. We had actually come down to the den to let her know at that very moment.
47. Past Lives
My daughter would constantly talk about another life she had. This wasn't once or twice, this went on for years and in very specific detail. At first, I thought it was a story she was making up, but when it kept going and going and going and as specific as it was, I started to get really freaked out. She had never experienced anything like this in her life and we don't watch movies like that.
It gets very, very creepy. She used to say how her dad (then not now) used to beat her and put her in the closet and make her stand outside with her hands tied to a tree. He wasn't a very nice guy, she had siblings and he was nicer to the boy, he ended up killing her and her mom; she described her end very specifically.
One day, we were driving through Kansas over by Dodge City, and on the long deserted road, she said a house looked like where she lived. We had never been there before and this was actually one of the last things she ever said about it. It used to break my heart hearing her talk about it, I'm so glad it stopped.
48. Get The Heck Out
My sister was once asleep beside me while I was playing on my phone. She’s a heavy sleeper and very little can wake her up. All of a sudden, she bolted upright and grabbed my arm while looking towards my window. I’ll never forget her next words. She whispered in a panicked voice “You can’t let them in.” Confused, I asked her what she was talking about.
“You can’t let them in,” she repeated, “they don’t have eyes!” Then she rolled over and went back to sleep. This would be creepy enough on its own, however, my house had similar events prior to and after this. For example, my siblings refused to sleep in their room. Eventually, they said it was because of “the girl without eyes that lives in the closet.”
I myself had nightmares of a girl with black holes for eyes standing at the foot of my bed. When I saw her, she told me that I’d “better wake up before you forget how.” Prior to that nightmare, I had felt like my blanket had been getting pulled off me repeatedly during the night. I had never told anyone about it so it wasn’t like my sister got the idea of the eyeless girl from me.
Also, the window my sister had been looking at had a bad history. Often at night, I’d hear scratching coming from it and my cat would stare at the window and hiss. I never saw anything there, even when I climbed out on the roof to investigate. The second I was back inside, my cat would hiss at the window again. It was overall just a very creepy series of events.
49. Follow Me
When my sister was around two or three years old, she ran out the door and down the street. Luckily my mom saw her and called me to chase after her. When we finally caught up with her my mom asked her why she ran out like that. My sister’s reply was chilling. She said, “This lady told me to follow her.” We didn’t see anyone in front of her the whole time she was running, also we don’t know how the front door opened since she couldn’t even reach the handle at the time. Creepy stuff.
50. The Cold, Hard Truth
This was years ago when I was only seven or eight years old (I'm 20 now) and I was good friends with this girl and her parents were friends with my mom. I was staying the night one day. When I woke up, I nearly screamed. I see their daughter standing by the bed I was in. I asked her what she was doing and she didn't respond. I started to get really creeped out so I turned on the bedside lamp.
That’s when I saw that she was holding a butcher's knife. I called for my mom and my friend bolted from the room. That night, my friend's parents started watching her closely for any more odd behavior. Sure enough, she would talk to herself and displayed severe paranoia. Finally, they took her to see a doctor—and he made a dizzying diagnosis.
They found out she had schizophrenia. That poor girl's life has changed so much and her parents' lives have been filled with stress and fear. She is doing well now with her medicine, but her parents split up because the father couldn't handle the stress. She blames herself and it is heartbreaking. I'm just glad she got the help she needed before anything really bad happened.
Sources: Reddit,