There's something about creepy children that can really make your skill crawl. They've been a horror film staple since... forever!
But guess what? A child doesn't need to be murderous or the spawn of Satan himself to freak you out. Children are much more resourceful than that. They simply exist and toss out whatever thoughts that come to mind, sometimes with unsettling results.
After Redditor cruviex asked the online community, "What is the scariest thing a child has said to you?" people shared their stories.
"So for the next couple of days..."
When I was in kindergarten there was a bus accident and a lot of young children died. A lot of my classmates had heard of it in the news so the school decided to have a religious teacher tell us that actually, those babies were super happy because they were called to heaven by Jesus and were playing with him and having fun!
So for the next couple of days, I interrogated my mom on how to kill myself so I could go play in heaven with Jesus.
"Mummy..."
'Mummy, there's monsters watching you from the woods,' said my three-year-old when we moved into our new place and I was washing dishes by the big windows that look out to the woods. I laughed it off and closed the blinds.
Oh my.
That one sounds like the first scene out of a horror film, doesn't it?
"A little girl..."
A little girl in my church nursery once told me, "They are here, in the walls. Don't let them in."
She was talking about a mouse she saw in the church kitchen.
"We sort of assume..."
When my son was little (3 or 4ish) he would wake up with bruises on his forearms that looked like little hands had gripped him too hard. When we asked what was happening he told us an elaborate story about a little girl that lived in his closet and wanted him to hide in there with her.
We sort of assume that he was grabbing his own arms in his sleep and having nightmares but that was definitely horror movie material.
He said she wore a dirty white dress, her hair was falling out, her smile was too big and she had red fingers.
"He had a glow stick..."
I was at a family party with my cousin. He's about 4-5ish. He had a glow stick with him and he kept hitting me with it, so as any other person would do, I took the glow stick and hid it. After that, he told me we could either do this the easy way or the hard way and held a pop gun to my head. The gun weirdly looked like a real gun. Needless to say, I didn't give him his glow stick back.
"When my daughter was three..."
When my daughter was three she randomly turned to me one afternoon and out of the blue said, "It wouldn't matter if you died. I'd just get a new mommy." And then went back to playing.
Ask any parent. Toddlers say disturbing creepy things sometimes.
They do indeed.
When you see a creepy toddler in a film sometime, remember that the screenwriter might be a parent lifting directly from their own life!
"They separated him..."
While I was subbing in a contained ED classroom, a 14-year-old boy stood right next to me, smiled, and said "I don't like you." One of the other teachers in the room pulled me aside and explained that he was abused by female family members before being removed from his home. He regularly targeted new female staff members. They separated him from me for that day. I never went back to that room.
"My son..."
My son, in the midst of potty training, needs to drop a deuce. Heads to the bathroom and a few minutes later he comes out and says, "Dad, I cleaned it up."
And yes, it was worse than you can possibly imagine.
"My 11-year-old nephew..."
My 11-year-old nephew once told me that he knows his parents and teachers don't actually care about him, they're just pretending. This kid has had depressive episodes before, but it's only gotten worse as the years went on. I'm legitimately scared for him.
"I had a kid who was very shy..."
I'm a camp counselor. I had a kid who was very shy from the other kids and didn't really socialize with anyone. One day we were going boating on a lake and the kid looks at me dead in the eyes and says, "Drown. We must all drown." I was terrified.
None of these stories make you want to have children, right?
We thought so. Who needs that stress in your life?
Having to worry about daycare costs and keeping them occupied 24/7 isn't enough––now we need to worry that they'll traumatize us with the comments that come out of their mouths?!
Have some of your own stories? Feel free to share them in the comments below!
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Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram