There was a path down a wooded hillside where logs had been put into the side ending in a fire pit at the bottom. Kind of like a christen camp amphitheater. One night in an act of "cleansing" following a sermon like mentioned above, we were instructed to burn anything that wants of God. These were emblems on t-shirts, fiction books that spoke of magic, and entire CD collections worth hundreds of dollars. One parent threatened to sue after their was encouraged to daughter burn one such collection. I'm not sure if they still officially do this but looking back the brainwashing techniques used were seriously creepy.
Redditor whatsthatpidge wanted to hear more unnerving experiences and asked:
"People who have gone to summer camp as a child, what was your creepy/scary experience?"
Some nightmare fuel...
“Went on a camping trip. I was one of the first ones out of the bus and had to use the public bathroom. I notice a few daddy long legs on the wall outside the bathroom and think nothing if it. I open the door and am immediately greeted by thousands if not millions of daddy long legs that are covering the bathroom from top to bottom. (The bathroom was big as well, like 3 stalls and 3 urinals.)”
“That and coupled with the fact that our camp counselors were sadistic and told us pre-teens a bunch of scary stories then jumped out of the woods in the middle of the night screaming with bloody Jason masks. I stayed in my tent most of the time after that.” krill482
Too close for comfort.
“As a 13 year old kid, I went out into the woods at like 1am with a headlamp to pee, just immediately behind my cabin, because I didn't want to walk to the wash house. While I'm peeing, I look forward and see a large bear, just staring at me. Would have pissed myself if not for the fact that I was already peeing.”
“Either way, I just finished my stream while he stared at me, and walked backwards back to the cabin. He turned around and walked away, but there was no chance in hell that I would turn my back on a bear and run the other way.“ thevetrenairygamer
Moving Pictures Reaction GIFGiphyIntruder alert!
“My youth group stayed at a camp site for a weekend trip. We were all in the cabin playing card games when someone with a gorilla suit ran by the cabin and started banging on the door. It really freaked everyone out because it was no one in our group. They came back a couple times until one of the adults confronted the person and they ran away. They never found out who the person was.” iBTGx43
“Helen Keller could have pointed out the breaks on my x-rays."
“We were playing soccer and someone shattered my leg, broke it in 8 places. There was no swelling so they said I was faking it and they wouldn't take me to the hospital, they sent me back to my cabin for the night. I hopped around for a day but the next night I was in too much pain to sleep so I limped to the nurses office, broke in and took a handful of benadryl just so I could sleep.”
“That night, a group was doing an overnight in a three sided shelter and decided to have a peanut butter fight before bed. One kid fell asleep with peanut butter in his hair and woke up when a skunk walked into the shelter and pulled a piece of his scalp out.”
“The kid punted the skunk out of the shelter, which caused it to spray everyone on the overnight. So they "had" to take the kid for rabies shots so they "might as well" take me along to get x-rays since they were going anyway. Helen Keller could have pointed out the breaks on my x-rays.” Gnarbuttah
Freezing temps...
“My camp counselor thought it'd be a good idea to take her group of 11 year old's out of the warm cabin we were sleeping in and instead sleep overnight on the outdoor stage they used for camp plays. It must've been 10 degrees out. I was so cold, it was unbearable.”
“I couldn't conserve any body heat bc I had a stick for a body and my sleeping bag wasn't made for that type of camping. I remember being tense and scrunched up in a ball. Every movement I made was like dipping my legs in ice. The outside of my sleeping bag was wet and cold from condensation which made it worse. Eventually we walked back at 4am bc all the kids couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't creepy but it was scary to be so so cold and tired in the dark. I still remember it!” 211adderall
“They made her sit in the sun and wouldn't allow her to have any water...”
“I went to girls scout camp when I was around 8 years old, so around 2001. All the counselors were young twenty year olds. There was a girl in my group who did something to piss off the counselors, I don't remember what but I know it was minor. It was the middle of summer and super hot, and she was moderately overweight. They made her sit in the sun and wouldn't allow her to have any water as punishment. They were terrible people, made me super afraid of them as a kid.” rhaianon19
“...kid holding a arrow at full draw and lets go...”
“Went to a boys scout summer camp in the mid-late 90's. They had an archery range where we all were learning how to shoot. They were big on safety, but it was the 90's so..... Anyways everyone shoots, and we are down range getting our arrows then we hear someone yell out in the covered shooting area.”
“I look up and see the semi special needs kid holding a arrow at full draw and lets go. Hits the kid standing 5 feet from me in the arm. Its chaos every ones running around and screaming. The kid with an arrow stick out of him is just standing there in shock. next year there was no more archery training.” streetmitch
camp archery GIF by Capital District YMCAGiphy“...the reason we were in the woods was so that he wouldn't find us at the cabin.”
“I was about 12 and I was at sleep-away camp and the councilors took us on a hike into the woods for a night. When it came time to go to bed, of course none of us were actually falling asleep and we overheard the councilors talking about the police looking for someone.”
“We later learned one of the kids was in the middle of a serious custody battle and that the dad was planning on taking the kid and that the reason we were in the woods was so that he wouldn't find us at the cabin. No idea if it was actually dangerous, but looking back it definitely is unsettling.” atlantis_airlines
Tornado warning...
“Stayed at a week-long camp in the early 80s, our cabins were a mix of old (lumber, built in the 40s or 50s) and new (cinder block from the 70s). A series of storms hit one night and my (old) cabin was shaking like a ship at sea.”
“A camp director banged on our door and told us to grab a sleeping bag, a pillow, a jacket and our shoes, and we hiked (mostly in the dark) to the Rec center basement. Tornado sirens were blaring and we could hear (but not see) trees crashing in the woods around us. We made it and hunkered down thru the storms, but that walk was the longest half mile of my life.” bladel
That had to hurt...
“During scout camp I had a tree branch fall on my head. I was under tree when I heard a cracking noises above me. I could tell it wasn't safe so I attempted to move somewhere safer, and I guess the universe had it out for me because I only made it about four feet before the branch landed squarely on my head. Luckily it wasn't that big and was soft from being rotten so it didn't cause any major damage, did hurt like heck though and put me in a lot of shock.” saneolo
Dark figures at Camp Howard...
“I was about 10 years old. I went to a summer-camp in Oregon named Camp Howard. (Since some people have called my stories into question in the past, here's their web page: https://www.cyocamphoward.org/home )”
“This was summer 1994. The camp is a Catholic Youth Camp, but really feels more like every traditional summer-camp you might see in movies. Sneaking out in the middle of the night to go skinny-dipping, over-the-top camp-fire horror stories, all manner of activities, it was a blast.”
“This story concerns said late-night skinny dipping. 4 of us boys really hit it off. Nothing erotic, just as a disclaimer here, just that we all had similar thoughts and comfort about being nude around one another. Our cabin was near the old pool, dating back to ww2.”
“It was concrete, old, and mostly still and moving water. They had a proper lake, but none of us felt comfortable walking that far in the dark. They also had a brand-new swimming pool, but that was fenced off and had a security buoy that would screech if something disturbed it too much.”
“It was about 2 weeks into my stay (Howard offered longer blocks back then), when my new ‘camp besties’ decided some midnight skinny-dipping was in order. For the purposes of the story, I'm going to name then Sean, John, and Eric. Sean was like me in both looks and attitude.”
“Both loved pretty much the exact same things. John and Eric were quite friendly and open-minded, but our interests were a bit off outside of swimming without clothing. John loved country-music, horseback riding, and model building (I'm not), and Eric was into hardcore-Gangsta-Rap, Basketball, and DC Comics (I'm not). Sean could've been my brother.”
“Both of us were raised in very nurturing and progressive families, we both loved the same music, video games, comics, books, the work. And, both of us had discovered we were gay at an early age, so there was also that going for us.”
“The 4 of us snuck out like ninjas in the night (I was skinny as a rail back then, and quite adept at sneaking), and my eyes have always been exceptional in anything other than total darkness. Meaning no light particles at all. So, I didn't really need a flashlight, though we took one just to be safe. Our plan was to go, strip, swim, then get out and walk the trails just a little in the buff to air-dry, then return to our beds unnoticed.”
“We made it to the pool, undetected. We chucked our clothes and began to swim. Sean and I sat next to one another, and were talking about boys we liked back home. Eric and John were in the middle of a 'who can hold their breath the longest' contest."
“Sean was telling me about this boy in class he was sweet on, but was too afraid to ask him out or anything. I said we're still 10, lets worry about dating in high school. He agreed, worried that there might be some law or something he'd be breaking anyway."
“It was very shortly afterward that Sean put his hand on my chest, hard. I want to re-state, this wasn't a romantic advance, it's that 'oh my god' kind of slap to the chest. Much like a parent would to prevent someone from walking into danger.“
"'Oh my god. Someone's out there.' Sean shivered. (Note, the water was cold, but not freezing. It was still around 80°F outside, so I figured if I wasn't shivering then everyone else should be fine, right?) 'Where?' I asked. Sean pointed and even grabbed my chin to point me in that direction."
“He was right. Even in the dark, at around say the 6-foot to 6 and a half foot height were a pair of eyes and a shadowy shape of a man. The eyes, behaved much like a cat's when it reflects light, that animal like yellow-green in the dark, yet it was at the height of a man."
“Sean and I whisper to John and Eric to get over to us. They do, and we show them the shadow. John damn near screamed, but just did that sudden squeak and slapped his hands over his mouth. Eric uttered an obscenity, and wondered if it was a counselor on night patrol.”
“We asked, why wouldn't they have said anything then. Shine a flashlight, yelled ‘hey you kids!’ or something. Eric insinuated something fairly dark, that I won't repeat, but the irony of telling Eric that his argument didn't hold water isn't lost on me. Sean asked what we should do.”
“I said, we grab our clothes, and run. We hold hands so nobody gets lost, and we book it. I said I'd take the lead since my nightvision is the best. We get close to our cabins, throw our cloths back on, climb back into the cabin and get into bed.”
Turns out generations of kids have seen this same apparition.
“They agreed. I counted to 3, and we ran. We grabbed our clothes. I hadn't thought to put our sandals back on, so, let me tell you running on that trail hurt for days after. We ran, looking over our shoulder.”
“The figure seemed to be following, but still getting further and further away. We made it to the ‘rally point’, got dressed, and climbed into the cabin. We slipped back into our bunks, and no one was the wiser. Every now and again, while walking to camp-fire, we'd swear we'd catch glimpses of the figure.”
“All summer long, it was this eerie presence. My counselor one night sat the 4 of us down. He noticed a drastic change in our moods/behaviors. We said we'd tell but we don't want to get in trouble. He said he wouldn't, on the contingent we fess up.”
“We told him the whole thing. We admitted to sneaking out, the skinny dipping, and the shadow-figure. At first, he laughed. He told us that he started going to Howard back in the 70's, and sneaking out to skinny dip was practically tradition among young boys - and we shouldn't do it, but he said it was really a no-harm-no-foul instance.”
“His expression darkened, and he confessed that as far back as 1978, the last year he attended as a youth, he also saw the same figure. He told us that he told his counselor roughly the exact same story. He and a much larger group of boys had snuck out for a skinny-dip, when they also saw the figure.”
“My counselor said, that his counselor told roughly the exact same story from when he was a camper there. In the end, we've learned that as far back as the 1960's, this phantom has appeared near the upper pool, very late at night.” Damionstjames
Good old-fashioned Bible camp yep...
“I grew up going to Baptist church and school. Summer camps were the church camp. One night while we were in the small amphitheater around the campfire (I think I have that camp photo bear the beginning of my post history), listening to some riling sermon, some girl started whispering to others that she saw the devil coming up out of the flames.”
“As it spread through the kids (8-12 yr olds) girls started crying and screaming, and group hysteria took over and I still remember everyone running as a giant panicked mob across the camp grounds, back to the cabins, passing the farm area where the devil was now slaughtering pigs that we heard squealing.”
“It was ~40 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. I drove up to the camp last summer with my dog to look around. It's all exactly as I remember it. Church camp. Good times.“ reubal
Fire Burn GIF by Burger RecordsGiphy“...watching them try to shake her limp body awake...”
“My girl scout troop went camping one year, and stayed in the same area as another troop. I went with 3 girls from the other troop to go hang out in the woods by the lake next to camp. I was sitting under a tree reading, and the other 3 were climbing up this big tree that had fallen sideways.”
“They'd gotten up on this huge branch, and one girl wanted to keep going while the other 2 wanted to stop. So she started trying to climb over the other two. I heard a scream, and looked over just in time to see the girl who'd been climbing over falling out of the tree, straight on her back.”
“She hit hard and didn't move when she landed. We all scrambled over to her, and she wasn't moving or responding. The other two kept insisting that she's a prankster and must be faking. When she finally came to and started crying, they finally realized how serious this was. She miraculously didn't break anything and only had a concussion, but I will never be able to forget watching them try to shake her limp body awake and thinking that I had watched someone die.” JeSiusShortie522
“People are f**ked up."
“Stayed at a YMCA camp in the Texas Hill Country (Kerrville) in the 1970's. In high school I worked one of those jobs cleaning tables at the picnic court in the local mall. An obese man came to the mall one day and he knew my boss. I told my boss that I recognized same obese guy from when I was at summer camp.”
“When this guy found out I remembered him, we reminisced for a few minutes. He then asked me if I wanted to go with him to Vegas and make some good money. I politely declined.”
“I realized right there and then that when I was at summer camp with my friends that we were surrounded by pedophiles. They were eventually arrested a few years later. People are f**ked up.” EK92409
“walked in the girls cabin and watched them sleep...”
“This happened when I was 10, my parents sent me to summer camp when I got on the bus going to the campsite our camp counselor was like a old dude in his late 40s , one night I decided to go the the restrooms to pee while I was walking by the girls cabins I noticed that the counselor walked in the girls cabin and watched them sleep for 15 mins and walked out, he saw me and said ‘dont tell anyone’ I ran back to out cabin.”
“The next night I saw the counselor walked back to his cabin and I noticed that he left his bag outside, curious I peeked through the window to make sure his asleep and he is, I opened the bag only to see girls underwear, when I got home from summercamp I told my parent of what happened and they called the cops to start an investigation it turns out that the man was a child pedophile and rapist. I was left traumatized for 7 years after that incident.” Crying_Child_2015
Encounter with a brown recluse...
“My trip to a local two week summer camp. Everyone had bunk beds. So, the guy I was going to be sharing the bed with and I decided to play Rock Paper Scissors for the top bunk. He beat me. Well, fast forward to the next evening and he got bit by a Brown Recluse on his hand.”
“His skin had become necrotic (turning black and beginning to fall off) around the bite and he was taken away in an ambulance. I never found out if he ended up being okay. I also slept in a different cabin after that. F**k Brown Recluses.” ComcastDirect
Arson and a machete at church camp...
“Church camp I think freshman or sophomore year of high school. One of the other church pastor's grandson and a couple of his friends were attending that year and they were a little troubled. Started out with small pranks, knocking on doors at 1AM, toothpaste on handles etc. All in good fun we thought But then they caught the carpet outside our door on fire, somehow cut the power in the dorms we were in, and on the last night they began wander the halls in scream masks holding machetes.”
“They got reported and rooms were searched. The friends of the grandson pretty much flipped on him immediately and in his room were the machetes and a loaded gun amongst party favors. He booked it and was on the run the entire night. Cops found him the next morning looking like he'd been sleeping in a thornbush.” FleetRiskSoultions
Creepy counselers...
“A grown a**, like 30+ yo male counselor standing in our cabin in total darkness and observing us quietly for like 20 minutes ‘waiting for us to fall asleep’ because we ‘were making noise after the curfew’. The thing is we were quiet before he went into our cabin, just had our lights on for late reading/brushing teeth etc.”
“We were 13 yo girls back then, and we started arguing with him so he finally left but after that I slept with a heavy flashlight under my pillow for a few days in case he decided to get closer to us. I'm not sure why we didn't say anything to other camp counsellors, it was recently that I recalled this memory and realised how creepy he was” swietlistosc
If one thing is for certain after reading these accounts, parents really need to research and review camps before sending the kids away. Yikes!
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Remember when you were a kid, and you had that one top secret thing that you never told your parents? Well trust me, they knew what was up. Like, I may have told my dad that I was going out for a “midnight walk” when I was 17, but I was actually going out to hook up with someone from my drama class. He found out the truth really quick.
Parents always know, my friends. They may act like they don’t to avoid your embarrassment, but they see everything. Keep that in mind next time you think you’ve successfully covered up that hickey with concealer.
U/BinaryPeach asked: Parents of reddit, what secret do your kids think they've kept hidden from you for years, but you actually know the truth?
When you’re a little kid, sometimes covering up the truth can be a cute attempt at being a good kid. That changes real quick when you get older.
Imaginary friends are real!
My poor sweet kindergartener confessed with tears in his eyes that his imaginary friend wasn't real. That he'd never been real. That he'd been lying.
I had a hard time keeping a straight face as he poured his heart out about the guilt that had been eating him alive for being a "lying liar who lied to his mom." Then I hugged him and fessed up that I knew.
We talked about his friend's baby brother who was almost 3 and had an imaginary friend Mickey Mouse.
Did he really think this baby was playing with Mickey Mouse when he had to go grocery shopping with his dad while his big brother played on the trampoline with my son? Did he think this little guy was a bad person for saying he and Mickey Mouse had ice cream and played games in his magic house just because he was jealous about not being able to stay and play?
We talked about how he created his imaginary friend when he was only 2. How he uses his imaginary friend to talk about things that were bothering him. Like when his dad went out of town for 3 weeks and he was scared he wasn't coming back and afraid his dad left because he broke some stuff while playing.
Oh how he squirmed to realize I knew he had been talkimg about himself and not his imaginary friend's family!
Anyways, it was a good talk. He seemed to realize it was okay to talk about uncomfortable or scary things using an imaginary friend and that I wasn't deceived or mad about it.
Since then, the imaginary friend has shown up a few times. Like when it got a love letter from a girl at school the same age and didn't love her back. Or when the "purple cat" saw another kid eat a bug on the playground and wasn't sure if he wanted to still be friends anymore.
Definitely didn’t know that at all.
Detective Pikachu Reaction GIF
Giphy
Good to see my mum didn't know about me playing Pokemon when I was supposed to be asleep.
How else are we gonna catch those night-only Pokémon like Hoothoot?!
Three year olds, man.
My three year old tells me she washed her hands after going to the bathroom... She can't reach the faucet on her stool.
Right? My 3 year old clearly thinks I know nothing. My favorite is when he poops his pants and then denies it....
I think every person who has ever been a teenager has lied about something at some point. And typically they aren’t so lucky in getting away with it.
At least he confessed....eight years later.
Our son stole money from our wallets when he was 14. We had two other kids old enough to be able to do that, but we knew it was him. He's 22 now and asked him recently. He confessed and was shocked that we knew.
Nana stayed quiet.
Mothers Day Mom GIF by A24
Giphy
When my mom was 16, she had a night job and a boyfriend. She would sometimes say she was going to work when she'd actually go to her boyfriends house. Her mom knew. Nana sat on that for 40 years.
My grandmother still enjoys pulling stuff like this on my mom and her siblings.
It's always fun to watch a 60 something do the "MOM!" with the shocked-teenage face on.
Every teen has snuck out.
Not a parent but I am one of 10 kids. My younger brother got busted for sneaking out of the house. And hard core (by my parents standard) punished. Mom made him check in with location tags every hour and he wasn't allowed out past a certain time. He was 17 or so.
I had to sit my parents down and tell them that all 6 of us older siblings had also snuck out and they were being completely unreasonable. They'd had no idea.
This ended up being wholesome.
When I started dating my now wife. We were not at the age to legally drink, I worked at a liquor store and my friends older brothers may have accidentally left some liquor around. Well my GF had never had anything other than a small dixie cup of champagne at new years ago I happened to have a half bottle of Burnett's grape vodka that I "snuck" into her house when we thought her parents were sleeping. Like 10 years later we find out they happened to look out the window to see if it was snowing and saw me grab it out of my trunk. We thought we got away with it 100% and just became a good laugh.
Ironically though, both of my wife's siblings had their first alcoholic drink because of me and my wife, mainly because they trusted us to not let them go over board when they were going to college age.
There are those special, well thought out lies that are so creative, that sometimes parents will just go along with it due to being impressed. I hope my kids are this smart.
I would do it too for a cute cat.
sitting close up GIF by Real Food RN
Giphy
I was the kid. I have always loved cats, and couldn't stand to see unloved cats. I brought home a lot of kittens and cats over time, to the point that my mom told me I wasn't allowed to bring any more home, no joking.
So one day, many moons ago, I at about 10 yo went to the Pike Place Market in Seattle and was wandering around when I came across a guy with a box of kittens. I knew I couldn't bring home a kitten, but I fell HARD for this little black and white kitten. I think I spent an hour trying to figure out how to convince my mom I HAD to have this kitten, and came up with... as I was walking home from the bus stop, a car drove by and someone tossed a box out in front of me. I of course checked it out, and lo and behold, a helpless kitten! Obviously I couldn't leave it on the side of this busy road, so I had to bring her home!
Mom let me keep her after interrogating me for a while, and I loved my Bootsie so much while she was with us ( she had a seizure disorder and didn't live long).
About 15 years later, my mom told me she knew I was lying the whole time, but it was such a creative lie, she felt I should be rewarded for.
Well, not all of them can be as clever....
When I was a kid I used to keep a pretty elegant glass bong on my night stand and I would place fake flowers in it to make it just look like a vase because I just underestimated my parents that much. It's crazy how great you think you are as a teenager. lol. But my parents totally knew and just thought I was an idiot for thinking I was so clever.
That sounds really tasty actually.
My son thinks he is slick and got away with drinking some of my salted caramel moonshine. I know he snuck a shot or three. I'm okay with it. He's 17 and responsible, smart and an amazing kid. A smidge of moonshine isn't a huge deal.
Remember kids, if you think you’re getting away with something, nine times out of ten, your parents are twelve steps ahead of you. Just a heads-up, thank me later.
But thank goodness for the parents who love us anyway, no matter what stupid hijinks we get into.
I am lucky enough to not have had a toxic mother; my stepfathers, those are different stories. Sometimes I did deserve a punishment or three but actions cross lines fast. Malicious behavior is easy to dish out and too often not recognizable as toxic. Let's look for signs...
Useless
Angry Season 9 GIF by ShamelessGiphyThat i'm freaking useless and can't do crap because I couldn't open a jar of tomato sauce for my mom at 1am.
Peace Out
"We're moving and you're not welcome."
This is what my dad said to me while blackout drunk, after he took my sister's pizza that I made, ate it in front of me, and then threw the pizza at me after I asked him why the hell he's like that and walked away. We were supposed to be moving to a new place the next couple weeks after this fight.
Don't Speak
In my experience, divorced parents that say stuff like :
"Don't talk about that to your [other parent]" "Tell your [other parent] this" "Your [other parent] is trying to manipulate you." "You see what [other parent] did ? I'm not saying you should hate them, but isn't bit messed up that they did that?"
It really screws with the kid's head. If you're ever going through a divorce and have children, please find a way to sort your crap with your former spouse without involving your children more than necessary.
Oprah Winfrey Reaction GIFOof. That is a lot of pain to process and digest. This is proof that everyone really shouldn't procreate. Being a parent is a responsibility you need to be able to handle.
Excuse me?
Excuse Me What GIF by One ChicagoGiphy"So you're saying that I'm a bad parent" in response to any form of help-seeking of constructive criticism was the worst for me.
LIAR
My dad made my mom choose between me or him when I was 15. He was angry I wouldn't give him my email password so he could change it and block me from having any friends after I changed schools.
My mom without hesitation told me to leave. It was winter. I had no coat. I wandered around town then slept under the stairs of the building they lived in.
Eventually that night my father gave my mother permission to let me back in.
I told them about this trauma when I was 25. They both screamed at me & called me a "freaking liar" while I cried. I'll never forget the trauma of my mother telling her child to leave and choosing her husband. Over an email password.
"THIS ONE TIME AT BAND CAMP"
Constantly comparing you with your older siblings, and extremely different treatment. It makes you feel inferior to them and like no matter how much you try or do, it will never be enough.
Omg, this hits the hardest with me, I'm so sorry. The "THIS ONE TIME AT BAND CAMP" makes me furious; parents bullying is so incredibly harmful and takes away a child's sense of security almost immediately. I can't imagine telling my child that after they are trying to share their life with me and are excited to do so. So sorry, I hope you have found your safe place.
OK
Sounds Good GIF by Leroy PattersonGiphyOkay
Over and over again for years and years. Any accomplishment any trial passed any challenge won.
Just "okay".
What have we learned? Not everyone is cut out to be a mom or dad. That may feel like a heard truth but it's necessary. Kids are trying to be the best they can be for you. So just proceed with compassion.
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And them we devloped something called cynicism as we got older and forgot about these imaginary friends.
But the following parents haven't forgotten about these so-called playmates for their children.
Curious to hear anecdotes from strangers online, Redditor TheCatAteMyGymsuit asked:
"Parents, what weird or creepy stories do you have about your child's imaginary friend?"
Do You Hear What They Hear?
Some people talk about hearing voices in their head. And some would rather not go down that dark memory lane.
The Secret Mum
"A few years ago, my niece kept telling her Mom about her 'Secret Mommy' who lives in the corner of her bedroom, only comes out at night when no one but her is up, and talks to her. The whole family was terrified until they figured out it was actually an old alarm clock in the room set to a talk radio station that went off at 3 am every night. 😅"
Inner Voices
"I asked my parents and apparently I was in therapy for a handful of weeks because I was 'hearing voices.'"
"Around 5 or 6, kids start to develop their internal monologue."
"It was me, I was hearing my own thoughts..."
"Terrifying."
– ichigoli
Confused Crazy Ex Girlfriend GIFGiphyVisions
You wouldn't want to see what these kids saw.
Being Watched
"Not really an imaginary friend but something still creepy. I don't know if it counts but I want to share. We briefly rented a townhouse while waiting to purchase a house. While living in this townhouse, I had always felt creeped out by my bedroom. It had a wall of windows on one side. Even as a grown woman, I felt uncomfortable being in the room after dark and felt like I was being watched by something in the room. I never mentioned it to my daughter."
"Fast forward to us living in our own house that we bought. My daughter starts having nightmares and is scared to be in her room. One night I asked her about the nightmares. She said it was of a ghost that said that he followed us from the room with all the windows."
What The Daughter Sees
"In the past I have seen things out of the corner of my eye and glance to see nothing there... of course that's just my eyes being weird and I stopped paying attention to those things. Well, my daughter is just a toddler and I had her sitting in my lap reading a book. I see something in the corner of my eye as usual and my daughter quick looks over there. She then stares wide-eyed at nothing and watches it cross through the room. This has happened THREE TIMES. She's not at the point to where she can communicate what she is looking at but we are pretty close. If it happens again I'll ask her what she sees."
– TheW83
Ghost Dog
"Not an imaginary friend but still creepy."
"My older sister had a German Shepherd that had passed away named Harley."
"My daughter was about 2.5 years old at the time and is in bed with my sister watching TV. She points to the end of the bed and says 'that Harley?'. My daughter did not know about the dog and certainly didn't know the name Harley."
– urbjam
They Have Names
Just because they can be identified by name does not always make them less creepy.
Meet Bob
"My daughter started saying 'Bob' before she learned how to say 'mama' or 'dada.' She would say it all the time at random times. One time I was in the nursery rocking her to sleep when she said it and so I asked, 'Who's Bob?' She pointed up at the corner of the ceiling behind me."
"Mr. Sohail"
"This isnt creepy just odd! My 4 year old sons current imaginary friend is Haris Sohail,a Pakistani Cricketer who plays in the national league in Pakistan. He apparantly has the same teddies as my son, cycles alongside him and went on a camping holiday with us last Summer. We are Irish living in Ireland, my husband plays cricket a little during Summer but he cannot for the life of him understand where my son learned about Mr Sohail!"
– Vixen35
Not Just Anybody
"Mr. Nobody."
"He started as the person the kids would blame if one of them forgot to flush the toilet. And then his mythology evolved. For the record, all of this was concieved by 3 of my kids who at the time were 6 5, and 3:"
"Mr Nobody has no eyes, no teeth, no tongue and no nose. He doesn't wear pants and leaves the used toilet paper between his butt cheeks so you can tell where he is by his smell. He doesn't wear a shirt, but has a pocket cut into his skin where he keeps the key to our house. He can be invisible. He had a beard since he was a baby. He bites off his fingernails and then drips blood where he walks."
"A friend of mine drew him at the time: https://imgur.com/D0KX2xp.jpg"
"Thankfully, been a few years since Mr Nobody has been in our house now."
A Concerning Situation
"Out of my four kids, only my eldest son (now 20 years old) had an imaginary friend. It's name was Barsie and it was a giant wolf, but could transform into a boy. Anyway, my wife and I didn't think much about Barsie until we noticed that my son had broken a plastic butter knife and stabbed quite a few of his stuffed animals. He told us that Barsie had told him to do and had even helped. That was when we really got concerned."
"My son had anger issues as a child and the reason for that is that, while I call him my son, he is my step son. His biological father lost custody because of drug related crimes and just abandoned him. My son has always thought of me as his dad, but was still extremely angry about the situation with his biological. Anyway, we took him in to get some counseling after an incident involving a lighter that he found on the ground outside our apartment. He had tried to burn his baby brother's favorite toy."
"While in counseling it came to light that Barsie was planning to eat our family and to pee our blood all over the apartment. This was the beginning of my son's counseling and mild medications. Barsie disappeared over a few months and we were able to take my son off the medication the following year. He remained in counseling for quite a few years, but Barsie was never mentioned again."
Under The Bed
Things that go bump in the night take refuge under your cozy bed. Wanna look?
Nice Monster
"My wife and I were sitting for our nephew. He kept coming downstairs because there was a monster under his bed. So I marched upstairs grabbed the monster from under the bed, dragged it downstairs, opened the door and threw it out into the night."
"Nephew burst into tears and was inconsolable because that was the nice monster and not the nasty monster."
"So 11pm on a dark Saturday night and I am crawling around a damn wet garden looking for an imaginary monster and trying to apologise so my nephew could go to sleep!"
A Bunch Of Croc
"Not really an imaginary friend but I had an imaginary family of alligators that lived under my bed when I was a kid. Often times I'd get so scared I'd sleep in my brothers room bc the Daddy alligator wouldn't come out to scare me if I was with my brother."
I didn't have imaginary friends, but I pretended I was friends was someone I really wanted to be friends with. Does that count?
Probably not.
But I'll leave you with this. My invisible "friends" were more of a sinister type. They wore leather jackets and hats and Ray Bans. They often visited me in my dreams and chased me on their motorbikes.
I think it was from watching an episode of the Twilight Zone that featured a biker gang.
Jealous?