People are required to have a license to drive, fish, and have certain jobs.
So it boggles my mind that people aren't required to have a license to have kids.
Some of the cruelest and most vicious things I've ever heard were words uttered by a parent to a child.
As an adult, I was haunted by a few thigs.
I can't imagine the scaring of an adolescent.
Redditor Tight_Anywhere6794 wanted to hear about the things parents have said in the past that haunts everyone still, so they asked:
"What insult have your parents said, that is stuck in your head as an adult?"
I've been blessed with the mother I had.
So I can't speak from experience.
But I've heard parenting horror stories.
Bad Expressions
Sad Kid GIF by 1tvGiphy“'You’re so annoying.' Said to me as a young kid while I was expressing enthusiasm over some new interest. Later my father complains I never tell him anything."
foppishyyy
Mean Spirited
"What did I do to deserve a fat kid?"
Silosolo
"My parents also mocked me for being fat, and outright physically abused me as in forcefully grabbed my fat child manboobs or slapped me while calling me fat-related names."
"A lot of people at school did it too, so obviously I have a lot of self-image issues like I never let anyone see me without clothes these days. The worst part is that I legitimately internalized a lot of hate, I could never care for myself enough to actually get fit."
FoeWithBenefits
What's My Name?
"My parents divorced when I was young and they hate each other. My mom would call me my dad's name when she was really upset. What makes it worse is that I confided in her that I never wanted to be like my dad. She used that ammunition against me."
Discarded_Pariah
"That's awful. You are your own person. You aren't your father."
blksmnr
Unfunny
"'You can't even laugh right.'"
"My mom in a weird moment I thought we were bonding. There's something inherently extra evil when someone tells you your joy is wrong. Told her I'm engaged and hoped she could at least be happy I'm happy and she ghosted everyone to the point the family thought died. She's a mess."
BlindEditor
"I'll never understand parents that are so hard on their own children that they can't even be happy for them. So their sole function is to bring misery to their offspring?"
macabre_irony
Evil
Oh My God Wow GIF by The Roku ChannelGiphy"My little brother was drowning, I tried to save him but also almost drowned, we got rescued by a neighbor. My mom told me that they should've left me in the pond. I haven't spoken to her in many years."
Ilookbetterthanyou
Good Lord. How do people like this exist?
Tragic.
HIM
"She told me I was acting just like my father when I would get upset. I would just get kinda pissy and sulk. He would go on rampages and scream and hit and throw things. He pushed her down the stairs once. I would never lay a finger on my current partner. The worst part is I look just like him. I was wondering if my mother always expected me to turn into my dad. I prove her wrong every day."
rot_grl
10 Years Old
"When I was ~10 years old, my mum once said 'If I could go back in time and make sure I never gave birth to you, I would in a heartbeat.'"
"Never forgot it. Talked to her about it a couple of times years later and her responses ranged from 'That never happened' to 'Oh yeah and I suppose I’m just the worst mother ever' and finally 'Yeah but I didn’t mean it, you know that.'"
"Messed me up tho tbh. Another one was '[older sibling] was the only child we actually planned for, the rest of you were accidents.' I don’t think it was intended as an insult, but being told your entire existence was an accident as a child kinda stung."
SpiderP*bes
Failures
“'You’re the biggest mistake I ever made.' - my mother when I was 5. I’m 32 now and it’s been the undercurrent for our relationship ever since, constantly wondering if anything I’ve achieved or struggled for is something she’s genuinely proud of or just relieved to say I wasn’t a total failure on her part."
thefaehost
Generational Issues
"Not a parent but a grandparent, I was adopted when I was 12 years old (my parents were both drug addicts so I was in and out of foster care most of my life) my adopted mother's father turned to me on Christmas Eve when no one else was around and said 'My daughter should have never adopted you, she should have let you stay on the streets where you belong'… he got nicer as he got older and sicker but I couldn’t find it in myself to forget what he said even almost 10 years later. Went to the funeral for moral support but was indifferent about his passing."
samweather227
Just Me
Sad Kids GIF by Cian DucrotGiphy"I was an only child and lonely. When I asked for a sibling, the response was 'If you want to know why we don't have more kids, go look in the mirror.'"
Responsible_Fly_3565
Some people should never have children.
Awful.
It's spooky time, fam!
Collectively, we love a good ghost story. Horror films gain cult-like followings. We all know that our passion for a mystery podcast is unmatched. Being safely scared seems to be something we dig.
But when it comes to our real lives, most of us would prefer it if things stayed ghost-free.
It doesn't.
Reddit user numbnesstolife asked
"People who have experienced paranormal activity, what is your story?"
Buckle up, readers. It's about to get spooktastic.
A Face Looking Back
black and white horror GIFGiphy"I grew up in a house that originally served as an 'old folks home.' "
"At night the whole house would pop and crack. It sounded like people were walking up and down the stairs all night."
"My mom was always on board that the house was haunted. My dad said it was “Just the house settling” the house in 1984 was 100 years old."
"One night I woke up to the sound of a door slamming. I walked down the hall and peeked around the corner, looking down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was a closet."
"The door was open about six to eight inches, and there was a human face looking at me from inside the closet."
"The face was very shadowed as the house was dark. But there was no glisten to the eyes, just black. It’s face was protruding slightly from the opening between the door and the door frame."
"The skin was a pale grayish white, as I could make out. I didn’t stick around very long to study it."
"I ran into the bathroom and tried to calm down. Finally I mustered the courage to come out of the bathroom and look down the stairs again…. Nothing there."
"There were many experiences in that house that are harder to explain."
- AsphiXiate8888
"Hey, psst"
neverending story 80s GIFGiphy"When I was younger, maybe like 5, I went to bed and I woke up to the sound of something whispering and I thought nothing of it until I heard 'Hey, psst' and I looked up and saw a black dog with yellow eyes standing on 2 legs."
"I started screaming and crying and yelled for my parents and when they came up the thing hid behind a chair in my room. I was so scared I slept with my parents for a week and never saw that thing again."
"I had multiple dreams about it though."
"In the dreams it always had this power that it could make me freeze and not be able to move and he would always do it in front of my parents and they never did anything."
"Really Creepy sh*t."
- CoolQuip1
Nothing's Wrong With The Doorbell
home alone lol GIF by Shalita GrantGiphy"I was about 16 and home alone one night at my stepdad's house. Everyone had gone out for the night except me."
"One thing you need to know about this household; it’s in a pretty rural area, in a little village where everyone knows each other and a lot of families lives in the same town. Because of this, no one would ever use the front door."
"Everyone who came over for a visit would just come through the garden and use the back door and walk right in."
"So it’s about 10pm, I’m watching tv, and the doorbell rings. It startled me a bit; who could that be at this hour? Why would they be at the front?"
"So I look out the window to get a full view of the front doorstep. No one’s there."
"As I’m looking out the bell rings again, but there’s no one there to ring it."
"My whole body becomes red hot with adrenaline and fear and I’m frozen to my seat as it rings again. And again. And again."
"I run to grab my phone to try and call my mom to come home cause I’m scared sh*tless. No answer. The ringing stops."
"About an hour later my parents come home and I freak out and tell them what happened and I’m pissed at them for not answering the phone."
"My stepdad chuckles and says 'Oh yeah, that’s my wife. It happens sometimes.' "
"His previous wife and partner for years had died a few years back. He said he tried to have the doorbell fixed only to find out there’s nothing wrong with it."
"Their theory is that when the doorbell rings it’s her reminding them she’s still with them."
- lxtje
"Outstanding reports"
Twitch Smile GIF by HewFoEGiphy"I used to be a contractor and had to inspect all kinds of places. One was an old psych hospital/asylum that had long been empty."
"I was working on one of the floors and it was starting to feel...off."
"It was August, but got freezing inside all of a sudden. So I decided I was going to calmly, but briskly, leave the building. As I was going down the stairs (i think I was between the 2nd and 3rd floor) something grabbed my ankle."
"I booked it out of there immediately - I absolutely didn't care if someone saw me terrified or panicked. I ran the f*ck outta there, ripped off my PPE and called my contact to confirm I was out."
"And then I left for the day due to 'outstanding reports' and went home and tried to convince myself it didn't happen."
- Wise_Coffee
Mom
canadian comedy GIF by CBCGiphy"I've always slept with my bedroom door open. I have a small room and it feel smaller when the door's closed, also I was very scared of the dark as a kid."
"I had a mirror across my room that faced the hallway. My bed was facing the mirror so I could see the hallway from my bed."
"Anyways, so there was one night I woke up in the middle of the night for no reason."
"And that night I looked in the mirror and I saw my mom in the mirror, and she was looking down and giving me the creepiest smile."
"I blinked and she was gone."
"I'm not sure if that was a sleep deprived hallucination or what, but it definitely wasn't my mom."
- mystic_mayhem03
"One night I woke up and seen my mom standing in my closet smiling at me. I looked at her for a few seconds and she faded away."
"It creeps my mom out when I tell her."
- halfbreed_prince
A Children's Choir
royal wedding choir GIF by BBCGiphy"I lived in a haunted house for a year."
"At this time it was just me and my three sisters. Ages 13, 5 and 2 (I was 10.) My older sister and I were home from school with a stomach bug."
"My mom had to go get my 5-year-old sister from school and asked us to watch our youngest sister."
"We were sitting in the living room and she was eating some snacks and had a sippy cup of water. The top to the cup must’ve not been screwed on tight enough because when she knocked it over, water spilled everywhere."
"My older sister went to the kitchen to get some napkins to clean it up. When she came back she handed me some of the napkins and we both started cleaning."
"We were on our hands and knees wiping up the water when we started to hear banging coming from the second floor. We both paused, looked at each other, and said nothing. But we both had that look of 'you heard that too, right?' ”
"We stayed silent and kept cleaning."
"Then again, another bang. At this point we stand up and are still silent, just staring at the ceiling."
"Then came the giggles. We heard little kids upstairs laughing. Then the laughing turned to singing. It sounded like a whole children's choir singing."
"My sister scooped up the baby and we ran outside. It was a clear day out that day, but I remember once we got outside it started to rain on us."
"We had no choice but to go back to the house. We stayed on the front porch until my mom got home."
"We saw things in that house that I still have nightmares about, 20 years later, but for some reason that giggling and singing bothered me the most."
- Cat523
My Shadow Roommate
music video mv GIF by Lady GagaGiphy"The apartment where I'm currently living seems to have some sort of resident shadow figure. I tend to see it moving in my office."
"Sometimes when I'm out in the hallway I'll see a shadow that looks like a medium-build man moving in there. Sometimes when I'm in the office at my PC I'll see it out of the corner of my eye like someone's standing at my shoulder and turn expecting to see my boyfriend - but nobody is there."
"Sometimes I'll see the figure down where the stairs meet the front door. The closet near the front entrance (right by where I've seen the shadow lingering at the end of the stairs) has opened itself a few times when I've been home alone & cooking in the adjacent kitchen."
"It's never seemed frightening to me, though, so whatever it is - some trick of lighting or bonafide shadow dude - I don't really worry about it much."
"I did recently have a bad bout of sickness. There was one night that I was running a temp of 103 and was just absolutely miserable, falling in and out of sleep while being anxious about my rising temp & how laboured/difficult my breathing was becoming."
"I was kind of scared since my aunt had died in her sleep due to COVID relatively early on in the pandemic - she had been on the phone with her boyfriend and mentioned she wasn't feeling well suddenly and was going to take a nap. I couldn't help but think of her because of how quickly it seemed like things were accelerating that night."
"At one point I did manage to fall asleep, but was woken up by a shadow figure opening my door & coming to stand over me. It wasn't my boyfriend."
"I was staying completely isolated in a diff part of the apartment to protect him since he has asthma & is a high risk, I asked later to confirm he hadn't randomly decided to break that quarantine that night and he was like 'of course not!' "
"I couldn't see anything but a shadowy outline. The figure was saying something to me; it was unintelligible but seemed like a question. Then it eventually walked back out of the room."
"I would've assumed it was a fever hallucination if my cat didn't jump up from her sleeping position to stare at the figure. Who knows, maybe it still was and I even hallucinated her reaction?"
"But I kind of like the idea that my shadow roommate came to check on me at my sickest point when I was anxious about being alone since my boyfriend couldn't!"
- junipercoffee
The Audacity Of This Girl
Tired Monsters Inc GIFGiphy"I used to babysit my niece and nephew when they were 4 and 5 while my sister went to work. She lived down the street from me so I would walk down in the morning before she left and before the kids woke up."
"I got there one morning and after she left I laid down on the couch. I heard one of the kids run down the hall and I immediately pretended to be asleep so they would go back to bed and not get the day started yet."
"I felt my niece run by me on the couch. Her running stomps shook the floor and I could hear the trinkets on the shelves shake. And I felt the wind of her blow by me."
"Then it was quiet but I knew she was still there. She leaned over my ear and moved my hair out of the way and laughed in my ear."
"I just thought to myself 'The audacity of this girl!' "
"Then she hid under the end table of the couch. Realizing she wasn’t gonna go back to bed until I woke up and played with her, I just got up and looked under the end table."
"There was no one there."
"Completely baffled at how she got up and out of the living room in literally 2 seconds without me hearing shook me. So I went down the hall to her room and was starting to freak out."
"My nephew was sound asleep in his bedroom and I got to my niece’s room, she was sound asleep tucked under her covers."
"My heart almost fell out of my body."
- FootstepsofDawn
The Blue Cup
Britains Got Talent No GIF by Got Talent GlobalGiphy"Years ago, when I was just a kid, my mom and I lived in this old apartment in MA. One day, when I was watching TV while she was cooking, all of a sudden she started to scream, yelling for me to come over and 'look at this!' "
"I ran over. She was standing right by the dining room table, which was empty except for a blue plastic cup at the end of it. I was confused, and asked her what the hell was going on."
"She didn't say anything. She just picked up the blue cup, and set it down at the other end of the table. As soon as she put it down, the cup just slid over all the way to the other end of the table, by itself. It stopped right at the edge."
"I jumped back, perplexed. My mom picked up the cup and did it again. And again for a third time."
"I've always liked technology and science (I grew up to become an engineer) so rather than being scared, I tried to figure out a rational explanation for this."
"I picked up the cup, and looked at it closely. I looked under and around the table. The table was spotless, and there was nothing else there."
"It wasn't a trick, there were no wires or magnets or anything of the sort. I tried the same thing with other objects, and nothing happened. It only happened with this particular blue plastic cup."
"I eventually tried it while looking directly at the cup, literally 2 inches away from it, and followed its path. The cup would actually vibrate as it moved, and did so in such a way that you could only notice it up close."
"Cups move when there's condensation under them, but they usually move a few inches, not the length of a fairly long dining room table. Also, the cup was made entirely of plastic, no seal, and dry. The table was dry as well."
"I've just never seen anything else like that, before or since. And the faint vibration was very, very freaky."
"To this day, I am not sure what caused the cup to move."
"That wasn't the only strange thing I experienced in that apartment..."
- JohnnyTwoTimes21
Steve
Driving Rush Hour GIFGiphy"My Dad has heard my mom calling him when she needed him. No phone or anything."
"One example - one time she dropped him off for a half day conference in a big office tower downtown and was going to do some shopping while she waited to pick him up."
"She drives away and 30 min later starts feeling very sick."
"She drives back to the building but doesn't know where in the building he is or where to call him. She said she just tried to focus and thinks his name really hard over and over ... like 'Steve, I need you. Steve, I need you.' "
"10 min later he came running out to the car and was like, 'What, what do you want?' "
"He drove her to the hospital and she needed her appendix taken out."
"Another time, my Dad's driving a car down a busy road. It's one of the ones where the main road has the right of way and all the side roads have stop signs where people have to stop then merge into traffic when there's a break."
"Anyway he's driving along and hears 'Steve!' "
"He looks around. No one's in the car with him, the windows are closed plus he's doing 50 miles per hour - but maybe someone he knows is in traffic?"
"Then he hears it again, 'Steve!' So he slows down and looks in the rearview mirror. He thinks it might be his friend."
"He slows down a bit more... and a dump truck blows through the stop sign at the crossing before him."
"If he hadn't slowed down he would have been flattened like a pancake."
- wellchelle
Avoiding the unexplained might be preferable for some, but it sure does make for a good story.
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I hate ghosts, even if it's Casper. My life is already stressful enough. I don't need to creeped out by spirits from the beyond. Shouldn't they be resting and basking in the glow of the great beyond instead of menacing the rest of us?
The paranormal seems to be consistently in unrest, which sounds like death isn't any more fun or tranquil than life. So much for something to look forward to.
Some ghosts just like to scare it up. It's not always like "Ghosthunters" the show.
Redditor u/Murky-Increase4705 wanted to hear about all the times we've faced some hauntings that left us shook, by asking:
Reddit, what are your creepy encounters with something that you are convinced was paranormal?
I can't definitively say I've come face to face with the spirits. But I have had some unsettling feelings in the dark. Shadows are just shadows sometimes, but who can be sure.
I hear it...
Nbc Wings GIF by HULUGiphy"I was helping my dad clean my grandma's house after she passed and I went in and was trying to find a song in my phone and before I could I heard a cough plain as day come from down the hallway where her room was. She died of lung and throat cancer it was pretty crazy."
Running Past...
"When I was 5 I remember getting home from my grandpa's birthday party. For context my mom was pregnant with my brother at the time, so my parents had already bought his crib. I woke up in the middle of the night to find a women in a white dress and long black hair standing over my brother's crib. I managed to wake up my dad so he could take me to the bathroom. When I got back it was still there. It was only until morning when it disappeared. Every now and then I see a glance of what I assume is that thing running past the backyard."
The Cat
"My best friend and his wife had moved to a new apartment. I came over to visit a few times, and each time I'd see the motion of a cat in my peripheral vision. Not the image of a cat, but a sense of how a cat moves. Anyway, one day I finally cracked some joke about the ghost cat in the place and his wife was instantly saying "See! See! I told you we had a ghost cat!"
"excuse me"
"I worked graveyard shift in a dementia ward for 4 years and it was anything but quiet. I was working with a nurse one night when we both heard a resident say "excuse me." We looked around and no-one was there. I checked on the resident in question and she was fast asleep in her own room. Many of us also experienced someone whistling in the ward late at night and one nurse even managed to catch a video of it happening. It was unnerving to say the least."
Clueless
Skeleton GIFGiphy"I once saw someone short walk by me in my house. They walked into the laundry room which only has one way in. I walked into it behind them and they where gone. I thought it was my little brother but I went to his room and he was asleep. I still have no clue what that was."
- ImBolio
Now was everyone here positive they were sober? Just asking. Those are certainly spooky moments. I'd like some video footage please. Continue...
Reflections
ghost library GIFGiphy"I was up at 3am when I was maybe 7 or 8. I looked out the window and saw a woman in a white dress run across my yard. I could see through her. She was transparent like the reflections on the window."
"you alright?"
"So, my work place is haunted. I was having a really crap day, and as a cleaner, it's normal that me and my co worker will be the only ones left at night. So I was standing on the second floor, leaning on the banister for the stair case, when I heard this male voice say in my ear "you alright?" Clear as day. I turned around so fast and nobody was there and it scared the hell out of me."
- Rex-the-
Watching Me
"I remember as a young kid I usually use to sit in my bed and watch tv with my room door open while the adjacent guest bedroom next to mine would always have the door shut. I always remember seeing that door fully open and close by itself multiple times a day very slowly and gently. Never really bothered me much now that I think about it… but there were other creepier experiences I had in the same house that made me feel uncomfortable like I was being watched."
Betsy
"I went to the Betsy Ross House as a really little kid in the early 90s. Normal house but I was confused why the tour guide never talked about the woman on the chair crying at the edge of the bed in Betsy Ross's bedroom. So I asked about it. No one else saw the woman at the edge of the bed. I figured it was just a wax museum since there was a wax statue of a man in uniform rolling bullets in the basement."
"Years later, I was looking at haunted Philadelphia tours to go on with a friend and the Betsy Ross House was on it. I was like "woah! I was there!" and looked into it some more. Turns out there is a woman at the end of the bed crying and a uniformed man in the basement that people have reported seeing. There is no way that 8 year old me would have known about either of these things."
hello kitty...
hello kitty lol GIF by Animation Domination High-DefGiphy"I had this hello kitty Balloon In my bed room, it had a string and weight on it. So it was late, I had the lights on just Sitting on my bed. The Balloon turns, faces my door, slowly floats into my hallway and turns and floats into my sister's room. To this day I am scared of balloons."
They are among us and they like Hello Kitty. I'm probably rattling the paranormal cages and they'll come for me next, but I'm ready. I feel like this thread has prepared me.
Boo!
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I hate haunted houses. I've even skipped the Haunted House ride in Disney World.
Our homes are suppose to be sanctuaries. Not some afterlife hot spot for spirits run amok.
You wanna haunt a place in afterlife, find a nice cemetery. Or at least chase down the people who did you wrong when you were here.
Leave me and my little space alone. I have enough issues with living, breathing psychos.
I am not a bump in the night person. I already have enough issues falling asleep, so I will not be living in or visiting any haunted places. And if I find out it is a spiritual vortex, I'm out!
Redditor u/scarymovie77 wanted to hear about real estate that leaves people unnerved, by asking:
What is your "my house is haunted" story?
Maybe it's PTSD. When I was a kid, there was a haunted house across the street from my apartment in Queens. Some murder had taken place there so of course nobody would buy it. And the owners let it fall into decay...
Bless Me Father
max von sydow priest GIFGiphy"A pastor died of a heart attack in the house I grew up in (before we owned it)."
"When I was a baby, I was sick with Croup. Apparently in the night I was having trouble breathing and was beginning to suffocate. The ceiling light fixture in my nursery fell out of the ceiling and smashed on the floor, waking my parents who found me choking. Parents are absolutely convinced the pastor's ghost had intervened and saved my life."
"shave and a haircut"
"When I was little, I had a loft bed with a desk underneath. I've always been a pretty heavy sleeper, I could fall asleep at a concert, so it was strange when I began waking up at 3 in the morning every morning. What was even more strange were the noises coming from the attic. Shuffling, knocking, boxes moving. My 9 year old brain rationalized it as an animal or bird that had gotten in."
"After a few weeks of crap sleep, I decided to knock back on my ceiling the "shave and a haircut" pattern because I was bored and hadn't interacted with whatever was in the attic. I waited in silence for a few minutes until I was about to fall back asleep, and then I heard it. From the ceiling a foot from my face, it knocked back the pattern. Every night when I woke up, I'd knock and sometimes get a response."
"It gradually stopped over the years but I still wake up at 3 am every night. It's weird but it only happens in my room, I sleep fine in hotels and other houses. 13 years later and I've just been getting weird vibes around my house. I feel like I'm being watched. I sometimes hear someone saying my name, most notably before bed and whatever said it is VERY close to my ear. I can feel their breath as they whisper, and it freaks me out so much that it takes hours to get back to sleep."
"The shuffling in the attic also started up again but I don't want to knock back anymore. There's a lot of weird sh*t that happens, things get moved, my dogs and cat stare at the same blank spot, but these are just what's been currently happening. I just don't know what to do anymore."
"don't be scared'
"I was a kid outside playing in the middle of the day. We lived in a 2-story apartment complex and I was located underneath a set of stairs and between two apartments so the air was very calm. My childhood friend and my sis were a bit farther from me by a locked storage room and my friend stopped and swore she saw the doorknob move. The door was usually open if it was in use but it was locked shut."
"They both stood there staring at the doorknob trying to see if it moved again but I was spooked and turned around to book it when halfway through my turn, a whisper in my ear stopped me in my tracks. It was the voice of a young girl. I stood there listening to her and I could feel her breath tickling my ear."
"I don't recall much but I do remember that she said "don't be scared." I think the gist was that she was trying to be encouraging. After she was done I turned around to see who was talking to me but no one was there. I was completely surprised to see that there was no girl so I finally booked it out of there lol."
"AWEEEE"
"My house is super haunted, but its too many little instances to put into one story. I guess I'll just go with the most recent one. A few nights ago I heard running upstairs, despite being home alone. I thought it was my cat, but then he came downstairs, and the running continued. I was a little spooked, but its not the worst thing that's happened in this house. The running lasted for quite a while, plus a few knocks."
"The next morning I was cleaning upstairs in that room and my cat crawled into a box of fabric. I thought he was being cute so I said "AWEEEE" and started to pull out my phone to take a picture. While I was still reaching for my phone, I heard a mocking "AWEEE" right behind me. I completely froze and just let myself process it for a few seconds before checking the room. Obviously I was still alone. That one spooked me a little."
People Share The Craziest Lies They've Told That Came True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Spinning
Librarian Ghost GIF by GhostbustersGiphy"When I was younger I set up the camera on my PSP to spy on my brother, later on, I watched the video just to see the office chair spinning around on its own, wish I was joking."
- Mosey04
And the neighborhood kids, we were all idiots who thought it would be fun to take turns daring one another to go inside, at night. If you didn't go in, you were ridiculed and laughed at. I should've said go ahead laugh, I don't care, I'm not going in. But I didn't say that...
Carl's House
Horror Reaction GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"My friend Carl's last apartment had 2 ghosts. One was a little girl who would play with your hair while you were hanging out in the living room as well as running along the vertical blinds making them swing back and forth. The second I never saw or heard but I did feel him. One night, I locked myself out of my apartment (we lived in the same complex one building over from each other) so I asked to crash Carl's place for the night while he went to work."
"But he had told me don't go in to his room. There is a male ghost who will tell you that you don't belong in there. His previous roommate had let several friends crash his room and a tall black shadow opened the door and said get out to all of them. Freaked them the hell out. So here I am on the couch in the living room. Head on the end of the couch that looks down the hall to the bedrooms and bathroom. I swear I was being watched. Then it hit me. I needed to pee. And the bathroom is right across the hall from Carl's bedroom. Fan. Tastic."
"So I slowly creep down the hall and about 5 feet from my goal I said hey man I just need to use the bathroom. Then it felt like a cloud of energy got pulled back into the bedroom despite the door being closed. So I did my thing and hauled @ss back to the couch but I put my head on the other end of the couch. Nothing outstanding but just a really creepy vibe. On the positive side at least Carl had someone looking out for him."
On Camera
"I connected a webcam to my computer way back when I was a kid. Middle of the night the camera was trained in the hallway. All of a sudden hallway lights flicker on and you see a dark figure run into my brothers room. 30 minutes later you see my brother walk down the hallway himself going towards his room. He had been playing on the family desktop all night. Really freaked me out in the morning when we reviewed I'm the footage. I believe it's still saved to the laptop not that I know where it is lol."
finally morning...
"I used to live in a basement apartment when I was in grad school. The landlady lived in the main house and while she herself was super nice and cool, her house always felt really off to me. However, she charged a reasonable amount of rent and I was only 2 miles from school. About a week or two after I moved in, I had gone to bed and the apartment was pitch black at night."
"If my landlady ever wanted to speak to me, I would hear the doors above the stairs unlock and she would call out to me. One night, I heard movement on the steps but I didn't hear her unlock the doors and it was probably 2 in the morning. She certainly didn't call me saying she needed to talk to me."
"I hear these heavy steps descending the stairs but I'm so scared that I shrink further in my bed to hide. The floor begins to creak towards my door and then nothing for a few seconds. I'm not sure if it is safe to relax and go back to bed. Then I hear the door knob start to turn. My fear makes me so scared that I pull the covers over my head to hide."
"I prayed the whole time under the covers. The next thing I know it's finally morning. I stayed in that apartment for two years. When it was my graduation, I slept in a hotel because there was no room for my family to sleep. That night in the hotel was the first restful sleep I had in what felt like forever."
"fire monster"
"Growing up our house was blessed 3 times before it became... Normal. Stuff would fly off shelves and countertops. The dog would constantly bark at the attic entry as my brother screamed "fire monster." And 1 night it sounded like someone broke in and was stomping down the stairs so my dad got his gun ready... And nothing was there. As a child I would see shadows around but probably had no idea what to think of it. Me and my brother would go to the basement together cause we were both too scared to go alone. Lol."
I didn't do it.
Neon Flickering GIF by Samm HenshawGiphy"Found random crucifixes on door knobs. We aren't Catholic."
"One morning, my sister woke up and everything that was in the attic was in her bedroom. She had attic access in her bedroom. Mom was shocked, sister was lazy, dad was out of the country. I didn't do it. Explain that."
Didn't hear a door open...
"My parents bought a (at this point) 110 year old house about 10 years ago and it feels everybody but me has had a paranormal experience in the house. My parents said they've seen a short, kinda chubby ginger kid appear at random spots in the house. Sometimes just standing in the washer/dryer room and vanishing, sometimes they'd see him at the top of the stairs and he'd walk towards my room (hooray) and disappear. Eventually, my parents were tired of it so they had my grandfather (very Christian guy) come and bless the house, and the appearances stopped."
"My brother has talked about staying up late and night and hearing someone walk up the stairs (they're very old so they are VERY squeaky), walk to his closed door, jiggle the door knob (original doors, so there was a quarter turn of play in the knobs) a bunch, stop, and walk back down the steps and stop. Didn't hear a door open or close, they just stopped at the bottom of the steps."
"My mom has also described seeing something peek out from around corners at her as she's sitting watching TV at night, she thinks it's probably just her slowly falling asleep and seeing things, but is still unsettling for her. There was a period of time where the mudroom door would kinda flex randomly like a change of air pressure. This usually happens whenever someone opens an outside door and closes it, but nobody ever was near a door, or the doors were locked."
"Probably just some weird phenomena caused by an old house, but still creepy. And yet here I am, who probably spent the most time up and alone in the middle of the night in that house, not seeing or hearing anything that wasn't explainable from night terrors and sleep paralysis (which I've always had, at multiple houses)."
I didn't flinch or look over...
"I lived in this big pre-war building in NYC and every night after I put my daughter to sleep in her room, I would lay in my bed and watch tv. The way my bed was angled I could see a sliver of the hallway out of the corner of my eye. I would always see this tall shadow pass by the door and it would jar me! I would always look over but see nothing after that. After a few years, I got so used to it- I didn't even flinch anymore."
"In fact, I had honestly started to believe I just had some sort of vision problem that caused me to see the shadow in my peripheral vision. Eventually we moved out but a week before we did- my daughter and I were just hanging out on my bed one night watching tv. All our boxes were pretty much packed, the whole apartment was ready to go. I was laying on my bed in my usual spot and my daughter was laying at the foot of the bed playing with her dolls."
"Again, my vision problem acted up and I saw the shadow out of the corner of my eye. I didn't flinch or look over, I hadn't in years- I was so used to it. But all the sudden my 8 year old child goes "Who was that?" Hoe. Lee. Heck. I jumped up out of the bed. "You saw that?!?!!!"
"raccoons in the attic"
"Moved into a new apartment about a year ago, and shortly thereafter, I heard kids stomping around on the floor above. "Oh great," I thought, "noisy upstairs neighbors." And then it hit me: I don't HAVE upstairs neighbors. Or downstairs neighbors. The whole joint is mine from ground to roof. Some friends suggested that maybe I have raccoons or other critters in the attic, but I've had those before, they don't sound anything like that..."
"And a week or two later, the "raccoons in the attic" were vacuuming the carpets. Must be g-g-g-ghosts! Actually, what it is is some bizarre architectural quirk that makes stomping around on the floors next door propagate horizontally and sound like they're coming from over my head. Been living in apartments since 1978, have never experienced this kinda thing before."
"I'm home"
"We knew a guy named Mr. Weltzheimer had died in our house, and when anything weird would happen—things falling off shelves or foreign coins appearing on the stairs—we'd joke it was him. One day my mom and a neighbor were replacing the toilet in our bathroom, and were busily working away upstairs when my mom heard the door open and close and a deep, booming voice say "I'm home." She thought it was me (at the time, a teenage girl) joking around. But it wasn't. I was over at a friend's house. When she came down to investigate, all she found were the locked front and back doors."
- justamie
Pinocchio
"I've posted about this before but it wasn't the house it was the freaking Pinocchio puppet. The thing was made of wood and looked like someone tried to convert the Disney version to polygons. The cheeks and all had sharp corners and points. One day the AC was off (it was hung under a fan) and it turned to me and started reaching out. Then the air kicked on and it went limp. We gave it back to the gifter and one of their walls burned down. Never saw it again."
No Zoom
"Okay I was in my bedroom at my desk on Zoom for school, and I always keep the door closed so there aren't any distractions. My room has a lot of empty space, especially at the entrance. And my desk chair faces the window so I can't see the rest of my room while at my desk. Well one day I'm on Zoom for my English class and I hear my door stopper go off."
"You know those spring door stoppers on the bottom of the wall behind doors? I turn around and this thing is flicking back and forth, full speed and everything, and mine is pretty stiff too. My door never opened and there was no one else in the room with me. I was scared to do my classes in my room for a whole month but it never happened again."
Giggles
"I was sitting in the living room watching TV with just me and my mom. The hallway had her and my Dad's room at the end. As we're watching we heard someone talking that didn't sound like it came from the TV. We muted it and heard it coming from the bedroom. The TV wasn't on in there. We both cautiously walked towards the bedroom and heard giggling which freaked us the heck out."
"It was coming from the closet which was open but we couldn't see anything in there. There was clearly a child's voice talking but it was... weird. Like words were spoken but they weren't words. It was almost like something the sims where it sounded like words but was not. Thank God it was in her room and not mine!"
Go away Alice!
alice in wonderland GIFGiphy"We live in an old farmhouse that used to be a boarding house for farm laborers. My four-year-old son was upstairs in his room and my wife could hear him talking to someone. She asked him who he was talking to. He said "Alice. She used to work here and feed the men but she died because she couldn't breathe."
In the Yard...
"Moved into a hundred year old house. Anytime I went downstairs while my daughter was napping, I would hear it running through the house, several times I thought it was my cheeky toddler that had woken up. Figured out it only happened when I left her alone upstairs sleeping & firmly believed it was just a small child spirit checking on her. Still creeped me the heck out. Came back upstairs one day & told it how I knew it was worrying about her, and checking in on her but that I would never go further away than the yard."
"That I appreciated that it cared, but it was actually making me really scared. I said that if she was ever in actual danger that I would absolutely appreciate it's help if I didn't realise but otherwise it was only making me worried. I only ever heard those footsteps once more: in the first few days I bought my second baby home from the hospital. I think my little friend was just reminding me that it would watch this baby for me too."
When I went in, I swear I heard screams. So I screamed and turned to run and fell through the floorboards. That did not go well. I hate haunted houses.
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As much as we'd like to assume spirits, ghosts, and paranormal happenings are relegated to movies and books, plenty of real-life stories abound.
Inexplicable sightings, things heard, and cold pockets of air are encountered by plenty of people all the time.
It's up to you if you want to believe them. But it's hard to argue with the conviction of the contributors to a recent Reddit thread.
Redditor ihadanightmarewithu asked:
"What is the scariest / paranormal story you have ever experienced?"
Many people talked about the things that caught their eye once upon a time.
Two Places At Once
"I was staying with a group of friends rock climbing in Spain. Really creepy air bnb, lots of strange things happened while we were staying there. The creepiest was one morning we were getting ready for the day, packing food and generally getting our things together, and I went upstairs to grab something."
"As I was heading back downstairs I walked past my friend's boyfriend on the landing and saw him turn and go into his and my friend's room; I think I asked him something but he didn't reply. I thought 'rude' and headed downstairs."
"Walked into the kitchen and he was there sorting food out with my friend."
"Everyone swore he'd been downstairs the whole time, plus there was only one staircase and it would have been impossible for him to overtake me and get to the kitchen before me without me noticing. I went back upstairs and checked their room and there was no one up there but me."
"I've never experienced anything creepy or inexplicable before we stayed in that air bnb and I'd say I'm v. sceptical about supernatural/paranormal stuff but multiple things happened on that trip that spooked me."
Classic
"A floating head."
"I was putting beef in the slow cooker because I wanted it done for morning, it was late at night. I reached up to grab some seasonings, and heard creaking. I told my kids to get in bed."
"I see something out of my peripheral vision and there was no body but a head of a bald, pale man floating 3 1/2 maybe 4 feet off the ground in the middle of the floor. It's face kept looking as if it was sad, or like it was begging. It locked eyes with me....I froze."
"I had a darker wall, with a coat rack with my husbands work jackets so it stood out like a store thumb. I looked away thinking it was my imagination but when I looked back it was still there so I ran out the back door because I'd have to pass it to get upstairs with my husband and kids."
"I ended up calling him on my phone to come walk me in. I was wide awake, not sleepy, not out of it, on no medication. I have no reason to see that ever."
Presences, Seen and Felt
"When I was a kid my mom took my sister and I on vacation. I only remember this happening one night while we were there but the hotel we stayed at was pretty much all flats with one bedroom. I slept in the bed with my mom and my sister was on the pull out sofa. I can't remember if I was trying to go to sleep or woke up in the night to this but I just know everyone else was asleep."
"It was really dark with just a little light from the street outside coming in on the sides of the curtains. On each side of the bed stood a black silhouette and it felt like they were all staring right at me acknowledging their presence. I didn't feel threatened or afraid of them at all and turned on the bedside light and not surprisingly nobody was there."
"I turned the light back off and there they were still in the same positions. I just looked at them for a while but must have eventually fell asleep. The only other detail of that experience I remember is waking up the next day and mentioning it at breakfast and my sister saying she felt like she was being watched the whole night. I have no explanation for it but it's a memory that has stuck with me over many years now."
-- obev369
Paranormal?
"One time I was going home in my car and saw a guy that appeared to have no arms no hair and a longa** neck in a JUST a hoodie no pants no underwear trying to climb a tree in the woods with their legs and idk know if that's paranormal but it was such a fu**ing weird experience that I think it qualifies"
-- Setoz_
For others, it was all about the things they heard.
Preferred Number
"This is something I've never been able to rationalize."
"For months after my dad died, we were getting landline calls where no one would answer on the other end. This was in 2002, so, while robo callers were a thing, it definitely wasn't as prevalent as it is today, but we did assume they were probably wrong numbers or something. (We didn't have any phones that displayed caller id at the time.)"
"Well, one time, after getting yet another call with only silence on the other end, I jokingly said, 'Dad, if that's you, call my cell phone.' "
"I want to preface this by saying I rarely ever got calls on my cell phone, and never spam calls in those days. I was 18 with an unlisted number that only my family and a few friends had."
"Just a few minutes later, my phone rang with a number I'd never seen before. With what I'd just said fresh in my mind, I kind of freaked out and didn't answer. I was on my way out to go somewhere with my mom, so when we got in the car, I told her what happened. We made the decision to call the number back."
"It never rang, but there was activity at the other end: muffled static and the sound of numbers being dialed slowly. It was the weirdest thing. Both my mom and I said hello, but no one ever answered."
"Has anyone ever had something like that happen to them when dialing a number? I've never had it happen before or since."
-- huglife247
And the Crying Stopped
"About 10 years ago (I'd have been 24) I was still living with my parents. My bedroom was in the basement. One night, around 3am I was woken up to the sounds of a young child crying. It sounded like it was coming from just outside my window. I couldn't just look out the window because it was covered in ivy, so I quickly hopped out of bed to go help the kid."
"As I got closer to my bedroom door I could hear the crying was actually on the other side of the door. I opened the door. No one is there and the crying stopped. Spooked, I immediately jumped back in bed and the crying started again."
"Later that day at dinner, my family was sitting around the table and I brought up my experience I had. One of my sisters told a story about how when she was a kid she'd always leave her room at night to go sleep with my parents because she'd see a little girl walking out of her closet."
"As she left her room and got to my parents' door waiting to be let in because the door was locked she'd see the little girl walking up the stairs that were right there. After her telling this story my youngest sister looked scared and asked, 'the little girl, is she wearing a pink nightgown with shoulder-length brunette hair?' "
"Now my other sister was scared because that is exactly who she saw. My youngest sister told how she had similar experiences with that little girl coming out of the closet at night or walking up the stairs at night."
"I'm convinced that something happened either in that house before we moved in or on that land that my parents' house was built on."
-- JSparx597
Crying From Afar
"Not my story but my moms, apparently when I was just a baby I was always a calm sleeper and once when my mom was having a friend over downstairs they could hear a baby crying so they naturally went to check on me and I was still calmly asleep..."
"...but every time they went back downstairs they could hear some more crying, but apparently the crying was somehow off in a different way as well, one day when mom and dad were downstairs watching tv while I was sleeping upstairs, they heard crying and finally pinpointed the thing that was off..."
"...apparently it came from the opposite side of the house compared to my room and that room had the latch to the attic. Creepy stuff, but I'm not that surprised. This place is totally haunted in my book, I once heard my mom call me downstairs while I was home alone."
-- lukkisboi
Finally, some people interacted directly with the spirits.
Advice From Beyond
"So once while I was home alone, my neighbor knocked on my door. This was when we still lived in Oklahoma, and I was homeschooled. He was bit younger then me but we still played Halo together. I was thirteen at the time."
"I let him in and we had a conversation about what I thought the afterlife would be like, and this was really odd for him. We talked for a few minutes before he decided to leave. When my parents got home they told me he had a heart attack at school and died."
-- Maxraser33
One Time Only
"I once felt a hand on my face when I was sleeping. I had the covers covering my entire face and felt something push down lightly and then a bit harder."
"I was absolutely terrified and when I finally mustered up the courage to look, nothing was there. It never happened again but there have been a few times where something similar has happened."
A Very Helpful Ghost
"I was staying in the Banff Springs Hotel in 95 for a snowboard trip and I was leaving the room and forgot my jacket."
"When I remembered right at the door, I turned around to grab it from the bed where I left it and it was being held 2' above the bed like it was being being pinched by fingers."
"The moment I turned around it dropped to the bed."
"That blew my mind!"
"My GF's sister at the time was working concierge and she said there was a bell hop ghost and gave the paper story...lol It wasn't threating at all, but was crazy to see!"
-- GTR4L1F3
Here's hoping you manage to sleep well despite all these spooky stories!
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