to be petrified of staying in aunts house because it's apparently haunted

[LeftTheBlimminWashingOutAgain]

my aunt moved into her current house about 5 years ago. i have visited during the day a couple of times before when staying with other relatives. nice house but very old and does have a bit of a "spooky" feel if you like. my aunt says she has felt, seen and heard things such as footsteps, dark figures, cold spots, the usual sort of thing you would see on most haunted (apparently, i'm too much of a wimp to watch that sort of thing). after researching the house and asking neighbours it turns out that the house is known to be a bit haunted.
now, i don't believe in ghosts and don't want to believe. i believe that all the "experiences" are just the general sort of noises, chills and shadows that you would get in a very unusual old house (it's nearly 600 years old). also, although my aunt is lovely, she is a bit of an attention seeker and has a tendency to exaggerate, so its highly likely that the footsteps she remembers hearing was actually a bit of creaking.
my grandmas 70th birthday party is in a couple of months and we were going to stay at a travelodge (we have stayed there before and it is perfectly fine and clean which is all we need). aunt called last night and spoke to DH who was home and invited us and our DD to stay with her. very kind of her and he said yes.
i was up all last night worrying about staying there. i am petrified of anything paranormal and even though i don't believe when it comes to things like that my mind runs away with itself. i can't watch horror films because i then can't sleep for the next 5 nights. DH said he thought it would be fine because i'd said in other conversations that i didn't believe it was haunted so i'm not mad at him or anything. its mainly the idea of the "unknown" whilst we are all asleep which gets to me. i couldn't sleep last night thinking about it.
i know i am being irrational and daft but i can't bear the idea of staying somewhere haunted overnight. my aunt isn't easily offended and my family is very straight talking, and other members have said "well i'm not staying somewhere overnight that you say is haunted", so it would be ok if i said that. i know it would be silly though.
AIBU to stay in the £25 travelodge for the sake of not worrying about something so daft?

I forget - I was far too little to be watching such stuff, but it our the fear of god into me!

Just wiki-ed it 'quiet as a nun'. Wooooooooooooo! Nun nun!

Our is house is meant to be haunted by a little boy who froze to death. He is also meant to a portent to a tragic event happening. Since living here I have heard children on the baby monitor that weren't our children and some strange white mist in my sons room and a shadow on the stairs and my dh has seen a child in the garden and smelt a woman's perfume non I use. But I still don't feel that is is haunted or scary. However our landlord is terrified of the place and he fled one dark foggy Christmas night when he was checking the place over as we were snowed out, he fled because of creepy voice saying hey look up here 3 times, the best thing about this is it was a singing Christmas bauble its noise activated and he set it off when he dropped some logs on the hearth.

So stay in a travel lodge or get over your fear by braving the Aunts house I'm guessing all will be fine with a glass of wine and some ear plugs at night.

i knew there was a reason i didn't like nuns.
the one at my parents house was apparently a lady wearing a grey dress who used to walk along the ground floor of my parents and the house next door (they used to be one house).
the next door neighbours had lived there for over 30 years and never saw anything either. so if ghosts do exist, i doubt my mums house is actually haunted.
my aunts house is an old shoemakers cottage and is apparently haunted by what looks like an old apprentice. thats what all the information she has found out about the house says. she has never seen it clear enough to say what it is apparently.

YABU

My Dad wont stay in my house preferring the local grotty Travelodge due to the 'ghosts'. Have to say it really irritates me

oldraver have you told your dad that its haunted or is that just something he thinks?

If you did stay in the allegedly haunted woo house, what do you think would be the worst that could happen?

No-one's ever been haunted to death... have they?

If you have, please knock three times

LadyMaryCrawley (love the name btw) i agree and that's what DH has said to me. also i know that if there is such a thing as ghosts the travelodge may well be haunted as well. i think it's mainly the idea of (if it did exist) something happening and my daughter been scared. i know we wouldn't actually get hurt.

YABU, it is not haunted.

However, given the way you feel about it, I'd bet you will be feeling cold draughts and seeing dead people and hearing funny noises left right and centre, so go to the hotel, I would!

Very interested to see this discussion as I too am often in the "friends' haunted house vs. hotel" position. My friend has an old creepy house, she is very woo, and recounts tales of the unexpected. She has never said, and would never say, anything like this in front of my DCs who are blithely unaware of any woo-ness. However, I hate staying there overnight, which is annoying as they are fab friends. Last time, after some building work there, the atmosphere was a bit better, but DCs said they felt something pulling their bedcovers. I shrugged it off, could have been anything really couldn't it, but still I long for the hotel.

Recently I went overseas with DCs to visit friend who was off the scale woo - again she never spoke of it in front of DCs but late at night when they were in bed she told me an unpleasant story about "visitations" to the room I was sleeping in, which made me wonder if the problem was more with her than her (again very old and spooky) house. I seem to attract woo-ers! Nonetheless I'd be reluctant to actually stay in that house again. When people tell you these ghost stories I think it does make most of us feel uncomfortable. Hard to put out of your mind.

No idea where I am going with this, just to say I feel your woo dilemma. Frankly, if there is no other reason to stay there, then I'd go for the Travelodge.

good news - aunt called. she's been talking to someone and now isn't sure how the ghost would react to children been in the house (apparently she has been advised that ghosts react differently around children). i think really she's decided that she doesn't want a toddler messing up her house. basic but clean travelodge here we come!

are you ever so slightly, even a teensy bit, disappointed that you won't be staying there?!

my house is haunted and it doesn't bother me at all.infact i find it quite comforting.

What happens drummer?

I'm jealous! the older I get the more comforting I find it all (not actually seen anything in my house though)

sorry solesource
i've found a drawing of dd's that was stuck to my dining room door [dining room side] on the hall floor but the door was shut to.it was about 10 at night and dh was out and dd was in bed
my bil felt someone run up behind him and push him on the shoulder.he was the only person in the room and was just coming out
i've been in the kitchen and saw a figure go from the kitchen door to my dh's study.dh was already in there and i thought it was dd went in to see if she was ok but she was still playing in her room
woke one night and again saw a figure at the side of my bed thought it was dd but then noticed it was gone
the house across the road from me is also haunted and myself and my friend who lives there are currently trying to find out about the history of the houses [2 totally different designs and age of house] and also the land they were built on