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Original poster

To think children may see things we can’t?

298 replies

Opal93 · 02/08/2021 23:26

My son is autistic and his language is disordered so it’s very hard to ask him what he actually means when he tells us something, but lately there have been a few instances where he has said things that have spooked us out a bit! Tonight he was at my mums, and he said “goodnight nana Marlene” (my mums mum who died when he was one) and started singing her favourite Doris Day song, word for word which he has never heard before and I didn’t know of the song until my mum told me today he started singing it and she has no idea how he knew it. My dad died when I was 16 and my son knows his photo. We were in a park the other week and my son pointed behind me and said “it’s grandad Stephen!” And I looked behind me thinking he probably saw a man that looked like the photo but there was nobody there. Another time, he started talking to my husbands dad about “nanny Margaret.” I didn’t realise he even had a nanny Margaret but apparently it was my husbands dads mums name. Then he said nanny Margaret has a big belly, and my FIL looked freaked out then and said she had a massive hernia that ruptured and killed her. I wouldn’t say I’m a believer in ghosts or life after death but it does make me wonder. Any other experiences of kids sensing things?

OP posts:
GnomeHat · 03/08/2021 15:35

I felt my grandmother had died. I was at school. We were in morning assembly. I felt a light enter me and just a very overwhelming feeling do do with her. I started crying. When I got home my dad greeted me at the door with the bad news that she had died that morning, which I already knew.

icedcoffees · 03/08/2021 15:39

Of course they can't.

However, children do have extremely vivid imaginations and probably have better memories than we give them credit for. I can remember really odd, specific things from my childhood - even now.

I also hate that this is related to autistic children. I'm autistic myself and I just have an excellent memory. I often freak my mum out by telling her about things that happened when I was 2/3 years old. Those memories are crystal clear in my head like it was yesterday.

I'm not magic, nor can I see ghosts - I just have a good memory and enjoy freaking my parents out Grin

NotQuiteUsual · 03/08/2021 15:39

Me theory is that children are still developing their senses and perception. Sometimes they just perceive time and space wrong and accidentally see things that were or will be.

I believe in human incompetence more than spirits Grin

Antinerak · 03/08/2021 15:39

My cousin and I's great grandmother passed away long before he was born. The first time he came to my house was when he was 4, he saw a photo of her and said "Nanny's got such a funny spotty umbrella the handle falls off." The last time I saw her she and I were out in the rain using her spotty umbrella when the handle got caught in her bag and fell off. I'd completely forgotten about it and don't remember telling anyone at the time. Whether it's woo or not it's not a bad thing.

punnetofgrapes · 03/08/2021 15:51

my DS (then aged 2) asked by mum who Norman was, her father was Norman William (always known as Willy). She was freaked out

Staffy1 · 03/08/2021 15:57

If they do at all, it’s probably only a very small percentage of children. I certainly never saw anything that adults couldn’t and no one I know did either.

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 03/08/2021 16:00

Generally babies, disabled/mute children, the elderly and animals. So basically any living thing that is incapable of actually saying ‘no of course I can’t see ghosts, stop talking shit’.

Yes!!

I'm actually embarrassed for grown adults who pedal the belief that children can see spirits et al

SomeoneInTheLaaaaaounge · 03/08/2021 16:01

They absolutely can OP!

ElvisPresleyHadABaby · 03/08/2021 16:01

@FlyingFancy

Also it's confirmation bias. Like I have really bad anxiety and always think the worst. 9 times out of 10 it's not the worst. On the rare occasion it has been, I could be like "wow, I had a sixth sense that was going to happen". I didn't - it was coincidence.
This. And agree that it's not fair to impose fantastical indulgences onto children. It's confusing for them and hinders development. I didn't use to believe I would live past 10 as a batshit Great-Aunt told me I had a short "life line" on my palm. I remember sobbing before my birthday as I thought I didn't have much time left. Lo and behold I made it to far too old. But it was quite a horrible thing for her to have made up. Children don't have the capacity to cope with being told they've got "the sight" or are an "indigo child".
MistyFrequencies · 03/08/2021 16:02

They can't. Adults interpret what they say as what they want to hear.

NeedNewKnees · 03/08/2021 16:02

Credulous parents, child with very busy imagination who absorbs information like a sponge.

I had 8 or 9 imaginary friends as a tiny person, could absolutely see them and comment when they'd had a haircut etc. It wasn't supernatural, it was the musings of a busy young brain.

Wishingwell75 · 03/08/2021 16:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 03/08/2021 16:05

I think also that people tally truly underestimate the power of instinct. Having an inkling that a grandparent has died, only to be told 2 minutes later (especially if why're sick or elderly anyway) is probably a tremendous instinct that a mood has shifted in the house and the brain probably relates it to the grandparent who was on death's door. A bit like when you walk in a room and you just know the people there have just been arguing. Nothing to do with super powers

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 03/08/2021 16:08

*really not tally

ArnoldJudasRimmer · 03/08/2021 16:09

I'm autistic and told my mum all about the other people I could see as a child, including my "other mum and dad". I can confirm it was all 100% made up!

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 03/08/2021 16:10

I also agree it's confirmation bias. If your child asked who is Peter, and OMG my uncle who died was Peter, that's YOU thinking/wishing that. Your child has probably been watching Horrid Henry.

Please don't impose this crap on kids. It's like the 'clairvoyants' who tell you they can speak to your loved ones. They can't, they're either mentally ill or conmen but it won't stop them preying on vulnerable people, it sails a little too close to that IMO

OhGiveUp · 03/08/2021 16:16

Have you ever had déjà vu?
Ever been in a place that you've never in your life been to before, but yet you feel that you have and everything is so familiar that it jolts you?

CitrusIceCream · 03/08/2021 16:17

@Wishingwell75

To be perfectly honest, you haven’t exactly exhausted every logical explanation with your examples.

Your little boy being imaginative or finding the corner interesting for some reason unknown to you is about a billion times more likely than that he was seeing a ghost!

CitrusIceCream · 03/08/2021 16:18

Ever been in a place that you've never in your life been to before, but yet you feel that you have and everything is so familiar that it jolts you?

Yes, we all have...and there’s a scientific explanation for it.

lynsey91 · 03/08/2021 16:26

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

Generally babies, disabled/mute children, the elderly and animals. So basically any living thing that is incapable of actually saying ‘no of course I can’t see ghosts, stop talking shit’.

Yes!!

I'm actually embarrassed for grown adults who pedal the belief that children can see spirits et al

I am actually embarrassed for grown adults who think they know for sure there are no such thing as ghosts/spirits. Such know it alls.

You may believe they do not exist you DO NOT know for sure

ODFOD21 · 03/08/2021 16:27

I wonder if it's rather a time loop thing rather than spirit thing? Obviously this doesn't account for the children claiming their dead GP is interacting with them but maybe for the uneventful 'sightings'? Could a child's rapidly growing brain see through time unconsciously?

FlyingFancy · 03/08/2021 16:30

You may believe they do not exist you DO NOT know for sure

I haven't actually said they do or don't exist, I just said that I think people are much to quick to underestimate the imagination of children. I think THAT'S narrow minded actually, like you can't believe your child could possibly have invented that so your immediate conclusion is that they are psychic/saw a ghost.

MariaAngustias · 03/08/2021 16:32

My daughter had an imaginary friend who used to creep me out sometimes... she was called Noddy. Once my daughter was crying and said Noddy had been mean to her so I sat her on my knee (she was around 3) and she then looked into thin air, kicked out her leg and shouted 'go away, Noddy!' and it freaked me out. After a few months of no Noddy we were driving down a road with houses on one side and my daughter started waving at a house then turned to me and said 'Noddy was waving goodbye to me from that window' and she never spoke of Noddy again. I am sure it was an imaginary friend (she was an only child) but there was something spooky about Noddy :)

Clocktopus · 03/08/2021 16:35

I am actually embarrassed for grown adults who think they know for sure there are no such thing as ghosts/spirits. Such know it alls. You may believe they do not exist you DO NOT know for sure*

Don't you think though that in the entirety of human existence to date, with all these people to be "gifted" or to have "the sight" (or claiming their children do), that there'd have been some definitive proof by now? As I posted earlier, there are cash rewards for people who can prove they have a paranormal ability or can provide proof of the supernatural. How weird that no one has ever managed to claim one...?

Could a child's rapidly growing brain see through time unconsciously?

No because that's not a thing.

FlyingFancy · 03/08/2021 16:37

Worth noting that no medium has ever been able to prove the existence of their skills under laboratory conditions.