scary house

[blackmonday]

Before i start i'd like to say I don't believe in ghosts and have never seen anything, but what happened yesterday has got my whole household puzzled and I'm really not sure what to do. My son (19yrs) sleeps in the loft room. My son and myself were in the kitchen yesterday and my 2.6 year old dd was upstairs on the landing after fetching a toy from her bedroom when she screamed as if she was really hurt/scared. We both rushed up and she was sobbing on the landing looking up into the loft saying the brown man had scared her. She called him 'raisin man'. She was genuinley terrified. On further probing she said he was up very high and spinning and she didn't like him because he was very scary. We had a good look round but there was nothing she could possibly have seen that would have scared her. Every time we go upstairs now she looks up into the loft and says ' i don't like raisin man!' My poor son is not too happy about sleeping in there any more and to be honest it's given me a chill. We've lived here for two years and have never experienced anything apart from the usual seeing something out of the corner of your eye which dissappears when you look round. Does anyone know anything that could maybe help as I hate the fact that little dd is scared in her own home. thanks!

Could it have been a bat or an owl?

no, there was nothing there at all, we checked thoroughly. I wish it was

can anyone this evening help?

Sure its not your 19 yr old scaring them.

If I feel the presence of evil, I confirm my faith In Jesus Christ the son of the living God the God of Abraham Issac and Jacob.

But if you dont have faith then I dont know what you would do.

every time dd goes upstairs she looks up at the loft and says she's scared of 'raisin man' or the 'brown man'. this is horrible and i'm really considering selling up as i'm now terrified too! i don't want to stay in a home that scares my daughter. I wonder if there's anyone with any sort of experience of these sort of things that can help. Unfortunately we are not religeous.

Small children have very very vivid imaginations. Something or other may have scared her (probably something entirely innocuous) in the course of the day, or she may have seen a bug or a shadow on the wall - loads of kids go through a stage of imaginary monsters under the bed etc. So what you need is 'practical magic'. Go into her room and tell the Naughty Raisin Man to shoo! It may make you all feel better to ask Raisin Man politely to go away and stop scaring your DD. Buy her a rattle or teddy or something that will 'make Naughty Raisin Man go away' or 'not let him bother her'. And give her lots of general reassurance and cuddles, and it should soon stop being a problem.

There are no such thing as ghosts, but there certainly are such things as toddlers with overly vivid imaginations. My own 2.3 DD certainly has, even in describing very mundane things. There have been several postings on here about similar things (have a look back) including one woman whose toddler who was terrified of a black dog who lived in the cupboard in her bedroom. Personally, I've had a couple of friends who've experienced similar - one friend's DS was scared of a really old woman who used to come and just stand at the foot of his bed during the night. And that's ASIDE from the regular monsters under bed, shadows on the wall etc. All of these fears have gradually disappeared as the child has got a bit older or the parent have done something to help them.

From your perspective, simply don't be scared. It's not real and whilst I'm sure it's eerie your DD insisting that it is, it's no more real than her insisting that the fairies in the garden pulled her hair/ purple cat ate her breakfast etc. From her perspective, don't belittle her fears but don't play up to them either. Recognise them and just be practical about it. Give her some 'tools' to deal with her fear, be it a phrase or a toy that makes the raisin man disappear.

madamez, cestlavie, how right you were and how silly I feel . DDs woke up this morning and we came downstairs and sat in the lounge. DD2 started screaming and pointing at the ceiling saying 'raisin man, scary, raisin man scary!' I was at my wits end, already scared of the loft and now I wouldn't be able to relax in my own front room. I asked her where 'raisin man' was and she pointed up again and I saw a fly!! I said is that raisin man? She said yes and he's scary.

I can't believe we all got so worked up and were even considering moving out I was convinced she'd seen something more sinister. At least I can sleep with the light off tonight . We all feel very foolish.

Glad it's all sorted. I had been thinking along the lines of a spider myself (in which case I would have plenty of sympathy for your DD as I hate the things). But it seems like part of a kid's job description really: 'scare the crap out of parents at least once a month, somehow'....