Kids do creepy stuff a lot, and most of it I think can be put down to them still trying to figure out to be a human that doesn’t freak out other humans.

Most of the time they’re sweet and cool and funny, but if you’ve got some of your own, there’s no denying they can be a bunch of little weirdos, too, right?

One of the creepiest things kids do is talk about “before” they were born, or have random “memories” or vocabulary that comes out of nowhere – and these 13 parents must have been calling the exorcist after their kids shared these particular tales.

13. So eerie!

I don’t know how old I was but when I was young (<6) I was in the car with my parents and I said something like “oh I used to live there” while pointing at a house we were driving past.

Turns out it was my great great grandmothers house.

12. That’s a weird power dynamic.

Well, I’m not a parent but I once told my mother, “I used to be your dad”, when I was a toddler.

And if that’s not weird enough he died about 9 months before I was born.

11. Not a skeptic anymore.

My family and I were driving through the Kent countryside and my brother (about 3 at the time) announced: “Mummy, that was the field I died in once. I bayonet went through my tummy.” I was 8 and remember wondering what a bayonet was EXACTLY at the same time my parents looked at each other and asked him HOW he knew what bayonet was?

He said he didn’t know and then became almost embarrassed and shy because of our collective reactions. There was no way he would have known about war or weapons as this was the early 90s and we didn’t watch TV much at all.

I’m a complete skeptic but this creeps me out to this day.

10. This is just amazing.

Not a mum but I was a nanny for many years.

This is going to be long and I apologize in advance.

One of my little ones, 2 yrs old & incredibly smart child, way ahead developmentally in almost every way. He used to like to tell me things while we got him ready for bed. It was almost always these weird storied which would always start with “When I was an old lady…” and they were always very specific little “day in the life of” type things which I quickly realized went beyond the life experience & typical vocabulary of a 2 yr old.

Over a few months he kept adding very consistently to this story. He would also sometimes play as this old lady, with a cloth over his head and walking slowly as if his back pained him. Grocery shopping or playing with his sisters dolls as if they were his grandchildren was his favourite when he did this.

He added some specific details like:

How many children she had, (4 daughters and a son)and how many grandchildren.

Her husband had died in his 50’s (same age as one of his uncles) from a lung disease.

One of her daughters had died in their 30’s in a car accident leaving 2 children who she took in with the help of another daughter.

She had a bad back and pain in her feet. One of her daughters would rub her feet to help with the pain.

All but one of her children was married, the unmarried daughter lived with her and she worried she would never marry.

She remembered dying. She had been crossing a street and hit by a car, she described how people stood around her, where it hurt, how someone eventually lifted her into a car (no ambulances) and took her to hospital where she died.

I was not his only nanny, and he was consistent with these stories. Us nannies would get together and swap stories and I would write them down because I had been fascinated with phenomena like past lives before this and wanted to see where it all went.

He also described the house & neighborhood they lived in. This is especially interesting as this kid came from a SUPER wealthy family and had never even seen the kind of housing or poverty he was describing. He also talked about living by the seaside.

Months into this unfolding, we visited a seaside city on the other side of the country. One day a family member there was having a birthday party so we piled in the van to drive over, and our driver got lost (this is pre google maps & smartphone times). We ended up driving through this extremely poor neighborhood and suddenly my little boy started shouting and screaming and insisted we turn down a couple of specific streets.

He started pointing out the window and telling us things he was recognizing “from when I was an old lady”. It matched to what he’d previously described in general and we were all so interested we let him direct us where to go as we were already going to be late for the party anyway.

He accurately described what we would see round the next turn several times but got extremely confused and upset when he got to where “her” house was because it was now a store. The driver leaned out the window and asked a nearby old person what had been there before the store and was told “houses”.

We never went back there or were able to get any additional verification. Totally understandably his parents were concerned about this story telling and how vivid and strange it was, so after this dramatic incident we made an active effort to redirect him to other stories and play types.

As he approached three he started telling less & less of these stories, and they got less & less specific. By about 3 1/2 he couldn’t even remember telling us stories about being an old lady. He thought we were joking with him.

To this day, over 25 yrs later, I can’t explain it really.

9. That’s quite a story.

When my daughter was 3, she saw a large ship while we were on vacation at the beach and said “That’s like the one my parents before you died on.” I said, “You had other parents before us?” She calmly went on to explain that I shouldn’t worry, they were her parents a long time before my husband and I were, but the ship they were on broke apart and they are still at the bottom of the ocean.

She then said when her “before” parents died, she and her sister “Brinella” had to be separated because no one could take them both. She said her sister went to live in Australia, but she stayed in Ireland. We live in the U.S.

8. Goosebumps indeed.

Not me but a friends little sister. The whole family was out for dinner at a restaurant in a skiing village which they recently bought a cottage near. My friends little sister as soon as they walked in said “I know this place. My mother and I used to paint here.” To which her mother replied “We’ve never been here before, what do you mean?” she replied with “No. My mother from before. We used to paint here all the time.”

The family was obviously a little freaked out but didn’t think much of it as she was pretty young and they figured just messing around. Later on though, when talking to the waitress, the little girl again adamantly mentioned how she used to paint there and the waitress revealed that it in fact was an art studio for many years in the 1900s but had been converted sometime in the early 2000s into a restaurant.

Needless to say the entire table, waitress included, got goosebumps and were at a loss for words.

7. They’re so sure of themselves!

One of my preschool students: What do you want to do when you’re a kid again?

Me: Well grown ups don’t become kids again. We grow up and stay grown ups.

Her: Well I remember when I was a grown up and I drove a car! And now I’m a kid again!

6. Poor thing.

My daughter talks about her “grandson” all the time. I thought it was just an imaginary friend, but then a couple nights ago she came out of her room at bed time absolutely sobbing and said “I’m sad because I miss my grandson. He lives in my old house in my old neighborhood”.

She has never lived anywhere other than this apartment

5. That will heal your heart.

my grandma has a story from when my dad was 2-3 years old. he told her once that he was almost born before but was too sick and died and had to come back later

turns out my grandma had at least 1 miscarriage before he was born that was likely due to birth defects caused by a medication she had been taking at the time

4. You’ve gotta believe that…

When he was 3 my husband decided to treat our son to a flight over our city in a Cessna. When it was time to get on the plane, our boy climbed into the pilot’s seat and was extremely upset when he was told he had to move. He began crying and saying he was sorry. He didn’t mean to crash that plane last time and he said he’d be good this time.

My husband managed to calm him by pointing out that his legs were too short for his feet to reach the pedals. Once he got settled in the back seat, he started fussing about not being able to use the radio, so the pilot got him a headset, just didn’t plug it in all the way. Our son then started trying to raise the tower so he could to his radio check and get clearance. At that point the pilot needed to take a break. He went for a smoke while my husband talked to our son, who told him that he crashed the last plane he flew and a lot of people died.

When the pilot got back, they were able to do the flight with no further issues. About a year later, we went to an aeronautics museum when an old Mosquito was being restored. Our son told the curator that he used to fly one of those, so he offered us a tour of the plane. When we got in, our son pointed out several things that were ‘wrong’ with the plane, which turned out to be correct – things like the joy stick being the wrong sort etc.

The curator told us the plane had previously been modernized and was now being restored to original condition. He also confirmed that the items our son had pointed out were in fact slated to be replaced. Our kid is grown mow and doesn’t remember ever being a pilot before and has absolute zero interest in planes, but he does remember just ‘knowing’ things about airplanes and piloting them.

3. That’s pretty interesting.

Anyone interested in this sort of thing should look up the ww2 US general George S. Patton.

He allegedly attributes many of his victories throughout Europe to a familiarity with the battlefields, having fought on them countless times in past lives. I’m pretty sure there’s a book about it.

2. I can see why.

not me, but some of my grandma’s siblings died in a house fire around the 60’s-70’s. My moms sister (around 15-25 at the time) was just talking with one of her cousin who was about 5 like 30 years ago, and the 5 year old was REALLY scared of fire, and acted a lot like one of my grandma’s sisters, tony.

then one day when my aunt reached over to light a candle the 5 year old cousin said “isnt it funny how last time we were sisters but now we’re cousins?” it freaked my aunt right out, apparently

1. He made a good decision, then.

Mine said that he had a dream he was in heaven (or some other place before he was born) with lots of men in suits who had lined up every woman on the planet, and the suits told him to pick who would be his mum.

The part that creeped me out is I remember my mum telling me I had a dream exactly like that as a child.

My kids haven’t done this yet and I kind of feel like I’m missing out. Is that wrong?

If your child has weirded you out talking about what came before they were born, share the story with us in the comments!