12 year old claims to see ghosts

[Zaira]

The 12 year old daughter of a friend of mine claims to have seen two children playing in their kitchen. She says she wasn’t dreaming and insists they were there. My friend is getting worried and plans to take her daughter to the doctor if she keeps insisting she saw these ‘ghost’ children playing in her home. She is quite a serious young girl, and I cannot imagine her making this up. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Nicky]

Has the girl been asked to draw them? Has she been asked who or what she thinks they are? Can she interact with the, or does she just observe them?

I'm not suggesting this is necessarily the cause, but if anyone has interest in imaginery friends there's a great new book out called Invizikids. But that's an adside, just reminded me.

N

[Cuddles]

Stop the press! Twelve year old child has an imagination!

Seriously, why would anyone even consider a doctor here? She says she wasn't dreaming. So what? That doesn't make it true. Maybe she was asleep. Maybe she thought she saw something and was mistaken. Maybe there really were two kids in the house. Maybe she made the whole thing up. Unless she has a history of hallucination or disturbed behaviour I don't see why anyone would try to get a doctor involved.

[Araneus]

Actually I can think of few things worse than taking her to a doctor. Even as a non-parent, it is obvious to me that making a big issue out of something and treating your child as though she is "unwell" is not likely to be productive in this situation. All it will do is give her the impression that her parents don't trust her and consider her to be some kind of weirdo or mental case, with negative consequences to the ongoing relationship.

[Zaira]

She had a friend stay over and went down to the kitchen to get some snacks for her and her friend, saw two children sitting playing on the kitchen floor, and run back to her room very frightened. She thought her mum might be baby sitting, when she discovered she wasn’t she was very frightened and upset. This is a normal school kid with a few close friends. Nothing like this has ever happened before.

[blubird]

I wouldnt worry to be honest, as long as its treated right then the little girl will be ok.

I think people these days are all to quick to rush there kids off to the doctors at the slightest thing. This could be imagination or simply that the little girl is "sensitive".
Thousands of kids say they have experienced something possibly paranormal and most turn out into normal adults ( i say most LOL)

My daughter went through a phase of seeing spirit.
She told me of a man who stood in her room, and she described a world war one uniform to a tea, she was about three or four at the time and had as far as im aware never seen that kind of historical thing before.

SHe also described a hippy that would come and sit with her. She described what he was wearing although she didnt know the term hippy at that point.
She also showed me the V sign for victory and peace, not the "V" sign LOL.
Again to my knowledge she hadnt come across that either.
But you never know.

Because i have some dealings with "paranormal" stuff I just explained to her that it was perfectly normal for her to be seeing such things, and that if she wanted them to go away she was just to ask them politly.

She never asked them infact she asked them to come back LOL
But not long after these two episodes she had no more sightings and everything was hunky dory.

as its been said if these things are played up on then children who are, when all said and done extrememly clever, pick up on it and use it.
maybe not deliberatly but they definatly know when there getting a reaction!

Id personally just play it down dont make a big thing of it, of course if the little girl is getting that terrified then if it was me id stay with her just to give her some support.

[Zaira]

I really appreciate your take on this. I personally would have spent time reassuring her that it wasn’t as uncommon as some people think. And if it ever happened again to simply ignore it. At the time they were both rather upset and I hesitated to share my thoughts. But now feel more confidant at doing so after reading these replies.

[blubird]

I hope your friend has some luck with this one, I dont think the poor child needs to go to the doctors though, bless her.

Taking her to see a doctor would probably scare her more because seeing a doctor at that age with her not feeling "ill" as such will probably be really scary for her.

I hate doctors and actually get a thing called white coat sydrome, I think thats doctors speak for being s**t scared LOL

Good luck though xxx

[ali_baba]

well !in islamic cultures ghosts are always given a special status , infact there are stories that even prophet of muslims was overcome by ghosts and he remained in a terrified state for a good long period
what i mean to say that religions have always given such "things" a special status for unknown reasons

[BillB]

Hi,

Maybe this is just imaginary brought on by watching a movie for example: the "The Sixth Sense"?

BillB

[bobdezon]

It should also be taken in account that this girl will be approaching puberty and have physiological changes as well as biochemical changes in her brain due to the increase in hormones. This might be enough to trigger the imagination. Many people state they have witnessed a ghost, and there are some compelling stories associated with such reports. Invariably they dont amount to anything supernatural though.