Did departed dad speak through four-year-old?

[snopes]

The following story freaks out a lot of people. See what it does for you.

Often with stories like this, you can't source the original person. Somebody knows somebody who knows somebody else who the event happened to, but you seldom get to talk to the original players.

Not so this time. I know the family, I spoke with the mom.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNew...20191-sun.html

[Buckle Up]

A couple things come to mind:

1. Four-year-olds say weird random things a lot. The chances that one of those weird random things would correspond to something in your own life are pretty high.

2. It's amazing the things that young children know or pick up on, that we don't think they could know. Rhys could have heard a phone conversation or something said off the cuff that she doesn't even remember saying.

[Nick Theodorakis]

I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I'm sure I heard his echo
In my baby's new born tears

--Mike and the Mechanics


Nick

[Magdalene]

The kid really hasn't said anything that he couldn't have picked up elsewhere. Just because as far as she knows, her son wasn't told about her father, doesn't mean he didn't hear it anyway.

Now, if the kid were to say, "I was beaten over the head and my body thrown into such-and-such canyon", and somebody found her father's body where the kid said it would be, I'd be more convinced.

All else aside, it is strange what happened to her father.

Magdalene

[TuFurg]

I don't see anything random about twice making a claim that he is her father, of course I doubt it actually happened they way it's being claimed as well

On the otherhand his replies of "I know..." are probably a quirky little thing he does because of the reaction it's gotten.

Poor little kid probably won't be getting many canoe trips in his lifetime

[LtColCarter]

When my daughter was a toddler, I had similar conversations with her. She used to say "a long time ago, when I was the mommy and you were the baby." Since my mother is still living, I just chalked it up to imagination.

:::shrug:::

[Ana Ng]

Originally Posted by LtColCarter

When my daughter was a toddler, I had similar conversations with her. She used to say "a long time ago, when I was the mommy and you were the baby." Since my mother is still living, I just chalked it up to imagination.

:::shrug:::

I've always wondered about that, as my kids did too- like mommy, when I was old and you were a baby or after you die and get born again. I don't think it's supernatural, but is it some kind of confusion about time being linear? Just a poor understanding of the passage of time?

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by Ana Ng

I've always wondered about that, as my kids did too- like mommy, when I was old and you were a baby or after you die and get born again. I don't think it's supernatural, but is it some kind of confusion about time being linear? Just a poor understanding of the passage of time?

I've heard about that...mostly, I've heard that children don't have the best grasp of gender and other fixed things. So sometimes they'll assume that one day they'll be a boy (if they're a girl) or vice versa. Maybe it works that way for age/relationships or other things, too?

[Troberg]

When my father died, the doctor told us that we shouldn't worry if we saw or heard him, it's a very common thing. Some call it ghosts, some call it imagination, some call it wishfull thinking and some call it the brain travelling in familiar patterns, take your pick.

It didn't happen to me, but I'm a sceptic that probably wouldn't see it if he had apppeared and done a song and dance number, but it happened to my mother.

It's just one of the stages of grief, imho.

[mela681]

I vote that it is a coincidence. My 4 year old says stuff like that all the time. She's told me that she's my grandmother (they're both living BTW). And all of my kids say "I know" when I tell them something :shrug: If kids that age get attention for doing something, they'll keep doing it. My dd called me "fat mama cook" for months because it made dh laugh.

[Syllavus]

This reminds me a bit of an article that was posted by someone maybe a couple of years ago? It was about a little boy around 4-5 years old (from Ireland I think?) who insisted that he was actually from a town he'd never been to and that he lived in a very specific white house in that town. The boy used to say that he missed his "family" that he lived with in this town and insisted that his name used to be Shane something. Does anyone else remember this story? I'd be interested in reading it again.

[RivkahChaya]

If Rhys tells the police where to find the body-- and they find it-- then I'll believe it.

Ditto on all the other things people have said, kids will repeat anything that gets them attention, they often say things like "I know" when they're trying to get you to change the subject. And they pick up tons of peripheral information, much more readily than adults do; their brains are especially designed for this.

Besides, the kid seems mainly to offer that he already knew something he was just told. It reminds me of an SNL sketch with Norm MacDonald. He is a contestant on a religious trivia program where contestants are given answers, and are supposed to answer honestly that they did or did not already know something. Has the kid actually offered up information he has never been told? Other than the "one, two, three, four, five, six," thing, which is vague and could have meant anything. If the kid has a "gift," it is for doing cold reading. He could be the next John Edward and make a fortune.

I think there's a lot of wishing going on-- kids wish to be adults a lot, and it leads to statements like "I'm the Daddy, and you're the baby." Then there's the mother's wish to know what happened to her father.

Or this could just be viral advertising (a la The Blair Witch Project) for an upcoming movie.

[One-Fang]

It's not viral. It's very old. I remember this story from at least two years ago.

The 1-6 thing doesn't interest me much. Had he said "You were six years old when I died and wasn't your daddy any more" I'd be way more spooked. Just counting to six?

Hey, maybe daddy fell out at the sixth patch of white water?

Given the comments above about other people's kids saying similar things, I'm no longer a little spooked by this story. It seems it's quite natural for kids to say stuff exactly like this.

Although, I do remember another conversation from the original story a couple of years ago. The kid starts talking about the cats they had when mom was a girl and can name them both, the white one and the black one. That seems quite unlikely that, as an adult, you would mention around your child what cats you had when you were a kid, and the kid would remember it.

[Scout]

Originally Posted by Syllavus

This reminds me a bit of an article that was posted by someone maybe a couple of years ago? It was about a little boy around 4-5 years old (from Ireland I think?) who insisted that he was actually from a town he'd never been to and that he lived in a very specific white house in that town. The boy used to say that he missed his "family" that he lived with in this town and insisted that his name used to be Shane something. Does anyone else remember this story? I'd be interested in reading it again.

is this the boy you're thinking of? (Cameron Macauley, the first story in that link)

Channel 5 over here did a documentary on him for their extraodinary people series a while ago. It was very interesting.

Scout.

[Syllavus]

Originally Posted by Scout

is this the boy you're thinking of? (Cameron Macauley, the first story in that link)

Channel 5 over here did a documentary on him for their extraodinary people series a while ago. It was very interesting.

Scout.

That's the one Scout, many thanks!

ETA: The documentary about Cameron Macaulay is available for viewing on Youtube.

[One-Fang]

Hahahahah - he became strangely subdued... "Oh heck. There's a white house by the beach. They think they've found it. I'm gonna be found out. Oh no!!!"

ROFL