Don't talk about UFOs around children!

reply to post by grayeagle


I remember my parents telling me when I was little that shadowy beings that I saw (presumably ghosts) and strange sounds were just my imagination, or had a logical explanation. Years later, they would admit to having had their own experiences with such things. I think part of this is parents wanting to keep their children innocent of anything which might corrupt them (in fear or by having them think 'strange thoughts' (even if they are true.)

In my research on the paranormal, it is common that if parents notice a ghost in a haunted house, they will often not tell this to their kids. And again, they may lie to their kids and tell them they’re ‘just seeing things’ when they have their own experiences.

The harmful side of this is that it teaches kids to be fearful and doubtful of their own senses and judgment, rather than at least keeping an open mind. I can understand parents not wanting their kids to be upset, waking them up at night over bad dreams however. I wonder how this situation might mirror government and national security's role in ‘protecting’ the people from knowledge of UFO's, ect. (to maintain peace, order and 'business as usual'.)

Hi there. In general i think its best to address a child's questions as they arise,on this subject,and also on paranormal subject matter/experiences.They see these subjects on TV anyway,in many shows,movies,documentaries,hear abt it from conversations overheard,etc.so best is to be ready with an answer :-) just in case.When my children asked me if aliens and ufo's were Real,i told them straight that there is a lot of evidence pointing to that fact,but that its not something they have to worry about.That some people believe because they have seen/had experiences with them,and that imo,its a distinct possibly,but again,they have to make up their own minds,as they get older.Now,a few years on, my children have all seen a ufo,my oldest daughter was gobsmacked,my youngest highly annoyed,and my son,who was 5 at the time looked,grinned and said: "Cool!!" and he carried on running around and playing.BEN10 is responsible for that cavalier attitude methinks :-) Also the fact that we dont view the phenomenon from a worried/fearful perspective.It depends on the child as an individual,what and how much one should say,but if your daughter asked you not to discuss it of course you would respect her wishes.As a rule,if it scares them,wait till they are a bit older,or till they raise the topic themselves.A good weekend to you.

certain children will accept that ufo's/aliens can be real, more so if they hear grown ups having decent conversations about them, then of course the belief heightens. I can't wait to tell my son about my experiences but i'm unsure what age to leave it too. as long as they know there is no threat (which we don't know ourselves) then theres no harm in telling true stories. Like others say, people are quick to dismiss ufo's/aliens but deep down they know its all possible. i just wish people looked to the skies more to be honest.

reply to post by grayeagle


Explanation: S&F!

Wait till he finds out ... that even with having gone to the moon and possessing nuclear weapons etc. ... that with all the military might of the WORLD ... we still can't protect our cows from being abducted ... let alone people!

Personal Disclosure: Oh the HORROR!

reply to post by grayeagle


He can say the name of the You-Know-Wo in Harry Potter but is afraid about UFOs? That's strange... Some kids I knew had none neither. Did something happened which coulda have induced apprehension for UFOs?

I think the current popular alien/ufo concepts affect us powerfully because they are archetypes in our collective subconscious now, and children might be even more vulnerable to those arising to conscious awareness than are most adults.

My view on this is rather complex, I don't think I can better explain in short and clear terms; but my perception of the collective subconscious is not as "powerless" as some tend to consider it. Entities within it have a certain amount of power; their own existence.

I never went to any trouble to limit what my kids were exposed to, as far as horror movies etc. I just made sure we were always with them and discussion was constant between us as they watched. But they just weren't exposed to UFO or alien stuff. They weren't in the US, where apparently it was becoming popular culture.

I was having experiences of the "abduction" type, and witnessed a UFO, but I did not talk about it in front of my children (or anyone else) because I didn't believe in these things and assumed I was crazy and hallucinating.

But then the american pop culture started to catch up with us- one day in the TV guide, a documentary on UFOlogy was scheduled and there was an image of the typical "grey". My two year old saw it and started to scream and ran away to hide.

He'd been having nightmares for weeks which made it impossible to get him in bed at night, because he claimed there were "snakes" that would come get him in the night and take him in their "flying car" up into the sky.
He was crying his head off when he saw that image in the TV guide, and claiming that is a snake!

What I am thinking here (in relation to your OP) is that some imagery and ideas may not have a strong effect on a child, and others might, because they have some kernal of truth to them.
Even if one doesn't believe in physical object UFO's (I don't ) the possibility that they are powerful symbols in the psyche, passing through us all by way of the subconscious.....like an underground river....might make deep resonance.

It could also give them passage to the conscious reality as well.......

I would respect the mothers wishes on that, if she percieve the child is troubled by it.

UFO´s are a modern day Boogie Men

I don´t know how old is your grandchild, personal experiences are far more scary than common knowledge of them.
Does he know you have had these experiences? If he does its more real to him than what media offers... then its more personal.

reply to post by grayeagle


Dear grayeagle my kids were with us when we all saw a ufo
and they saw one while at school
so why not let kids know the truth it doesnt mean
they are of alien origin ,but i do think maybe 2%
are of the ET type but that doesnt mean ETS are on
board maybe they are probes why well we send probes into
space

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
....when guess what I found in Google result imagery? Up came several and very different images of the 'Donuts on a Rope' contrails associated with the Aurora or Phoenix or whichever 'UFO' project is making them with new propulsion technology.

Just an idea...but if you want to help the child explore the real and 'not scary' side of a scientific mystery, that could be a path in from a direction that doesn't require tin foil hats to enter. Why not point to something mysterious enough for even a kid to get lost in imagining....and let him carry himself into the area from there?

Lots of imaging available on the subject. No tin foil hat required. Like this:




The analysis gets really interesting after the 3 minute mark.

I've been telling my two daughters about life on other planets, and elsewhere, since they were two years old.

Even from a biblical perspective, we're all aliens. Our spirit/soul leaves the "light" to inhabit an earthly body, and returns to the "light" once we're finished (die).

reply to post by grayeagle


I'm gonna take a long shot and ask if your nephew is afraid of all things space. Naturally I grew up hearing every freaking thing in the cosmos wanted us dead so naturally i found anything spacey to completely freak me the frick out. Probably isn't the case with your nephew but still.

If it happens to be the case take him to newgrounds and let him play this scale of the universe game. It cured my spacephobia.

i think that children pick up on the (conditioned) adults having fear of being ridiculed by other people for even speaking about the subject,not so much the fear of aliens.yet children relate fear as fear regardless of where it stems from.see what i am saying?kids fear aliens because most adults have been conditioned to avoid the subject at all cost in order to avoid shame and ridicule.i am glad that it is not to the degree that it was back in the 50s,plenty of people i know speak openly about it without fear.i have three kids and at one point or another they all asked me wether or not ufos and aliens are real,and without flinching i always responded with"well of course they do,you would have to be pretty silly to think otherwise.and good luck seeing one,only the luckiest of people get to see them but theres no harm in looking up to the sky i guess"then they scuttle away happy,imaginations running wild.as they get older the questions still come from time to time and i do my best to answer them honestly. without going into details,i have had my own experience and it helps me make sense of some of this.to some of you who have had an experience and felt that it was negative,think of this comparison,when marine biologists capture a dolphin and bring it on board,the animal is most likely scared to death perhaps to the point of going into shock,then the strange creatures(biologists) take a blood sample and then prick it with some kind of ID tag(maybe even rfid)and then they pick the animal up and drop it back into its home.not with bad intentions, but just to observe,track and learn about the dolphins..

repect the parents wishes

a pile of laundery can seem sinister to a child if the shadows are right. aliens coming to kill them must be terrifying

wth

I know why they are not scared of witches, wizards, demons, vampires, werewolves, and are of aliens.

Because aliens have intelligence.

reply to post by Bluesma


Your thoughts are similar to mine. I know someone who saw a levitating ghost’s head once. He told me that he saw it, it was real, but believed that he felt the energy emerging before it came to be, and that he unconsciously helped to shape this energy into this specific form. Whether his take is true or not, it's a small part of why I have wondered how much of this supernatural activity comes about from what we imagine.

Entities can be VERY powerful when they manifest in a strong way, and can be vampiric (sucking your energy to empower themselves.) So, from my view, this creates a kind of paradox in the theory, as now we have entities that we created, acting independently and literally feeding off of us (their ‘creators’ (although, in a sense, they were given our energy from the start (if this theory is correct.)

As a Sensitive, I’ve had experiences which make it rather hard to believe that all such things are created by us, although it is still possible. I've seen UFO's (large, glowing orbs in the sky which can shape-shift), Shadow Men, various light and shadow forms, etc. I once had physical contact with an entity, who appeared very genuine in her emotional excitement that I could see her (she was a transparent figure standing in the living room, made up of a white cloud-like energy, in a lair made up of the same energy which was inside the room (which had different dimensions.) I turned away, startled, but she came up behind me and pushed her hands against my back as if to say, 'See? I'm real! You can feel me!' But I blocked it out, as I was so spooked, and she (and her realm) vanished from my perception.

I sometimes feel a very strong, sometimes profound paranormal feeling on Halloween, almost like an 'outer skin' all around me (I can feel the 'paranormal realm' present everywhere.) Now, is this because everyone is celebrating Halloween, and so therefore we are collectively awakening this 'paranormal realm', or has it always existed on this date, which therefore created Halloween? It's sort of like the chicken and the egg.

No wonder kids these days are such cowards.

reply to post by swan001

My grandson is 11 and I don't know if he has seen anything himself. I have only spoken of my experience once in front of him. I called it a UFO not an alien spaceship. He is very intelligent and curious of the world and universe around him. His father is 6' 6" football and track and field athlete. My grandson plays baseball and basketball and has not been pampered. My daughter is a master's level school counselor. They have recently moved to the Portland, Oregon, area. I wonder if the move has caused his nightmares?
They previously lived in the Spokane Valley. Now ! I just remembered they lived near to an area that has seen a lot of UFO activity over the years. His basement bedroom would have afforded him a view of that area. Also, I just remembered I gave him a telescope for his birthday 2 years ago. I really can't speculate about anything he may have seen or not and I can't ask him about it.
His mom and dad are pretty level headed people. And to answer everyone's question again, I will honor their parental wishes in this matter. However, once he turns 18 and he should ask me about UFOs I will answer him truthfully with what I know.

When I was about 8 yrs old a had my first sighting of a ufo- A very bright, slient orb flew from the horizon to my left. Flew overhead approx, then another one flew from the opposite horizon. Together, they hovered high above me & my brother (he does not remember it very well, & has told himself it was an airplane- I remember it very very clearly though). They emitted a series of smaller orbs. Together, they all formed a triangle in the sky. They just hovered there for about 30 seconds, always silent. Then, the smaller orbs re-joined the larger ones, & the larger ones flew away.

This was in southern Ontario, around the time of the Hudson Valley sightings- although I heard about these only recently.


In 2011, it's like a floodgate opened. I've now had about 20 ufo sightings. My brother has not had any, although he's more of a "it's not real unless current mainstream science says it is" , type of mentality.


I've never been afraid of them. Even when I was very young, I watched the first "evil dead" movie- loved it! I was probably around 6 or 7

reply to post by grayeagle


In my opinion, its pretty irresponsible of you to make claims like that around a malleable young mind. Your daughter is probably concerned about her son growing up believing in something that isn't true.

Kids cannot discern between truth and paranoid fantasy, particularly when an authority figure is involved.

Harry Potter has nothing to do with it. Harry Potter is a well established fiction, popular with kids. Pushing what are almost certainly false beliefs, without proof, on a young boy is far from any fiction.

As far as Area 51, I knew about that as a kid. Its a popular theme in TV and movies, so that is hardly surprising.

I think you need to be more considerate of your grandsons psychological wellbeing.

Originally posted by SPACEYstranger
reply to post by grayeagle

 

In my opinion, its pretty irresponsible of you to make claims like that around a malleable young mind. Your daughter is probably concerned about her son growing up believing in something that isn't true.

Kids cannot discern between truth and paranoid fantasy, particularly when an authority figure is involved.

Harry Potter has nothing to do with it. Harry Potter is a well established fiction, popular with kids. Pushing what are almost certainly false beliefs, without proof, on a young boy is far from any fiction.

As far as Area 51, I knew about that as a kid. Its a popular theme in TV and movies, so that is hardly surprising.

I think you need to be more considerate of your grandsons psychological wellbeing.

Maybe I am missing something, but aren't you over-reacting?
As far as I can tell, the OP stated he had simply mentioned that he had seen a couple of UFOs.
That seems like a pretty factual statement and hardly "endangered his grandson's psychological well being".
Besides, I think he also stated that he is abiding by the parents wishes for him not to talk about UFOs in his grandson's presence.

Maybe if you provided quotes that illustrated your point, it might be more helpful.

I do agree that children can be swayed by authority figures who spout nonsensical theories.
But if we were to take concrete action on that, we would prohibit children from entering churches, especially the fundamentalist churches. As some have stated here, there is little we can do to shelter children from all the nonsense that pervades our society, including the stuff broadcast on TV and the Internet.