'My niece claims she's pals with the devil and asked us how we want to die'

It’s no secret that sometimes children say the creepiest things.

We’ve heard stories of kids claiming they’ve seen monsters and have been woken up by ghostly figures in the night.

But one little girl has taken things to a whole new level.

A woman has been left feeling rather disturbed by her seven-year-old niece after she spent a few days babysitting her.

The unnamed aunt was looking after the child while her parents took a much-needed break, but soon discovered that the little girl had a fascination with death and liked to ask some very inappropriate questions about dying.

Unsure of how to proceed with the spooky behaviour, the woman wrote a letter to an advice column.

Writing to Slate.com’s Dear Care and Feeding, she said: “Our younger niece is going through a creepy phase. She likes burying her toys in the yard and trying to ‘raise them from the dead,’ reading  Goosebumps , holding seances for the ghost of our dead cat, and talks about death/the afterlife a lot.

“She’ll just walk up to us and ask if we’re going to die soon, or tell us all the ways people can die and ask us which one we think we’d prefer, as well as asking us if we’re going to hell and if we can say hi to the devil for her, because ‘he’s her friend’.”

The aunt continued to admit she’s “confused” where the kid got the devil stuff from because everyone in the family is athiest.

She added: “Do I talk to her about the afterlife/ghosts? Do I just ignore it? It’s creepy, sure, but it’s also getting annoying to spend my day talking about my funeral plans. What can I do?”

The agony aunt didn’t seem too concerned about the issue and suggests that the little girl might be interested in the ‘macabre’ due to how afraid everyone else seems to be of it.

They advise setting boundaries with the child, warning not to “rain on the funeral parade” but not to “march in it either”.

“Be alert for any hints that she’s actually experiencing suicidal ideation or a desire to do violent harm to herself or anyone else, of course,” they add. “But in the absence of any true red flags, treat it as any other annoying childhood obsession.”

Sounds like good advice to me!

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