Lying to Children

Do you lie to your kids?

I have been reluctant to talk about my gifts in front of the kids or sharing stories in front of them, mostly I don't want to give them ideas. However my son sees ghosts and my daughter talks to spirits, so it is getting much harder.

The little man asks me if monsters are real, I said "no." He asks me if vampires are real, I said "no." He asks me if ghosts are real. This is where I get hung up. What am I suppose to tell him? I ended up telling him that yes, ghosts are real but they won't hurt him and he can tell them to go away if he ever feels bothered by them. We have one that hangs around my house. He is a great great uncle, or something like that. He's been around me for 25 years, so most of the time I don't even notice he is there anymore. He doesn't really make himself know. Little man told me he saw him and that he turns lights on. He described him to me, so I know that it is the same person. You may think I could be reaching here, but a man with one arm is kinda hard for a child of 4 to make up when he has never heard of a man with one arm. SOO.... Here is my child seeing ghosts and I'm trying to tell him that he needs to just tell them to go away if he feels bothered.

Not good enough. He keeps pushing me, wanting to know more about ghosts. So I told him that he would probably go his whole life without actually running into a "real" ghost. It is very rare and people are always trying to see ghosts, but most don't. I'm pretty sure that he is just manipulating me now. He has started coming down in the middle of the night, telling me he is scared of ghosts and wants to sleep with me. Then he asks if we can find a haunted hotel so we can go see a "real" ghost. I should have lied and told them they don't exist. I didn't want him to grow up thinking he is crazy, or learning to block it out though.

I guess I should say that I don't really see a corporeal form when I "see" ghosts. It is more of an impression, an energy I can feel. I catch shadows out of the corner of my eye all the time. I see movement in the dark, but that is mostly the way I "see" spirits. When I look directly at them and want to "see" them, it comes to me almost as a memory of someone I once knew. Like remembering your best friend in elementary school, you can see their face in your mind. I am assuming that my son sees them the same way. He has never come to me and said that a man is standing in the middle of his room. But, he has come and told me that Uncle George is opening his bathroom door. When I ask George to leave, because he is freaking my son out, the little man notices after a day or two and tells Uncle George to come back. So he can't be too afraid, right?