My husband and I have a 45 year old home in White Bear Lake, we have owned it for two and a half years. I started feeling a presence in the home shortly after we moved in. When we were considering purchasing the home; I did not sense anything unusual. We are caring for a two-year-old girl (Allison) and have been for 20 months. The mother of this toddler is mentally unstable. The maternal grandparents of this toddler both passed away within nine months of each other. The grandmother died of unknown causes (possibly drug OD).

Since Allison was and infant, she would wake up in the night and be watching something (or someone) in the room. My husband, who does not believe in or buy into the paranormal (until now) has told me that he has dreams that someone is taking Allison out of our bed. He has also told me that one time when she was crying in her room; her cries did not awaken him - something hit him in the ear and he awoken. He has a bedtime ritual with Allison where they wind down lying on the sofa in the family room. My husband claims he feels like someone is watching him from the top of the stairs. There are many unexplained "feelings" in our home regarding a presence.

This weekend, while my husband was deer hunting, I was home alone with Allison. When we were in my craft room, in the middle of the afternoon, painting birdhouses; Allison dropped her paint brush and ran out of the room. She was saying Scary People are in the house, come on, let's go, scary people. I stayed calm and said, OK, let’s go upstairs and eat lunch... Allison would not turn her back to the room to go upstairs, instead she insisted we leave via the service door to the garage. She would not reenter the house for about a half hour.
She has spoken about scary people for several weeks now. Each time I ask about them, she just says "scary people". I ask if they are girls or boys and she says boys. I ask where they are and sometimes she will point to the window... sometimes she just says "here". In the past, she has slammed her door shut and yelled NO BOYS. I thought it was just a daycare thing she picked up. Also, if she is the family room or living room and realizes that I have left the room; she immediately runs and sits on the stairs, with a full view of the room and yells for me to come get her. She will not turn her back to the room. Last night there was much activity; she would not allow herself to fall asleep until 3:00am.. Most nights she will fight sleep until midnight. When I would leave her bedroom, she would get up and stay with me. At one point, we were returning to her bedroom and she was going into the living room w/o me. I said come on Allison and she would not come, it was as if she were walking unto the "scary people".. She said, no.. Scary people (but she wasn't scared).. I said, tell them to go on now, this is our home; she said to go and Kept repeating our home... yet she would not turn her back to the room to come with me. She wanted me to come down and follow her or carry her; as she always does.

My question is, do "ghosts" stay with people or with homes? Could she be seeing real ghosts? Of course when she is more tired than well rested, her senses are more alert. She is now and always has been sleep deprived.... I am moving for legal custody of her to protect her from her young parents who have left her with us and pop in and out occasionally. The ghost thing is a little hard to work into a serious custody battle. Please advise ASAP.
Theresa

Children are typicaly more sensitive to spirits and often report seeing them more then adults. Alot of times children see and hear them less and less the older they get.
They do also seem to stay with homes but they do become attached to items and people also.

If it was an older child i would consider maybe a reaction to whats been going on in thier life but one so young as 2 I wouldn't think so.

I wouldn' recommend mentioning spirits to court during a custody hearing, they may question your stablility not many people accept the fact that there are spirits around.

My suggestion would be to live with it untill the custody thing is settled and over then deal with the spirits.. tell Allison to tell them to leave her alone.. also try speaking out loud to them when she says they are around telling them that you wish them to leave you and allison alone they usually respect peoples wishes and will listen at least for awhile. Try and respect them and they seem to respond with respect.

keep in touch let us know how things are going.

oh! thank you! for the suggestion. Of course I wouldn't mention it to anyone involved in the custody.. Her father called the other day and said he had just had a dream that was vivid; regarding Allison and some spirit.. this was out of the blue, since I would not have mentioned anything to him... I will be serious and respectful when asking them to leave us alone.. As I said, I told Allison to say, go now scary people.. this is my home.. this was last night and i do not beleive they left.. Is there any validity in asking the previous owner any questions??? They are the original owners (40 + years)?

It couldn't hurt provided they are openminded enough about it... some peple wont admit to themsleves these things happen much less strangers.
maybe they can elighten you on possibly who and why they are there maybe ways they found to cope with the spirits.

Like what was already said "ghosts" can attach to people and also to places. It seems as though you have alot of interesting experiences. I guess the best advice I could give you would be to contact adam to validate or deny the fact of a haunting. Adam@minnesotaghosts.com thats the route i would go because its alot easier to tell a young one there is nothing going on when you know for sure that there isnt. Also it is possible that this could be something completely natural also being exposed to high EMF 1 or above can cause illness and also in some instances hallucinations and i would assume that someone younger would be more prone to this. If there is alot of electrical stuff in the house or old wireing you might want to look at that. Another thing to think about is if she is watching tv or playing games right before bed because that part of the brain stays active long after you stop so if I was you I would start by eliminating tv 2hrs before bed and make sure that the time before bed is wind down time maybe read her a story get her a snack and a bath. another thing to see if they are telling the truth is to ask very specific questions like "does he have brown hair" "does he have big feet" because if you ask questions like that and they answer conclusivly odds are they are lieing and just looking for attention. but if they have a very specific description in there head its possible they might be seeing something. But I would definetly contact adam so we could take some baseline EMF readings of the home and see if we could put your mind at ease I know your going through alot so I hope this helped shine some light on different things that could be going on. Thanks, Jim

My little girl used to get "visitors" when she was about that age. She still does, but not as often. While I don't think any of them meant her any harm, they were scary to her. To take care of the problem I went through the house one night and had a talk with them. I explained that this was a child and they were frightening her. It was okay to want to be there and watch over her and I appreciated it, but that letting her see them at this young age was harmful to her. By the time I was done there was a very strong sense of calm in her room and she hasn't had any problems since. She does still see her "blue lady" once in awhile, but she's old enough now to know it's okay. We also got what she used to call her "monster spray". It is a bottle of Sacred Sage smokeless mist. It's like smudging, but it's a mist in a bottle. It's by a company called Medicine Flower and you should be able to find it at any "new age" store. Or you can get it directly from them online:

http://www.medicineflower.com/sacredsage.html

It became part of her bedtime ritual to spray around her room and under the bed, in closets, ect. She slept well and calm through the night.

This is what worked for us. Because your husband didn't hear her crying and "something" woke him, Im wondering if you're having the same problem. They may be wanting to look after her, and help and not realize that they're scaring her in the process. Give it a try, it may help all of you sleep a little better, too. If you have any questions please email me anytime. I'm home right now with a case on Mono so I'm not going anywhere soon ;)

My daughter had this experience when we first moved here, every night there she was saying she had a bad dream and someone was in her room. I tried everything I could think of. The spray seemed to work for her also. We just bought some oil that is good for protection, that could be lavender or just ask. I then bought a spritzer and mixed it with water and every night it is a nightly thing we spray it around the room and her visits turned from every night to maybe once every 7 months. She sees a lady with long red hair and others. I also just mentally asked that her door be protected from any bad dreams.