Warning: these spooky stories for kids aren't for the faint-hearted, sensitive or unsuperstitious!
In the spirit of Halloween, we’re not just busy prepping for trick-or-treating galore, we’ve also gathered the grossest, ickiest, most spine-chilling stories from Singapore and beyond to tell your kiddos as a cautionary tale (aka a way to stop them doing the things we don’t want them to do). From Father Christmas to what happens when you won’t eat veggies, these spooky stories for kids are mixed with just enough truth to keep the kids on their toes (although we do encourage you to take it with a pinch of salt). Not ready to be the Wicked Witch of the West? Hand these stories to a relative like an auntie or uncle and get them to do the dirty work for you…
Don’t pick that nose!
Kids, did you know that if you keep picking your nose, it gets bigger (that’s the truth!), and if you keep picking it it will get so big that cockroaches and spiders will crawl in there and make it their home? And also, the nose is a one-way tunnel to the brain, so if you pick too much, you’ll end up hook your brain and pulling it straight back out… #truestorykiddos
Santa is watching
It’s a little out of season, but if your kids are big on presents, Santa Claus is on your side to stop help encourage good behaviour. From around September onwards, Santa ramps up the security with his watchful elves, ready to strike the kids off the ‘Nice’ list and chuck them on the ‘Naughty’ one in the face of less than savoury conduct. Let the kids know we’ve got the jolly fella on speed dial, and we even have an app that provides a direct hotline to Santa…
Put those toys away!
For kids who don’t pick up after themselves, we heard there’s a Messy Gnome who comes around to collect toys that haven’t been put away in the right places. And those toys are never seen again. It’s all true.
Don’t bite your nails!
Biting nails isn’t just gross, kids can swallow the nails and make themselves sick. We’ve got scientific evidence to back us up on this one: little worms (otherwise known as bacteria) hide under our fingernails from dirt found on surfaces and when we bite them, we swallow them and they lay eggs and give us stomachaches. Not exactly real worms, but bacteria isn’t any better. Blergh!
Get your beauty sleep
Keep the night wanderers in their beds with a quick nod at the clock. Past the witching hour, witches and ghouls are at their most active, so if they are still awake at this time of the day, it’s definitely at their own peril. This one is a fine line to walk between really needing your little ones to go to bed, but not wanting to have to deal with night terrors. Parenting minefield.
Eat your vegetables
While eating crusts makes your hair grow nice and curly (not actually true, but in actual fact the crust is the healthiest part of a slice of bread), what about consequences for not finishing vegetables? There’s tried and tested methods on how to cajole and coax the kids into eating their greens but you can just go for the (half) truth: Kiddos – if you don’t finish that broccoli, you’ll be short forever! (Just ask HoneyKids Ed, Tracy. She very much wishes she had eaten all her broccoli…).
Enough is enough!
We all know that eating too many sweets is never a good thing, but let greedy guts know that if they eat too much candy, it WILL turn into a big pile of candy sewage in their belly, and make them really sick. This is an especially useful cautionary tale during trick-or-treating season!
Make a face at THIS
Kids throwing a little sass, including ‘that’ face? If the wind changes, their face will stay in that screwed up, scrunched up state forrrrrever.