The Daycare Ghost

For the past 5 months, I've been working at a daycare, and I've decided to share some experiences I've had there, as well as any I may have in the future. Some could be actual happenings, some may not be, but it's the compilation of everything that makes it interesting.

I'm looking for thoughts on it.

Unfortunately I don't know much about the history. The building has been around for quite some time, probably since the 70s, and has taken on numerous different purposes. I believe it was a home at one point, an insurance company, and possibly a nursing home. I don't know what else, just that there are other things the building was occupied for. It was renovated to become a daycare, and has only been one for the past year.

From the very beginning, I took note of the energy present, which I do in literally all of my surroundings. Since it is a daycare, I felt that the building inevitably housed a lot of energy. However, there's an odd or off-putting vibe (you know what I'm talking about if you've felt this before), that sort of makes you more aware of the space around you. I've never felt any negative presence there.

Slight activity started in the mornings when there was only one other worker and I. Jade is the one to open up the place about half an hour before I get there. We would often hear movement or rustling in the back of the building, making us wonder if there was someone there, even though none of the kids, parents, or any other workers had arrived yet.

Upon us noticing this, Jade told me about how uncomfortable she feels alone in the building, and that this wasn't the first time she's heard something like that.

We also brought up how we noticed the office phone loves to ring once or twice and upon us answering quickly, nobody is there and we never get a call back when this happens. A lot of the activity I'm mentioning starts and stops after a week or two and then doesn't happen for awhile in between.

Jade also went on to mention the motion-detected Christmas ornament in the storage room that would sometimes go off, with the door shut and nobody inside, for no apparent reason. I was surprised because this had actually happened to me just a couple days before we heard the movement that morning. I was on my break when it happened and nobody was in the room. I hadn't even told anyone about it.

Side note: The ornament could be old or defective, and the phone could also possibly be explained as well, of course. Any thoughts on this?

Items also randomly move and fall off the shelves after being completely still, even untouched items that never leave their spot. We'd usually just laugh it off or make a comment about the "ghost".

Around the same time, essential items would be there one day and gone the next, leaving us ridiculously confused and exhausting every avenue to find an explanation, which we never did.

On one occasion I vividly remember seeing someone in one of the rooms as I was passing by, (nobody should have been in there, the kids were outside) causing me to turn around and scan the room; nothing was there except for that eerie feeling.

One day, I was baffled by our light switches. There are two in the nursery, one at each door, that we can use. On this occasion, I remember seeing my coworker go up to the switch on the right side of the room and flip it off for nap time. This meant that the other one had to have been down, since we use the same one that had been flipped up, naturally. A couple hours passed, and when I went to turn the light back on (using the switch she used), I found the switch was already up... But the light was off. Even more confusing, the other light switch was also facing up. I can't even describe the look on my coworker's face, since she knew neither one of us had touched the switches. We hadn't even left the room and nobody had entered. She was kind of uneasy, because she knew for a fact she flipped it off prior to nap time.

The next thing that happened occurred on the same day, while I was on my lunch break. Normally, I would eat my lunch in the kitchen in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of preparing food for the kids' lunchtime. That particular day my break got pushed back a bit, so I was actually alone in the kitchen, since lunch was over and nap time had already started.

I saw one of my coworkers who has the same break as me leaving the building, which meant that every other staff member was busy in their respective rooms.

Now for a little bit of the layout. The kitchen is a decent size but not too big. From where I was in the corner of the kitchen, the fridge was in front of me a little off to the left, and to the right of me is the doorway I came in from. On the left side of the fridge is another wall, and on that wall is the walk-in pantry (which I could not see from where I was sitting), as well as another doorway (which was open). This leads to a long hallway with all of the classrooms.

I went to the pantry to get a spoon, and I remember closing the door so that there was a slight gap. I sat back down, and two seconds later I felt and heard someone come into the room, open the pantry, and begin quietly rustling around. Keep in mind the pantry isn't all that far from where I was sitting. I heard what sounded like someone quietly picking things up and setting them down, grabbing snacks out of boxes, rummaging through items, etc.

Immediately I was extremely confused, my senses on high alert. Nobody should've been out and about. My first thought as a daycare worker, was that I was about to bust a child for sneaking out of their room and trying to steal snacks (though I knew it was highly unlikely for their teacher not to notice).

I honestly wasn't scared, just curious and had to investigate. However, as soon as I stood up (which was only a few seconds after I first heard the noise) and started walking over to the pantry, the activity silenced, and all I found was the door wide open. I quickly looked down the hallway to find absolutely NO ONE, not a single teacher or student in sight. Nothing was was even out of place inside the pantry.

In my mind this was practically impossible, due to how quickly I responded to the noises. The first thing I did was search for a mouse, or any type of animal; something or someone had to have been responsible. Nada. Nor could I find any type of hole or entry way for an animal to escape through.

The next thing I did was make sure the door couldn't possibly have opened on its own, which confused me even more as the door didn't move even the slightest bit, no matter how you positioned it.

I've decided that there is probably a spirit residing here enjoying the upbeat energy of the busy daycare environment, carrying out their normal activities, e.g. Grabbing a snack from the pantry.

Thank you for reading and I'm sorry if this was too lengthy or tedious.