They didn't mention it in the episode, but the narrator goes from calling the baby 'it' to, as soon as he hears the real baby's cries, 'she'. Fantastic writing - loved this story!
Not so fun fact: Changeling folk stories often originated from sick or disabled babies. Parents couldn't accept they would have such babies and would blame it to the fae changing their healthy babies. They would often leave them in forests to be exchanged back, but we can all imagine what happened.
kids and adults could also be changelings! it was usually because of signs of autism or the symptoms of meningitis, epilepsy, schizophrenia... generally any illness that changed your behaviour or personally too much
@leraé It really is, anything out of the "ordinary" in medieval times was considered as other and shameful. If you look into the "treatments" they had for these kids, it's horrific.
The more horrifying version of this story (and what I thought was happening at first) was that the dad was just projecting the trauma of the childbirth onto his completely innocent baby, resenting it for what he perceives it put his wife through, causing him to jump to these wild conclusions and recklessly endanger his child
Genuinely thought that was where this was heading, and he'd be doing all this weird stuff to "replace the baby" only to be locked up in a psych ward or something.
Middle ground, I thought there was gonna be an actual supernatural twist where the baby was his all along but NOW it's been replaced by something horrible, like his grandma turned out to be evil or the person that he was talking to on the phone wasn't actually his grandma or something Like when he found the "real" baby and immediately started loving it I thought for sure it was like putting him under a spell or something But imagine if the story had ended after the baby disappeared from the basket, like she just never reappeared and he'll never know whether he made the right decision or not, or even if she was taken by some supernatural force or just swooped up by some wild animal under his negligence
Even with the supernatural angle being real the father still sounds kinda psychotic due to the fact that he never once question the whole "this baby is a demon and i need to leave him in the forest" story even when the baby dissapears he doesn't go "holy shit what was i doing?" and still believes the changeling story. And another problem is that the story didn't really make the baby do anything out of the ordinary other than cry and so the father describing how much he loathes the baby just feels umconfortable, i think a better twist that kept the supernatural angle is at the end instead of the wife being pregnant again the father hears in the news that the police found a dead baby in the woods then he looks at his daughter and realizes that he left his actual child in the woods and brought a changeling back not the contrary.
Alternative ending, he gets lost in the woods and by the time he finds his way to the basket the baby has died of exposure. Devastated and in a moment of desperation he finds a mother who steps away from her stroller for just a second and steals the baby. He changes their outfits and leaves behind the dead one to be found by a horrified mother later and brings the alive one back to his wife who then becomes the one who hates the baby because she can feel something is wrong but doesn’t know the truth. Then we end with the grandma implying that all the attention she pay to him was because she always suspected him of being a changeling but his mother had refused to do the ritual. Was the changeling thing a self fulfilling prophecy or a fey monster doing exactly what it was supposed to do? Either way, his wife is pregnant again.
My mom started feeling the knife halfway through her c section when my older brother was born, it’s horrifying when she tells the story. Thankfully she started yelling and they gave her more anesthesia
@@theoledicktwist6247 no its definitely incompetence.....they're meant to check to see if you can feel anything before they make the incision....takes 2 seconds
As someone with two Irish grandmother's, you have to be a real idiot to listen to traditional Irish folklore and be like 'oh yeah let me paint fairies on my baby's nursery'- this boy was not paying attention!!!
I feel like hidden twist of the story is that the father is actually a fae and that's why the grandmother would always look at him quizzically. Also the reason why his mother passed away early because he drained the life from her. The reason he hates the baby is because the baby is human and he actually exchanged his human baby for a fae baby because he is a fae. the grandmother just likes fairies and thats why she exchanged her own baby with a fae baby and thats why the father believes that fairies are good and painted them on his wall in the beginning of the story.
I was shocked that as into the supernatural as Ryan is, he's NEVER heard of fairy changelings?!? They were a superstitious explanation for everything from postpartum depression to autism.
@@halatiny6537 maybe but then a lot of European/uk internet knows of native American 'lore' e.g. wendigos. especially as its Ryan interest. but you're right, its a much more European belief. I know the fae specifically is big in Irish folktales though so maybe east coast America has some remnants?
@@halatiny6537 Loads of Americans know about changelings. Granted...those Americans are most likely either of European descent or have a personal interest in foreign folklore, but still.
AITA? I (25M) left my wife's (25F) baby in the wood trying to switch it back with faeries. Before you reply, it cried a lot and I felt nothing but hatred toward it.
@@nicki___ ESH i can't believe your wife never noticed the baby was a changeling smh is she even paying attention? but OP you can't just make decisions like this without your wife's input, big AH move
I read a story on tumblr once about a parent who had their baby swapped with a changeling, so he went to the Fay and they told him that if they wanted their real baby back, they’d have to identify which one was their real child. The parent looked at the two identical kids for a second, shrugged, and took both home. Parent of the Year right there!
The BEST part of the story is when the parent (it was the mom) gets home, her husband is like "sweet, two babies but damn how do we tell them apart" And the mom was like "bitch that's our baby and that's the changeling. You think a momma don't know her baby when she sees it? But I have cared for both and they're both my babies fuck if I'm gonna let some creature take it away" It's just a really beautiful spin on the changeling trope about acceptance and found family
I find this story in particular pretty distressing, not just because of the idea of being unwillingly emotionally detached from something that's supposed to mean a lot to a person, but because the whole changeling myth in real life got a lot of children killed. People in Ireland really used to believe that this kind of thing could happen, and when they were experiencing what was likely post-partum depression or, in some cases, when a child was likely neurodivergent in some way, the child might be labeled a changeling and then all kinds of terrible things could happen to them, up to the kid being outright murdered because their family was convinced they were a monster. Because of this, the idea that the narrator's grandmother would still believe that legend to the point that they'd encourage child endangerment is disturbing. Also, fun mythological fact; faires in Irish folklore come in a whole host of shapes and sizes, not just the inches-tall little guys that float around on wings. Some are human sized and shaped, some are tiny, some are huge. And a lot of them are mean as hell.
This was my thoughts exactly. I love this show., but this was a bad story choice. Post part still affects so many parents and is not something to make light of.
Someone who is from a certain part in Asia, where almost any and every problem has a "ritual solution", I'd say, it's not this one legend. I feel like, people who just consciously want a reason to do something they already want on a subconscious level, Create certain insane kind of myths or rituals or such. Usually, yes, some innocent people who don't really want the gore ending, still end up believing such things due to hopelessness blinding them, But otherwise, The people who are the most drawn to such rituals and disregarding the actual and logically likely consequences, Are just the ones who just want that very obvious ending that awaits the one(s) involved in the rituals. Imagine u were on a strict diet, but u aren't true with yourself, u are just forcing yourself on that diet, The smallest chance u get via a third person, to cheat on the diet, u would tell yourself it's not u cheating on the diet, it's just hanging out with the friend so it's ok to break the diet. Subconsciously u want something, consciously u know it's not ok, hence u just make up some reason to get rid of that guilt. This is like that, just a way sicker thing than cheating on a healthy diet.
I think what makes the story scary is that this father is displaying symptoms of paternal postpartum psychosis or depression. Parents that don’t get help for the condition can be a danger to themselves and their children, especially if they reach psychosis. PPP is almost always experienced by the mother, and gets worse because they feel like they’re crazy/callous/worthless and don’t want to risk sharing how they feel with others. Ironically, even if the changelings had zero to do with the story, the grandma saved the husband and baby because it offered him some sort of safe and tangible “fix” even if it was all in his head. And like you said at the end, he can just do the same thing for the next kid if he feels the same way.
Yeah this is the only story to have legitimately scared me so far and that's because I had a bout with post partum depression after my first kid. That was the scariest thing in my life looking at this being that I tried so hard to bring to this world and not wanting anything to do with it. Thankfully my husband recognized the signs and got me help.
My mum suffered from post-partum psychosis after I was born, luckily (but also very upsettingly because I can't even imagine the absolute horror she must have felt) her psychosis didn't involve hurting or not feeling attached to me, but she constantly thought I'd died. Like she'd have delusions that I wasn't breathing at all and just start screaming for help at all hours of the day and night, and she couldn't be convinced I was still alive. Thankfully she got the help she needed and she's my best friend in the whole world, the most affectionate, loving and selfless parent anyone could ever hope for. 💕
@@Phia525 I should clarify that the grandmother didn’t advocate for violence or the father to actually abandon the child 😂 Relative to the multitude of fatal outcomes and directly violent actions taken by parents suffering from the condition, walking away and doing a circle around the baby is a MUCH safer solution. Obviously not advocating for leaving infants in the woods lol
Oh man... the struggle of postpartum sleep deprivation and depression is real. I remember breaking down in tears when my son was 3wks old, & telling his father (my ex) that it's obvious the baby hated me because every time someone handed him to me, he cried. He looked at me like I grew another head & was like, "Uhhhh... you know, people are handing him to you, BECAUSE he started crying. You know that... right? RIGHT?!?". Truthfully, I hadn't really considered that possibility, until he said it. (Probably because I was running on sleeping in 20min increments, for the prior 3 weeks. 🤦♀️)
I had a completely different interpretation of this story. The guy hated his baby, his actual baby, so the fairies took it while he was doing the ritual to teach him a lesson and his instincts took over and when he found her he finally felt love.
@@XSabucket no, according to my interpretation there was never a swap, he hated his own baby so he convinced himself it was swapped. When he left his actual baby in the forest the fairies took it to teach him a lesson. When he realised that the baby’s gone… that’s when the father’s instinct kicked in and he chased the fairies to get his baby back.
Nvm I figured it out Possible spoilers below It's a fairytale/myth that if parents aren't watching their babies with the first few hours, a fairy will replace the baby with a fairy demon baby thing.
If we couldn’t already tell from the fact that there’s a baby and an Irish grandmother, we knew as soon as the story emphasized he was not paying attention in the prime time for fae to do the ol’ switcheroo
Btw, if any of you out there take a few days to feel that love and connection to your baby, don't feel guilty. It happens to plenty of people. That's a brand new person you have to get to know, and a big transition/event you have to process.
I loved my son instantly but I had a traumatic birth with my daughter and really felt like she hated me 😬 the first little bit I couldn’t shake the thought this baby didn’t like me. Looking back it was clearly some sort of post natal weirdness but it felt real at the time. Hormones are weird man
Yup, it is not suprising that after such a tramatic birth that he didnt feel a immediate connection. Not feeling an immidate connection does not make you a bad parent, its normal to need a few days to get to know them. If you feel like you hate your baby that is highly likely that you have devleopied post partum depression. This can absoluetly occur for fathers and this is likely what he was experiencing. If you feel this way it doesnt make you a bad parent, it means that you have a illness that is absoluetly treatable. Talk to your doctor and seek support.
Fun fact, did you know some people have suspected that old timey folks often cited changelings because nobody knew what autism was yet? Typically this was a thing for toddler aged kids…suddenly the “normal” baby would start screaming or causing trouble or not looking at them. Changelings are also often referred to as having intelligence and insight that made them seem knowledgeable beyond their years. I hope my normie counterpart is having a fantastic time with the fairies. 🤣🤣🤣
It was also blamed for general disabilities, like if a baby was born with a deformity. Adults were also accused of being changelings if they developed things like depression, which would alter their usual demeanor.
I thought it might be a true story about a dad with severe postpartum depression until he saw the fairies. To all you men out there: if you do feel something like this after your partner gives birth, get help! You're not alone, and the way you feel does not make you a bad person or a bad father. There are people who can help you get through it.
I know this is from a while ago but I thought ppd was from all the hormone changes after a woman gives birth so how can men get it? Genuine question not trying to be rude 😅
@@Rose_drew_ It's always fine to ask if you're wondering about something! PPD in men and women has a hormonal component, but it's a lot about psychological and social aspects too. That being said, changes in hormones (testosterone) is linked to paternal PPD. I'm not an expert on this subject, but it's a very real problem that affects a lot of new fathers.
It could easily be both. Fey are tricky things, and it was way too easy to get that baby back. maybe the fey just went 'ooh, free baby' tried to take it, and his paternal instincts kicked in to save it. Maybe there never was a changeling.
@@iaminpainauchocolat9300 Traditional Celtic folklore about the fae are only horror stories and warnings. If you treat them nicely, they'll still decide to mess with you on occasion on a good day. If the father in the story didn't get his baby back, she would have been fae food
As someone who has just gotten out of the newborn phase, I can totally understand that psychosis. Trying everything you can to get your baby to stop screaming, but they just scream for hours. It’s easy to think they hate you. Babies can sense their parents emotion. So if the dad was angry, anxious, or fearful while holding the baby, she was reflecting those emotions back on her dad. It’s hard, but trying to stay calm can be helpful.
This is actually a really smart story. A story about trauma wrapped up in superstitous belief, the horror coming from knowing that this could all be avoided by going to see a therapist and being honest about your emotions with your spouse.
I feel like this story is weird because it feels like a regression from standard modern changeling stories, where it's always either A. Rumplestiltskin, whereby a child is secretly sold by 1 parent as part of a faustian bargain B. A midsummer's night dream setup, where faeries play a nasty but ultimately harmless prank to teach someone lesson C. A Roald Dahl scenario, where the faeries are cps D. Actually some mental illness(es). Apparently that was the original intentions of the author, who showed up in some of the other comments to give her 2 cents.
@@gabrielapagan7280 Not necesarily. Fey are tricky things, and it was way too easy to replace that baby. It's very likely the fey just went 'ooh, free baby' and took it, only for his instincts to kick in and save it.
Having a baby and not liking it at all has been my deepest fear since I was a child. I also deeply afraid of pregnancy and childbirth. So, this story has been deeply disturbing for me.
post natal depression can make this happen, but look. babies aren’t magic. they’re people. you don’t just like everyone you meet. you’ll get to know them, this blank slate, and you shape and guide it’s personality. but for now, it’s a stranger. it’s okay to not care much about a stranger. like shane said, it takes years for them to turn into real things. we do what we can with the feelings we have, and no matter what it will be okay and there are ways to make each and every scenario work.
@@Carebearritual I think the problem is that the story doesn't really make the baby do anything supernatural and the father describing how the baby "hates" him and cries when close to him could easily be interpreted as projection from the trauma of his wife's childbirth (something that even shane and ryan tought of), so the father describing how he hates (not indiference, not annoyance or tiredness, hates) this baby for what seems to be a really banal reason feels really uncomfortable.
@@Carebearritual When my kid was born I asked her father if he loved her and he "I don't know I just met her". They totally like each other now, but I enjoy telling that story to expectant parents who are worried they won't like their kids right away.
The back and forth of the calls to the grandmas of each spouse had me crying. The on the spot improv is the real reason I’ve been a fan of them for years 😂😂
The changeling baby was usually thought to be a sick fairy baby that one of the fae had. They didn't want their sick baby so they would swap it with a healthy human baby. I studied Irish folklore for a while in college and its really fascinating. The folklore around the fae is really ingrained in the minds of every Irish person. A lot of older people in Ireland still have a strong belief in them and will tell you without any doubt that they have seen a faerie right in front of their eyes
the art looked a lil different so i looked back to check. this is the first (and therefore currently only) are you scared not illustrated by Mollie Ong, but instead by Rafael Mejia. both are very talented, the art made throughout this series is stunning! just sharing with the class
Rafael was the illustrator for other episodes aside from this one! I can't remember which ones specifically but they were from past seasons of Are You Scared.
OH my god I couldn't stop laughing when they started joking about the parents being in misalignment about the swapped babies and continually doing rituals to swap them back and forth without the other knowing that was too good...
The thing with changelings is that they're fairy babies swapped for human ones. The humans will be raised as fae (usually as a servant) while the fae is raised as a human. Also in Irish myth fae are like....a whole society with tons of different forms. It's really interesting, I'd suggest reading up on them at some point.
In the Philippines, baby switcheroo happens a lot too. Engkantos would take the human baby and put their engkanto baby inside the human mother. They want their children to be raised by humans and that if he or she marries a human and have children. They would be born with souls. The human baby however will be raised by the fairy parents. This thing has been going on for centuries and Philippines has a play about Olayra, the faerie princess who rides a golden yacht. By the way the faeries here in the Philippines are rich af, they ride on golden ships that threads the waves very fast and glows golden in the night. But the dead give away of it being owned by faeries that if you get rescued by one, and you see the passengers. They don't have faces because faeries dont look like anything, they wear the faeries that best suits the human eyes. So if they like you they will appear pretty and handsome but if they wanna scare you they will make their face terrifying.
Though in my town we only know one kid who is kinda special. Her name is Erika Angelline, or Rika by her family and friends. She was born to childless couple because both mom and dad have broken baby making machines but the mother said after visiting the miracle snake mountain with her husband. She dreamt of a handsome man with green eyes and a face that looks like a cat but still looks like human and he had brown yellow hair. And he told her that I will give you my child as long as you take care of her but there is something wrong with the kid though. She is born with slow cognitive development. Basically even though shes 17 she's still mentally a 10 year old but otherwise the parents still love her. One thing about ericka though because she has a sharp hook nose and narrow face and deep socket eyes as opposed to her parents with a flat face. She's basically a pretty girl. She died of emphysema when she turned 21 coincidentally it was also the age where her real father said she would take her daughter back, also erika was pregnant when she died, she had a bf amd got her preggers. Probably the dad just took her back home when she got pregnant with a half human baby with a soul.
This episode had me so anxious because the entire time I was so worried for the baby. Every second of it I kept coming up with reasonable explanations for what was happening(post-partum, colicy baby, some parents don't instantly connect with their kids and that's okay) and I was so scared the father was going to hurt this poor child. That being said, if I had a changeling baby I would simply love it as my own, rip to this guy but I'm different.
It’s not the concept of a baby that scares me but the fact that it’s a “crushing responsibility”. Sometimes, people should have provident funds instead of babies.
It's OK to be scared of something you've never done, and that has the power to change your life. And there ARE people who should not have children. But children grow out of being needy babies. They turn into fun kids. There's still a lot of work, but you're getting a whole boat-load of love from them in return for your efforts. Even more than pets, for sure. Another benefit is that kids challenge you in new ways and help you to grow and mature as a person. It's an entirely worthwhile experience.
Some people do have provident fund before having kids. But some dad's are just garbage and some mom's too but if you raise a child right he or she would be a better kid than anyone else's demonic child
This one _knocked it out of the park_ Some of the others have been scary, but this one got under my skin with the birth descriptions and the dad's perspective
Birth trauma is hella real and it can wreak havoc on that initial connection with your baby. Not to mention postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis. You see it more often in the parent that gave birth but it can happen to either partner. And babies can be so hard to manage... It takes a ton of trial and error to find what works to calm them down and it's like as soon as you figure it out, what they need changes. I had PPD and really struggled to bond with my baby girl at first. There was so much guilt because I had to have an epidural against my original plan because my blood pressure was getting dangerously high every time a contraction hit. Then baby girl came out jaundiced and I couldn't get the hang of breastfeeding so we had to give her formula. She's now almost 3 and a healthy, happy girl so even though the feelings of guilt sometimes rear their ugly head, it doesn't seem like I fucked up too badly 😅
Totally agree, I had PPD after my first, but after my second 3 years ago it was so traumatic the PPD was a new level, it truly took me about 2 years to bond properly. My poor husband was so traumatized but what he witnessed, he definitely struggled, thankfully all is well now! Add together a newborn, another child, colic and then a f*ing pandemic I had no hope really 😂
The commentary on this episode was absolutely hilarious. "Put the baby in the ice" lmao. Also, what if the fairies didnt give back the real baby, but the fear he experienced just tricked him into bonding with the devil baby. The idea of telling Mary he lost their kid was so horrific he realized the devil baby was better than nothing.
I think I’ve got a scarier way this story could end. It goes the same until he brings his “correct” child back home, but he somehow discovers that he is actually a changeling and his grandmother gave him a ritual to ensure his child was a changeling as well and she’s been doing this to the whole family for years because she’s a changeling. It’s a little bit of a silly plot twist, but I think it would work.
But then why would the grown adult changeling make a human baby that then needs to be swapped for a changeling baby? Like that baby he made would have to be at least half changeling?
In the case of your alternate ending, perhaps the reason his child isn’t already a changeling is because the human genes from the mother are completely dominant and completely alter or subdue the changeling DNA from the father. Therefore, the baby would still be born as a full human, but in order to keep changelings alive and thriving as a species, they have to keep going back to the forest and replacing the human baby population with nature-given changelings. In this instance, an idea for proper changeling reproduction other than them coming from some sort of magic in the forest could be that either two full changelings have to have a child together, a full changeling and the child of a changeling (with the dormant changeling genes, hidden underneath the human ones), or two children of changelings have to have a child (then the dormant DNA would somehow “reawaken” at the sign of more changeling DNA, therefore creating a full-blooded changeling). I love stories and writing, so this was just an idea for your theory that I thought if after I read it. :)
Before he found the baby I honest to god thought the plottwist was going to be that the dad was a changeling all along and that's why his grandma watched him so closely. There ARE versions of these stories where stressed out parents would give up their real children for supernaturally perfect ones that later turn evil and hurt or kill them bc a price must be paid. Also for the boys: Changeling babies themselves are usually enchanted wood or stone or elderly fairies since changelings were also an explanation for SIDS.
This is a pretty good retelling of classic irish changeling tales. The podcast Lore has a really interesting episode all about changlings and how the myth is probably an explination for parents dissociating with newborns and childwith development issues in early life. The idea that the babe is a ferrie and not a child lends confirmation in parents feeling nothing for their baby and the idea is that the real child is in the world of the fey, partying it up with ferries forever is comforting. There are actual court cases that involve changlings and people trying to drive them out. Those usually have a very sad ending.
It's actually a normal symptom of post-natal depression for a parent to not immediately feel love for their child. Its taboo to talk about, but it happens more than you think. It doesn't mean something is wrong with the parent or the child. If anyone is struggling with these feelings, know that there is help out there
This story litterally sounds like postpartum depression. Men can get it too, especially after witnessing a traumatic incident. I assume the changeling "mother killer" was litterally just postpartum depression, as understood by folklore.
This is a wonderful story but I'm going to be "that" person and say in real life if you hate your baby, please get to a therapist to be screened for post partum depression because even you didn't birth the baby yourself you can still develop symptoms (it's just called a different name that I can't find right now). Anyways. Love a good changeling story.
I think the father was just so traumatized by the birth and seeing his wife in so much pain and agony that he developed these feelings of hatred and coldness towards the baby. And the ritual, when the baby disappeared made him realise that he cares. His father instinct just kicked in and he realised how much he loved his daughter.
I thought the story was going in a different direction: the so-called not bonding was just a hallucination, but the ritual wasn't, so when the father left and returned to the basket, he'd find a monster baby there cuz he swapped away the real one.
As a mom who had to deal with my son having colic until he was six weeks old? Yeah, you can start to resent the crying thing that needs you 24/7. But with support, therapy, and time, it gets better. I can see how scary this story can be!
Another banger for this series. This is a fantastic story. Really captures what can be the horrors of childbirth, ptsd, post partum depression. Visceral. This is the best season of the show yet.
My mother is a birth worker, so me and my brothers grew up learning about it. Watching this was absolutely hilarious, especially when they’re working out what a breech position is 😂
Sounds like dad was suffering from postpartum. For a long time we didn't know that the parent that didn't give birth could also suffer from postpartum depression, but we are finally starting to recognize it, which is especially important for men's health, since they often get pretty left by the roadside when it comes to the topics of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting in general. And also mental health. Good god, the mental health
@@reaganjaegan no need to be a dick. fascinatingly, things are open for/can have multiple interpretations and not everyone is gonna have the same one as you.
@@reaganjaegan no need to be a dick. fascinatingly, things are open for/can have multiple interpretations and not everyone is gonna have the same one as you.
That pregnancy and birth is literally what my friend went through. It's not common but it happens and the (cis male) doctors waited, because "she could hold on a little longer"... after 28 hours.... and then, they gave her a c-section. Also, what that guy is describing (ancles swelling, acne, backpain, mood swings) is literally what every pregnant person feels....
Ironically it was the other way around for my mum, the female nurse kept insisitng this was normal and she was overreacting until a male doctor happened to come in and see my mum way too far along for a lot of preemptive pain relief because that nurse had just...refused to do her job for some reason? And that wasnt even the only time in that hospital stay that a nurse fucked up badly with us, after the birth where she was so split open in the nether region that she had to be numb from the waist down and had lost a lot of blood they apparently left her holding me really awkwardly for hours, unable to pass out as she really needed to because if her arms slackened id have fallen to the floor and just nobody checked on her even though shed lost her voice and couldnt call for help?? Its a little scary sometimes how you can wind up with your life in the hands of medical professionals who wwre smart enough to pass the exams but seem extremely lacking in compassion and who kind of hate people?
Love how, when learning of the second child coming, Ryan and Shane went straight to prepping for another changeling forest ritual, and not "keep your eyes on the baby" to prevent another changeling 💀
can i just say how lovely Watcher are for putting the TW tags in for.. well.. all of the ones they did this time? Each day i find more and more reasons to love these people!
"What's all this, then?" Yeah, the reality of c-section is pretty horrific. Edit: Huh-while the idea of competing Grandma-Baby rituals is HILARIOUS, I wonder if his Grandma is actually a Changeling, and he took his real baby out into the woods to be swapped for a Changeling baby? It can be really difficult to bond with a colicky baby, especially if a parent who saw the c-section in process/aftermath before the reconstruction happened has unaddressed trauma about the whole birth.
I went on a fairy research binge last year, and tried to find out what fairies do with the human babies they steal, and where the changelings come from. There are of course many different versions as that is how folklore works, but I found out that 1. The human babies taken away usually become servants to the fairies, or pets. 2. Changelings could be anything from a transfigured log to an old fairy that's been shrunk down to a baby, and being raised as a human baby is some bizarre retirement plan. 3. Ways to rid of changlings vary from boiling eggshells to attempted murder to abandonment
As someone who is hard of hearing, the subtitles at the opening logo always make me laugh so jard, this one especially. Also just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to do the subtitles yourself and not let them be automated, it makes a huge difference
The fact that the man keeps referring to the baby as "it", makes me feel like he's the devilish one.. Also, the poor poor woman. Edit: actually had to hold my breath for a moment. Edit: wow, what a great spooky story! 9/10!
To me it reads as postpartum depression/psychosis. I know moms who feel completely detached from their child, but fathers also experience a version of the condition sometimes.
This story really just feels like a psycho dad. Honestly doesn't even question his grandma telling him to tie up a baby in the woods? Because it, you know, acts like a baby.
I think I marathon all the are you scared videos every couple weeks haha Ryan has the perfect voice for creepy stories and Shane keeps me from getting too creeped out
This story makes me wanna see a follow-up to either this or some of the other past videos, like sequel stories to Wall Man, Charles the Bear, or the Dispatcher story.
growing up in ireland i love hearing stories of the fae that i grew up with, my nan used to fill my head with terrifying stories of fae rings and gave me a silver ring to protect myself in the woods near her house. I was taught that if i met one to always be polite, never lie, and not to give them my name or I'd be swept off to the fae land.
Fun Fact about Changelings: The legend might of been inspired by those parasitic birds that kill the host's actual eggs and replace them with their own (That's how changelings are supposed to work in the actual mythology). Less Fun Fact: This was totally an excuse to kill babies, specifically babies born with defects (Like, I'm pretty sure a cauliflower ear or a lazy eye was enough to make an infant into the 'changeling' category. That way, people would feel less shame for doing it.
Changelings are very centered around autistic children. I do not doubt at all that MANY autistic children were killed or abused because their behavior was seen as ‘strange’ and therefore labeled a changeling. The entire basis of a changeling, very much reeks of ableism against autistic children and other mentally disabled people.
@@lovelightstarboy Yeah, it was basically just a fake reason to get rid of someone you didn't like in your family without looking like a COMPLETE monster. They also did it to a few teens and adults. It's like the thing about using witch lore to kill women you didn't like. Nowadays, where far more civilized and just blame it on vaccines or propaganda (we have not developed that far as a species).
@@lovelightstarboy I’ve heard of cultures with no modern medicine who still do that sort of thing. The issue is they do it when they KNOW they can’t do anything for the kid. It’s probably what used to happen in the past as well. Sometimes just ableism, yeah. But I don’t doubt sometimes they knew they couldn’t do anything to help the child.
Wasn’t changelings from an era when infant and child mortality rate was so high that nobody even questioned if 2-3 children from a family passed away? They could have blamed “weak” child instead of inventing a whole new lore, no?
Horror movies based on Irish folklore to watch if you liked this story: -The Hallow (2015) -The Hole In the Ground (2019) Irish folklore is absolutely fascinating imo!! The traditional faeries are kind of terrifying and I think this story utilized the lore about them really well
there's also the Irish trilogy by Cartoon Saloon! It's more geared towards kids, and it's animated, but its still super good! It features Selkies (The Song of the Sea), the Kells Monastery (Secret of Kells) and basicaly Airitech's wolflike daughters (Wolfwalkers)
Not just demons though, fae and changelings. Changelings was an excuse they used to use to explain disabled or autistic babies, or any baby that was “weird”. I guess it also is used for babies of people with postpartum
I'm sure they won't read this, but I will add to the many "this is what a changeling is" comments: Changelings are a type of Fairy/Fae. They disguise themselves as babies to be fed and loved like newborns often are. The fae enjoy messing with humans too. So they often are seen as mischievous and dangerous because kidnapping of all kinds is often their favorite game. So much so that there is a version of smut books about fairy kings kidnapping women. This story honestly I was expecting to get MUCH darker. Since some rituals to 'exchange' a changeling is to set the baby on hot coals or in a fire. This causes the changeling to scurry off and if you leave the window open your baby will be returned to you by the fairies. So... yeah. And people still believe in the fae. Leaving honey and/or milk on window sills is a good way to appease fae too. Idk they are just interesting, real or not. A lot of their stories and lore revolve around kidnapping which is kind of funny. Lots of people being like "give me back my baby/wife!" And the fae just blowing raspberries at them.
When my kids were born I didn’t feel an immediate connection, my wife did and she is the best mother but it took me a long time maybe 3 months to finally look at my child and feel that connection. It’s rough at first, you need patience with a baby, because you hear all the stories about people who have shaken or hit their own child and you think they’re crazy until you experience it all for yourself. So please, have patience! Their only way to talk to you is through crying.
9:58 Is actually something people with postpartum trauma and depression have urges to do. It sounds horrible, and it is, but it does happen. So Ryan isn’t far off for what could happen. Not because Shane (or anyone else) would want to, it’s an illness that we really need more awareness and support for
During the birth bit, it truly showed how immature Ryan and Shane are, all these years later. Makes it truly worth it to keep watching these guys. 5:04
I love that Shane uses the phrase, “Bob’s your uncle.” I grew up with that in RI but as an adult, I’ve found no one who knows what it means. I now live in IL so I’m surprised Shane knows it. Just one of the many reasons he’s so great.
Doctor Who gave us reasons to be scared of mannequins, wifi, and even bubble wrap...and you guys give us reasons to be afraid of cats, movie theatres, and babies. And I am in both fandoms, does this make me self-destructive? Possibly. It's so funny to me to watch the guys try to guess what a changeling is, when I already know...:P (PS, the George C. Scott movie "Changeling" is spooky and awesome, totally recommend it) ...I cannot wait until/if Shane and Ryan have children, and then we can bring all these clips back for them to look back on :P:P:P
@@TheyMadeMePickAName I was going to say that too. In any case, I’d be very unwilling to go against the little girl just in case you end up suffocating on rose petals.
As a Filipino I thought of Tiyanak when i saw the title, a vampiric creature in Philippine mythology that takes on the form of a toddler or baby. Although there are various types, it typically takes the form of a newborn baby and cries in the jungle to attract unwary travelers. Also the fear of tiyanak exists in provincial areas across the country. Women continue to fear being haunted by the spirits of their babies if they choose to abort.
shane going from "fear of involuntary heroin injection" to "screaming for drugs at the witching hours" is a character arc i didn't expect bravo
first reply oh ya
I mean, he DID say not to give him any
tbf, he’s scared someone will do it without his consent/knowledge, screaming and begging for it is very different
Sorry to be that guy, but: heroin*
@watcher LMFAO
They didn't mention it in the episode, but the narrator goes from calling the baby 'it' to, as soon as he hears the real baby's cries, 'she'. Fantastic writing - loved this story!
Great observation! That really is some brilliant ice cream
Lol it became a comedy when shane did the 'fairies cleaning diapers' part
Not so fun fact: Changeling folk stories often originated from sick or disabled babies. Parents couldn't accept they would have such babies and would blame it to the fae changing their healthy babies. They would often leave them in forests to be exchanged back, but we can all imagine what happened.
omg that's fucked up
kids and adults could also be changelings! it was usually because of signs of autism or the symptoms of meningitis, epilepsy, schizophrenia... generally any illness that changed your behaviour or personally too much
@leraé It really is, anything out of the "ordinary" in medieval times was considered as other and shameful. If you look into the "treatments" they had for these kids, it's horrific.
Oh yeah! I have autism and I've heard that. When I was little I thought I must be a fairy
@@luthientinuviel3883 hell yea autistic fairy
The more horrifying version of this story (and what I thought was happening at first) was that the dad was just projecting the trauma of the childbirth onto his completely innocent baby, resenting it for what he perceives it put his wife through, causing him to jump to these wild conclusions and recklessly endanger his child
Genuinely thought that was where this was heading, and he'd be doing all this weird stuff to "replace the baby" only to be locked up in a psych ward or something.
@@mairenflanagan7181 personally i would have found that scarier than the ending we got
Middle ground, I thought there was gonna be an actual supernatural twist where the baby was his all along but NOW it's been replaced by something horrible, like his grandma turned out to be evil or the person that he was talking to on the phone wasn't actually his grandma or something
Like when he found the "real" baby and immediately started loving it I thought for sure it was like putting him under a spell or something
But imagine if the story had ended after the baby disappeared from the basket, like she just never reappeared and he'll never know whether he made the right decision or not, or even if she was taken by some supernatural force or just swooped up by some wild animal under his negligence
Even with the supernatural angle being real the father still sounds kinda psychotic due to the fact that he never once question the whole "this baby is a demon and i need to leave him in the forest" story even when the baby dissapears he doesn't go "holy shit what was i doing?" and still believes the changeling story.
And another problem is that the story didn't really make the baby do anything out of the ordinary other than cry and so the father describing how much he loathes the baby just feels umconfortable, i think a better twist that kept the supernatural angle is at the end instead of the wife being pregnant again the father hears in the news that the police found a dead baby in the woods then he looks at his daughter and realizes that he left his actual child in the woods and brought a changeling back not the contrary.
Alternative ending, he gets lost in the woods and by the time he finds his way to the basket the baby has died of exposure.
Devastated and in a moment of desperation he finds a mother who steps away from her stroller for just a second and steals the baby.
He changes their outfits and leaves behind the dead one to be found by a horrified mother later and brings the alive one back to his wife who then becomes the one who hates the baby because she can feel something is wrong but doesn’t know the truth.
Then we end with the grandma implying that all the attention she pay to him was because she always suspected him of being a changeling but his mother had refused to do the ritual.
Was the changeling thing a self fulfilling prophecy or a fey monster doing exactly what it was supposed to do?
Either way, his wife is pregnant again.
The story itself is creepy, but the absolute worst part is poor Mary feeling the C-section as it happened 😬
That in itself is a horror story 🫣😬
no joke, that happened to my mother with one of my younger siblings. medical incompetence is a hell of a thing.
@@phi7534 not even medical incompetence, some people just don't feel the effects of anesthesia for whatever reason
My mom started feeling the knife halfway through her c section when my older brother was born, it’s horrifying when she tells the story. Thankfully she started yelling and they gave her more anesthesia
@@theoledicktwist6247 no its definitely incompetence.....they're meant to check to see if you can feel anything before they make the incision....takes 2 seconds
Shane involuntarily laughing at the word vaginally and then instantly looking embarrassed is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while 😂
lmao i literally came in here to the comments to see if anyone had mentioned this. fucking shane lmao.
I’m having flashbacks to unsolved supernatural…”do you think he pooped himself?” 😂😂😂😂😂😂
My head turned when I heard the word too. Lol wasn’t expecting to hear it
4:54
As someone with two Irish grandmother's, you have to be a real idiot to listen to traditional Irish folklore and be like 'oh yeah let me paint fairies on my baby's nursery'- this boy was not paying attention!!!
I mean in fairness the actual issue was postpartum psychosis and depression.
As an Irish person I agree
That's what I thought!! Isn't it like, hanging iron over baby's crib that you gotta do or something?
@@DeathnoteBB obviously, but folklore is fictional
as another irish person i also agree
I feel like hidden twist of the story is that the father is actually a fae and that's why the grandmother would always look at him quizzically. Also the reason why his mother passed away early because he drained the life from her. The reason he hates the baby is because the baby is human and he actually exchanged his human baby for a fae baby because he is a fae. the grandmother just likes fairies and thats why she exchanged her own baby with a fae baby and thats why the father believes that fairies are good and painted them on his wall in the beginning of the story.
Oh my god!!! You just made this story a hell of a lot better!! I’d love a movie of this!!
Dude this is significantly better than the actual story
Honestly that's what I thought cause of how the grandma would look at him. He's prolly a changeling himself
Omg, yeah otherwise why would fairies even be involved! I love that!
This is fully where I thought the story was heading!!
I was shocked that as into the supernatural as Ryan is, he's NEVER heard of fairy changelings?!? They were a superstitious explanation for everything from postpartum depression to autism.
They should make a video about the fae, like back when they did cryptid videos on unsolved
It’s America I don’t think anyone knows about changelings, I’ve never heard anything about them so I think it’s specific to Europe.
@@halatiny6537 maybe but then a lot of European/uk internet knows of native American 'lore' e.g. wendigos. especially as its Ryan interest. but you're right, its a much more European belief. I know the fae specifically is big in Irish folktales though so maybe east coast America has some remnants?
@@halatiny6537 Loads of Americans know about changelings.
Granted...those Americans are most likely either of European descent or have a personal interest in foreign folklore, but still.
how ironic that i am autistic and my hyper fixation has always been fairies 😂
This EP gets a lot less scary when you think of it as an AITA reddit story lmao
AITA? I (25M) left my wife's (25F) baby in the wood trying to switch it back with faeries. Before you reply, it cried a lot and I felt nothing but hatred toward it.
@@nicki___ NTA OP, your house your rules, it either stops crying or off the woods it goes!
@@nicki___ ESH i can't believe your wife never noticed the baby was a changeling smh is she even paying attention? but OP you can't just make decisions like this without your wife's input, big AH move
@nifikcin CPS we'll take it from here
@@nicki___NTA. Babies are annoying af
I read a story on tumblr once about a parent who had their baby swapped with a changeling, so he went to the Fay and they told him that if they wanted their real baby back, they’d have to identify which one was their real child. The parent looked at the two identical kids for a second, shrugged, and took both home.
Parent of the Year right there!
okay but that's actually funny
“Fuck it, we ball”
@@mhenry6969 the most crucial tool of parenting is the "fuck it we ball" mindset. It must carry you till at least age 18.
The BEST part of the story is when the parent (it was the mom) gets home, her husband is like "sweet, two babies but damn how do we tell them apart"
And the mom was like "bitch that's our baby and that's the changeling. You think a momma don't know her baby when she sees it? But I have cared for both and they're both my babies fuck if I'm gonna let some creature take it away"
It's just a really beautiful spin on the changeling trope about acceptance and found family
Yeah i thought of that too it was a good story i think theyd asked the fairies for a baby first tho?
I find this story in particular pretty distressing, not just because of the idea of being unwillingly emotionally detached from something that's supposed to mean a lot to a person, but because the whole changeling myth in real life got a lot of children killed. People in Ireland really used to believe that this kind of thing could happen, and when they were experiencing what was likely post-partum depression or, in some cases, when a child was likely neurodivergent in some way, the child might be labeled a changeling and then all kinds of terrible things could happen to them, up to the kid being outright murdered because their family was convinced they were a monster. Because of this, the idea that the narrator's grandmother would still believe that legend to the point that they'd encourage child endangerment is disturbing.
Also, fun mythological fact; faires in Irish folklore come in a whole host of shapes and sizes, not just the inches-tall little guys that float around on wings. Some are human sized and shaped, some are tiny, some are huge. And a lot of them are mean as hell.
Man this makes me so sad as a neurodivergent person
I was scrolling to see if someone would bring this up
This was my thoughts exactly. I love this show., but this was a bad story choice. Post part still affects so many parents and is not something to make light of.
I would've love if they went with a more grounded direction with the story, it would've been more infinitely disturbing
Someone who is from a certain part in Asia, where almost any and every problem has a "ritual solution",
I'd say, it's not this one legend.
I feel like, people who just consciously want a reason to do something they already want on a subconscious level,
Create certain insane kind of myths or rituals or such.
Usually, yes, some innocent people who don't really want the gore ending, still end up believing such things due to hopelessness blinding them,
But otherwise,
The people who are the most drawn to such rituals and disregarding the actual and logically likely consequences,
Are just the ones who just want that very obvious ending that awaits the one(s) involved in the rituals.
Imagine u were on a strict diet, but u aren't true with yourself, u are just forcing yourself on that diet,
The smallest chance u get via a third person, to cheat on the diet, u would tell yourself it's not u cheating on the diet, it's just hanging out with the friend so it's ok to break the diet.
Subconsciously u want something, consciously u know it's not ok, hence u just make up some reason to get rid of that guilt.
This is like that, just a way sicker thing than cheating on a healthy diet.
I think what makes the story scary is that this father is displaying symptoms of paternal postpartum psychosis or depression. Parents that don’t get help for the condition can be a danger to themselves and their children, especially if they reach psychosis. PPP is almost always experienced by the mother, and gets worse because they feel like they’re crazy/callous/worthless and don’t want to risk sharing how they feel with others. Ironically, even if the changelings had zero to do with the story, the grandma saved the husband and baby because it offered him some sort of safe and tangible “fix” even if it was all in his head. And like you said at the end, he can just do the same thing for the next kid if he feels the same way.
Yeah this is the only story to have legitimately scared me so far and that's because I had a bout with post partum depression after my first kid. That was the scariest thing in my life looking at this being that I tried so hard to bring to this world and not wanting anything to do with it. Thankfully my husband recognized the signs and got me help.
My mum suffered from post-partum psychosis after I was born, luckily (but also very upsettingly because I can't even imagine the absolute horror she must have felt) her psychosis didn't involve hurting or not feeling attached to me, but she constantly thought I'd died. Like she'd have delusions that I wasn't breathing at all and just start screaming for help at all hours of the day and night, and she couldn't be convinced I was still alive. Thankfully she got the help she needed and she's my best friend in the whole world, the most affectionate, loving and selfless parent anyone could ever hope for. 💕
+ commenting so others see your comment
How is putting your baby in the forest in the middle of a clearing and then walking away until you can’t see it safe?? 😂
@@Phia525 I should clarify that the grandmother didn’t advocate for violence or the father to actually abandon the child 😂 Relative to the multitude of fatal outcomes and directly violent actions taken by parents suffering from the condition, walking away and doing a circle around the baby is a MUCH safer solution. Obviously not advocating for leaving infants in the woods lol
Oh man... the struggle of postpartum sleep deprivation and depression is real. I remember breaking down in tears when my son was 3wks old, & telling his father (my ex) that it's obvious the baby hated me because every time someone handed him to me, he cried. He looked at me like I grew another head & was like, "Uhhhh... you know, people are handing him to you, BECAUSE he started crying. You know that... right? RIGHT?!?". Truthfully, I hadn't really considered that possibility, until he said it. (Probably because I was running on sleeping in 20min increments, for the prior 3 weeks. 🤦♀️)
Ryan’s “do you wanna trade?” is such a god tier dad joke, when he does it that other dad is gonna be gutted he’ll never be as funny
I had a completely different interpretation of this story. The guy hated his baby, his actual baby, so the fairies took it while he was doing the ritual to teach him a lesson and his instincts took over and when he found her he finally felt love.
Aww, dude, that's a super cool observation
so the ritual actually worked and the fairies changed the baby out?
@@XSabucket no, according to my interpretation there was never a swap, he hated his own baby so he convinced himself it was swapped. When he left his actual baby in the forest the fairies took it to teach him a lesson. When he realised that the baby’s gone… that’s when the father’s instinct kicked in and he chased the fairies to get his baby back.
That's really nice but i'm pretty sure Irish fae are just fucking assholes
The scariest part of this episode was learning that Shane and Ryan don't know what a changeling is
Nvm I figured it out
Possible spoilers below
It's a fairytale/myth that if parents aren't watching their babies with the first few hours, a fairy will replace the baby with a fairy demon baby thing.
growing up in Ireland really makes you think this story is perfectly normal
If we couldn’t already tell from the fact that there’s a baby and an Irish grandmother, we knew as soon as the story emphasized he was not paying attention in the prime time for fae to do the ol’ switcheroo
@@uglysongsforuglysouls as soon as the dude mentioned fairies on the child's room wallpaper I was like "is this gonna be the ol' switcheroo?"
witaj znowu :D i zgadzam się, też mnie to zaskoczyło!
I feel like Shane is what happens when parents just decide to be chill and keep their weird fey baby. He’s even tree-like.
"Shane is a changeling" is not a take i was expecting today but i am here for it
Btw, if any of you out there take a few days to feel that love and connection to your baby, don't feel guilty. It happens to plenty of people. That's a brand new person you have to get to know, and a big transition/event you have to process.
I loved my son instantly but I had a traumatic birth with my daughter and really felt like she hated me 😬 the first little bit I couldn’t shake the thought this baby didn’t like me. Looking back it was clearly some sort of post natal weirdness but it felt real at the time. Hormones are weird man
Such a good reminder for new moms. ❤ Postpartum is wild.
yeah it also happens with wild animals and pets
Exactly it’s completely normal for either parent to not bond with their child straight away, especially a parent that didn’t carry the child.
Yup, it is not suprising that after such a tramatic birth that he didnt feel a immediate connection. Not feeling an immidate connection does not make you a bad parent, its normal to need a few days to get to know them.
If you feel like you hate your baby that is highly likely that you have devleopied post partum depression. This can absoluetly occur for fathers and this is likely what he was experiencing. If you feel this way it doesnt make you a bad parent, it means that you have a illness that is absoluetly treatable. Talk to your doctor and seek support.
Fun fact, did you know some people have suspected that old timey folks often cited changelings because nobody knew what autism was yet? Typically this was a thing for toddler aged kids…suddenly the “normal” baby would start screaming or causing trouble or not looking at them. Changelings are also often referred to as having intelligence and insight that made them seem knowledgeable beyond their years.
I hope my normie counterpart is having a fantastic time with the fairies. 🤣🤣🤣
I used to think I was a fairy and that I didn't belong in the human world. Turns out -- autism lol
It was also blamed for general disabilities, like if a baby was born with a deformity. Adults were also accused of being changelings if they developed things like depression, which would alter their usual demeanor.
Reminds me of the Glass movie.
I can't stop imagining Mom at home watching Real Housewives, all cozy & content under a blanket while Dad is tying the daughter up in the woods 😂
I thought it might be a true story about a dad with severe postpartum depression until he saw the fairies. To all you men out there: if you do feel something like this after your partner gives birth, get help! You're not alone, and the way you feel does not make you a bad person or a bad father. There are people who can help you get through it.
I know this is from a while ago but I thought ppd was from all the hormone changes after a woman gives birth so how can men get it? Genuine question not trying to be rude 😅
@@Rose_drew_ It's always fine to ask if you're wondering about something!
PPD in men and women has a hormonal component, but it's a lot about psychological and social aspects too. That being said, changes in hormones (testosterone) is linked to paternal PPD. I'm not an expert on this subject, but it's a very real problem that affects a lot of new fathers.
It could easily be both. Fey are tricky things, and it was way too easy to get that baby back. maybe the fey just went 'ooh, free baby' tried to take it, and his paternal instincts kicked in to save it. Maybe there never was a changeling.
The idea of an Irish grandma telling happy stories about nice fairies is the most unrealistic part of the story
It's really not
@@iaminpainauchocolat9300 yes it is ? it’s like if my hispanic mom was like “Ah, yes, La Llorona. What a sweet lady!😍”
Apparently Brownies don’t exist lol.
@@cryptidnip i mean, she's really nice. She gave her kids swimming lessons
@@iaminpainauchocolat9300 Traditional Celtic folklore about the fae are only horror stories and warnings. If you treat them nicely, they'll still decide to mess with you on occasion on a good day. If the father in the story didn't get his baby back, she would have been fae food
As someone who has just gotten out of the newborn phase, I can totally understand that psychosis. Trying everything you can to get your baby to stop screaming, but they just scream for hours. It’s easy to think they hate you. Babies can sense their parents emotion. So if the dad was angry, anxious, or fearful while holding the baby, she was reflecting those emotions back on her dad. It’s hard, but trying to stay calm can be helpful.
Shane on Too Many Spirits: what's the deal with cousins?
Shane on this ep: What's the deal with babies?
"I mean like one day there's one of ya. Then nine months later there's two? Pretty weird."
😂😂😂😂
This is actually a really smart story. A story about trauma wrapped up in superstitous belief, the horror coming from knowing that this could all be avoided by going to see a therapist and being honest about your emotions with your spouse.
not really lol the baby was an actual changeling
I feel like this story is weird because it feels like a regression from standard modern changeling stories, where it's always either
A. Rumplestiltskin, whereby a child is secretly sold by 1 parent as part of a faustian bargain
B. A midsummer's night dream setup, where faeries play a nasty but ultimately harmless prank to teach someone lesson
C. A Roald Dahl scenario, where the faeries are cps
D. Actually some mental illness(es). Apparently that was the original intentions of the author, who showed up in some of the other comments to give her 2 cents.
I like Ur hair
@@gabrielapagan7280 Not necesarily. Fey are tricky things, and it was way too easy to replace that baby. It's very likely the fey just went 'ooh, free baby' and took it, only for his instincts to kick in and save it.
Having a baby and not liking it at all has been my deepest fear since I was a child. I also deeply afraid of pregnancy and childbirth. So, this story has been deeply disturbing for me.
post natal depression can make this happen, but look. babies aren’t magic. they’re people. you don’t just like everyone you meet. you’ll get to know them, this blank slate, and you shape and guide it’s personality. but for now, it’s a stranger. it’s okay to not care much about a stranger. like shane said, it takes years for them to turn into real things. we do what we can with the feelings we have, and no matter what it will be okay and there are ways to make each and every scenario work.
@@Carebearritual I think the problem is that the story doesn't really make the baby do anything supernatural and the father describing how the baby "hates" him and cries when close to him could easily be interpreted as projection from the trauma of his wife's childbirth (something that even shane and ryan tought of), so the father describing how he hates (not indiference, not annoyance or tiredness, hates) this baby for what seems to be a really banal reason feels really uncomfortable.
@@Carebearritual When my kid was born I asked her father if he loved her and he "I don't know I just met her". They totally like each other now, but I enjoy telling that story to expectant parents who are worried they won't like their kids right away.
same.... its a very "socially acceptable" fucking body horror
... just don't have a baby. Kinda easy fear to manage lol
Shane and Ryan describing postpartum depression, which affects 20% of mothers, and saying “Wouldn’t it be wild if you actually felt that way?”
The back and forth of the calls to the grandmas of each spouse had me crying. The on the spot improv is the real reason I’ve been a fan of them for years 😂😂
The changeling baby was usually thought to be a sick fairy baby that one of the fae had. They didn't want their sick baby so they would swap it with a healthy human baby.
I studied Irish folklore for a while in college and its really fascinating. The folklore around the fae is really ingrained in the minds of every Irish person. A lot of older people in Ireland still have a strong belief in them and will tell you without any doubt that they have seen a faerie right in front of their eyes
the art looked a lil different so i looked back to check. this is the first (and therefore currently only) are you scared not illustrated by Mollie Ong, but instead by Rafael Mejia. both are very talented, the art made throughout this series is stunning! just sharing with the class
Thanks! I'm a little ashamed to say that I didn't really notice the art was that different, I assumed it was Mollie trying some new approaches 😅
The artist of this story is actually Mollie Ong's partner!
Rafael was the illustrator for other episodes aside from this one! I can't remember which ones specifically but they were from past seasons of Are You Scared.
@@annahaines99goals honestly
OH my god I couldn't stop laughing when they started joking about the parents being in misalignment about the swapped babies and continually doing rituals to swap them back and forth without the other knowing
that was too good...
The thing with changelings is that they're fairy babies swapped for human ones. The humans will be raised as fae (usually as a servant) while the fae is raised as a human. Also in Irish myth fae are like....a whole society with tons of different forms. It's really interesting, I'd suggest reading up on them at some point.
In the Philippines, baby switcheroo happens a lot too. Engkantos would take the human baby and put their engkanto baby inside the human mother. They want their children to be raised by humans and that if he or she marries a human and have children. They would be born with souls. The human baby however will be raised by the fairy parents.
This thing has been going on for centuries and Philippines has a play about Olayra, the faerie princess who rides a golden yacht. By the way the faeries here in the Philippines are rich af, they ride on golden ships that threads the waves very fast and glows golden in the night. But the dead give away of it being owned by faeries that if you get rescued by one, and you see the passengers. They don't have faces because faeries dont look like anything, they wear the faeries that best suits the human eyes. So if they like you they will appear pretty and handsome but if they wanna scare you they will make their face terrifying.
Though in my town we only know one kid who is kinda special. Her name is Erika Angelline, or Rika by her family and friends. She was born to childless couple because both mom and dad have broken baby making machines but the mother said after visiting the miracle snake mountain with her husband. She dreamt of a handsome man with green eyes and a face that looks like a cat but still looks like human and he had brown yellow hair. And he told her that I will give you my child as long as you take care of her but there is something wrong with the kid though. She is born with slow cognitive development. Basically even though shes 17 she's still mentally a 10 year old but otherwise the parents still love her. One thing about ericka though because she has a sharp hook nose and narrow face and deep socket eyes as opposed to her parents with a flat face. She's basically a pretty girl. She died of emphysema when she turned 21 coincidentally it was also the age where her real father said she would take her daughter back, also erika was pregnant when she died, she had a bf amd got her preggers. Probably the dad just took her back home when she got pregnant with a half human baby with a soul.
This episode had me so anxious because the entire time I was so worried for the baby.
Every second of it I kept coming up with reasonable explanations for what was happening(post-partum, colicy baby, some parents don't instantly connect with their kids and that's okay) and I was so scared the father was going to hurt this poor child.
That being said, if I had a changeling baby I would simply love it as my own, rip to this guy but I'm different.
It’s not the concept of a baby that scares me but the fact that it’s a “crushing responsibility”. Sometimes, people should have provident funds instead of babies.
It's OK to be scared of something you've never done, and that has the power to change your life. And there ARE people who should not have children.
But children grow out of being needy babies. They turn into fun kids. There's still a lot of work, but you're getting a whole boat-load of love from them in return for your efforts. Even more than pets, for sure.
Another benefit is that kids challenge you in new ways and help you to grow and mature as a person. It's an entirely worthwhile experience.
@@Harpylady269 you've clearly misread the comment
@@iaminpainauchocolat9300 how?
@@Harpylady269 screw kids
Some people do have provident fund before having kids. But some dad's are just garbage and some mom's too but if you raise a child right he or she would be a better kid than anyone else's demonic child
This one _knocked it out of the park_
Some of the others have been scary, but this one got under my skin with the birth descriptions and the dad's perspective
I’m genuinely surprised that at least Ryan doesn’t know what Changeling is
Especially since they know of the Angelina Jolie movie _named_ after the myth! Cmon guys!
Birth trauma is hella real and it can wreak havoc on that initial connection with your baby. Not to mention postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis. You see it more often in the parent that gave birth but it can happen to either partner.
And babies can be so hard to manage... It takes a ton of trial and error to find what works to calm them down and it's like as soon as you figure it out, what they need changes.
I had PPD and really struggled to bond with my baby girl at first. There was so much guilt because I had to have an epidural against my original plan because my blood pressure was getting dangerously high every time a contraction hit. Then baby girl came out jaundiced and I couldn't get the hang of breastfeeding so we had to give her formula. She's now almost 3 and a healthy, happy girl so even though the feelings of guilt sometimes rear their ugly head, it doesn't seem like I fucked up too badly 😅
Totally agree, I had PPD after my first, but after my second 3 years ago it was so traumatic the PPD was a new level, it truly took me about 2 years to bond properly. My poor husband was so traumatized but what he witnessed, he definitely struggled, thankfully all is well now!
Add together a newborn, another child, colic and then a f*ing pandemic I had no hope really 😂
Props to the artist that does the illustrations. Really nice work.
The commentary on this episode was absolutely hilarious. "Put the baby in the ice" lmao. Also, what if the fairies didnt give back the real baby, but the fear he experienced just tricked him into bonding with the devil baby. The idea of telling Mary he lost their kid was so horrific he realized the devil baby was better than nothing.
Shane laughing at the word 'vaginally' is the most Shane thing 😂😂
I think I’ve got a scarier way this story could end. It goes the same until he brings his “correct” child back home, but he somehow discovers that he is actually a changeling and his grandmother gave him a ritual to ensure his child was a changeling as well and she’s been doing this to the whole family for years because she’s a changeling.
It’s a little bit of a silly plot twist, but I think it would work.
But then why would the grown adult changeling make a human baby that then needs to be swapped for a changeling baby? Like that baby he made would have to be at least half changeling?
@@TheKaurK Yeah, that’s where my idea falls apart, ha
In the case of your alternate ending, perhaps the reason his child isn’t already a changeling is because the human genes from the mother are completely dominant and completely alter or subdue the changeling DNA from the father. Therefore, the baby would still be born as a full human, but in order to keep changelings alive and thriving as a species, they have to keep going back to the forest and replacing the human baby population with nature-given changelings. In this instance, an idea for proper changeling reproduction other than them coming from some sort of magic in the forest could be that either two full changelings have to have a child together, a full changeling and the child of a changeling (with the dormant changeling genes, hidden underneath the human ones), or two children of changelings have to have a child (then the dormant DNA would somehow “reawaken” at the sign of more changeling DNA, therefore creating a full-blooded changeling). I love stories and writing, so this was just an idea for your theory that I thought if after I read it. :)
This season is really taking a toll. It’s scaring the blonde out of Shane’s hair
Before he found the baby I honest to god thought the plottwist was going to be that the dad was a changeling all along and that's why his grandma watched him so closely. There ARE versions of these stories where stressed out parents would give up their real children for supernaturally perfect ones that later turn evil and hurt or kill them bc a price must be paid. Also for the boys: Changeling babies themselves are usually enchanted wood or stone or elderly fairies since changelings were also an explanation for SIDS.
Same here! I thought it was going to be that the fae took him back, and the baby was just a regular baby.
Still a cool ending though.
@@TheKillerqueen40 oh yeah, that ending definitely still got me!
I still half believe that
This is a pretty good retelling of classic irish changeling tales.
The podcast Lore has a really interesting episode all about changlings and how the myth is probably an explination for parents dissociating with newborns and childwith development issues in early life.
The idea that the babe is a ferrie and not a child lends confirmation in parents feeling nothing for their baby and the idea is that the real child is in the world of the fey, partying it up with ferries forever is comforting.
There are actual court cases that involve changlings and people trying to drive them out. Those usually have a very sad ending.
which court cases? this sounds very interesting
That’s so interesting the stories have psychological roots. Makes me think demon babies are a result of post partum psychosis.
Yes I remember that episode!
But ut should be retelling the tale
YOU LISTEN TO LORE?!! I LOVE LORE!!! Everyone listen to the episode “Black Stockings” because it’s horrifying and fascinating
It's actually a normal symptom of post-natal depression for a parent to not immediately feel love for their child. Its taboo to talk about, but it happens more than you think.
It doesn't mean something is wrong with the parent or the child. If anyone is struggling with these feelings, know that there is help out there
When Ryan said "emergency c-section" I so wanted Shane to be like "A COUPLE OF SEA DAWGS! ARP ARP ARP!"
God I heard this in my head 😅
Why would shane say that? Only the professor says that
He's only the estranged producer so i dont think he knows the professor's jokes
This story litterally sounds like postpartum depression. Men can get it too, especially after witnessing a traumatic incident. I assume the changeling "mother killer" was litterally just postpartum depression, as understood by folklore.
This is a wonderful story but I'm going to be "that" person and say in real life if you hate your baby, please get to a therapist to be screened for post partum depression because even you didn't birth the baby yourself you can still develop symptoms (it's just called a different name that I can't find right now).
Anyways. Love a good changeling story.
Love the folkloric vibe of this story, honestly wouldn't mind having more spooky stories along the same thread
Same
Agreed
I believe that the narrator shouldn’t be blamed for not feeling any connection to his child. His life partner almost died, that’s pretty traumatic.
I think the father was just so traumatized by the birth and seeing his wife in so much pain and agony that he developed these feelings of hatred and coldness towards the baby. And the ritual, when the baby disappeared made him realise that he cares. His father instinct just kicked in and he realised how much he loved his daughter.
I thought the story was going in a different direction: the so-called not bonding was just a hallucination, but the ritual wasn't, so when the father left and returned to the basket, he'd find a monster baby there cuz he swapped away the real one.
As a native spanish speaker, hearing Shane imitate the Fauno from Pan's Labyrinth made me spit my lungs out from laughing. Such a great impression omg
Shane: My baby has yellow eyes! Kill it! It's the devil!
Doctor: It's jaundice. He just need sunlight.
Shane: DEVIL BABY!!!!
As a mom who had to deal with my son having colic until he was six weeks old? Yeah, you can start to resent the crying thing that needs you 24/7. But with support, therapy, and time, it gets better. I can see how scary this story can be!
The person who writes the subtitles? Closed captions? Anyway, they should get a raise. The little jokes always make me giggle. Ily subtitle writer
Another banger for this series. This is a fantastic story. Really captures what can be the horrors of childbirth, ptsd, post partum depression. Visceral. This is the best season of the show yet.
"i hate my loud child" a new series coming to tlc this fall
My mother is a birth worker, so me and my brothers grew up learning about it. Watching this was absolutely hilarious, especially when they’re working out what a breech position is 😂
Sounds like dad was suffering from postpartum. For a long time we didn't know that the parent that didn't give birth could also suffer from postpartum depression, but we are finally starting to recognize it, which is especially important for men's health, since they often get pretty left by the roadside when it comes to the topics of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting in general. And also mental health. Good god, the mental health
Yeah that's great but this is about fairies.
Oh that’s so interesting!
@@reaganjaegan no need to be a dick. fascinatingly, things are open for/can have multiple interpretations and not everyone is gonna have the same one as you.
@@reaganjaegan no need to be a dick. fascinatingly, things are open for/can have multiple interpretations and not everyone is gonna have the same one as you.
@@reaganjaegan it could be two things
That pregnancy and birth is literally what my friend went through. It's not common but it happens and the (cis male) doctors waited, because "she could hold on a little longer"... after 28 hours.... and then, they gave her a c-section. Also, what that guy is describing (ancles swelling, acne, backpain, mood swings) is literally what every pregnant person feels....
Ironically it was the other way around for my mum, the female nurse kept insisitng this was normal and she was overreacting until a male doctor happened to come in and see my mum way too far along for a lot of preemptive pain relief because that nurse had just...refused to do her job for some reason? And that wasnt even the only time in that hospital stay that a nurse fucked up badly with us, after the birth where she was so split open in the nether region that she had to be numb from the waist down and had lost a lot of blood they apparently left her holding me really awkwardly for hours, unable to pass out as she really needed to because if her arms slackened id have fallen to the floor and just nobody checked on her even though shed lost her voice and couldnt call for help??
Its a little scary sometimes how you can wind up with your life in the hands of medical professionals who wwre smart enough to pass the exams but seem extremely lacking in compassion and who kind of hate people?
The real horror here is listening to the birth scene as someone able to get pregnant
Yep and now in the USA it's even more dangerous to give birth! Thanks Republicans.
Yea same
Love how, when learning of the second child coming, Ryan and Shane went straight to prepping for another changeling forest ritual, and not "keep your eyes on the baby" to prevent another changeling 💀
Maybe the test is the fear of losing your baby awakens your parental instinct to protect and care.
can i just say how lovely Watcher are for putting the TW tags in for.. well.. all of the ones they did this time? Each day i find more and more reasons to love these people!
"What's all this, then?" Yeah, the reality of c-section is pretty horrific.
Edit: Huh-while the idea of competing Grandma-Baby rituals is HILARIOUS, I wonder if his Grandma is actually a Changeling, and he took his real baby out into the woods to be swapped for a Changeling baby? It can be really difficult to bond with a colicky baby, especially if a parent who saw the c-section in process/aftermath before the reconstruction happened has unaddressed trauma about the whole birth.
Changelings aren’t real, it’s just a myth they used to explain disabled babies. The Grandma didn’t do anything, the Dad just had postpartum
Dun dun DUUUN
I went on a fairy research binge last year, and tried to find out what fairies do with the human babies they steal, and where the changelings come from. There are of course many different versions as that is how folklore works, but I found out that
1. The human babies taken away usually become servants to the fairies, or pets.
2. Changelings could be anything from a transfigured log to an old fairy that's been shrunk down to a baby, and being raised as a human baby is some bizarre retirement plan.
3. Ways to rid of changlings vary from boiling eggshells to attempted murder to abandonment
might just be the lighting but ryan looks gorgeous this episode i genuinely could not stop staring at him he's actually glowing
Tis them changelings
As someone who is hard of hearing, the subtitles at the opening logo always make me laugh so jard, this one especially. Also just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to do the subtitles yourself and not let them be automated, it makes a huge difference
The fact that the man keeps referring to the baby as "it", makes me feel like he's the devilish one.. Also, the poor poor woman.
Edit: actually had to hold my breath for a moment.
Edit: wow, what a great spooky story! 9/10!
To me it reads as postpartum depression/psychosis. I know moms who feel completely detached from their child, but fathers also experience a version of the condition sometimes.
This story really just feels like a psycho dad. Honestly doesn't even question his grandma telling him to tie up a baby in the woods? Because it, you know, acts like a baby.
I think I marathon all the are you scared videos every couple weeks haha Ryan has the perfect voice for creepy stories and Shane keeps me from getting too creeped out
This story makes me wanna see a follow-up to either this or some of the other past videos, like sequel stories to Wall Man, Charles the Bear, or the Dispatcher story.
growing up in ireland i love hearing stories of the fae that i grew up with, my nan used to fill my head with terrifying stories of fae rings and gave me a silver ring to protect myself in the woods near her house. I was taught that if i met one to always be polite, never lie, and not to give them my name or I'd be swept off to the fae land.
Fun Fact about Changelings: The legend might of been inspired by those parasitic birds that kill the host's actual eggs and replace them with their own (That's how changelings are supposed to work in the actual mythology).
Less Fun Fact: This was totally an excuse to kill babies, specifically babies born with defects (Like, I'm pretty sure a cauliflower ear or a lazy eye was enough to make an infant into the 'changeling' category. That way, people would feel less shame for doing it.
Changelings are very centered around autistic children. I do not doubt at all that MANY autistic children were killed or abused because their behavior was seen as ‘strange’ and therefore labeled a changeling. The entire basis of a changeling, very much reeks of ableism against autistic children and other mentally disabled people.
@@lovelightstarboy Yeah, it was basically just a fake reason to get rid of someone you didn't like in your family without looking like a COMPLETE monster. They also did it to a few teens and adults. It's like the thing about using witch lore to kill women you didn't like. Nowadays, where far more civilized and just blame it on vaccines or propaganda (we have not developed that far as a species).
@@lovelightstarboy I’ve heard of cultures with no modern medicine who still do that sort of thing. The issue is they do it when they KNOW they can’t do anything for the kid. It’s probably what used to happen in the past as well. Sometimes just ableism, yeah. But I don’t doubt sometimes they knew they couldn’t do anything to help the child.
Wasn’t changelings from an era when infant and child mortality rate was so high that nobody even questioned if 2-3 children from a family passed away? They could have blamed “weak” child instead of inventing a whole new lore, no?
i just had a breakdown a few minutes ago so i appreciate this more than i can say. shane and ryan never fail to cheer me up :)
babies scare me
Horror movies based on Irish folklore to watch if you liked this story:
-The Hallow (2015)
-The Hole In the Ground (2019)
Irish folklore is absolutely fascinating imo!! The traditional faeries are kind of terrifying and I think this story utilized the lore about them really well
there's also the Irish trilogy by Cartoon Saloon! It's more geared towards kids, and it's animated, but its still super good! It features Selkies (The Song of the Sea), the Kells Monastery (Secret of Kells) and basicaly Airitech's wolflike daughters (Wolfwalkers)
26:02 Emily Brady has written an awesome story. I was shivering with anticipation. Well done!
IM SO GLAD YOU DID A CHANGELING STORY??!! The Fae are actually pretty spooky and im so glad you guys learned about Irish folklore!
the scariest part of this story is that no one brought up that this man could have postpartum depression and instead we took a turn for demons lol
Not just demons though, fae and changelings. Changelings was an excuse they used to use to explain disabled or autistic babies, or any baby that was “weird”. I guess it also is used for babies of people with postpartum
I suffer from severe depression and anxiety,but watching videos with shane and his commentary always warms my heart
How to be a good dad according to the narrator :
Step 1- hate your baby
Step 2- leave it alone in the woods
Ryan is gonna tell his children terrifying bedtime stories + Shane is gonna feed his baby vending machine peanut M&ms 😂
Sounds like Grandma had some untreated PPD, and then counseled a tired new father who watched his wife almost die.
This is a wonderful story to tell your kids when they misbehave. if I have kids ill definitely tell or show this story.
I thought every story was intense and then I heard the Intro to this story. It gets straight to business.
I could listen to Ryan and Shane joking about babies for hours
The title combined with the thumbnail makes me think Shane randomly goes around telling people how he's just absolutely terrified of all babies.
I'm sure they won't read this, but I will add to the many "this is what a changeling is" comments:
Changelings are a type of Fairy/Fae. They disguise themselves as babies to be fed and loved like newborns often are.
The fae enjoy messing with humans too. So they often are seen as mischievous and dangerous because kidnapping of all kinds is often their favorite game. So much so that there is a version of smut books about fairy kings kidnapping women.
This story honestly I was expecting to get MUCH darker. Since some rituals to 'exchange' a changeling is to set the baby on hot coals or in a fire. This causes the changeling to scurry off and if you leave the window open your baby will be returned to you by the fairies.
So... yeah. And people still believe in the fae. Leaving honey and/or milk on window sills is a good way to appease fae too.
Idk they are just interesting, real or not. A lot of their stories and lore revolve around kidnapping which is kind of funny. Lots of people being like "give me back my baby/wife!" And the fae just blowing raspberries at them.
i don’t even like children but i can’t help but hate the dad 💀 my dad didn’t like me either so i feel you baby
I agree. I hated the dad in this.
Yep.
Same!!
When my kids were born I didn’t feel an immediate connection, my wife did and she is the best mother but it took me a long time maybe 3 months to finally look at my child and feel that connection. It’s rough at first, you need patience with a baby, because you hear all the stories about people who have shaken or hit their own child and you think they’re crazy until you experience it all for yourself. So please, have patience! Their only way to talk to you is through crying.
I laughed at the constant baby exchanging because the grandmas were having a time.
The way you guys improvise comedic riffs in the middle of these scary stories is brilliant.
Everytime I watch a new episode of any kind from these guys I have to go back and rewatch all of puppet history 🎉❤
same! every friday night is puppet history maratho after the new episode is watched!
9:58 Is actually something people with postpartum trauma and depression have urges to do. It sounds horrible, and it is, but it does happen. So Ryan isn’t far off for what could happen. Not because Shane (or anyone else) would want to, it’s an illness that we really need more awareness and support for
During the birth bit, it truly showed how immature Ryan and Shane are, all these years later. Makes it truly worth it to keep watching these guys. 5:04
I love that Shane uses the phrase, “Bob’s your uncle.” I grew up with that in RI but as an adult, I’ve found no one who knows what it means. I now live in IL so I’m surprised Shane knows it. Just one of the many reasons he’s so great.
I'm from Australia and most people here know that phrase, so you'd be in good company if you decided to visit 😊
Doctor Who gave us reasons to be scared of mannequins, wifi, and even bubble wrap...and you guys give us reasons to be afraid of cats, movie theatres, and babies.
And I am in both fandoms, does this make me self-destructive? Possibly.
It's so funny to me to watch the guys try to guess what a changeling is, when I already know...:P (PS, the George C. Scott movie "Changeling" is spooky and awesome, totally recommend it)
...I cannot wait until/if Shane and Ryan have children, and then we can bring all these clips back for them to look back on :P:P:P
I see someone skipped the faery episode of Torchwood
@@TheyMadeMePickAName I was going to say that too. In any case, I’d be very unwilling to go against the little girl just in case you end up suffocating on rose petals.
As a Filipino I thought of Tiyanak when i saw the title, a vampiric creature in Philippine mythology that takes on the form of a toddler or baby. Although there are various types, it typically takes the form of a newborn baby and cries in the jungle to attract unwary travelers. Also the fear of tiyanak exists in provincial areas across the country. Women continue to fear being haunted by the spirits of their babies if they choose to abort.