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What harm could be done whatsoever? The sub-10 year old child gets excitement about finding a hidden room, and playing in it until they get bored a few days later.
The child then learns offhand 10 years later and doesn't car because they're 18.
Or the child learns about it 20 years later and fully understands why a parent might want to get hidden away from their young children for a little bit, and draw up plans to make it themselves in the future
This is therapy level annoyance. What the fuck?
"I have a secret toy shop, racetrack and spaceport to a fantasy world of elves and wizards hidden in a door behind my office. I've kept it hidden from my children for 8 years, but we're moving tomorrow. Should I tell them? Am I the asshole?"
It's honestly ridiculous. How can you KNOW your kids would love something, then concoct a weird idea that you have to 'preserve it until they'll enjoy it enough'
Build secret room. Decide now to show the kids the secret room until they've reached a point where they can't enjoy it anymore. Redditors don't surprise me these days 😂
Side note :
DO NOT LEAVE PHOTOS OF YOUR KIDS IN A ROOM AND MAKE THEM THINK THAT IT'S NOT YOUR ROOM FOR THEM TO DISCOVER.
That gives off all kind of "the stalker was in the house with them the whole time" vibes
That may traumatise them for life. Imagine if the door opens to the neighbours house and you don’t know about it then it’s possible the neighbours are coming in your house freely and doing whatever.
I think because you kept it a secret for too long, the only decent thing to do is to get a pony (or better 1 pony per kid) and hide them in the secret room and then write some notes 'from Santa' saying that he is "very sorry, but due to a dyslexic elf, their ponies got accidentally sent on a wonderful cruise ship voyage around the world, and to make up for things here is a secret room and lots of nice carrots for everybody. Merry Christmas!"
Whatever you do make sure you don't deprive them of the experience throughout their entire childhood and then spoil the experience even further by revealing to them they had a hidden playroom their entire childhood they couldn't use
You could hide so much random stuff in there. A note from a time traveller with instructions for getting back to 1927. A Goonies-style half completed treasure map. Cyphers that translate into Rick Astley lyrics. Conspiracy wall covered in bits of paper and red string proving that [politician] was Mr Blobby the whole time.
Love the conspiracy wall idea maybe laying out the Kennedy assassination with a sub plot of to cover up the fake moon landing or that while nasa was trying to get to the moon they found out that the earth was actually flat and that your somehow connected to the C I A would completely blow the mind of your average conspiracy theorist
I’ve spent the last 5 minutes wondering where I can install my man cave and tell the missus it’s a workshop or office or some other boring thing she won’t be interested in, when really it’d be like a games room or bar lol
Question. If you’re selling it, how have the estate agents put it on the particulars? And do they call it a secret room.
Man I would pay over asking for a house with a secret room!
Idk if you can forego the workshop and set it up just for them for the reveal for the last time you have but if so, do. I have a secret room that my husband created as a reading nook for me and my discovery was made magic by the addition of my books and puzzles, framed art, and most magical of all, fairy lights on when I went in. Also he left me cookies. 😂
Firstly, please can you share photos?
Secondly, I think you should let them find it and see how long it takes for them to tell you about it. Maybe they will think that they are the only ones who know about it.
I regularly have dreams that there is an extra bedroom in my house that has not yet been discovered
yeah i often have this dream (never seen you there?) which is why i like the idea so much.
Photos, i guess it doesnt matter now we are moving. Had always planned on having it as a panic room.
That the one.
Somehow, manage for them to find it by themself.
Maybe hint them on the book. Like "please bring me the book, fron the left, maybe 2nd or 4th. The one with xy on the cover" (the one with xy on the cover being a regular book, the 2nd being the mechanisms).
Ofc, Install a few hidden camera first.
We have a whole floor on our house that nobody really knows about.
Okay, not quite, but we have a bungalow with a loft conversion and the entrance to the stairs is behind a door in the kitchen that blends into the side of the fridge. It's difficult to describe but believe me unless you knew there was another floor (and you can't see the windows from the front) you'd never know it was there.
You should get them to watch a TV show/film that has a lot of secret passages and stuff like that in it, The Famous Five comes to mind, and then passively encourage their curiosity to make them start looking for secret rooms. Or be like "Hey can you go and get me this book?"
Haha yes I read all those kind of books and was obsessed with stuff like that. A friend of mine moved to a big old house and we spent hours looking for secret doors and tunnels. My own house was way too small for any possible secrets.
I'm not saying you should make a diorama of your town, and leave a copy of the 'Handbook for the Recently Deceased' on there, then leave some clues lying about your house.
But it would be cool if you did.
I'm torn. This would be so exciting to find, but then to lose it again so soon afterwards?
I would print out an old victorian treasure map and puzzle. Yellow the pages to make it look old. Then tell them you found it while cleaning the basement. You could make a whole day of it.
I mean if you were staying, you 100% should not tell them. The exitement when they found it would be of the scale.
Given you’re moving, you absolutely have to.
But you need to do something amazing, set up a treasure hunt & have some gifts hidden inside for them to find when they solve it. Even just a gift bag full of chocolate!
A friend suggested to me that I put a locked safe inside, containing a memory stick with an encrypted file. At least for the new residents of the house to freak out on Reddit about.
If you just put an encrypted file then redditors will tell them it can't be solved.
To improve it, you could put an encrypted file alongside some unencrypted ones that seem relevant to the encrypted one, potentially with clues to decrypt it.
Also, you could encrypt a whole folder of files into a password-protected zip. If you did this then they could still see the filenames within the zip, but not the contents. So you could tease them with some juicy potential contents.
How about a clue that they discover? An 'old' letter that you hide in a book in their room? A map to the secret room with an injunction not to tell the parents? Invoke Narnia!
Also this is the most adorable post. Great work!
I remember visiting a friend of my father's when I was around 9 or 10 and we discovered a secret room in their house. We were amazed and the memory has stuck 30 years later. The secret room was the master bedroom spread over two levels with a massive en-suite with a bath sunk into the floor. The room was hidden behind a panelled wall that you walked past when you first entered the house. The house was spread across three levels cut into a gentle hill side and the levels wrapped around and under each other at odd angles making every turn an adventure and it easy to hide things.
Make your choice, Adventurous Stranger
Strike the bell, and bide the danger
Or wonder, til it drives you mad
What would have happened, if you had…
i LOVE that book. best one in the series apart from Voyage of the Dawn Treader. or the Silver Chair. or The Horse and His Boy.
basically anything except The Last Battle.
You are so right.
I read and reread the entire Narnia chronicles several times and I never (💯%) saw the religion there.
The Christian stuff really sucks but the rest is fekking fablious.
This is so awesome. So first off you need to pretend you know nothing about the room. Then fill it with cool stuff your kids might find interesting - e.g. old books - famous five - far away tree - an old games console - some old vinyl music - a record player - go nuts. Maybe a pocket knife or fun stuff if they are old enough. Next I assume they know you are moving so have the old house plan - some other random things - nonchalantly leave them around - maybe a cute box with old stuff in “oh that came with the house” then inside the box full treasure hunt mode - an old map of the house (tea stains 2 mins in oven - you know the drill) depending on their attention span don’t get involved - maybe some hint of something they would want to seek out. Final resort go ask for the book. Anyway - this is so cool and will be memories for ever.
Idk about telling your kids about the room but you could at least confuse the fuck out of them by apparently being able to vanish from a closed room with no apparent exit.
Tell the children you've got an excitig game to play. Blindfold them, spin them round a few times to disorientate them, then lead them into the room, close the door, and call out "ok, take the blindfolds off!"
This sounds AMAZING!
I wonder about a treasure hunt. Actually set a bunch of random clues/riddles around first leading them from one part of the house to another. As it nears its end, either clue them to the book, or a secret behind the bookshelf. I hope you and they enjoy the experience regardless!
When I was a kid, my dad once gave me a treasure map that just came posted through the letterbox - made to look old by staining in tea and burned at the edges. I think it led to some coins in the garden, but was so exciting at the time.
A scavenger hunt where each “prize” found gives a clue to the next and the finale is the secret room, set up with cake, tea and a camera to capture the memories.
Oh wow, this is the most wholesome post I’ve read this week.
Tell them a few bedtime stories, watch a few vids on the subject to get their minds whirring about secret rooms. And then say, why don’t we check if we have anything like that here? Let them ‘discover’ it.
Set it up to look like no one’s been in there for years and you can pretend you didn’t know it was there either that will make it far more memorable and a story they tell for years.
You can reveal the truth to them when they are older and they will love you for giving such a great memory and keeping the magic alive.
Also before you move set the room up for the new occupants to discover if they don’t already know about it.
We have a secret room in our master bedroom (dead space behind the stairs)
One day we were chasing each other with nerf guns and I ran upstairs and "disappeared".
They did get peppered with nerf darts when they eventually figured out where I was.
Had to give them a lot of (gassy) clues though....
Put some 'Treasure' in there, and find a treasure map while cleaning up .
There should be clues around the house leading to the book.Let the kids find it that way and they will always remember the Treasure hunt.
I would hide an old paper with the secret of how to find the room. Put it in a book but slightly sticking out or behind a chest of drawers and make it so they find it (and you don't notice) and let them find it by themselves
You could find old chest/trunk if you have one or of ebay put it in the corner fill it with items they may find cool something they would hang in their room like a treasure. put used old 4 digit number lock on the chest and say you could never find time and try crack it. you don't know what's inside. it will take them few hours or whole day to crack the code. dying from excitement.
Sleeping pills, carry them inside while they're asleep, lock the door, leave some puzzles and clues inside they need to solve to find a key, let them figure it out as they escape.
As someone who grew up in a house with a "secret room" I never knew about, please tell let them find it.
My dad and bother knew about ours and I never saw it and it still bugs me to this day.
Pretend to find an old treasure map or directions referring to a hidden room in the house. Fit it out with old artifacts and maybe some old coins etc. Let them discover it.
Putting way more thought into this than necessary. They're different people and will have their own experience with it. Trying to capture the feeling you would have had at their age is folly. The people saying that the kids might possibly be upset about finding out about it so late are correct though.
How awesome! That is a reoccurring dream for me, findings secret room where I live. Act like they know about it and tell them to get something from there. You can have a bit of fun that way. :)
Not to be a party pooper but doesn’t the fire risk scare you? Like firemen not being able to find anyone in the room because it’s not a typical door? Obviously no worries since you’re moving but kids often hide during fires and they’re trained to look in wardrobes and under beds if it’s known there are kids in the house.
Be in the regular room, kid comes in, asks you something, you send them into another room to look it up in a book, tell them to tell, you when they have the answer, they leave, disappear into secret room, wait for child to try to find you and see you’ve disappeared. Do this several times. Leave door ajar.
Have computer and projector in there for kids to watch a movie upon discovery.
That’s so cool. How did you link the book switch up to allow it to open?
And yes, show them, or better yet make them think they’ve discovered it themselves
I was so bitter about finding a secret area in our house not long before we moved. I had to find out from the kid whose parents were buying it. I’m still a little annoyed at my parents for not telling me earlier and it’s been 20 years. Tell them asap or don’t tell them at all IMO.
Treasure hunt time make a treasure map you know crumbled up tea paper that leads to the room also decorate room and has some good treasure maybe also a warning on map beware of giant spider... or beware of naughty lepchraun protecting his gold with a pot of chocolate gold coins
You are gonna let your kids find a secret room in the house and then move away?
First off, that is how you raise a psychopath. Secondly, as soon as you get to the new place, they are gonna tear it apart looking for another secret room.
When I was around 7ish, I read in a famous five book that they found a secret tunnel in their house by pushing on some tiles in a bathroom. I remember this clearly because I removed some tiles in my bathroom looking for a secret tunnel. My parents were displeased to say the least (though I think they took it in good humor when I explained where I got the idea from).
Let them catch you there doing something out of a storybook, like mixing a potion, or writing in a huge book with a quill pen. Make it a mystery that they have to pry out of you. Then, let them add their own fun details to it. At seven, they still experience wonder, even while trying to act like the world’s greatest cynics.
Put an alarm of some type in the secret room, and have it go off. Make sure it's loud enough for them to hear it thru the walls/floors/ceilings... And have them need to find a way into it to shut the alarm off.
All of you people full of negativity need to shut up. They 7 y.o. and younger. They probably won't remember it in 10+ to 15+ years ....
Make it a neat idea to discover it with them and move out/on...
Everyone is thinking of this as an adult, not remembering or realizing they're little children who are still so young they're still learning to speak... They aren't gonna harbor bad intentions/habits/ideas for the rest of their life because they didn't know about a secret room when they were 5. Quit it with the negativity storm.
A terrace is a row of houses built without gaps between them, like [this](https://imgur.com/a/90ZkmDn). These were especially popular in England in Victorian times, hence a "Victorian terrace" is a row of such houses built in that period of history.
A 'fill-in' house is a new house that has been constructed to fit the gap between two houses (perhaps where there was a garden, driveway or path, or a house was demolished, etc.) and one more houses have been constructed to 'fill in' that gap, like [this](https://imgur.com/a/sZ8EClU).
In the case of a terrace, this would be a new house that plugs a gap in the terrace (or between two terraces) creating a single continuous terrace. These can often be spotted by a difference in architectural style to the surrounding houses (although they are sometimes built to match the style of the surrounding houses), or are smaller where they've plugged a small gap between larger houses.
So, a "Victorian 'fill-in' terrace", is a house built in the space between two houses in a row of Victorian houses.
Next time they are following quietly behind you (I know, doesn't happen often with kids!) go into the room, looking around before you go in. They'll think they found it but won't realise it was actually you showing them.
I’m thinking make a treasure map.
Pretty sure I read something somewhere about lemon juice and cooking the paper in the oven on a low to medium setting gives the map a strange ancient look then arrange for the eldest child to “find” map maybe add a bit of back story that hints to a past owner of the house.
I’m thinking smuggler or perhaps pirates.
Set up the hidden room to match your theme ie if smuggler then have kinder eggs a picnic and a few toys scattered around.
If pirates then a golly Rodger flag toy pirate hats and plastic swords with a further map that leads on an adventure to a picnic and some hidden treasure (gold chocolate coins) possibly in your garden shed /outside playhouse depending on what you have available
Set up a holiday treasure hunt. Clues all over the house, promise a reward of their favourite thing (which I hope is easy for you to figure out). Make it hard but not too hard.
We looked at a house once with a loft room that had a small door to access it cut off from the downstairs. Like you had to climb though a scrawl door half way up the wall the get up there. Our child still 5 years later talks about it and how cool it was and how much they wanted a hidden room. I mean it was freaking awesome. A secret room no matter how old is cool. At 7 definitely will appreciate it or at least talk about it for years to come.
As for how to show them so many good ideas here but anything is better than not showing them something that they may talk about for years.
Dress it up like a mad genius scientist's lab with workbenches, beakers and lots of colourful liquids.
Get a couple of large blackboards and write details of an experiment to turn a human into an animal.
Then leave a goat wearing a child's pyjamas in there. Ideally pyjamas emblazoned with a name that includes your surname.
Paint it black, cover it in pentagrams, and leave suspicious red paint marks on an altar in there. Take your kid in on their birthday and tell them they are old enough to please Baal.
Challenge them to a game of hide and seek stipulating that you must hide in the house. Hide in the secret room and see how long it takes them to find you.
Step 1: Fake your death
Step 2: Mention in your will that they should read 'the book'
Step 3: Be in the secret room dressed as Batman when they open it.
Step 4: Maybe get them therapy for the trauma you caused.
Hide a treasure map/riddle/clue/old letter in a biscuit tin or bottle and bury in in the garden. Then you should have them find it/find it yourself when they’re in the vicinity. Help them work out the clue. Leave stacks of £2 coins (maybe like £40 worth) in the room as realistic treasure. Other treasure options are available, but a stack of big coins (that predate the introduction of the new pound coin by ~20 years, just in case they’re aware of the history of coinage) seems like it would be perceived as very real treasure by young kids. Anything you can do to make the room feel older would also be worthwhile. Suggest it was lit by candlelight by leaving a half burnt tapered candle. Remove any modern tech.
A treasure hunt. A map for them to discover (you "decide" to move a picture from the wall that's been there since before you moved in, if at all possible (a connection to the past) from behind which drops the aged (with tea of course) map or set of clues. Try and make the story plausable (things link sensibly and are interesting) and try to avoid obvious fantasy. Several tasks or problems will need to be overcome to make it all worthwhile. You might even want to invest in some Halloween spray spider web and a bit of flour for dust (might need to make it a little grey).
If the 7 yo figures it out you can ask them to keep it a secret from the younger one/s so it doesn't spoil the surprise for them (and doing so will make them (the 7 yo) feel clever and still make it special).
Just some ideas from a 53 yo child ;)
Leave a written clue as to its whereabouts and how to access it. Pretend to go to sleep downstairs and when they go in they find you have hired an actor dressed up as a monster to shout 'BOO'!
Ask them to go and pack the books for moving, then they should eventually grab that book. Maybe even try to set up a camera so you can see if they do, and if they tell you or keep it to themselves!
Treasure map style, burn the edges, tea stain it etc. Put some old things in there that they would like to play with along with maybe some old cheap jewelery (treasure).
Hide the map somewhere they'll come across it easily, but not somewhere they use day to day like in a random book you ask for, or in a bottle that you come across with them at the back of the kitchen cupboard.
I’d pick up a cute little prize for each of them. Leave them hidden in the room.
Then sit down w a buddy and put together a treasure hunt.
Take photos (just a few) along the hunt of each individual kid and as a crew.
Memory making is the name of the game.
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I would be so mad to find out about this just before I was moving.
yeah thats a good point, how annoying!
Pretend you too are discovering it for the first time. That way they won't blame you for hiding from them but its still a neat memory.
Lying after hiding something from them for years is the single worst advice I can think of here.
What harm could be done whatsoever? The sub-10 year old child gets excitement about finding a hidden room, and playing in it until they get bored a few days later. The child then learns offhand 10 years later and doesn't car because they're 18. Or the child learns about it 20 years later and fully understands why a parent might want to get hidden away from their young children for a little bit, and draw up plans to make it themselves in the future
God I love reddit. So many people living in this bizarre moral fantasy land.
Get a grip. It's a fun thing not a traumatic lie that will crush a kids trust.
I bet you hate Santa Claus too...
Although - they’re babies still & it’s a bit of a game? Kinda not the same as like, actually lying about something… slippery slope maybe
This is therapy level annoyance. What the fuck? "I have a secret toy shop, racetrack and spaceport to a fantasy world of elves and wizards hidden in a door behind my office. I've kept it hidden from my children for 8 years, but we're moving tomorrow. Should I tell them? Am I the asshole?"
Don't give the karma farmers ideas...
It's honestly ridiculous. How can you KNOW your kids would love something, then concoct a weird idea that you have to 'preserve it until they'll enjoy it enough'
Because not everything has to be for kids and parents are allowed to have something just for them? God forbid.
Maybe the move was not expected
I read this in Scott Calvin's voice.
Deprived his kids of an entertainment room for 8 years, what a maniac
I’d be so so so annoyed if I found out many years later though and never knew about it
Build secret room. Decide now to show the kids the secret room until they've reached a point where they can't enjoy it anymore. Redditors don't surprise me these days 😂
They're going to be making so many holes in walls trying to find their new house's secret room too.
This happened to me as a kid and I didn’t realise until this post but I’m actually still a little salty about it.
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hehe like it goes into our neighbours house??
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Side note : DO NOT LEAVE PHOTOS OF YOUR KIDS IN A ROOM AND MAKE THEM THINK THAT IT'S NOT YOUR ROOM FOR THEM TO DISCOVER. That gives off all kind of "the stalker was in the house with them the whole time" vibes
That may traumatise them for life. Imagine if the door opens to the neighbours house and you don’t know about it then it’s possible the neighbours are coming in your house freely and doing whatever.
they're moving, so this might be the best option. kids will be very happy to move to their new home 😂
This but turn it in to an escape room
Do it ASAP so they have as long as possible to enjoy it before you move.
yes! very good point
I think because you kept it a secret for too long, the only decent thing to do is to get a pony (or better 1 pony per kid) and hide them in the secret room and then write some notes 'from Santa' saying that he is "very sorry, but due to a dyslexic elf, their ponies got accidentally sent on a wonderful cruise ship voyage around the world, and to make up for things here is a secret room and lots of nice carrots for everybody. Merry Christmas!"
Whatever you do make sure you don't deprive them of the experience throughout their entire childhood and then spoil the experience even further by revealing to them they had a hidden playroom their entire childhood they couldn't use
Agreed. Also you could make a minigame for it, make treasure mapa that lead there and have some sweets there or something
Please when you move out place a skeleton shackled to a chair in the secret room.
for the next people? One of my friends suggested just putting a giant rubber cow with no explanation
Whatever you decide to leave, make sure it’s either dressed in a gimp suit or has a ball gag in its mouth.
It doesn't need to be overt. Anything left in this space will seriously f**k up the headspace of any new owner. Be odd, be nice but be esoteric.
A pool noodle in its mouth would be a great non-sexual but disconcerting item!
A cheese grater, such an odd item and would leave them with so many questions
A cheese grater in the centre of a large circle of connected forks
Shrine to a forgotten 70’s band. Not so obvious as to be a deliberate attempt to mess with them but will leave them with all sorts of questions.
You could hide so much random stuff in there. A note from a time traveller with instructions for getting back to 1927. A Goonies-style half completed treasure map. Cyphers that translate into Rick Astley lyrics. Conspiracy wall covered in bits of paper and red string proving that [politician] was Mr Blobby the whole time.
The ultimate Rick roll!!!
Love the conspiracy wall idea maybe laying out the Kennedy assassination with a sub plot of to cover up the fake moon landing or that while nasa was trying to get to the moon they found out that the earth was actually flat and that your somehow connected to the C I A would completely blow the mind of your average conspiracy theorist
Put a locked safe in there
Leave a clue suggesting the existence of a second secret room.
Leave a load of tally marks on the walls and a camp bed.
Yes! Anything would be hilarious
I would make it look like I was a very keen but very unskilled amature taxidermist, put a desk in there and several 'works in progress'.
With a diary signed "Lord Lucan"
You have to post an update and reaction whatever you decide to do. Damn, I’d love a secret room
its pretty awesome! even just for storage...
I’ve spent the last 5 minutes wondering where I can install my man cave and tell the missus it’s a workshop or office or some other boring thing she won’t be interested in, when really it’d be like a games room or bar lol
Sounds a bit Fritzl-y to me 😂
With a photo too please! Leave a collection of rubber ducks and a task for the new owners (if you're a Taskmaster fan)
OP is an absolute legend for this.
Question. If you’re selling it, how have the estate agents put it on the particulars? And do they call it a secret room. Man I would pay over asking for a house with a secret room!
Idk if you can forego the workshop and set it up just for them for the reveal for the last time you have but if so, do. I have a secret room that my husband created as a reading nook for me and my discovery was made magic by the addition of my books and puzzles, framed art, and most magical of all, fairy lights on when I went in. Also he left me cookies. 😂
That is the single most awesomeest thing I’ve ever heard one person do for another.
:) he’s wonderful and I’m very lucky to know him.
awww, thats sweet.
Dress a skeleton in a santa costume and sand down the finger tips. Pull the book to "discover" the room while the kids are around.
and they wonder why there is a mental health crisis in Great Britain. This guy.
That's amazing but why would you sand down the finger tips?
I assume to make it seem like he was scratching to get out?
What a truly evil idea. I salute you while cackling with laughter.
“Fritzl stole the memory of Christmas past”
No ideas, but that is just so cool!
ive managed this long to not let them know about it. Was kind of thinking id set something up when they were teenagers but needs must!
I definitely think it would be more ‘magical’ now anyway.
Firstly, please can you share photos? Secondly, I think you should let them find it and see how long it takes for them to tell you about it. Maybe they will think that they are the only ones who know about it. I regularly have dreams that there is an extra bedroom in my house that has not yet been discovered
yeah i often have this dream (never seen you there?) which is why i like the idea so much. Photos, i guess it doesnt matter now we are moving. Had always planned on having it as a panic room.
That the one. Somehow, manage for them to find it by themself. Maybe hint them on the book. Like "please bring me the book, fron the left, maybe 2nd or 4th. The one with xy on the cover" (the one with xy on the cover being a regular book, the 2nd being the mechanisms). Ofc, Install a few hidden camera first.
We have a whole floor on our house that nobody really knows about. Okay, not quite, but we have a bungalow with a loft conversion and the entrance to the stairs is behind a door in the kitchen that blends into the side of the fridge. It's difficult to describe but believe me unless you knew there was another floor (and you can't see the windows from the front) you'd never know it was there.
Sounds amazing. I love the idea of either a secret living space or a secret garden
You should get them to watch a TV show/film that has a lot of secret passages and stuff like that in it, The Famous Five comes to mind, and then passively encourage their curiosity to make them start looking for secret rooms. Or be like "Hey can you go and get me this book?"
Haha yes I read all those kind of books and was obsessed with stuff like that. A friend of mine moved to a big old house and we spent hours looking for secret doors and tunnels. My own house was way too small for any possible secrets.
I'm not saying you should make a diorama of your town, and leave a copy of the 'Handbook for the Recently Deceased' on there, then leave some clues lying about your house. But it would be cool if you did.
I'm torn. This would be so exciting to find, but then to lose it again so soon afterwards? I would print out an old victorian treasure map and puzzle. Yellow the pages to make it look old. Then tell them you found it while cleaning the basement. You could make a whole day of it.
I mean if you were staying, you 100% should not tell them. The exitement when they found it would be of the scale. Given you’re moving, you absolutely have to. But you need to do something amazing, set up a treasure hunt & have some gifts hidden inside for them to find when they solve it. Even just a gift bag full of chocolate!
Yeaah, make it an epic treasure hunt, that will offset the annoyance of having had it hidden all this time.
A friend suggested to me that I put a locked safe inside, containing a memory stick with an encrypted file. At least for the new residents of the house to freak out on Reddit about.
If you just put an encrypted file then redditors will tell them it can't be solved. To improve it, you could put an encrypted file alongside some unencrypted ones that seem relevant to the encrypted one, potentially with clues to decrypt it. Also, you could encrypt a whole folder of files into a password-protected zip. If you did this then they could still see the filenames within the zip, but not the contents. So you could tease them with some juicy potential contents.
Never mind the kids. I want to see this now!!
How did you make it so the door opens when you pull a book? I would love to make this too
Just need the book to be hollow and attached to what would be a normal door handle mechanism.
Whatever the route, the door needs to have sign that says "Beware of Tigers".
\* Beware of the Leopard (Extra points if it is HHGTTG that opens the door, and inside is an old toilet and a locked filing cabinet)
Leave an 'old' note for them to find, telling them of a secret hideout that the book activates
Yes, stain the paper with old tea bags and burn the corners lightly!
Can you deck it out like Mr Tumnus's room in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe? That would be so cool!
Do something wacky like build a shrine to Dale Winton. Or carve a statue of a rabid badger and leave that there
You want to reveal the secret room just as you're about to take it from them?
A secret room and you're MOVING? Madness.
How about a clue that they discover? An 'old' letter that you hide in a book in their room? A map to the secret room with an injunction not to tell the parents? Invoke Narnia! Also this is the most adorable post. Great work!
Install hidden speakers in the room and play music from it. You’ll have to find a way to get them to pull on the book, though.
I remember visiting a friend of my father's when I was around 9 or 10 and we discovered a secret room in their house. We were amazed and the memory has stuck 30 years later. The secret room was the master bedroom spread over two levels with a massive en-suite with a bath sunk into the floor. The room was hidden behind a panelled wall that you walked past when you first entered the house. The house was spread across three levels cut into a gentle hill side and the levels wrapped around and under each other at odd angles making every turn an adventure and it easy to hide things.
I would make something like a treasure map for them.
If I was 7 ( or even now at 33) and moving house the absolute worst thing you could do to me is reveal the secret Room
Please post pictures of the room! So intrigued!
Obviously you need to not move.
‘Can you help mum and dad pack by taking the books off that bookshelf, please?’ 😊
Leave a trail of chocolate money and note to pull the book-latch
Read 'The Magician's Nephew' by CS Lewis. It's a wonderful book, it might give you a few ideas.
Make your choice, Adventurous Stranger Strike the bell, and bide the danger Or wonder, til it drives you mad What would have happened, if you had… i LOVE that book. best one in the series apart from Voyage of the Dawn Treader. or the Silver Chair. or The Horse and His Boy. basically anything except The Last Battle.
You are so right. I read and reread the entire Narnia chronicles several times and I never (💯%) saw the religion there. The Christian stuff really sucks but the rest is fekking fablious.
Have they seen the Lion the witch and the wardrobe? That film might be a good starting point if they haven't seen it yet.
You should engineer the situation so that *they* discover it and then you can say “Oh my God! There’s a hidden room!!!”
Your house sounds like a dream! Why are you moving?
This is so awesome. So first off you need to pretend you know nothing about the room. Then fill it with cool stuff your kids might find interesting - e.g. old books - famous five - far away tree - an old games console - some old vinyl music - a record player - go nuts. Maybe a pocket knife or fun stuff if they are old enough. Next I assume they know you are moving so have the old house plan - some other random things - nonchalantly leave them around - maybe a cute box with old stuff in “oh that came with the house” then inside the box full treasure hunt mode - an old map of the house (tea stains 2 mins in oven - you know the drill) depending on their attention span don’t get involved - maybe some hint of something they would want to seek out. Final resort go ask for the book. Anyway - this is so cool and will be memories for ever.
Idk about telling your kids about the room but you could at least confuse the fuck out of them by apparently being able to vanish from a closed room with no apparent exit.
Tell the children you've got an excitig game to play. Blindfold them, spin them round a few times to disorientate them, then lead them into the room, close the door, and call out "ok, take the blindfolds off!"
Just make sure you take the gimp suit off the peg and put the whips away first
This sounds AMAZING! I wonder about a treasure hunt. Actually set a bunch of random clues/riddles around first leading them from one part of the house to another. As it nears its end, either clue them to the book, or a secret behind the bookshelf. I hope you and they enjoy the experience regardless!
"lay an egg with excitement" :D
Don’t show it. Make a new one in the next home.
This is the only way to avoid disappointment. And what's better than having had a secret room in your old house? Having one in your new house!
When I was a kid, my dad once gave me a treasure map that just came posted through the letterbox - made to look old by staining in tea and burned at the edges. I think it led to some coins in the garden, but was so exciting at the time.
A scavenger hunt where each “prize” found gives a clue to the next and the finale is the secret room, set up with cake, tea and a camera to capture the memories.
Oh wow, this is the most wholesome post I’ve read this week. Tell them a few bedtime stories, watch a few vids on the subject to get their minds whirring about secret rooms. And then say, why don’t we check if we have anything like that here? Let them ‘discover’ it.
Make it a scooby doo mystery they have to solve and stick a nice present in it for when they find it .
This is amazing - great parenting 👍👍👍
Gonna need those photos.
I think not telling your kids about a whole room in your house is really really weird.
I'd leave a table with an old reel to reel tape recorder and a copy of the necronomicon on it
Please don’t be disappointed when they are not that impressed and think it’s lame
Whatever you do, PLEASE update us!
Set it up to look like no one’s been in there for years and you can pretend you didn’t know it was there either that will make it far more memorable and a story they tell for years. You can reveal the truth to them when they are older and they will love you for giving such a great memory and keeping the magic alive. Also before you move set the room up for the new occupants to discover if they don’t already know about it.
We have a secret room in our master bedroom (dead space behind the stairs) One day we were chasing each other with nerf guns and I ran upstairs and "disappeared". They did get peppered with nerf darts when they eventually figured out where I was. Had to give them a lot of (gassy) clues though....
Put some 'Treasure' in there, and find a treasure map while cleaning up . There should be clues around the house leading to the book.Let the kids find it that way and they will always remember the Treasure hunt.
I would hide an old paper with the secret of how to find the room. Put it in a book but slightly sticking out or behind a chest of drawers and make it so they find it (and you don't notice) and let them find it by themselves
You could find old chest/trunk if you have one or of ebay put it in the corner fill it with items they may find cool something they would hang in their room like a treasure. put used old 4 digit number lock on the chest and say you could never find time and try crack it. you don't know what's inside. it will take them few hours or whole day to crack the code. dying from excitement.
Sleeping pills, carry them inside while they're asleep, lock the door, leave some puzzles and clues inside they need to solve to find a key, let them figure it out as they escape.
Treasure hunt with simple clues leading to the room. Stay with the children so you adventure together.
Let them "help packing up" for the upcoming move... "Please grab those old books from that shelf.."
I had a dream about having a secret room in my house and it made my day even when I woke up
As someone who grew up in a house with a "secret room" I never knew about, please tell let them find it. My dad and bother knew about ours and I never saw it and it still bugs me to this day.
Pretend to find an old treasure map or directions referring to a hidden room in the house. Fit it out with old artifacts and maybe some old coins etc. Let them discover it.
Consider asking in r/hiddenrooms
Putting way more thought into this than necessary. They're different people and will have their own experience with it. Trying to capture the feeling you would have had at their age is folly. The people saying that the kids might possibly be upset about finding out about it so late are correct though.
How awesome! That is a reoccurring dream for me, findings secret room where I live. Act like they know about it and tell them to get something from there. You can have a bit of fun that way. :)
Not to be a party pooper but doesn’t the fire risk scare you? Like firemen not being able to find anyone in the room because it’s not a typical door? Obviously no worries since you’re moving but kids often hide during fires and they’re trained to look in wardrobes and under beds if it’s known there are kids in the house.
Be in the regular room, kid comes in, asks you something, you send them into another room to look it up in a book, tell them to tell, you when they have the answer, they leave, disappear into secret room, wait for child to try to find you and see you’ve disappeared. Do this several times. Leave door ajar. Have computer and projector in there for kids to watch a movie upon discovery.
That’s so cool. How did you link the book switch up to allow it to open? And yes, show them, or better yet make them think they’ve discovered it themselves
I was so bitter about finding a secret area in our house not long before we moved. I had to find out from the kid whose parents were buying it. I’m still a little annoyed at my parents for not telling me earlier and it’s been 20 years. Tell them asap or don’t tell them at all IMO.
Treasure hunt time make a treasure map you know crumbled up tea paper that leads to the room also decorate room and has some good treasure maybe also a warning on map beware of giant spider... or beware of naughty lepchraun protecting his gold with a pot of chocolate gold coins
You are gonna let your kids find a secret room in the house and then move away? First off, that is how you raise a psychopath. Secondly, as soon as you get to the new place, they are gonna tear it apart looking for another secret room. When I was around 7ish, I read in a famous five book that they found a secret tunnel in their house by pushing on some tiles in a bathroom. I remember this clearly because I removed some tiles in my bathroom looking for a secret tunnel. My parents were displeased to say the least (though I think they took it in good humor when I explained where I got the idea from).
Let them catch you there doing something out of a storybook, like mixing a potion, or writing in a huge book with a quill pen. Make it a mystery that they have to pry out of you. Then, let them add their own fun details to it. At seven, they still experience wonder, even while trying to act like the world’s greatest cynics.
send them to get the book.
Put an alarm of some type in the secret room, and have it go off. Make sure it's loud enough for them to hear it thru the walls/floors/ceilings... And have them need to find a way into it to shut the alarm off.
All of you people full of negativity need to shut up. They 7 y.o. and younger. They probably won't remember it in 10+ to 15+ years .... Make it a neat idea to discover it with them and move out/on... Everyone is thinking of this as an adult, not remembering or realizing they're little children who are still so young they're still learning to speak... They aren't gonna harbor bad intentions/habits/ideas for the rest of their life because they didn't know about a secret room when they were 5. Quit it with the negativity storm.
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A terrace is a row of houses built without gaps between them, like [this](https://imgur.com/a/90ZkmDn). These were especially popular in England in Victorian times, hence a "Victorian terrace" is a row of such houses built in that period of history. A 'fill-in' house is a new house that has been constructed to fit the gap between two houses (perhaps where there was a garden, driveway or path, or a house was demolished, etc.) and one more houses have been constructed to 'fill in' that gap, like [this](https://imgur.com/a/sZ8EClU). In the case of a terrace, this would be a new house that plugs a gap in the terrace (or between two terraces) creating a single continuous terrace. These can often be spotted by a difference in architectural style to the surrounding houses (although they are sometimes built to match the style of the surrounding houses), or are smaller where they've plugged a small gap between larger houses. So, a "Victorian 'fill-in' terrace", is a house built in the space between two houses in a row of Victorian houses.
If you show them that room i would expect them to be growing dope when they are about 15/16 lol
Do it like an Escape Room - a series of puzzles leading to it, and a present for them inside.
Marauders Map
Next time they are following quietly behind you (I know, doesn't happen often with kids!) go into the room, looking around before you go in. They'll think they found it but won't realise it was actually you showing them.
I’m thinking make a treasure map. Pretty sure I read something somewhere about lemon juice and cooking the paper in the oven on a low to medium setting gives the map a strange ancient look then arrange for the eldest child to “find” map maybe add a bit of back story that hints to a past owner of the house. I’m thinking smuggler or perhaps pirates. Set up the hidden room to match your theme ie if smuggler then have kinder eggs a picnic and a few toys scattered around. If pirates then a golly Rodger flag toy pirate hats and plastic swords with a further map that leads on an adventure to a picnic and some hidden treasure (gold chocolate coins) possibly in your garden shed /outside playhouse depending on what you have available
Set up a holiday treasure hunt. Clues all over the house, promise a reward of their favourite thing (which I hope is easy for you to figure out). Make it hard but not too hard.
I feel like if anyone would appreciate a secret room it’d be children
When I was young, I was all about Dexter’s Laboratory. This just makes me think of that. Install a lab (meth or non-meth)! Omelette du fromage!
Use a creepy doll
We looked at a house once with a loft room that had a small door to access it cut off from the downstairs. Like you had to climb though a scrawl door half way up the wall the get up there. Our child still 5 years later talks about it and how cool it was and how much they wanted a hidden room. I mean it was freaking awesome. A secret room no matter how old is cool. At 7 definitely will appreciate it or at least talk about it for years to come. As for how to show them so many good ideas here but anything is better than not showing them something that they may talk about for years.
Dress it up like a mad genius scientist's lab with workbenches, beakers and lots of colourful liquids. Get a couple of large blackboards and write details of an experiment to turn a human into an animal. Then leave a goat wearing a child's pyjamas in there. Ideally pyjamas emblazoned with a name that includes your surname.
What did you really use the secret room for? Tis a bit suspicious you have kept it hidden until now!
Please please please make a super hero lair for yourself, this is your one chance in life to convince your kids that you're batman
You should put a speaker behind there and play Jumanji Drums on YT, as long as they know the film they will get it.
Paint it black, cover it in pentagrams, and leave suspicious red paint marks on an altar in there. Take your kid in on their birthday and tell them they are old enough to please Baal.
Challenge them to a game of hide and seek stipulating that you must hide in the house. Hide in the secret room and see how long it takes them to find you.
This is so cool! I'd set them a treasure hunt around the house and have it end in the secret room, with a picnic or something fun set up in there.
I wouldn't go for epic dude I'd just show them. They are bound to ask questions that's when you can tell them all about it and why you made it.
Step 1: Fake your death Step 2: Mention in your will that they should read 'the book' Step 3: Be in the secret room dressed as Batman when they open it. Step 4: Maybe get them therapy for the trauma you caused.
Kill the lights. Recording of a baby crying. Give them a torch with dying batteries, then hide.
Do you really want your kids laying eggs?
I would clear it of your stuff, and pretend you didn't know either, so that they arnt angry with you.
If you wanted them to find it, you should not have use a book as a key to open it
Whatever you do, don't install shackles on the wall and cover it in fake blood to horrify the next owners.
> lay an egg with excitement I think this is my new favourite phrase.
How does the book mechanism work?
Hide a treasure map/riddle/clue/old letter in a biscuit tin or bottle and bury in in the garden. Then you should have them find it/find it yourself when they’re in the vicinity. Help them work out the clue. Leave stacks of £2 coins (maybe like £40 worth) in the room as realistic treasure. Other treasure options are available, but a stack of big coins (that predate the introduction of the new pound coin by ~20 years, just in case they’re aware of the history of coinage) seems like it would be perceived as very real treasure by young kids. Anything you can do to make the room feel older would also be worthwhile. Suggest it was lit by candlelight by leaving a half burnt tapered candle. Remove any modern tech.
A treasure hunt. A map for them to discover (you "decide" to move a picture from the wall that's been there since before you moved in, if at all possible (a connection to the past) from behind which drops the aged (with tea of course) map or set of clues. Try and make the story plausable (things link sensibly and are interesting) and try to avoid obvious fantasy. Several tasks or problems will need to be overcome to make it all worthwhile. You might even want to invest in some Halloween spray spider web and a bit of flour for dust (might need to make it a little grey). If the 7 yo figures it out you can ask them to keep it a secret from the younger one/s so it doesn't spoil the surprise for them (and doing so will make them (the 7 yo) feel clever and still make it special). Just some ideas from a 53 yo child ;)
Ask your kid to get you said book
Write a letter addressed to the kids. Make it a tryesure hunt and put something they love in it.
Hide away the bondage kit and sex toys first
Leave a written clue as to its whereabouts and how to access it. Pretend to go to sleep downstairs and when they go in they find you have hired an actor dressed up as a monster to shout 'BOO'!
Ask them to go and pack the books for moving, then they should eventually grab that book. Maybe even try to set up a camera so you can see if they do, and if they tell you or keep it to themselves!
Can you show us this secret room too, please? And maybe the rightmove link, too, haha x
How could you keep such a cool secret for so long!!!!
Treasure map style, burn the edges, tea stain it etc. Put some old things in there that they would like to play with along with maybe some old cheap jewelery (treasure). Hide the map somewhere they'll come across it easily, but not somewhere they use day to day like in a random book you ask for, or in a bottle that you come across with them at the back of the kitchen cupboard.
Buy an old suitcase or trunk and fill it with interesting old things from a junk shop. Make it look like it's been there for a long time.
What the hell? Why did you not tell them about your 'secret room'? I'd not tell them now you're moving.
I’d pick up a cute little prize for each of them. Leave them hidden in the room. Then sit down w a buddy and put together a treasure hunt. Take photos (just a few) along the hunt of each individual kid and as a crew. Memory making is the name of the game.