I've had a few paranormal experiences throughout my life but the strangest and most unbelievable was what I KNOW I used to see as a child, 7 years old or so. A gnome... wouldn't have even been as tall as my knee, probably half way up my shin. Had a red hat and a white beard. A typical garden gnome, only he wasn't a statue.

I saw him at least a dozen times through our living room window, frolicking about in the garden and along the windowsill outside. I'd sometimes even see his silhouette through the blinds if they were closed on a sunny day.

Parents obviously always brushed it off as silly crap kids say when I told them what I saw. "Oh don't be silly" or "aww, haha, did you?" Never paid it any attention... and why would they? I even remember my father saying something to mum like "we don't even have a garden gnome" and she responded that it was just an active imagination. I lived there until I was about 18 or 19 and I don't even think anyone in our street owned garden gnomes at all.

He never even once looked at me, like he didn't know I was watching or perhaps didn't care.

The last time I saw him was about 20 years ago. Never spoken about it to anyone but my mother and sister during my adult life, else I'd probably be admitted to a mental health ward. When I asked mum she still remembers me talking about him when I was little.

I know that most people reading will probably think what a load or whatever, but I promise this is true.

Was he real? Or possibly a fabricated memory of some kind? Why would my mind make me "remember" fake sh*t?

Has anyone else ever seen one?

This happened in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia.