Things You Were Terrified Of As a Kid

[Pike]

I'll start: The vacuum cleaner. I was convinced it was going to suck up both myself and all of my toys.

[Futan]

I saw Stephen King's It when I was like 6 and for years and years after, I was afraid of drains. What? Were you expecting clowns? :p

[Lonely Paper Star]

MIRRORS. ESPECIALLY IN THE DARK.

At family parties, we kids would gather around for ghost stories and someone ALWAYS brought up Bloody Mary, Candyman, and other various kinds of mirror ghosts. I was a gullible kid (maybe I still am? lol) and totally believed in that shit. Alvin Schwartz' blurb about it in one of those Scary Stories books didn't help any.

Neither did hearing about ghost ladies when I was in the Philippines. Those can appear behind you in the mirror, too. D:

[krissy]

basement
going from the bathroom to my bed at night
graveyards
mansions
clowns
pigs
pig guts
bulls
bull guts
satanists
goats
villains from captain planet
skeletor
teachers
needles
doctors
dentists
cauliflower
prophylactics
older kids
drama movies
big dogs
small dogs
chickens
fat rabbits
bees
wasps
lice

[Agent Proto]

When I was living in England back in the 80's there are these commercials that featured this horrifying cereal mascot. Mostly, it was kids turning into the monster whenever the cereal's name was mentioned. I just had to do a quick google to find out that this was for Sugar Puffs. :( Most of the commercial scared me as a kid. I was so afraid I would turn into a monster if I ate Sugar Puffs.

Sugar Puffs - Boyscouts - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1Ac_89iPc&feature=relmfu)

[Sephex]

ADrojCw6amM

[Jowy]

the first thing i remember actually fearing in my life were these scary looking orange chairs in the kitchen when we lived in the tiny little beach cottage. they were just chairs but something always seemed unsettling about them. i still hate orange! the nightlight's reflections off of my sesame street chair always made it look like ursula from the little mermaid was going to come down from the wall and swallow me whole too. and then after playing FFIV i couldn't sleep away from the wall for a few years because I didn't want the demon wall to come attack me at night and squish me like a pancake. hearing cats hiss always puts me on high alert too, to this very day.

and the "this is a test of the emergency broadcast signal" thing on the radio/TV. also "now we end our broadcast day." super unsettling.

[DMKA]

Back in the late 80s/early 90s there was this anti-drug PSA that used to air while cartoons were on when I was like four and five years old and it scared the living crap out of me. It consisted of some dealer gradually transforming into a snake monster creature as he was directly addressing the audience. I had nightmares about it, and I remember him sticking his snakey tongue out at you at the end. I would assume I dreamed it up if not for the fact that I so vividly recall how much it freaked me out as a kid.

EDIT: Nope, I didn't dream it up. Thanks YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSIZQRi4M6c)

[Lonely Paper Star]

Back in the late 80s/early 90s there was this anti-drug PSA that used to air while cartoons were on when I was like four and five years old and it scared the living crap out of me. It consisted of some dealer gradually transforming into a snake monster creature as he was directly addressing the audience. I had nightmares about it, and I remember him sticking his snakey tongue out at you at the end. I would assume I dreamed it up if not for the fact that I so vividly recall how much it freaked me out as a kid.

EDIT: Nope, I didn't dream it up. Thanks YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSIZQRi4M6c)

OMG. I never saw this when I was a kid, but if I had, I would've freaked the smurf out as well. T_____T

[Freya]

Earthworms. Infact, they still scare me.

I'm convinced that if I step on them that they'll get mad at me for killing on of their friends and then destroy the very ground I walk on. Didn't help that my mom loved the movie tremors when I was a kid. Worms xP ICK!

[escobert]

Flushing the Toilet. I would always run out of the bathroom after flushing.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Aliens abducting me at night, while I was sleeping or otherwise.

Staring out of a window when it's dark outside. Thinking that if I stared for more than a few seconds I would see something come out of nowhere and stare back.

[Mirage]

That dark place under the stairs down to the basement.

[Clo]

Squirrels in the attic.

[Chris]

I saw Deep Impact, and I was scared to hell about meteors smashing into Earth. :(

[Formalhaut]

Moths. I really hate moths. I still do, to a smaller extent today.

[Pike]

Moths. I really hate moths. I still do, to a smaller extent today.

YOU. YOU ARE MY FRIEND.

Come help me kill all the moths.

[Chris]

How could anyone possibly fear/hate these cuties?

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/sites/default/files/story/2011/09/image002_gif_44390.gif

[Pike]

asdgkjahstyklaustklyau;lwgkju;las SPOILER THAT NEXT TIME AS;LGHA;LISTYU;A

[Shorty]

Vampires, demons, the devil, hell, going to hell, committing sins bad enough to go to hell, authoritative figures, getting in trouble, murderers, rapists, natural disasters.

[Formalhaut]

asdgkjahstyklaustklyau;lwgkju;las SPOILER THAT NEXT TIME AS;LGHA;LISTYU;A

I was just calmly scrolling up this page when suddenly that THING appeared. Chris, you are no longer my friend after pulling that stunt! Honestly... :p

[Mirage]

Vampires, demons, the devil, hell, going to hell, committing sins bad enough to go to hell, authoritative figures, getting in trouble, murderers, rapists, natural disasters.
I don't think my parents (or anyone else around me, really) ever seriously talked about people going to hell. I'm kinda glad I didn't get such ideas put into me.

[Shiny]

Spiders & Centipedes - They have too many legs and they move fast!

Top hats - Not sure why, but I think because they were just tall and strange looking.

Carrot Top (the comedian) - He still scares me to this day and even more so now that he's all roided up.

The tub drain and the toilet - I was all, will I be sucked down?

Elderly people who tried to touch me - This sounds wrong, but that's not what I meant. Basically I had a fear of old women in particular old ladies giving me kisses with their teeth-less, drooling mouths. I've since gotten over this fear and just allowed for it to happen when necessary in family situations.

Horror movies - This is obvious. I don't know why my parents let me watch things with Freddie Krueger, The Boogeyman, Chucky, or Leprachaun in them. Now that I'm older, a lot of those movies are funny to me -- especially the ones with Chucky.

[Futan]

I don't remember this but I've been told it happened. Apparently when I was real young, one day we were in a Roy Rogers in the mall and I noticed a big Gumbi statue in the corner I guess. I stood up on my chair, pointed at it and started to scream in terror. I'm sure much to the embarrassment of my mother. lol.

[Heath]

I remember for a short while when I was about seven or right I was rather scared of aliens. I don't think there was any particular reason for this, but I think I was worried by going bed and having my guard down. I'm not really sure that me being awake would have been much better at resisting aliens than me being asleep, but there you go.

I think another thing I was scared of was - at a similar age - while getting towards the front of the queue at the Twilight Zone ride at Disney MGM Studios. I'd been on it before, but for some reason didn't want to go on it. I think my dad, having queued up with me for an absolute age was less than impressed by my sudden aversion to going on the ride. I did go on it in the end, and enjoyed it, but it's the only time I've genuinely not wanted to go on a ride of some kind.

[Lonely Paper Star]

I also remember my mom watching Unsolved Mysteries every day, and I'd usually join her and fall into a nap. The only episode I stayed awake for (out of fright/paranoia lol) was this one about some woman ghost hitchhiker. For some reason it stayed with me and scared me more than most Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes.

I'd link a clip of it but I can't find it anywhere. D:

[Aulayna]

Neither did hearing about ghost ladies when I was in the Philippines. Those can appear behind you in the mirror, too. D:

I read this just before I went to bed last night. Bad move >> going to the bathroom was uncomfortable lol - I was like "look away from the mirrors, don't look at the mirrors!"

[ScottNUMBERS]

How could anyone possibly fear/hate these cuties?

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/sites/default/files/story/2011/09/image002_gif_44390.gif
The ears that resemble combs make this creature truly frightening.

[Futan]

How could anyone possibly fear/hate these cuties?

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/sites/default/files/story/2011/09/image002_gif_44390.gif
The ears that resemble combs make this creature truly frightening.

Lol. I like how you quoted it so all the people who hate moths get to see it again(and again). :3

[Mirage]

Are they ears? I thought they were feelers.

[Aulayna]

Staring out of a window when it's dark outside. Thinking that if I stared for more than a few seconds I would see something come out of nowhere and stare back.

I still get this now. Our flat has a big double panelled glass door leaving out onto our rather spacious balcony which goes around a corner. Late at night I sometimes keep expecting to look up and see something dart past it or jump up against the glass. It has such a horror movie vibe about it lol

[Mercen-X]

pea-sized to quarter-sized spiders

Chucky

heights (when I could see the ground... I climbed a three-story tree when I was 7 or 8)

the dead hitcher from Creepshow 2

at 4 or 5, there was a kid on Halloween dressed like Freddy, so I refused to go out

Jurassic Park, there was also a haunted house when I was 10 or 11

[Jiro]

You know I was probably braver/less afraid as a kid. Growing up sucks :(

Spiders and snakes that are unknown entities are terrifying. If I know that it can kill me, somehow that's less frightening.

[milliegoesbeep]

I used to be terrified, and still am, of the following:

Peacocks ( I got attacked by one when i was about 3 or 4)
Clowns (IT was not a good idea as a kid)
The dark
Needles
Thunder

I'm a wuss :D

[Shauna]

Ghost Trains. I had to hide inside my mother's jacket whenever we went on one during a family outing. :(

[Shorty]

Vampires, demons, the devil, hell, going to hell, committing sins bad enough to go to hell, authoritative figures, getting in trouble, murderers, rapists, natural disasters.
I don't think my parents (or anyone else around me, really) ever seriously talked about people going to hell. I'm kinda glad I didn't get such ideas put into me.

The wording I was raised with wasn't necessarily that I would go to hell, it was "you won't make it to the celestial kingdom if you do/don't do this" and that terrified me at the time. Thanks, religion!

[Chris]

I have never understood why clowns are used to entertain children with. I have never met a single kid who wasn't a little bit scared of them.

[Lonely Paper Star]

I was like "look away from the mirrors, don't look at the mirrors!"

LOL I did that all the time when I was a child. DDD:

Actually... even now. If I go into a dark room to turn on a light, I make extra effort not to look where the mirror is.

[Agent Proto]

I was afraid of my parents whenever I did something wrong or bad. My mom would beat me up with her slippers, which hurts like a bitch.

[Mercen-X]

Parents... yes. Also, my grandma... religious bi...




Vampires, demons, the devil, hell, going to hell, committing sins bad enough to go to hell, authoritative figures, getting in trouble, murderers, rapists, natural disasters.
I don't think my parents (or anyone else around me, really) ever seriously talked about people going to hell. I'm kinda glad I didn't get such ideas put into me.

The wording I was raised with wasn't necessarily that I would go to hell, it was "you won't make it to the celestial kingdom if you do/don't do this" and that terrified me at the time. Thanks, religion!

The internet. Welcome to the Ethereal Kingdom.

[Jinx]

Robbers. I had these two giant stuffed bears, and would sleep with one on either side of me.

[I Make Kenta Rawr!]

*

[KentaRawr!]

The dark, and by extension, the basement, and by extension, my room.

[Laddy]

I had a picture of Donald Duck on my wall in which his eyes were all wide and his beak was agape. He was staring at me. :stare:

I didn't go in my room much when I was 4.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Looking in mirrors at night (Thanks Bloody Mary!), the dark in general, and looking out the window at night especially when my dogs were barking at something I could not see in the woods.

[Night Fury]

My Dad had a small cabinet in our hallway with all of his horror VHS tapes in it, and I remember being curious once and looking inside and there was all these ugly monsters from the side of the VHS looking at me! I got terrified and cried :(

Also, The Joker from Batman. He was scary.

[Fujiko]

Mirrors in the dark, the dark, closed shower curtains, being home alone without the TV on, black cats, and some black monster thing with a red cape that I'm pretty sure I saw in Conan the barbarian (1982); I thought that monster were in dark corners when I was trying to sleep, or behind shower curtains in the bathroom and it scared the living daylights out of me. I couldn't tell my parents about it 'cause I wasn't supposed to see that movie as I was way too young. >_> I think that's about it.

Edit: oh and, when I was taking showers and the water was cold and I had to close my eyes to rinse my hair, I'd always think a great white shark was going to appear infront of me and I was always in a hurry to open my eyes as quickly as I could. This only happened when the water was cold and I had to close my eyes. Frightening and embarrassing... :(


Also, The Joker from Batman. He was scary.

I used to love The Joker when I was a kid! :D

Edit 2: I googled for that monster, and apparently it was Conan the Destroyer (1984) and not Conan the Barbarian (1982). The creature's name is man ape, and this is what he looks like:

38054

[sharkythesharkdogg]

Every time you slice my fin off, another ape man is summoned. It will appear out of a mirror that is in a dark corner of a room, and bring with him a legion of black cats. All of this while riding a tidal wave of cold water on the back of a great white shark. :colbert:

[Cuchulainn]

UVF, UFF, RHC, LVF, PAF, UDA

[Fujiko]

Every time you slice my fin off, another ape man is summoned. It will appear out of a mirror that is in a dark corner of a room, and bring with him a legion of black cats. All of this while riding a tidal wave of cold water on the back of a great white shark. :colbert:

Sharky, you're more evil than I ever thought possible for using this against me... :cry:

Edit: you're getting rep for that though 'cause it's brilliant. :exdee:

[Jiro]

Fujiko has some of the coolest fears though. She told me a secret one and it just makes me want to hug her~~~

[Fujiko]

Fujiko has some of the coolest fears though. She told me a secret one and it just makes me want to hug her~~~

:blush:

[Flaming Ice]

38054



Reminds of a movie where a bunch of kids go exploring and find a lost treasure ship but there's some demented looking guy in the cave they go through to get there and they befriend him////

(forget what it's called but pretty old now).

[Shiny]

Edit: oh and, when I was taking showers and the water was cold and I had to close my eyes to rinse my hair, I'd always think a great white shark was going to appear infront of me and I was always in a hurry to open my eyes as quickly as I could. This

This reminds me of another fear I had when I was younger. If you can recall that film IT, there was a scene in the showers that had me scarred. Someone was taking a shower and then blood started coming through drain and the crazy clown popped up. I kept thinking that was going to happen to me every time I took a shower. Luckily my fear of being smelly overpowered all my fears of bathrooms. This is just further proof why little kids should not watch horror movies.

[Tigmafuzz]

Looking in mirrors at night

I read a research paper detailing how your mind will make things appear in the mirror if you stare at it in the dark long enough. I tried it. I shouldn't have :(

The only thing I was irrationally/instinctively afraid of was walking past a dark room. I was afraid something would reach out and grab me and suck me into the darkness. I know some people who said they would actually run past the room real fast and try to flip on the light without slowing down. I never tried that, but I always looked directly into the darkness and walked past real slowly, as if I were hoping to see something. Maybe even daring it to come at me. I was a strange 4 year old :bigsmile:

I remember seeing the Blob (the original one) and being afraid for the next week or two that every time I sat down on the couch or in a chair the Blob would come out from underneath it and absorb my legs if I let them dangle over the edge. I still sometimes cross my legs when I sit in chairs, not because it's comfortable but because I feel like I have to in order to feel secure. I get anxious otherwise :(

[Fujiko]

Edit: oh and, when I was taking showers and the water was cold and I had to close my eyes to rinse my hair, I'd always think a great white shark was going to appear infront of me and I was always in a hurry to open my eyes as quickly as I could. This

This reminds me of another fear I had when I was younger. If you can recall that film IT, there was a scene in the showers that had me scarred. Someone was taking a shower and then blood started coming through drain and the crazy clown popped up. I kept thinking that was going to happen to me every time I took a shower. Luckily my fear of being smelly overpowered all my fears of bathrooms. This is just further proof why little kids should not watch horror movies.

Don't think I ever saw that, but God... if I'd seen that as a kid...

[Cloudane]

The vacuum cleaner (actually ever since my mother took the cover off the brush assembly and I was staring absent mindedly at the belt system inside, and she caught me by surprise and turned it on. Suddenly it moved and made a big noise)

And some curtains in my grandfather's house. I was laying there in the dark and the patterns looked like a ghost and I could swear they moved. Haunted curtains... :cry:

[Raistlin]

I was stung by bees a few times as a kid with no real provocation, so for a while I was terrified of bees. I've since gotten over it, but I still hate wasps.

[Shorty]

I remembered something else I was incredibly afraid of as a kid.

I saw something on tv once that I only caught a short clip of - a teddy bear with glowing red eyes and this little devil creature (I think it was) was tiptoeing around. It was that weird 80's animation that is creepy as fuck and it freaked me out so badly. I thiiink I found that it's from this - Tales from the Darkside - Ursa Minor (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717008/).

Still freaks me out when I think about it :(

[Fujiko]

I remembered something else I was incredibly afraid of as a kid.

I saw something on tv once that I only caught a short clip of - a teddy bear with glowing red eyes and this little devil creature (I think it was) was tiptoeing around. It was that weird 80's animation that is creepy as fuck and it freaked me out so badly. I thiiink I found that it's from this - Tales from the Darkside - Ursa Minor (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717008/).

Still freaks me out when I think about it :(

7.3 rating too!

[Quindiana Jones]

I was stung by bees a few times as a kid with no real provocation, so for a while I was terrified of bees. I've since gotten over it, but I still hate wasps.

Fear of bees is irrational; hatred of wasps is natural.

[Bubba]

Uncle Frank.

Luckily, he's in prison now.

[Araciel]

The dirk.

[Miss Lady Shelly]

Christopher Walkin(or however you spell his name), Great Danes, Aliens, Tornadoes, idk just random stuff like that.

[Aulayna]

Aliens is one for me too.

Heck anytime I stumble across a UFO story or some other thing about declassified military documents that links to YouTube videos - this always happens in the dead of night just before I'm about to go to bed and suddenly I get terrified of every little shadow. Like the other night I was googling to see if NASA had announced what the Curiosity's big discovery was and of course this ended up going into Alien territory... as I was going to bed I could've sworn I saw something run past the patio door.

Which brings me onto an irrational belief I've had since childhood:

My quilt cover will protect me from anything. Provided I am in bed wrapped up in it - nothing can harm me!

[Formalhaut]

My quilt cover will protect me from anything. Provided I am in bed wrapped up in it - nothing can harm me!

Oh brilliant. To make this even better, I have a row of teddy bears (Yes, still) and it just makes me feel much safer!

[~*~Celes~*~]

The dark, tornados, tornado sirens, spiders, that emergency broadcast system noise, but probably most of all: the ceiling vents in public bathrooms. I would not go in the bathroom by myself, and I would not use the stall directly under the vent. If I did, something would come out of it and eat me. The fear was so bad that I walked into a kmart bathroom when I was about 6 and the only available stall was the one under the vent. A lady that was waiting for her child saw me standing there trying not to pee myself and informed me that the stall was free. "No, I'll wait, I don't like that stall." I was THIS close to peeing myself but one of the stalls freed up so I ran my ass in there and had dribbled a little but mostly my pants were still dry. I was probably 12 before that fear went away.

[black orb]

>>> Monsters and the bully from my classroom..:luca:
(what a puny kid)

[SkyRender]

I was definitely afraid of many things due to my over-active imagination as a kid. I think what I'm about to say takes the cake though. When I was younger, I was deathly afraid of flushing the toilet. Every time, I would take care of business, clean myself up, get the door open, stretch my hand as far as it would go to reach the toilet handle, flush and run like hell! Oh, and the reason I went through this maddening ritual on a daily basis was because I was afraid of the witch that would rise out of the toilet to kill me.

[Raebus]

When I was younger I was scared of the opening to the X files. The combination of that music and the distorted face that appears in it. D: Aside from that I Don't remember much else to be scared about.

[Red Mage Coffman]

The clown from IT. THAT CLOWN WAS SO TERRIFYING D:

I was scared to go to the bathroom cause of that clown. It is so evil, so vulgar.

I also thought that my toys were alive, thanks to Toy Story. It didn't scare me though. The thought of throwing my broken toys away and them being mauled by other weird, broken, monster toys, did.

[Lonely Paper Star]

For some reason, I was never scared of clowns, even Pennywise. Maybe it's because I was an avid watcher of Bozo's Big Top as a kid. I don't even know.

But I remember a WWF show came on once when I was little. I began screaming/crying and was feebly pressing buttons on the TV to turn it off. For a while, I guess I was scared of wrestlers. O_o

[Red Mage Coffman]

I never had a big fear of wrestlers. Probably cause I attented a small, local amateur wrestler ring as a child. It was pathetic to watch. It looked so fake. I never got over how bad it was.

As for clowns... IT should burn. Never had much experience with them before IT so I suppose that makes sense.

[Miss Lady Shelly]

I forgot to add.. woody woodpecker and Bozo the clown (Bob Bell)