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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what scares you /freaks you out that you would not consider common? Mine is a children’s book!

624 replies

elm26 · 09/07/2026 19:51

My 3 year old is obsessed with “We’re Going On A Bear Hunt” after having it read to her at preschool, she knows all of the words and we bought it as one of her gifts for her birthday.

We read a book every night at bed, whenever she reaches for this it gives me such bad goosebumps!

I don’t know if it’s the way it’s written, the pictures, I genuinely feel panic when they’re trying to get away from the bear and he’s in the background of the pictures and then at their front door and they’ve forgotten to lock it. I absolutely detest it 🥴 it gives me the right creeps!

This is baring in mind that all I read myself is psychological thrillers and I’ve watched so much true crime I could probably commit the perfect murder 😂 why do I have such a panicky/spooked response to a children’s book fgs!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
23
Flannelfeet · 09/07/2026 20:16

Im scared of balloons..the latex kind 😢. Also scared of holes..trypophobia. I do love crumpets though so thats a weird one.

Original poster
elm26 · 09/07/2026 20:16

LooksLikeIPickedTheWrongWeekToQuitDrinking · 09/07/2026 20:10

Pylons. Hate them. I love modern and industrial structures and architecture but pylons are creepy. They have arms and legs.

Wildebeest. Weird AF. So top heavy they look like they should topple over. And are they deer or cows? Horrible things.

Also freaked out by chimpanzees and hippos 🤮

My sister had an absolute breakdown at Monkey World in Dorset at Christmas when there was one particular chimp who stared her out from behind the glass! Every time she moved, his eyes followed her. She had to get out of the viewing box!

OP posts:
Justanopinionnothingmore · 09/07/2026 20:17

My irrational phobia is megalophobia. I aren't bothered by small wind turbines but huge ones make me go sick.

There is an absolutely mahooooosive one near a load of factories, next to the road, near to my city. I had no idea it was there but when I spied it, I nearly burst out crying. What a fuckwit 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I had to move my sun visor to the right of me so it'd block it from my vision. I was worried I'd crash.

Not all huge manmade structures do this to me. Like when I went to New york, the sky scrapers didn't bother me.

I remember when it happened as a child, you know the big golf balls like memworth hill type ones, I had a panic attack as a child passing them. That is what started this. It's so stupid but wind turbines make me ill.

Becca182 · 09/07/2026 20:17

Mine aren't super strange but perhaps a little less common.

Dams/anything with underwater machinery, and helicopters thanks to a recurring nightmare as a child. I will hide/dive under tables if one flies near - including in my classroom, much to the amusement of my students!

Roseonthebalcony · 09/07/2026 20:18

Great thread. You’ve just reminded me that when I was younger I COULD NOT listen to the intro to Funhouse with Pat sharpe. Loved the show just not the intro it completely gave me a creepy superstitious feeling 😂😂

Original poster
elm26 · 09/07/2026 20:19

Thepeopleversuswork · 09/07/2026 20:07

I had loads of irrational phobias when I was a kid. I developed a terror of a book my mum had bought for no reason at all, it was something about the way it was drawn, and had to hide it in my underwear drawer. My mum must have thought I was nuts.

I have grown out of most of these but every now and then I will get a weird terror of something very anodyne.

I find fairgrounds and amusement parks quite triggering. I find the artwork some of them have scary as fuck.

Rollercoasters going with nobody on them freaks me out!

OP posts:
SpareVanKeys · 09/07/2026 20:20

Potatoes when you find they have grown those spindly long cold dead white fingers in the dark when you weren’t looking 😱

SeasideDaisy · 09/07/2026 20:20

Not what you asked but you have just reminded me of such a lovely memory. When my now adult son was little he used to make me read him this Book (pic attached) all the time he was terrified of the serious man in the serious hat! He went on to conquer his fear by colouring over the man’s face and ripping off his pointy finger, I remember he was very proud of this.

To ask what scares you /freaks you out that you would not consider common? Mine is a children’s book!
To ask what scares you /freaks you out that you would not consider common? Mine is a children’s book!
Original poster
elm26 · 09/07/2026 20:20

Roseonthebalcony · 09/07/2026 20:18

Great thread. You’ve just reminded me that when I was younger I COULD NOT listen to the intro to Funhouse with Pat sharpe. Loved the show just not the intro it completely gave me a creepy superstitious feeling 😂😂

Haha I laughed out loud at this! How funny the things that freaked us out at kids, mine was Back To The Future but love it as an adult!

OP posts:
Roseonthebalcony · 09/07/2026 20:21

Also I find Wallace and grommit really eerie and can’t watch any of it.

Original poster
elm26 · 09/07/2026 20:21

SeasideDaisy · 09/07/2026 20:20

Not what you asked but you have just reminded me of such a lovely memory. When my now adult son was little he used to make me read him this Book (pic attached) all the time he was terrified of the serious man in the serious hat! He went on to conquer his fear by colouring over the man’s face and ripping off his pointy finger, I remember he was very proud of this.

Bless him! ☺️

OP posts:
LadyMonicaBaddingham · 09/07/2026 20:22

Noseybonk still gives me the willlies...

To ask what scares you /freaks you out that you would not consider common? Mine is a children’s book!
letmebetheone · 09/07/2026 20:23

Wind turbines in fields, much too War of the Worlds for me.

Also driving over a train level crossing when the barriers are up. I have to take a run at them and hold my breath.

OhBettyCalmDown · 09/07/2026 20:23

Oh I get the thing with holes too but my biggest irrational fear is glitter. Omg i can’t stand the stuff it gets everywhere! I hate the idea of it getting inside me. When the kids chuck it everywhere I go into full panic mode when it’s stuck to the face. 😂

3ormorecharacters · 09/07/2026 20:25

Becca182 · 09/07/2026 20:17

Mine aren't super strange but perhaps a little less common.

Dams/anything with underwater machinery, and helicopters thanks to a recurring nightmare as a child. I will hide/dive under tables if one flies near - including in my classroom, much to the amusement of my students!

I'm with you on the underwater machinery. As a child we used to go to a swimming pool with a wave machine, the memory of the black gaping void at the deep end where the machinery was with the bars in front of it still makes me feel a bit ill. I went snorkelling many years later and the sight and clanking sound of a big chain underwater provoked a very similar feeling.

Namechange789067f · 09/07/2026 20:25

Mine is Monkeys doing human things, or dressed in human clothes.

i also don’t really like normal monkeys as i imagine them doing human things

Kirbert2 · 09/07/2026 20:26

This is definitely a weird one.

My son has spent a lot of time in hospital and they use large robot hoovers around the corridors. Sometimes they are in the middle of the corridor and I quickly scarper past it. 😂

They freak me out.

MrsDoylesTeacup · 09/07/2026 20:28

Swimming pool grates, can’t swim over them and sometimes it’s not obvious where they are until I’m almost on top of it so then I do an abrupt veer off to one side, cue weird looks from other swimmers and me trying to explain my irrationality.

Tanyasfatmate · 09/07/2026 20:28

The toilet roll with pictures of a Koala's face on creeps me out. I don't want a marsupial sniffing round my privates, thanks

Kirbert2 · 09/07/2026 20:30

My son used to be afraid of mustaches when he was little. He watched an In the Night Garden episode which involved a mustache flying around (because it was windy, I think?) and it suddenly flying around scared the living daylights out of him and made him afraid that actual mustaches would do the same. 😂

It's something we both laugh about now that he's older.

skiprun · 09/07/2026 20:31

Mine is other peoples loose strands of hair. I’m ok with mine (running my hand through my hair and a few strands coming out) but other peoples? No way. I can’t walk bare foot in a public place (swimming pool etc) for the fear of strands of hair getting stuck to me. The idea of someone else’s hair getting stuck to me makes me feel so so ill, and panicky.

CatBusStop · 09/07/2026 20:31

LittleGreenDuck · 09/07/2026 20:13

Allotments. I always assume they are where the bodies are buried.

How do you feel about graveyards?

CelticSilver · 09/07/2026 20:32

MrsDoylesTeacup · 09/07/2026 20:28

Swimming pool grates, can’t swim over them and sometimes it’s not obvious where they are until I’m almost on top of it so then I do an abrupt veer off to one side, cue weird looks from other swimmers and me trying to explain my irrationality.

This is one of mine! Shudder.

Twokittenchaos · 09/07/2026 20:32

Swimming pools. They turn my stomach, the thought of water splashing in my face or my mouth which has just swirled around someone’s crotch and armpits. Or just being immersed in multiple people’s diluted bodily secretions.

8misskitty8 · 09/07/2026 20:33

elm26 · 09/07/2026 19:51

My 3 year old is obsessed with “We’re Going On A Bear Hunt” after having it read to her at preschool, she knows all of the words and we bought it as one of her gifts for her birthday.

We read a book every night at bed, whenever she reaches for this it gives me such bad goosebumps!

I don’t know if it’s the way it’s written, the pictures, I genuinely feel panic when they’re trying to get away from the bear and he’s in the background of the pictures and then at their front door and they’ve forgotten to lock it. I absolutely detest it 🥴 it gives me the right creeps!

This is baring in mind that all I read myself is psychological thrillers and I’ve watched so much true crime I could probably commit the perfect murder 😂 why do I have such a panicky/spooked response to a children’s book fgs!

If the book creeps you out, do not look it up on YouTube !
There is a video of Michael Rosen the author reading it and doing all the actions.