What objects do you remember being scared of in childhood?

[wanderings]

Rationally or otherwise? Some of mine were:

Seeing a toilet with the seat up - it looked like an open-mouthed monster, and I remember it being at my eye level too.

Shoes with buckles, especially when someone else was fastening them on to my feet, because I couldn't get them off myself. Velcro ones were OK though.

Lifts, especially the old-fashioned ones with metal gates instead of sliding doors, now quite rare.

Balloons. Even now they bring me out in a cold sweat, because they might burst.

[merlotmummy14]

Manholes. Always worried the lid wouldn't be on properly if I walked over it and I would fall in. Silly to think of now.

[GlitterGlassEye]

Mime artists or street performers pretending to be robots. I used to hate going in to town with my dm in the late 80s/early 90s. If there was a crowd gathered you can bet 1 of those creepy bastards was the cause. I remember being hysterical.

[nicslackey]

Ken Dodd's Diddy Men - so creepy

[AlevelConfusion]

Those ginormous glass bottles in the Boots shop window, filled with blue liquid
My God, I remember them, they were like some weird, scary medicine

Was also scared of the stairs with gaps in and piers where you could see the water underneath - as if I could've fallen through the gaps

I also remember seeing the birds eye blinking at the bottom of the plug hole

[Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar]

I’ve just googled the Diddy Men, wtf? Jesus! What was the point of those little buggers?

[chickydoo]

Balloons

[chickydoo]

Oh yes, and the dark and children's parties ( hated them when I was little due to an unpleasant experience)

[FireCrotch]

I was a Diddy Man! Not lying. Me and my then best mate were. Ken wasn't particularly friendly either.

[LuluJakey1]

Toilets at night - was terrified to flush the loo once it was dark.
The pressure cooker. I still would not have one in the house.
Stairs with spindles.
Tins with a key on the side - like the ones that used to open corned beef or sardines. I once cut my finger on one and it bled really badly all over a turquoise dress- I was about 5 and had been told not to touch the key.
The cupboard next to the fireplace in my grandma's house.

[LuluJakey1]

Daleks- am still scared of them
Any kind of robot

[McFugget]

That sinister stripey milk stealing straw - "Watch out, watch out. Humphrey's about". Threatening af.

[AlexaAmbidextra]

My aunt had a draught excluder that she’d made herself by stuffing a black stocking. I was terrified of it at age 3 and wouldn’t go in the room. 😄

[deliciouscheesecake]

I was scared of the grill at the bottom of the swimming pool. I still get the shudders if I swim over one.

I found out why, 20 years on.

Apparently, my mother used to say she would get the man to switch the suction on and I'd be sucked under by the grill.

This was when I was 3 and I loved water so much I wouldn't get out of the pool.

[1forAll74]

Lifts big time, never been in one for 50 years now, having got stuck in one for an hour once when I was a child.. Hate walking over railway crossings, as when I was little,myself and my friend were walking across the railway crossing, as was deemed safe to do so, but she dropped her doll, and went berserk and we both ran to the other side, and then as the gates went down a train came hurtling past and smashed her doll to pieces., as though it was a real live person.

[BigFatCurlyHeadedFuck]

Our gas meter - it was by the front door, and had a disc that went around and around inside it, which sounded (to a 5yo me) like a wolf breathing. I used to run past it to go upstairs by myself.

[TheDowagerCuntess]

Mannequins.

DF worked in a museum and for some reason we had an old mannequin in our basement for ages when we were small.

I had nightmares about it chasing me out of the basement, running stiff-legged, goose-step style.

Couldn't go into the basement alone.

[MountainPeakGeek]

BeyondAnOmnishambles "Bertie Bassett (specifically, I had a cuddly one and would be convinced it moved)"

Mine was my "Emu" (Rod Hull) puppet... I was fine with it during the day, but it freaked me out at night if I'd left it anywhere I could see its eyes. I was so sure that it was watching me and utterly convinced it moved.

[Camomila]

I have the opposite reaction to nuns. My nursery was staffed by elderly nuns and whenever I see one I feel all 'cosy' and get memories of having stories read and being spoonfed soup one day when I was poorly.

In my DGMs holiday house there was a small stuffed kangaroo someone had bought back from Australia :( My DBro used to chase me with it

I was also scared of the pressure cooker but tbh I still am!

[wanderings]

Pigeons, especially the noise they made when they flew away. (In childhood I never saw a swan flying, thank goodness!)

Steps at the side of the River Thames, which disappeared into the water at high tide. Why have steps like that?

The song "the laughing policeman" on the All Aboard record. I know several kids who didn't like that one!

When playing blind man's buff: I'd be scared of whoever was "it" hearing me, and running straight for me, with arms outstretched. But funnily enough, I didn't mind at all being the one who couldn't see: indeed I'd sometimes volunteer to go first, then I could give "it" a wide berth for the rest of the game.

People in cages, such as at the zoo: it looked too much like Hansel. Once our school caretaker showed us his budgies: he stood inside their enclosure while he did this. He also took baby birds out of their nesting boxes to show us; that was creepy.

@iklboo I remember overhead toilet cisterns - the noise the water made when flushing was scary. My mum used to flush ours to wake my brother in the morning, as his bedroom was next door. But they did a much better job of flushing though!

[morningconstitutional2017]

On TV variety shows there'd sometimes be a man blowing up a hot water bottle for entertainment. I was always terrified of the very loud pop it would make when it burst and would place my hands over my ears to avoid hearing it. Really made me shudder.

[oohyoudevilyou]

Yes, I'm another one who was scared of overhead toilet cisterns - loud and ricketty-looking! Was also terrified of the plughole in the bath - my brother told me I'd be sucked down, into the sewer and out to sea within seconds (despite living in land-locked Northants). Snowmen were also an object of fear. And Alsation dogs. And nuns. I was a very anxious child!!

[Lonelyinacrowd]

Hearing planes going overhead at night. I was convinced they were nukes coming to kill us all. I blame 'Threads' for this

@TheKnackeredChef - I’ve never met anyone else who shares this fear. I was 8 when my dad made me watch ‘Threads’ (it was educational apparently ). We lived in Berkshire right under the Heathrow flight path so this fear freaked me out for most of my childhood. Still scares me now at 42!

[dentydown]

My Oil filled radiator. It had an orange light which terrified me. I used to lay awake not going to sleep staring at it. Eventually I would get up and ask them to turn it off. They wouldnt. It got to midnight and I got up and asked them to turn it off. They were shocked I was awake and they did. After a year of not sleeping they got rid of it.

[dentydown]

McDonalds clown. Kidnapping a bunch of kids never to see their family again.