What were you scared of as a kid that wasn't meant to be scary?

[Kala24]

For me it was Dastardly and Muttley. I have no idea why but I was terrified of them and if I woke up in the night to use the bathroom I used to run because I thought they were hiding in my attic and would snatch me and pull me up.

It's just funny looking back because they're not even scary characters and not meant to be😂

Those Rupert Bear stories. The combination of the animal heads on top of human bodies unnerved me. Maybe it’s too much like people wearing masks?

Pylons. Thanks to those PIFs. I hated the humming noise they made.

The Yep Yep monsters in Sesame Street. Bert and Ernie in Sesame Street.

I was messing about on an escalator once and fell. Became scared of them ever since because I thought I might be sucked in.

The plughole in the bath. Thought I would be sucked down in.

Men. Especially with beards or glasses but any men.

Sudden movements coming towards me or unexpected loud noises. Still hate them now.

Being locked in things. Had a fear of being locked in the
Lavatory

@OnlyOpenMouthToChangeFeet me too with the father one.

@Redlarge I can see why you might have been scared of the Maggie Thatcher one! I do like the Boris Johnson one in the more recent series it cracks me up! But yeah that MT one was horrible! Urghh.

@Twitch45 Watership Down (film) is way too traumatic for children to watch. As an adult I still find it too horrific. I can cope with the book. Don't get me started on Raymond Briggs When The Wind Blows. I'm thankful that I was only about 4 when it first came out, I couldn't have borne that. By the time I was old enough to be aware of the nuclear war threat (late 80s early 90s) it had begun to recede a little bit it was still very much there in the background. Then it was all about the greenhouse effect, ozone layer holes and rainforests etc. what a depressing time to be a child although there were worse ones (The Depression, or The Blitz for example).

Holes close together. I'm still like it now, the worst thing that sets me off is barnacles on a rock (I find it hard to even type that word and seeing them makes me physically sick). I grew up going to North Devon for Easter and my Dad always tried to take me crabbing in the rock pools but I would scream and cry at the thought of my feet touching the barnacles. I believe it's called trypophobia.

Clowns have always scared me.

@Pr1mr0se You're talking about Noseybonk from Jigsaw. Omg. I often think about that. Utterly terrifying. What were these people thinking?!! 😨

The splash of paint under a shelf that looked like a green man that I would still be telling everyone was a ghost if my mother hadn't finally got down to my level to see what I was seeing...

WinkyTinky - now I have a name to the terror! 😁 Thanks, I think I'm over it now but yes truly terrifying watching this as a kid.

Beards. My uncle had one for a time and I used to run away screaming if he came near me!

@ThankYouVeryMuchGerry I have no idea why that’s completely hilarious, but it is!

Beaker in the Muppets.

One of the beatrix potter stories, I can't remember the title but a cat gets trapped by some rats in a wall and them wrap him in pastry to make a pudding. Terrified me as a child, I had nightmares for years about being trapped and tied up by rats.

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers - his intended roly poly pudding filling is Tom Kitten. It is properly terrifying even when you're an adult and know the cat survives.

Beatrix Potter was dark.

Samuel Whiskers terrified me, too. But surely he is meant to be terrifying. I think of that book as being my first horror movie experience. I enjoyed it in exactly the same peering-through-my-fingers way that I have enjoyed horror movies since.

That monstrosity on children's tv called Whizzbit (shudders) and the introduction to Trumpton. Yeah I was a weird kid.

I would say some of the teachers at school and sometimes my parents but then again what child doesn't have a healthy fear of adults in authority at times ? Especially when you've been acting up? So I would say that doesn't apply here.

The Rescuers. As in the animated Disney film.

This fear continued right through my teens and everytime I tried to watch it I'd get 10 mins in and it would have to go.

Dear readers, I was 21 when my nan made me sit down and watch it all the way through and even then I was concerned. 😂

Needless to say, the fear left me after that point

Reading the posts regarding Beatrix Potter and how dark some of her books could be reminds me of another writer for children at that time- Hilaire Belloc, and his hideous Cautionary Tales. I was afraid of swallowing chewing gum and dying as it was and reading about the little boy who chewed string was pretty worrying. It didn't help that I had a nervous habit of chewing my clothes and hair. Then there was Augustus who refused his soup for just 5 days and then died.

The Hansel and Gretel ladybird book scared me. Would my parents leave me in the woods because they didn't want me anymore ! If I was bad would they abandon me?

Why were children's stories so bloomin' frightening??

Alice in Wonderland

I still find the story creepy and I could not watch any of the adaptations especially the Tim Burton one

@HRTQueen yeah that book and also Alice Through the Looking Glass were pretty hideous. Hitting babies for sneezing and playing croquet with hedgehogs and flamingoes. And the hashish smoking Caterpillar was horrible to Alice when she was crying ("I suppose you think those are real tears?")

Potatoes!!

NotMyCircusAnymore I don’t remember any of that

thankfully

Hartley Hare. Still am.

Hartley the hare looked like he was extremely drunk, had a stroke and possible myxomytosis (do hares get that?) all at once. a more terrifying lamographine being I never saw in my life.

Hartley Hare was a horrible character

there were many childrens shows in the 70’s that were quite sinister

there was an awful adaptation of Pinocchio I shall look for some pictures