What were your irrational fears as a child?

[virgocatlover]

I remember at 5 I was terrified of getting worms, as in the parasite. Some children at school had idiotic parents who told them they would get worms if they suck their thumb or put their fingers near their mouth. I was scared there were worms inside my stomach.

I was also very scared of the Bermuda Triangle (thanks to cartoons) as if there was a chance I will be visiting it on a frequent basis.

Yeah, we've had worms 3 times in this house (shudder) so I'm completely unapologetic about being the 'idiot' who asks my children not to suck their fingers! It's transferred by faecal-oral route... wash your hands kids!

I was convinced the alien from Alien was going to come through the polystyrene tiles on our bathroom ceiling when I was on the loo. Unlikely.

I was also obsessed with scary mysteries like spontaneous combustion, the Bermuda triangle and the Marie Celeste all of which appeared to be seen as legit entertainment for children in the 80's.

Also one of the older boys pretended he went to a psychic and told me I would die when I was 17. For years I hated the number 17 and even though it was years later I was so relieved to finally turn 18 lol. Completely irrational but found children are so impressionable.

I was terrified of not finding anyone to get married to, and thus being alone. I just didn't understand how people picked who to marry. I thought I had to pick a boy from my class, and I just didn't want to marry any of them. This only went on until I was about 7, and I started to understand how dating etc worked. But honestly, it used to keep me up at night!

Ironically I'm 34 and still not married - although DP and I have been living together very happily for 7 years.

I couldn't sleep if there was a gap in between the curtains in case God (who was a giant) would walk past my bedroom window at night and see that I was still awake.

Helicopters and planes flying overhead because I always thought a bad guy was going to shoot me (watched too many A-Team episodes in secret when I was young) - bizarrely I'm fine with planes now but still scared of helicopters aged 47.

Nuns - as I mentioned on another thread due to a painting of a nun I saw in Bramall Hall (still scared of her now - we got married there and I had to walk past her portrait and I couldn't look at her - I thought she'd be angry as my wedding dress exposed my shoulders haha).

Factory chimneys - because my dad once told me that he knew a witch who lived in the bottom of a factory chimney (in reality, a little old lady who called herself a white witch had lived in a cottage at the base of the chimney, but in my little head, I'd imagined a wicked witch living in the chimney and flying out of the top of it at night.

Pylons - THOSE 80s safety adverts

Spires on churches - where we live, there is an old derelict church (actually a very beautiful and interesting building) that was burnt down in 1977 but the tower and spire were left standing but the church is in an elevated graveyard and seems so eerie as it's so blackened (the graveyard nor the fact that you pass on a level where you're actually level with the old corpses doesn't bother me though)

Statues - no - just no! There's nothing more sinister than a statue or an old fashioned shop mannequin from the 50s-70s era.