It turns out that quick sand, burglars and house fires are far less of a risk in adult life than I'd anticipated. Phew!

[Limth]

As a child, I felt certain I'd witness at least one untimely death in quick sand. Possibly my own.

I also felt certain I'd be burgled in the middle of the night on multiple occasions by a duo of tiptoeing men, one of whom would be wearing a stripy top.

And I felt sure that, at least once in my life, I'd wake in the night to a room filled with smoke as my house burned down around me. I still won't let my dog sleep downstairs just in case of fire.

These eventualities were so ubiquitous in children's media - I was born mid-80s - that I was sure they were just eventualities. In fact, almost obligations - these things were so ubiquitous to be almost legal mandates - that everyone had to experience a house fire, burglary and a brush with quick sand death at some point.

What things from your childhood turned out to actually be far less of a risk than you'd thought?

I was led to believe by the cartoons I watched that rattlesnakes were a constant threat. Despite growing up in southern England. Also any ticking sound could have been a bomb hidden by a random bad guy.

My mum (bless her, she was lovely and I have no hard feelings) was scared of everything. Bad food, sunshine, burglars, crossing the road, travel in general (esp planes), going abroad, dogs, you name it. None of those things she warned about have ever happened to me. And I'm not 60 years old.

Twisters! Amazingly I have never been carried off by one, Dorothy style.

I had that as a young teen...I still expect to move objects by ESP.
Aliens 👽 haven't featured in my life either.

@wastingtimeonhere yes I had forgotten about ESP!

What about the crystal skulls?

To many to mention but the tope ones I can remember:
Quick sand
Electrocution (apparently of you got even too close to a pylon it could 'jump' and kill you that way)
Drowning by being pulled under by the reeds in a river
Playing with superglue and risking gluing your nose and mouth shut and suffocating
World War 3 breaking out
Catching HIV from a toilet seat
Getting run over by a train
Fireworks
Shell-suits catching fire
Spontaneous combustion
Being kidnapped
House buring down

God, the 80s was full of child scaremongering tactics. Its a wonder we dont all have PTSD from it 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

@TeenLifeMum
I definitely was terrified of quicksand. Where did that come from do you think? We must have watched something 🤔

I've always been wary of it since a school trip to the east coast in the late 60's. My friend Pam (not real name) managed to find the one and only small patch of the stuff on the beach and didn't tell us until she was in it above her ankles, at which point we shouted one of the teachers over.
He pulled her out but not before it was almost to her knees.

We were 9 years old.
Her shoes and one of her socks are still in there somewhere!
VERY scary stuff indeed!

I think that my child self (born early 80s) would be pleasantly surprised that I've got to almost 43 without having been ended by an electricity pylon or a rogue firework. Oh or from playing on a railway line.

shellsuits catching fire sadly didn't happen to a certain Mr Savile

Great thread !!
70’s kid here - totally terrified by those videos at school, the electrocuted boy, the girl who went in the car with a man who offered a lift in the rain … ugh I still shudder !!
Charlie says …! Used to freak me out !!!
hurricanes and power cuts !
nuclear way / hide under the table ?!

Omg spontaneous human combustion !!!
parents had a big book of horrible phenomena with pictures !!
literally obsessed / terrified !!

Terrified of quicksand. I was a child of the 70,s

And also scared of the Russians and nuclear war.

Rural 1970s childhood. Apaches definitely made me very scared of slurry pits and accidentally drinking paraquat. Also spent a long time feeling very guilt about not reporting a possible citing of a Colorado Beetle (like another poster we had posters up at primary school).

player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-apaches-1977-online

I went for a walk a few years ago and we got lost, and ended up in the boggy swampy bit with wobbly grass clumps we tried to walk on to avoid the water. It was up to my knees and I was panicking as I thought I was going to die, and be found thousands of years later as a perfectly preserved bogwoman by archaeologists. (Catastrophising much!)

It brought back Neverending Story memories for me. At least I didn't have a horse.

Despite the dire warnings at the end of summer term every year I'd still play next to the railway track with my brother and neighbours. Didn't fly kites near power lines or try and retrieve frisbees from sub stations though.

Lol... Great thread. Mine was getting run over by a car, breaking an arm or leg which would go in a cast which all my mates would sign. My mother never took us to the pedestrian crossing, always crossed in the middle of the road, so I felt my chances were higher. 😃
Quick sand or quick mud is a recurring dream which I think comes from a 1970s movie.

I've experienced quick sand sadly. Was traumatic not exciting and I didn't die

However. I've not had a single person grab my legs from under my bed to do unspeakable things to me or kidnap me during the night especially when getting up for a wee.

This is my big fear as well.
I've not had a bath since I saw Jaws when it came out.

What, so THIS is why we have such intrusive thoughts. Falling down stairs breaking neck in public, involuntarily leaping off balcony and impaling self on railings, masked men bursting in bedroom at night, being pushed in front of a train and all of pp.

I was born in the late 70s.

My favourite one of those was the advert where the lady gets her purse nicked and she goes "ooh, my purse". We used to act it out in the playground.

Has anyone disappeared in the Bermuda triangle recently? I had high hopes for that Lost programme on that score but they fucked it up.

Sorry this has really tickled me 🤣

The chip pan has yet to catch fire. Although we did throw it out circa 1980 and even if it did, we watched enough adverts to be fully equipped ( a wet tea towel).

When I first left home in the 90s I put out a chip pan fire with a wet tea towel (as advised by PIFs) while my boyfriend flapped and panicked uselessly in the background. The chip fan he'd managed to set on fire. Still proud of that!

Quicksand was a big danger in the old days...as was rabies.

I thought one of those would do for me by the time I was 20.

Other than that, I considered The Loch Ness Monster a real and present danger; yetis too.

Werewolves were the number one threat though.

My Mum subscribed to that too! I think the SHC was in the front cover of one issue

A relative saw Jaws as a small child of about 3 or 4 when it was first released on telly. According to family legend, he was unphased by the gore but was very sympathetic to the fate of the shark, who he through was called ‘george’ 😁