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Original poster

Weird things that scared you as a child...

341 replies

user1491572121 · 16/04/2017 09:22

My DD is 12 and I was just absentmindedly singing "Frere Jacques" and she said "Oh that song! It used to give me nightmares!"

And I said why? I used to sing it to you all the time!

And she said YES! And it made me think of people drowning...

Apparently she used to hear it and envision a man in bed and then water would rush in and drown him!

What weird fears/thoughts did you or yours have?

OP posts:
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FanaticalFox · 16/04/2017 13:04

I was scared actually petrified of waves at the beach. Apparently i liked the sea but couldn't get past the waves until my dad forced me to stand there and let the waves run over my feet one day and i was like "oh this is fine not scary at all" haha silly child!!

hoddtastic · 16/04/2017 13:06

the 'bongs' on the news at ten, overhearing them used to make me feel really anxious. still does

AFingerofFudge · 16/04/2017 13:06

Electricity Pylons terrified me, I had to close my eyes when I went past any.
Also was scared of the dark.

Greenfingeredfun · 16/04/2017 13:07

That my hot water bottle would catch fire.
The music to Doctor Who.

Crispyturtle · 16/04/2017 13:12

Spotty from Superted! When he popped up at the window in the opening credits, I just found him really sinister.

Highmaintenancefemalestuff · 16/04/2017 13:12

Tractors - still scared of them, the wheels are bigger than me!
Dinosaurs - still scared. Nightmares after watching jurassic park as a kid. My poor son can't have any Dino clothes or toys.

My tormentor of a brother thinks it would be great if a dinosaur driving a tractor came down our road.

ProfYaffle · 16/04/2017 13:14

My Nan's wardrobe. If I stayed overnight, she had to throw a sheet over it so I couldn't see it.

PlasticLamp · 16/04/2017 13:16

Anubis. I thought I saw him stick his head around the door to the loft and it scared me so much.

I still sometimes run past that door when I visit my parents Blush.

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 16/04/2017 13:17

My wallpaper Blush

ThunderClouds · 16/04/2017 13:18

I was terrified of the moon until my DF explained what it was and how far away it is!

StorminaBcup · 16/04/2017 13:19

Dr Who made me scared of drains in swimming pools. There was one episode with Bonny Langford as the assistant and iirc a large swimming pool with robot spiders at the bottom of it. I still can't swim over them now!

Derlei · 16/04/2017 13:20

Any shallow water, like a swimming pool. Convinced there were crocodiles in them.

Those big power stations. I dreamt at a very young age that my mum was being chased by them, hence my irrational fear

MrsPringles · 16/04/2017 13:22

The airing cupboard

I had a dream that Henry the eighth and all his wives were in there but they were dead and if was a strange giant coffin.

My house doesn't have an airing cupboard now and I think I'm a bit relieved Blush

EggysMom · 16/04/2017 13:23

What scared me was an old David Niven film called The Brain. There's a scene close to the start where his head suddenly falls to one side when he learns something new (the idea being that his brain is too heavy for his head/neck), and it scared me witless as a child.

Elledouble · 16/04/2017 13:24

Plug holes. You know when there's a droplet of water in the middle and it reflects a ring of light? I used to think it was an eye.

I was reminded of it watching Doctor Who last night Blush

PuppyMonkey · 16/04/2017 13:25

There was an occasional character in the old Parsley the Lion / The Herbs TV show, think it was some sort of dragon - snapdragon? - and I was terrified of it. Hence, whenever I heard the music to the show, I was terrified in case the scary dragon might be in it. The music still makes me scared.

mrsdolittle · 16/04/2017 13:28

Beards. I think I got traumatised by a visit to Father Christmas as a very young girl and for some years was terrified of men with beards. Bit awkward tbh - happily over that now.

A character in Rupert the Bear called Raggety - still freaks me out now!

TroysMammy · 16/04/2017 13:28

Puppy Tarragon the Dragon. A friend told me he used to scare him shitless when he was a kid too.

Wateroffaduck · 16/04/2017 13:28

A castle, my gran lives in a town with a ruined castle, it used to scare the shit out of me.

WeirdAndPissedOff · 16/04/2017 13:28

The gaps between the planks on the pier - I always felt like I would fall through.

And the gaps in my Dad's staircase - I alwas half-expected a hand to come through and grab my feet.

Oily bubbles - when you get the multicoloured patterns run across the surface it kind of weirded me out.

When in bed at night I used to see pixels which my mind would make "scary" shapes out of. I also used to hear the blood pounding in my ears which I attributed to the "shapes" - between both of those I used to get pretty scared!

PuppyMonkey · 16/04/2017 13:28

Tarragon the dragon,that's him.

Weird things that scared you as a child...
Tinkerbec · 16/04/2017 13:29

" The Rag and bone man " scrap metsl collectirs shouting

" ayyyyy rag bone" echoing round the streets. I used to run back in the house.
So scary.

mirime · 16/04/2017 13:30

The door handles in our house. Looked like sinister faces. Terrified me and my sister. They all got changed except for the one on the airing cupboard door and when I had that bedroom in my teens I still needed to hang something on it so it couldn't watch me.

StorminaBcup I think that was Paradise Towers. She got threatened with a toasting fork as well and the BBC received complaints. The Doctor Who story that scared me was Snakedance - it was the talking snake skull and Tegan being possessed that did it, rather than the sight of a young Martin Clunes in ridiculous gold hotpants. I did watch it again a few years ago and it was hilarious rather than terrifying.

Minstrelsareyum · 16/04/2017 13:31

Railway lines. Information films shown about them in school and their dangers did it for me. I cannot look at the electrified lines running down the middle of a track without awful images from those 1970's information films.

mirime · 16/04/2017 13:33

Also coal mines. Lived opposite one, could see the winding great from my bedroom window. I thought there were dead people down there burrowing towards me.

Of course later I found out that there were dead people down there. Probably not trying to dig there way to me though.