Weird things that scared you as a child...

[user1491572121]

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?

I hate deep water and things underwater too.

I hate things that should be in water being out of water eg boats in dry dock.

Oversized things - I used to have seizures as a child and my hands would feel massive - it's called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I think it comes from that.

I was scared Jaws was going to bite my arse if I flushed the toilet so I'd flush and run. Couldn't stand anything triangular in the dark as I thought Jaws was coming to get me.

I was also scared to put my legs down at night. Don't know why. A pp has reminded me of that. I think I thought they'd be grabbed.

And I was terrified of mechanical diggers because I thought they looked like mechanical animals.

Mulder yes to Return to Oz, the cause of many a nightmare. Also reassuring to see how many people were frightened by Dr Who.

I was afraid of the bath mat as I was convinced a monster lived underneath it, and not stepping off escalators quickly enough and being flattened by them. Oh plus the Alsation that lived across the road, and death, but they seem like pretty rational fears.

The film Hook, I have no idea why it just gave me shivers and nightmares.

PenguinDi Oh god yes, Hook was terrifying. I still remember the kids gone with the open window and curtains flowing

Jeremy Bentham, the nineteenth century philosopher.

My parents took me to see his body at UCL when I was primary aged (why???) and I had nightmares for years about it....

Yes Myother name! Marianne Dreams- That book was terrifying! Bloody moving rock things that got closer and closer, gave me terrible nightmares.

I was scared of the word 'Thumbelina' in my reading book, so every time I got to it I would stop, feeling sick at the thought of saying it, and let my teacher fill in the name!

Also ladybirds 🐞

van, ladybirds do bite...

Those scared of Lady birds are you old enough to remember the summer of 1976. When every where was a mass of lady birds.

I remember the summer of ladybird swarms, it was surreal.

I just about remember it. We were in the car on a trip out and my Aunt's dog stuck his head out of the window. When he brought it back in, he was covered in ladybirds!

I had to leave the room whenever there was an animal having surgery on Rolf's Animal Hospital. I did not do well with blood as a child. Casualty was a total non-starter!

Wizbit, those horrible dead eyes.

The Wizard of Oz. My bloody grandma made me watch it as it was her favourite film. Still can't think about that witch on the bicycle with the music 'da da da da da daa da' without a shiver running down my spine. Watching it, I used to feel that I was lost in a horrible fake sentimental technicolor world forever.

Public information adverts - especially those about fire safety, car accidents, diseases etc. Hated their urgent tones, the severe voices, the graphic images...would send me screaming from the room shudder 80's adverts were horrible!!

This one was the worst:

Other things (you've opened a huge can of worms here!)

Car washes
Seesaws
slooooowed doooown vooooices e.g if you played an LP on the wrong speed
Those old fashioned pipe organs that had creepy porcelain doll figures playing the triangle on them - waaah
Fire drills at school/fire alarms in general
Our attic - was convinced it was haunted