To ask what irrationally scared you as a child? *lighthearted*

[liverbird10]

My mother insists I was terrified of the Chef from Sesame Street as a toddler, I would howl whenever he appeared on screen.

I was also petrified by the 2ft Bugs Bunny my brother bought me.

A few years later, it was the Gorgs from Fraggle Rock. I seem to have got over that fear though, my fella resembles a blond one slightly.

Was anybody else round here equally odd?

The theme music for the PD James Adam Dalgleish stories. I was too young to watch or absorb the shows. No idea why it freaked me out so much

Not me, ds, he was terrified of birds... but only if he saw them on tv. In real life he was fascinated by them but if one popped up on screen he would visibly shake, cry and run away. The episode of Bing with the goose was the stuff of nightmares

Trevor McDonald

Dr who. Day of the triffids - when the plants starting eating people, and the movie piranhas. I thought the piranhas would swim up the toilet and bite me (well I was told this by an older kid).

Crimewatch. I always thought the crime / criminal would jump out the tv screen and get me. Weird.

People with gaps in their front teeth!

The doorless cupboard in my bedroom - it was so pitch black in the night it freaked me out! My Dsis also, she’d often sleep walk to my bedside and stand over me whilst I was sleeping - with her eyes open even though she was fast asleep. I nearly punched her in the face after I’d seen The Ring for the first time! (Dsis has long black hair, pale and used to wear a white night dress 😂😂)

My DD who is currently 20mo hates the episode “The Puppet Show Badge” from Hey Duggee - she doesn’t like the jelly dancers. She has also recently decided that she doesn’t like lightbulbs when they’re not switched on... go figure!

DS doesn’t like Gary Barlow music, at all, makes him cry for some odd reason (he’s also 20mo - twins).

My mum bought me a Gareth Gates poster once. Loved it until I was sure his eyes were following me everywhere. A friend convinced me it was haunted and his eyes were indeed moving. After that it was a big fat nope.

The Moomins cartoon. It scared me witless for some reason. I still don't really like them now.

Flushing the toilet and pulling the plug out of the bath. And my dolls-great to play with during the day but at night time they became demons who's evil eyes bore into my very soul. So I'd hide them in the bottom of the wardrobe until morning when they were magically transformed into my cute and innocent babies once again

I asked my older sister why The Army were called The Army (I was pre-school but could read so aged just under or about 4 and I think we'd attended a military tattoo or similar)
She told me it was because they cut your arms off if you were naughty.

For months if not years after, if I spotted any military personnel (we lived in Windsor at the time, so often) or passed any military vehicles etc, or even 'The xxxx Arms' pub, I'd slink down in my pushchair or in the back of the car and hope they hadn't seen me.

Got teased at school months later about the fact I believed they chopped your arms off.

@Drivemecrazy1974

I got bitten by a ladybird, everyone said they didn't but they did and hurt!

to be fair, i’m still scared of Moomins. and i can’t have a mirror in my bedroom. and the moon is a bit weird.

i used to have terrible nightmares as a child where somehow my hands were giant, and i had to try and pick up tiny things. i am still genuinely phobic of things that are Too Big, like big Jeff Bridges in the Amstel advert, and there’s a park somewhere with a giant chair that makes me want to scream and be sick.

i think this can be traced back to a combination of a giant Silver Jubilee pencil and an ear infection with a high temperature back in 1977.

ugh.

@waterlego are those the horrible rubber pencil topper things? i can remember the smell now. euw.

I was terrified to go up the stairs in the dark, I was always convinced that something was going to grab my ankles. I'd always run up as fast as I could if I had to go downstairs for some water or something in the night.

I also had a thing about toilet rolls, and spiders hiding in the cardboard tube in the middle. I still sometimes check! Similarly, as an adult I've read too many stories about spiders in bananas, so now when I buy any I stand in the shop shaking the bunch for a few seconds to force out any stowaways!

My brother had this Joker (from Batman) bike bell thing from a McDonalds happy meal which I used to have nightmares about.

I also remember catching the beginning of a program where (I think) Stephen Fry played a guy who crept into a house and injected a sleeping mother and child (?) with something and killed them. Already being scared of needles, that really got to me and I struggled to sleep for months afterwards, scared someone would inject me in my sleep...

Escalators. I think it was after seeing a public safety film.

To be honest, I'm still rather scared now, re-watching it

Slightly outing to my immediate family, but doubt they are on here. Tinned sardines, I don't know why, maybe because they had heads, or so I thought (still don't know if they do or don't) and my mum used to chase me with them which I guess made it worse!

Oh and my eldest daughter was terrified of umpa lumpas, she would freak out if she heard the song without even seeing the umpa lumpas.

For some reason, sitting at the very front on the top deck of a bus. My parents were smokers and back then you could smoke on the top deck of buses.
I used to pray that the front seat would be occupied when we got on.

I've posted this before, but I was terrified of an occasional character called Tarragon the dragon on the classic cartoon show The Herbs (with Parsley the Lion). He wasn't on it very often, but I was so terrified of the dragon possibly appearing, I got irrationally scared of the whole show and if I hear the theme music to this day, I go: "AAAAAAArgh!"

Gas. I was terrified of gas. And of our house being blown up.

Disclaimer: apparently we didn’t have gas. 😞

I was terrified of the changing eyes of the (original) Incredible Hulk. Oh, and the gorillas from the old Planet of the Apes!

Alice in Wonderland

The book, the various adaptations even the Disney cartoon

And humanized foxes (dress/talk and walk as humans)

Both still do

The green witch in The Wizard of Oz and Childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang