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AIBU?

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Original poster

To want to know a light-hearted childhood fear?

239 replies

GeorgeAndTimmyTheDog · 06/03/2023 19:33

What I mean is you can possibly laugh about it now.
For instance because of reading the Unexplained magazine growing up I was convinced I was going to "Self human combust" as that was an article in there.
Also an adult told me that bleach "Makes things smaller" so I was petrified to sit on the loo if I could smell bleach as I thought my bottom would disappear.

OP posts:
MeinKraft · 06/03/2023 20:15

Oh and lifts, after a particularly harrowing episode of 999. On reflection I probably shouldn't have been allowed to watch that in my bedroom when I was 6.

sealon82 · 06/03/2023 20:17

The cupboard under the stairs, I run past it like crazy for years. It was because of this programme that was on the tv ... Halloween early 90s. It was called Ghostwatch and consisted of a live ghost hunt that escalated in the presenter getting dragged into the under stairs cupboard never to be seen again, scared the shit out of me.

Original poster
GeorgeAndTimmyTheDog · 06/03/2023 20:17

EileenBilton · 06/03/2023 19:58

The Open University fanfare

Me too how weird !

I just started to play that then I stopped it because I remembered.

OP posts:
garlictwist · 06/03/2023 20:17

There were sheep in the field behind our house. I was terrified they were going to break in and get me so I would drag my bedding out to the landing and sleep there.

Ludo19 · 06/03/2023 20:18

If I was sitting on the sofa watching TV I used to make sure my head was lower the the back of the settee......so if the bogey man came into the livingroom he wouldn't see my head. I used my hand as a gauge to ensure it was low. What a weirdo.

Prinnny · 06/03/2023 20:18

Not me but my brother was scared headless Anne Boleyn lived in our garage…I may or may not have told him that 😂😂😂

Ludo19 · 06/03/2023 20:20

Prinnny · 06/03/2023 20:18

Not me but my brother was scared headless Anne Boleyn lived in our garage…I may or may not have told him that 😂😂😂

Your poor brother....that's brutal 🤣🤣

NormalForNuneaton · 06/03/2023 20:21

HelloDaisy · 06/03/2023 19:51

I was convinced that someone/a monster was hiding under my bed and would grab me by the ankles as I got into bed or by my wrists whilst I was sleeping. I used to jump into bed from near the door and would sleep with my arms tucked under the covers.

I was scared of crocodiles under my bed!

I was convinced that if my arm flopped out from under the covers whilst I was asleep then a crocodile would eat it!

WandaWonder · 06/03/2023 20:21

A,hand coming through lift doors as they close

Like in those horror movies, I still think it sometimes when I am in a lift

ABlindAssassin · 06/03/2023 20:22

The bongs before the nine o'clock news. So sinister!!

Original poster
GeorgeAndTimmyTheDog · 06/03/2023 20:22

MeinKraft · 06/03/2023 20:15

Oh and lifts, after a particularly harrowing episode of 999. On reflection I probably shouldn't have been allowed to watch that in my bedroom when I was 6.

Oh God every other disaster movie in the 70's and 80's had people trapped in a lift or lift falling. I still don't do lifts. Even though a lift technician once educated me on how safe lifts are and I believe him.

OP posts:
Original poster
GeorgeAndTimmyTheDog · 06/03/2023 20:24

garlictwist · 06/03/2023 20:17

There were sheep in the field behind our house. I was terrified they were going to break in and get me so I would drag my bedding out to the landing and sleep there.

😂😂

OP posts:
Eranzer · 06/03/2023 20:24

Street sweepers! I actually remember screaming my head off and running home if I saw one on the street when I was playing out.

advice222 · 06/03/2023 20:24

Leprosy! I went to Catholic schools and honestly believed it was an imminent danger. When I got older toxic shock syndrome - I was convinced it was a likelihood more than a threat.

Chickenly · 06/03/2023 20:26
  • The lines on the bottoms of swimming pools. I thought they were killer whales.
  • Ladybirds (there was incident). I’m still a bit scared.
  • The little hairs on the skin on kiwis and the little hairs on the stems of poppies - my mum told me if I got one in my eye then I’d go blind.
Rockgirl84 · 06/03/2023 20:26

I had fears of.....
Witches coming to get me at night.
Monsters under my bed waiting to grab my ankles.
Moomins .
ET.
Casualty theme tune.

LakieLady · 06/03/2023 20:27

My cousin told me that earwigs could get in your ears and eat your brain while you slept.

For years I checked the bedclothes and under the pillow, just in case there were earwigs lurking.

annonymousse · 06/03/2023 20:28

Quicksand and being swept out to sea by strong current or being cut off by the tide. I think I read too much Enid blyton as a child

ghostyslovesheets · 06/03/2023 20:30

Deadly Nightshade (although probably not that irrational) as we used to pick and eat blackberries and my mum once put the fear of God in me that I was probably going to die!

The sun going out - this was a big one! Not sure where it came from - probably some 1970's SCIFI I'd seen?

MotherFrustration · 06/03/2023 20:30

sealon82 · 06/03/2023 20:17

The cupboard under the stairs, I run past it like crazy for years. It was because of this programme that was on the tv ... Halloween early 90s. It was called Ghostwatch and consisted of a live ghost hunt that escalated in the presenter getting dragged into the under stairs cupboard never to be seen again, scared the shit out of me.

I came on to say Ghostwatch! I used to hear someone whisper 'Pipes' in my ear for years after. It really disturbed me.

PissOffRoss · 06/03/2023 20:30

Morph's grey mate, Chas I think his name is.
Used to think he looked like Morph if he'd been dead a few weeks.

Terrifying.

AffIt · 06/03/2023 20:30

Radiation poisoning - a massive threat to small children growing up in the west of Scotland in the 1980s.

Also quicksand, spontaneous combustion (whatever happened to that? It was huge for ages), quarries, quicksand, scorpions (see: west of Scotland in the 1980s), pylons, quicksand and taking the plug out of the bath while still in the bath.

And quicksand.

ghostyslovesheets · 06/03/2023 20:33

oh and Dark Water!

AffIt · 06/03/2023 20:33

advice222 · 06/03/2023 20:24

Leprosy! I went to Catholic schools and honestly believed it was an imminent danger. When I got older toxic shock syndrome - I was convinced it was a likelihood more than a threat.

TSS! Ah god, yes, I had forgotten about that.

As a person who started their period in the 1990s, you'd think girls and women were dropping dead of that shit all over the place.

I'm now 43, have used tampons all my life without incident and have literally never ever met nor even heard of anybody who suffered from TSS, never mind died of it.

I think there's a whiff of the patriarchy about it.

Woahhohoho · 06/03/2023 20:34

The moon falling out of the sky. I'd have been between 5 and 7yo and it terrified me. I'd lose a lot of sleep lying there waiting for my imminent death.

Also the kind of earthquakes that leave a big chasm in the ground. Cartoons had me convinced that I'd suddenly find myself plummeting to the earths core.

I was quite an anxious child.