Just wondered if I’m being a bit sensitive about this! It happened years ago and I don’t sit and think about it or dwell on it, but I was thinking about it recently because the parent in question (my mom) was laughing about it and joking about how scared I was and how big of a baby I was, and it sort of annoyed me because I don’t think I’m overreacting to be annoyed about it! But yeah just thought I’d ask for an outside opinion
my mom was generally not a great parent- it hurts to even admit that because I still love her so much but she really wasnt. Among other things, something i remember so clearly from my childhood was that her and her friends would have movie nights where they watched scary movies (the exorcist, scream, the ring etc etc) and because she couldn’t get rid of me, I had to stay and watch too. This was from when I was around 7 to 13. Maybe I was a bit of a baby but the movie’s absolutely terrified me, to the point I was paralysed with fear when trying to sleep because I was so scared. She would also tell me stories about ghosts she’d seen in our house (apparently) and that she had been to a psychic who had told her she was haunted by the ghost of her aborted child from before I was born. My mom would then get annoyed at me because I was terrified at being left home alone so she could go to the takeaway etc and I followed her about the house because I was so frightened, which just angered her even more.
but the thing that still annoys me- her and her friends were going to an event with really well known horror mazes (the saw maze at Thorpe park). My mom lied about my age to the person there who just let me in and my mom told me it wouldn’t be scary (I knew her and her friends wanted to go in and she would be furious if I was too scared and stopped her, so i just pretended I wanted to go in). It was utterly horrendous. I remember there was blood everywhere, people on chains, and someone dressed up in a pig mask. It was so gruesome and scary and I remember we had to walk one behind each other in a chain through the maze and I could barely walk I was so scared. Obviously it was just actors but they would approach you (no contact obviously) and I was 11/12 and it was terrifying and I had a panic attack in the middle of it and broke down crying and couldn’t breath- my mom started shouting at me and telling me to grow the f up and one of the actors actually broke character to check I was ok and walk me out the emergency exit. My mom carried on the maze and I waited outside sobbing myself until she came back out and she was furious with me for being such a baby and ruining everything and embarrassing her in front of her friends. I knew it wasn’t real but it was terrifying and I felt like I couldn’t breath because I was so scared.
im an adult now and very little contact with my mom, and like I said I don’t really think about it anymore but my mom was recently laughing about how much of a scared baby I was in my childhood and she laughed about the saw maze in particular. AIBU to think most parents wouldn’t have exposed their kid to that? Or was it a sort of normal thing and I was just particularly sensitive as a kid?