A Conversation for Ask h2g2

Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 1

Pink Paisley

Talking to my daughter (33 yo) today I was reminded of the tiger under the spare bed at my grandmother's house. I hated staying there and if I had to I ran across the bedroom and jumped onto the bed. I got out of bed by jumping and running like the clappers.

My daughter hated going in the kitchen when it was dark because of the face that was bound to be looking in the window.

She never saw a face and I never saw a tiger.

PP.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 2

Pink Paisley

Of course, that doesn't mean that they weren't there and hiding.

PP.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 3

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

By the time I was ten I had become frightened by two things:

--The kid who died of old age due to progeria, as reported in the National Enquirer or some such rag. smiley - cross Was I afraid of catching the disorder? I don't know. Maybe it was fear of premature death. smiley - sadface

--The thing that lived inside a box and looked like a lump of brain tissue with a huge eye in an episode of "The Outer Limits." If you looked into the peephole on the side of the box, the evil thing inside would see you and pull you inside and keep you a prisoner for years. smiley - yikes


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 4

Still Incognitas, Still Chairthingy, Still lurking, Still invisible, unnoticeable, missable, unseen, just haunting h2g2

Having spent my early years in a country that contained poisonous snakes,insects,lions,cheetahs,elephants,hyenas,vultures and rabies I had absolutely no fear of anything that I can remember.It was humans that were my main cause for concern.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 5

Icy North

This scary face from the closing credits of Star Trek:

http://hiddenexperience.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/creepy-image-from-original-star-trek.html


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 6

Baron Grim

There was a period when I was terrified at night. Any sounds outside my window would send me screaming to my parents' room. Every night! I imagined all sorts of threats, mostly murderous burglars. When I did sleep I often had horrendous nightmares.

I really don't know why I had so much terror. It might have been separation anxiety as I had just got a room of my own. My parents had added on to the house with a new master bedroom and I got their old one. It may also have been the earliest signs of my lifelong issues with depression and anxiety.


But during the daytime, I had few fears. Spiders & snakes didn't bother me... much. I did once think a lion was outside my window when I was much younger (the room I shared with my sister). The windows were opaque so I only had my ears to go by, but that was absolutely a lion roaring in the back yard! There's no way it was just a semi truck engine braking. smiley - laugh


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 7

SashaQ - happysad

Yeah, I went through a period of being terrified at night, too, so one of my parents had to sit with me until I went to sleep. I was mainly worried about stopping breathing, and that was probably because I had undiagnosed asthma at the time so I didn't always feel well and didn't know why.

My main fear before bedtime was of the invisible Daleks at the top of the stairs - if I lingered too long at the bottom of the stairs, they might get me with their laser beams, and I liked to go upstairs with one of my parents (as I knew the Daleks would run away if I wasn't on my own)!


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 8

Deb

When I was about 11 I was terrified of killer bees, and rabies. This was in the late 70s and I think they'd been doing the rounds in the media at the time.

The killer bees hit straight at a cast-iron fact I'd grown up with - that bees were our friends. The fact that some bees weren't shook me to the core and I had nightmares frequently.

With rabies, it wasn't dogs with it I was scared of, it was actually having it myself. I seem to remember reading a newspaper report of the symptoms and again, nightmares resulted.

Deb smiley - cheerup


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 9

Baron Grim

That's just adorable. smiley - laugh
The Dalek part, not the asthma, of course.



When I was about 4, I once had nightmare that I was in hell, being roasted on a spit. I must have screamed and woke my parents who came in to check on me. My dad felt my forehead and said, "He's hot as a pistol". Apparently I had some sort of infection, my temp was 104° which explains the dream... that and my Southern Baptist upbringing. smiley - laugh




Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 10

Orcus

'...and rabies'

We'll late 70s public safety films would get banned as video nasties now.

I remember also they terrified you into

Not flying kites near pylons
Not walking on railway lines
not going near rabid dogs.

there were probably others I would remember if nudged.

All of these things are sensible of course, but as a small child - dang those were scary ads.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 11

Baron Grim

Someone I follow on boofcake posted a video of someone tossing slabs of beef in a pond full of piranha with the comment, "Many of my childhood 1970s fears were overblown. Quicksand...killer bees...the Bermuda Triangle...Egyptian mummies busting out of pyramids and finding their way to my bedroom at night...

But piranhas? Piranhas are real".

Yep, piranhas are real, and so was the video. But this fear is overblown as well. Piranha are rather timid normally. They don't normally attack in frothing frenzies like in the video. The conditions for such attacks are rare, like entering the water where fishermen clean their catch and toss the scraps in the water, or when males are in a group in breeding season. When people have been attacked, they might lose part of a toe or finger. The bodies that have been found ravaged by piranha bites were likely dead already.

Film and TV tropes are rife with unrealistic fears and common misconceptions.

It's a wonder we grow up to be even semi-functional adults.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 12

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

One more fear, which didn't seem irrational at the time.

When I was two or three years old, my family lived in an apartment over the general store in the center of a small town. We were next door to the fire station, Every day at noon, the fire department siren would go off, and it would terrify me, being so loud. smiley - cry

A few years later, I saw a chicken or wild turkey in back of my the house that I lived in then. I was terrified of that as well.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 13

Pink Paisley

And now I remember another one.

My Grandfather was blind. I wasn't afraid of him but afraid that I would go blind too.

He was a gardener at Saltram House in Devon before he lost his sight and after that he went to a training centre in Letchworth (another thread comes to mind now) and learned to work a lathe and did so for The Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company until he retires. Then until he died he kept a lovely weed free vegetable garden. Not so bad for a man with no sight. What's so scary?

PP.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 14

Bald Bloke

To Orcus
Almost all of us who grew up in the 70's have our
https://scarfolk.blogspot.co.uk/
Moments...


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 15

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Be glad they're moments, and not months smiley - biggrin.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 16

Otto Fisch ("Stop analysing Strava.... and cut your hedge")


Yep smiley - ghost


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 17

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Welcome back, Otto

smiley - smiley


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 18

You can call me TC

I never had a fear of anything like snakes or spiders - perhaps a dangerous trait, historically speaking. I always assumed it was a sign that mankind is finally leaving the Stone Age, if there are those of us who do not instinctively fear potentially life-threatening natural phenomena.

My childhood was very sheltered, or I was a very placid and well-balanced person, because I have never had nightmares.

All I can report is the following:

Once when we were sewing (well, my mother was sewing, I was probably playing with the button box), I came across a thimble which, for some reason, was filled with Vaseline. I put my finger in it by mistake and was so repulsed that, to this day, I can't use a thimble. Nor can I use one of those rubber fingertips for leafing through paper - I have to keep licking my finger.

Which always reminds me of "The Name of the Rose" and is probably far more disgusting than wearing a rubber thimble, but such is human logic.


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 19

Baron Grim

I have a friend who has omphalophobia, the irrational fear of belly buttons. http://www.buzzfeed.com/julianakataoka/belly-button-anxiety

Most of her friends, including me, have had a lot of fun showing our navels to her, especially in digital formats. But then I felt some compassion for her and found an article (not the one above) that had some really good information and advice for confronting and mitigating that fear. Unfortunately, that article included images of navels, guaranteeing that anyone who might benefit from reading the article never will. smiley - doh


Did you have any stupid and irrational childhood fears?

Post 20

SashaQ - happysad

It is strange about fear of things like spiders - some spiders are harmless, whereas others are dangerous so perhaps you instinctively knew the ones you encountered were fine, TC! I don't like spiders because I don't like how unpredictable they are (one minute they're there, then suddenly not) but snakes are less bad because I can predict their movement better. I wondered if it was learned behaviour because my mum hates spiders, too, but she also hates moths whereas I'm fine with them!

I definitely have an overactive imagination or something, because I have nightmares rather often, about all sorts of random stuff, and even in the day my mind can run away with itself, eg if I see a blob on the floor it makes me jump in case it is a spider...


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