What silly things were you afraid of when you were little?

Silverfish. Especially in bed.

I also thought that I would get an infection if I didn’t have my steak well-done. I also confused well done with done well. (Like perfectly). Now I prefer medium, or medium rare.

Also, I didn’t know that old spice was from spice. I was scared of cologne, even though I was a stinky little kid. I thought that brut cologne was from male elk pee.

The barn. My older sisters told me that the wild birds in the barn will peck my eyes out. Also the boogie man is in there.

Men with beards. Not sure why but it was the 70’s.

When my bedroom light was off at night, I was afraid (at least, until my dad sorted me out a couple of times) that my closet door was too much like Frankenstein’s monster, and/or that there might be monsters in the closet.

I was also afraid that I could do something that might affect how my dad or grandmother felt about me.

I was afraid of learning to ride a bike, or to ski . . . well, but that wasn’t really silly – other kids who did those things kept breaking bones!

I was deathly afraid of what was in my closet.

Then I made a warrior out of spare metal parts about a foot tall for protection,
I made him a small platform inside the closet door. Never felt any fear after that.

I was afraid of getting into a car accident, breaking a bone, or stepping on glass or anything sharp. Basically, things that could physically hurt me. I wasn’t afraid to travel in a car, and I did sports, and sometimes walked barefoot, so the fears weren’t overwhelming.

I still have a fear of throwing up, and the dread does control some of my behaviors. As a kid knowing that drug withdrawal or too much alcohol can make you throw up was a huge deterrent for me. I never tried any drugs, and I can count on one hand how many times I drank alcohol while in school K-12, and it was never more than a drink. As an adult, I still don’t drink, and also if I have any doubt about food going bad I throw it out.

Lastly, fears about biting and stinging insects was more extreme when I was younger, and also seeing a roach was scream worthy.

I had a fear of my dad and rightfully so :(

The furnace in our basement. It made all kinds of sudden loud noises. My sister and I even named it Master Cylinder after the evil cyborg in the cartoon Felix the Cat.

I thought all air planes crashed and all ships sank.

The oil furnace for the hot water system. It had a glass window sight-glass that showed the flame that was probably used for adjusting the mixture or some such. The system made a vicious buzzing sound when it was running. I thought it was full of bees and gave it a wide berth when walking past it.

@Zaku – other kids who did those things kept breaking bones!

My sister broke her leg the first time she rode a lift up the bunny slope. She tensed up and fell when she was getting off the lift. She was in kindergarten. So you were right to be afraid!

@RedDeerGuy1 Those are pretty funny! I asked for silly fears and your’s sure fit the bill!

Lying in bed at night unable to sleep I sometimes noticed my foot was out of shape and elongated. The more I felt the soles of my feet the more the distance between the heel and the arch of my foot seemed to grow. If I put the light on I could see that everything was OK but once the light was off it started up again.

Nothing really I was a wild man. Snakes were about my only fear, and still are today.

When I first read this question all I saw was “things were you afraid of when you were little?” I missed the silly part. The silly part was a hole in the bathroom wall that scared the crap out of me every time I went in there. I thought a monster would come out and get me.

@RayaHope I don’t mean to belittle your fears but…

If you are going to get the crap scared out of you… the bathroom is the place to be.

^^ Okay that made me giggle hehe
Why don’t I see the irony in stuff?

Oh @RayaHope, that reminds me…I was afraid something would come up out of the toilet and bite my ‘po-po’ while I was sitting on it.

LOL! @smudges we can’t have THAT!

^^ To this day it sometimes crosses my mind for a split second before I sit.

I actually had a fear similar to @RayaHope, but it was a different location. My house used to have a small space under the staircase as a storage room. It was the smallest and darkest room in the entire house. It was full of stuff, it was hardly organized, and it was hard to get in and out. You could get buried in all the trash inside without anyone knowing, and it was a perfect hiding spot for an intruder. You can imagine the absolute horror a young imagination could create in that kind of environment.

Here is a quick drawing of the position of the room, and here is the interior of the room, as well as how I imagined it to look like.

@Mimishu1995 That will keep me awake tonight!

Nice app btw.

@Mimishu1995 That reminded me of a small storage space that was under our stairs that was a closet. i loved to hide in there and get away from everyone else. I would spend a lot of time just looking through all the books that were in the closet and even a whole bunch of encyclopedias.

@WhyNow wow I didn’t expect to make you feel the way I felt back then :)

And btw, the drawings were made on the superior app called MS Paint :D

@RayaHope The storage room was a good hiding spot for me as well, but only during the day. And there was no book there, just junk that was hardly appealing to the eyes.

I also was scared of the toliet. From the ghouly horror movie. I recommend not Googling it.

I do recall vividly being afraid of going into the basement of our house in West Seattle. Especially coming back up the stairs. I felt like someone was following me. In an attempt to reassure me Mom told me it was just Jesus watching over me.
I digested that and came to the conclusion that IT WASN’T VERY NICE FOR JESUS TO HANG OUT IN OUR BASEMENT SCARING THE CRAP OUT OF LITTLE KIDS!!!!!
I was 4.

^^ LOLOL

@Dutchess_III Cute.

Unrelated, but it reminded me of a story. My husband’s father’s family is Jewish and one day when my husband was very young a Jewish cousin was over to play and he saw a framed picture of Jesus on the wall and asked my husband, “who is that?” My husband responded, “some guy that watches over us.”

This touches on what I always wonder, what do really young children think about God? A man in the sky? Magic? Is it too abstract to grasp? I didn’t grow up with messaging about God so I really don’t know what that’s like as a young child.

Some friends tell me it was mostly fire and brimstone, and would fit right in with this Q, except I don’t like to use words like silly while talking about God.

When I was little, I didn’t realize that what I was hearing was the blood pulsing in my ears at night.

I was convinced that there was an army of evil Smurfs marching to get me.

LOL @raum!

I was always afraid when strangers would walk by our car, so (probably like every other kid) I would slouch down so they wouldn’t see me. ;)

Once I was sitting in the passenger side of the car waiting for Mom to come out of the store.
Suddenly the driver’s side door opened up and some guy got in the driver’s side. Then he looked around in confusion….and saw me! I was poised to evacuate that car forwith but he beat me to it!

Sharks. I was terrified of sharks. I saw Jaws when I was WAAAAAYYYYY too young to be watching that movie. And it haunted my nightmares for YEARS.

@Entropy Did you see Jaws 2? Where the dude’s eyes pop out? Scared me for years.

Quick sand and falling trees.

@Dutchess_III That makes me think of those quicksand memes .

:D