What Really Scared You As A Child?

I was an only child and used to be brought out by my parents to my mother's widowed sister's house in north Wicklow on a Sunday. Mum's sister travelled through India and Africa and had decorative ethnic wooden heads on the mantelpiece. As a young kid I would take these and start playing with them, destructively as young kids do. My teenage cousin, fearing I was going to injure myself, said "that person might bite" and I dropped the African carved head on the floor with a thud and was terrified by the sight of it or any other kind of disembodied human head.

To make things worse, my mother had started up a cottage industry with her sisters of making hats and accessories (1960s) and in her work she often had to bring me, a very young child, with her. The businesses she visited had tons of "disembodied heads" sporting hats and scarves. I was terrified of them and to this day I swear I saw one bear her teeth by drawing back her lips in front of me!

Manach

Soviet medium range missiles.

De Bhál

Earwigs due to a story my father told us about them.
A lad he worked with who was complaining about a headache for days until he was eventually screaming in pain. He proceeded to chop his head open with an axe. Out flowed earwigs. Killed himself.
My father worked on a farm and this somehow seemed believable to me. Still think of the story and get a shiver when I see one.


Also saw The Omen way too young at a friend's house which frightened the ****e outta me. We couldn't watch it all and I said I was going home. Grew up in the country about 1.5miles away. Probably broke a time trial record that dark night on my rothar.

Schnooks

Clowns when I was taken to the circus!

Beanntraigheach

Deleted User wrote: »

I was an only child and used to be brought out by my parents to my mother's widowed sister's house in north Wicklow on a Sunday. Mum's sister travelled through India and Africa and had decorative ethnic wooden heads on the mantelpiece. As a young kid I would take these and start playing with them, destructively as young kids do. My teenage cousin, fearing I was going to injure myself, said "that person might bite" and I dropped the African carved head on the floor with a thud and was terrified by the sight of it or any other kind of disembodied human head.

To make things worse, my mother had started up a cottage industry with her sisters of making hats and accessories (1960s) and in her work she often had to bring me, a very young child, with her. The businesses she visited had tons of "disembodied heads" sporting hats and scarves. I was terrified of them and to this day I swear I saw one bear her teeth by drawing back her lips in front of me!

Brings to mind childhood memories of this scene from "Return to Oz":

JupiterKid

Manach wrote: »

Soviet medium range missiles.

I had recurring nightmares of nuclear war as a child of 10/11, to such an extent I would wake up screaming in the night and my parents took me to see a child psychologist for therapy sessions. I can’t exactly remember what he did - some type of hypnotherapy I think, but they worked.

Reading up on the Cold War as an adult, it seems that the world was actually dangerously close to all- out nuclear war in the early to mid 1980s.

Beanntraigheach

Beanntraigheach wrote: »

Brings to mind childhood memories of this scene from "Return to Oz":

That kind of scene was exactly in my mind as a chiseler.

My aunt gave a present of one of the original African heads (which set off the phobia but didn't scare me anything as much as the subsequently seen white mannequin heads in the hat wholesalers) and my father hid it in a drawer seeing as I was so scared of heads. One late winter's night I remember being just about tall enough to open the drawer and let out an almighty scream when I saw the head staring at me!

harr

For me it was the dark , well not really the dark more so night time I had a terrible fear around being the only one awake... I have no idea why or how that fear came about. My dad sorted it out when he drove me down to a nearby factory to show me all the night shift workers ..,
Also had a fear of religious statues again no reasoning as to why .. I think I seen a program on tv about knock or something and was bricking it in case I would see an apparition at end of the bed ..

harr

harr wrote: »

For me it was the dark , well not really the dark more so night time I had a terrible fear around being the only one awake... I have no idea why or how that fear came about. My dad sorted it out when he drove me down to a nearby factory to show me all the night shift workers ..,
Also had a fear of religious statues again no reasoning as to why .. I think I seen a program on tv about knock or something and was bricking it in case I would see an apparition at end of the bed ..

That was a smart idea of your Fad to actually show you people who are awake through the night. I have always felt that as a child too, and indeed I keep the radio on low to this day to remind NK myself the world still has a casting heart outside.

nthclare

Tony EH wrote: »

I used to be terrified to use the toilet at night in case Jaws got me. :pac:

Can you imagine...a 25ft great white hiding in a jacks waiting for a 6 year old to have a pee at 4 in the morning.

He'd be looking at the watch on his flipper, "...any minute now..."

Great white sharks are known for their epic patience.

I remember thinking Jaw's was going to plough through my sitting room window and take me into the night, my parents weren't too strict about watching Jaw's and horror movies.
Didn't do me much harm to be honest.

.anon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00DStk5nks

YellowBucket

I used to have nightmares about that Ulysses cartoon. Excellent theme tune but for some reason woven into all my late 80s nightmares lol

Also I somehow managed to be up late, in a room on my own watching Poltergeist on an old TV, which looked way too much like it was a prop in the film.

It took me a while to get over it. I was way too young, but such was cable TV back in the day.