Silly things that your kids are scared of

[AprilRenee]

My kids are scared of the some of the wierdest things.....

My 4 year old is deathly afraid of the Tweeze http://www.buytweeze.com/ and will run screaming from the room, yelling "NO" all the while. I still haven't figured out why, but it is sort of funny when he runs in the bathroom, discovers I am "tweeze-ing" and turns around and runs out.

when they were small, both were scared of the vacuum. The four year old still is, a little bit, but when they were really small they would hide in thier rooms.

Remember those bath tablets that changed the color of the water? When DD was about 3, those scared the crap out of her. I tossed one in while she was in the tub, and then had a wet, slippery 3 year old launch herself out of the tub, screaming, into my arms.

She is now 7 and is STILL scared of toilets, of all things. Not the toilet themselves, but the flush. The automatic flush at Walmart terrifies her and no matter how badly she has to go, she will hold it.

[crankycat]

A very good friend of mine was afraid of animated dolls (especially the ones with batteries that crawled) when he was a child.  (I think they still give him the creeps and he is now in his 40s.)

[L.A. Lady]

I'm creeped out by the mannequin room at work.

Did I mention that my job is to dress mannequins?

[hobish]

My little sister was afraid of port-o-pots when she was little. Driving cross-country with her was a treat, lemme tell ya. She was also terrified of hair in the bathtub. I still think that is really funny, i can't help it.

When she was very little she was afraid of the monster that lives out in the bush in our back yard with hair in his ears and snot in his nose and he ate little girls who threw their bowl off the deck and wouldn't go get it. My brother and i clued her in to his existence. 
...and you know, there is a monster specifically for eating little girls who throw their bowl off the deck and wouldn't go get it, and he just happens to live in our back yard, and my brother and i have seen him. Yup. Kids will believe anything; i love it.

[Julep]

My folks created the monsters.

There was one living in the battery compartment of my little Fisher Price tape recorder. He would record his voice (in the form of a letter) on cassettes for me to listen to and then I would "write" him back on a cassette and a few days later he'd write again. He said he was a nice monster, and he had just got caught in there and I should let him out. I wasn't so sure and when the batteries did die, I was TERRIFIED (as in, nearly wet my pants) when my mom nonchalantly opened the battery compartment to change them. I guess dad (the monster) hadn't clued her in on his fun.

My sister had an evil-er guy to be afraid of. She was a little more of a challenge to discipline so my parents created Mr. Black, a guy who we think looked a little like Zorro, who would squish bad kids into the gum spots on the sidewalk. Especially when we were on trips being tourists, she was warned to watch out cause they thought they saw Mr. Black around the corner. (side note - he was Mr. Black because the gum spots turn black when he's squished a bad kid into one - it wasn't anything about the color of him). In middle school, she found out her TaG teacher the next year was Mr. Black and even though she'd outgrown the legends, she admits she was still a little afraid of him (helped that he was tall and somewhat menacing, with dark features and a goatee). The Mr. Black trick has continued to be passed throughout our family, all the cousins know him too.

[extranormal]

My son will not step on our doormat. It's a perfectly ordinary, rubber doormat and he absolutely refuses to touch it. And the weirdest part is he simply will not acknowledge this. I ask him about it, and he pretends he didn't hear me. He's 11.

[AprilRenee]

I forgot...Both of my kids were terrified of facial hair too!!

I told my siblings that I could call the boogie man just by saying his name 3 times.

[dings]

The "pop" when you open one of those cans of crescent rolls or biscuits.  I can't do it.

[lilfox]

Balloons, the kind you blow up yourself, because they pop and it's loud and sudden.

That's not a kid, though, that's me.    It started when I was little - when I was six I gave up a chance to go onstage at a kids' show because the game they were going to have us play involved sitting on balloons to pop them.  Does anyone find that fun?  Ugh.  30+ years later, I still shudder when one gets too close to me.

[Sharnita]

Not a kid anymore but I am still scared of things that pop.  Balloons.  Those tubes with croissants/biscuits in them. Those are really bad because you have to make them pop so I press the spoon on the seem but my arms are fully extended and my face is turned away.  I really hate any sort of Jack in the Box toy. 


Oh yeah, I'm also scared of ovens but that is because I burned both hands very badly on an oven door when I was little.

[anilizzy]

My middle daughter, Iris,13, is still terrified of garden snails.
 When she was about 3 , she found what she though was an empty snail shell  in a garden , and took it in the car with us.
 In the middle of the city, she was holding  this shell and singing to it  in her sweet little 3 year old voice   a  Hebrew kid's song  , called "Bere-leh"(which is a cute song asking Bereleh the snail to come out of his shell, and if he does, his  mom and dad will bake him a cake ).. when BINGO..
 a read live Bereleh the snail popped out of the snail shell with its two snail horns  a-wiggling!!! 
Poor Iris stated screeching  in panic and was so shocked  she couldn't put the snail shell down.. it was frozen to her hand.... I finally managed to prize it out of her terrified clasp  and chuck it out the window...
poor Iris is terrified  of snails till this day!

[trailgrrl]

My middle daughter, Iris,13, is still terrified of garden snails.
 When she was about 3 , she found what she though was an empty snail shell  in a garden , and took it in the car with us.
 In the middle of the city, she was holding  this shell and singing to it  in her sweet little 3 year old voice   a  Hebrew kid's song  , called "Bere-leh"(which is a cute song asking Bereleh the snail to come out of his shell, and if he does, his  mom and dad will bake him a cake ).. when BINGO..
 a read live Bereleh the snail popped out of the snail shell with its two snail horns  a-wiggling!!! 
Poor Iris stated screeching  in panic and was so shocked  she couldn't put the snail shell down.. it was frozen to her hand.... I finally managed to prize it out of her terrified clasp  and chuck it out the window...
poor Iris is terrified  of snails till this day!

Iris would have loved our former neighbor, who LOVED snails and would walk around with them stuck to his arms    I  think he was four --- He'll be 17 in July.

[anilizzy]

Trailgrrl..lol..hope he got over that habit by now.. could put a damper on his appeal  with  the ladies! 
 Maybe he's destined to become a French chef.. specialising in escargot?

[Tabris]

The sound of the rubber tub mat coming up off the tub floor. All those little suction cups going wrrrrrahr!

That terrified me starting when I was about two and until I was around five. My mom said it started one day out of the blue, she yanked up the tub mat and I SCREAMED and would not stop screaming. From then on, even if she warned me, I'd melt down over the tub mat. I remember hiding in my bed, with the covers over my head and my hands over my ears, while she lifted up the mat one row of suction cups at a time.

I have no idea why, or what that sound reminded me of, or what it could have been, but that is *not* a normal reaction. I've never been as scared by anything since then.

[guihong]

I'd heard of a balloon phobia (have one myself), but I thought I was alone with the crescent roll can phobia  .  Hate those poppers at New Year's, also.

As for the kids...DD is terrified of tornadoes, or even the possibility of a tornado.  It's obviously been a hard spring for her down here.  She doesn't like the dark, either, or spiders-especially the little dinky ones. 

Sammy was terrified of a Cooky Monster doll I bought him that laughs and curls up as if he's being tickled.  Of course, within a week it was his favorite toy.

gui