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Anonymous
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Don't get me started on spiders and scorpions...scorpions and can handle, but spiders...:eek!!!!:
- Joined
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- 450
-Oracle- said:
Um, something is pulling the covers off you gradually while you're trying to ignore it? Occam's Razor.
I used to have a vertiable OCD about getting up and turning the light back on to check nothing had materialised in any of the Dark corners in my room, but then my mum hit on the bright idea of letting me have the cat on my bed. She told me cats are very sensitive, and they always freak out when there's ghosts around, so as long as the cat was sleeping soundly, all was well. Luckily, he was one of those cats that sleeps soundly 23 and a half hours of the day, so I was fine... he lived till I was 18, and then I got a dog to perform the same function. Ironically, I've seen the cat's ghost several times since he died; I think he probably thinks it's funny.
What put me under the covers was the sound of heavy breathing so loud i wondered how i didnt wake everyone up (cunning creatures bogey men). Night after night this went on, trying to stay awake expecting a (albeit now comedy) Freddy cruger to come at me if i so much as peaked out the covers. Turns out it was my brother next door giving his sinuses a complete work out.
binotaur
Fresh Blood
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- Oct 16, 2003
- Messages
- 24
what your mum told you....and left out
Not really stuff your parents told you, but irrational kiddy fear, memories of which still linger. When I was very young, my mother used to bath me in the kitchen sink and I was terrified that a skeleton would appear from the grating and 'get' me. Where did a notion like that come from in one so young? I also hated having to go upstairs alone as I was convinced that if I looked through the bathroom door I would see the devil sitting on the toilet. All these were dismissed as an overactive imagination (and in the case of lucifer on the khazi, probably rightly so) but my parents failed to come up with a rational explanation for the voices that called me in the night, the shadow that used to sit at the end of the bed, or the dartboard flying off the wall...
Not really stuff your parents told you, but irrational kiddy fear, memories of which still linger. When I was very young, my mother used to bath me in the kitchen sink and I was terrified that a skeleton would appear from the grating and 'get' me. Where did a notion like that come from in one so young? I also hated having to go upstairs alone as I was convinced that if I looked through the bathroom door I would see the devil sitting on the toilet. All these were dismissed as an overactive imagination (and in the case of lucifer on the khazi, probably rightly so) but my parents failed to come up with a rational explanation for the voices that called me in the night, the shadow that used to sit at the end of the bed, or the dartboard flying off the wall...
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Anonymous
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Re: what your mum told you....and left out
Oooh... Now that's sparked a memory! Satan didn't lurk on my toilet, but I remember reading as a child that if you looked in a mirror at midnight, you would see the devil looking over your left shoulder (Or your mirror image's right shoulder, before any smarty-pants asks). As a result, going to the toilet during the night was particularly traumatic for many years as I would deliberately avoid glancing at not only the mirrors (which was tricky enough - in the bathroom was a mirror over the sink and a full length mirrored door to the linen cabinet, which faced the bathroom door), but any reflective surface whatsoever (such as the bathroom window (which was right next to the toilet, and, for complex reasons of backward architecture, not frosted), lest The Beast should get me.
binotaur said:
Oooh... Now that's sparked a memory! Satan didn't lurk on my toilet, but I remember reading as a child that if you looked in a mirror at midnight, you would see the devil looking over your left shoulder (Or your mirror image's right shoulder, before any smarty-pants asks). As a result, going to the toilet during the night was particularly traumatic for many years as I would deliberately avoid glancing at not only the mirrors (which was tricky enough - in the bathroom was a mirror over the sink and a full length mirrored door to the linen cabinet, which faced the bathroom door), but any reflective surface whatsoever (such as the bathroom window (which was right next to the toilet, and, for complex reasons of backward architecture, not frosted), lest The Beast should get me.
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Anonymous
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I had a thing about a Giant Spider coming out of the attic entrance hatch in the ceiling on the landing outside my room...Living in the country meant many things like rustling of gargantuine trees and the scratting of birds nested in the ends of the attic. I used to imagine it was a tryluy massive spider, like the size of a VW that lived in there, like a Queen with loads of smaller but still basket ball sized arachnids...
...shhhh...do you hear that? AaAAaARrrRRRRrrGggGGggHhhHH!!!!!
...oh, sorry, false alarm, it was just Bats....silly me, duh!
...shhhh...do you hear that? AaAAaARrrRRRRrrGggGGggHhhHH!!!!!
...oh, sorry, false alarm, it was just Bats....silly me, duh!
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2001
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- 719
"nought but a skeleton covered in skin
and should have been bathed in a jug"
Awwwww! poor bt
Nonny Mouse said:
Same-same!
My mother was always sympathetic to (if slighly exasperated by) my night fears.
I was afraid of the dark, and so was allowed to go to sleep with the light on (it was turned off when I actually fell asleep).
But when I heard the strange, inexplicable noises in my room and saw the collie dog by the side of my bed (we had no dog at all), I kept it to myself . . .
Carole
Re: Re: what your mum told you....and left out
I still get like that sometimes!
Our house has a back yard with a high wall and, for the last few weeks when I put the rubbish out late at night, I scuttle quickly out to the bin and back indoors again, lest I see a strange alien creature (like the ones in 'Signs' but with horns) crouching on top of the wall, watching me . . .:eek!!!!:
Carole
101 said:
I still get like that sometimes!
Our house has a back yard with a high wall and, for the last few weeks when I put the rubbish out late at night, I scuttle quickly out to the bin and back indoors again, lest I see a strange alien creature (like the ones in 'Signs' but with horns) crouching on top of the wall, watching me . . .:eek!!!!:
Carole
- Joined
- May 21, 2002
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- 691
I didn't dare tell my parents anything because my mother would have told me off and not to have been so stupid.
I did have this big doll which was called Emily, who sat on top of the wardrobe and who used to look at me. I was convinced and still am that she used to move.
I used to lay under the duvet with the light on rigid with fear sweating buckets until either one of my sisters came to bed or I fell asleep becuase this bloody doll knew I was awake and she was just waiting to catch me off my guard...
In the house I live in now, the landing when all the lights are off fills me with dread and I hate having to get up during the night. Something is watching me from out there and it's not nice at all.
I did have this big doll which was called Emily, who sat on top of the wardrobe and who used to look at me. I was convinced and still am that she used to move.
I used to lay under the duvet with the light on rigid with fear sweating buckets until either one of my sisters came to bed or I fell asleep becuase this bloody doll knew I was awake and she was just waiting to catch me off my guard...
In the house I live in now, the landing when all the lights are off fills me with dread and I hate having to get up during the night. Something is watching me from out there and it's not nice at all.
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2001
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- 417
Re: Re: what your mum told you....and left out
i used to be terrified of such things as a child, and my girlfriend informs me that she was terrified of the virgin mary appearing to her for some reason or other.
101 said:
i used to be terrified of such things as a child, and my girlfriend informs me that she was terrified of the virgin mary appearing to her for some reason or other.
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2001
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- 417
i found out she was scared because she had heard the BVM appears to little girls, and a s a result of going to a red hot catholic school and coming from an irish catholic family, she was convinced the BVM would turn up one day.
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Anonymous
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chockfullahate said:
For reasons out of my control, Mini-101 goes to a Catholic school, and often comes home with sundry troubling ideas. Somewhat off-topic, but he recently came home after an RE lesson (where they're obliged to teach you a little bit about other faiths these days) and informed me that a Mosque is a building where Muslims can go to worship God and Jesus and Mary. That one resulted in just as much of a lengthy chat as "Why are there no pictures of God in the Bible?"
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Anonymous
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Re: Re: Re: what your mum told you....and left out
I haven't thought of this for years, but when I was very young (like three or four) the family doctor had this book of children's stories in his waiting room, from which my mother would read to me (I had recurring ear infections, and we spent a lot of time there). One of them dealt with a little boy who was in the hospital dying of some painful illness. One of the sisters told him that if he'd sleep with his hand raised, Jesus would see this when he visited the hospital and take the boy back to heaven with him. The boy propped his arm up with pillows, and sure enough, next morning the nuns found his body.
I'm certain that the author who wrote it, and the editor who selected it meant this as a comforting story for sick children. Forty years on, I can kind of see their PoV. At the time, though, I was badly freaked out. I developed the habit of sleeping with my arms under the pillow, so I wouldn't accidentally raise one during the night, and even though my mother explained that Jesus wouldn't make a mistake like that, I don't think it did a whole lot of good. The habit has persisted, even though the reason's long past - I still more often than not go to sleep in a similar position.
Another strange belief I developed around the same time is that burrs (these little seed cases studded all over with spikes) made holes in concrete, and were dangerous. I think this came about as a result of my great uncle Kieth's rather bubble-raddled concrete walk - the holes all had burrs in them. Kieth explained what was really happening, showed me the burrs growing on their stalks nearby, and IIRC that satisfied me right away.
Lastly, when I was in first grade (six to seven, for those not from the States) there was this strange belief current among my classmates that safety pins were made of a poisonous metal, and that if you got stuck with one you'd die. That's why they put those protective caps on them. I wasn't all that strongly convinced by that, as I recall, as I'd already stabbed myself good with one before hearing it.
And Lobelia, I'm sorry to hear of your treatment over the bathroom. As was already observed, one doesn't really appreciate the job one's parents did until one hears tales of others.
chockfullahate said:
I haven't thought of this for years, but when I was very young (like three or four) the family doctor had this book of children's stories in his waiting room, from which my mother would read to me (I had recurring ear infections, and we spent a lot of time there). One of them dealt with a little boy who was in the hospital dying of some painful illness. One of the sisters told him that if he'd sleep with his hand raised, Jesus would see this when he visited the hospital and take the boy back to heaven with him. The boy propped his arm up with pillows, and sure enough, next morning the nuns found his body.
I'm certain that the author who wrote it, and the editor who selected it meant this as a comforting story for sick children. Forty years on, I can kind of see their PoV. At the time, though, I was badly freaked out. I developed the habit of sleeping with my arms under the pillow, so I wouldn't accidentally raise one during the night, and even though my mother explained that Jesus wouldn't make a mistake like that, I don't think it did a whole lot of good. The habit has persisted, even though the reason's long past - I still more often than not go to sleep in a similar position.
Another strange belief I developed around the same time is that burrs (these little seed cases studded all over with spikes) made holes in concrete, and were dangerous. I think this came about as a result of my great uncle Kieth's rather bubble-raddled concrete walk - the holes all had burrs in them. Kieth explained what was really happening, showed me the burrs growing on their stalks nearby, and IIRC that satisfied me right away.
Lastly, when I was in first grade (six to seven, for those not from the States) there was this strange belief current among my classmates that safety pins were made of a poisonous metal, and that if you got stuck with one you'd die. That's why they put those protective caps on them. I wasn't all that strongly convinced by that, as I recall, as I'd already stabbed myself good with one before hearing it.
And Lobelia, I'm sorry to hear of your treatment over the bathroom. As was already observed, one doesn't really appreciate the job one's parents did until one hears tales of others.
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Anonymous
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Considering I never saw anything (was scared I would though) I didn't say anything.
A
Anonymous
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Kiddie fears? Don't get me started..
I still, at the mature age of 22, have a fear of looking at mirrors during night. Stank god I broke (accidentally) the large mirror in my bedroom, but I still have one in bathroom. I don't know what I expect to see, but I don't want to take the chance..
And parental issues: everytime I see white candyfloss I think of spiders. It took me a while to figure it out, why. When I was a nipper, my dad told me in the amusement park that if I bite my candyfloss (instad of ripping pieces out of it and munching them), spiders will crawl into my pillow at night.
Funny, I don't think of spiders when I see pink candyfloss (maybe all candyfloss was white back then?), and even funnier, my dad denies having ever said anuthing like that.
I still, at the mature age of 22, have a fear of looking at mirrors during night. Stank god I broke (accidentally) the large mirror in my bedroom, but I still have one in bathroom. I don't know what I expect to see, but I don't want to take the chance..
And parental issues: everytime I see white candyfloss I think of spiders. It took me a while to figure it out, why. When I was a nipper, my dad told me in the amusement park that if I bite my candyfloss (instad of ripping pieces out of it and munching them), spiders will crawl into my pillow at night.
Funny, I don't think of spiders when I see pink candyfloss (maybe all candyfloss was white back then?), and even funnier, my dad denies having ever said anuthing like that.
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- 737
I never went to my parents about this sort of thing, but I always kept (and still keep) my feet from hanging off the end of the bed uncovered. I lived in a haunted house in Kentucky for a year, and avoided the big mirror in the dining room at night. You could hear something shuffling through drawers and cabinets in th kitchen , although we never found anything out of place.
One odd childhood belief was that the liquid at the center of a golf ball was highly corrosive and poisonous.
And if you stared into a mirror at midnight and said "I believe in Mary Worth (or Bloody Mary)" 3 times, she'd reach from the mirror and scratch your face.
Isn't nice to have reached adulthood, where such things are all in the past? Although I do wish the odd lights in the corners of the living room would go away!
One odd childhood belief was that the liquid at the center of a golf ball was highly corrosive and poisonous.
And if you stared into a mirror at midnight and said "I believe in Mary Worth (or Bloody Mary)" 3 times, she'd reach from the mirror and scratch your face.
Isn't nice to have reached adulthood, where such things are all in the past? Although I do wish the odd lights in the corners of the living room would go away!
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Anonymous
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"Shh, don't worry, that's just Harry letting us know he's still here".
Like that was going to calm us down. Nor did it help when my mother casually told us that she'd seen Harry at the top of the stairs, many years ago. "He looked like the man on the Sandeman's bottle, with the big cape and hat", she said. "Thanks", I thought, "that will help me deal with my fear of the dark".
Oddly, over time, it did indeed help. Now I wander around the house in pitch darkness, unnerving MrsHyde and guests. Unfortunately (and this is absolutely true) I have developed a slight fear of having the lights on.
Like that was going to calm us down. Nor did it help when my mother casually told us that she'd seen Harry at the top of the stairs, many years ago. "He looked like the man on the Sandeman's bottle, with the big cape and hat", she said. "Thanks", I thought, "that will help me deal with my fear of the dark".
Oddly, over time, it did indeed help. Now I wander around the house in pitch darkness, unnerving MrsHyde and guests. Unfortunately (and this is absolutely true) I have developed a slight fear of having the lights on.
I thought I found this website through FTMB but I couldn't find the thread. It's filled with strange beliefs that people had as children because they misunderstood something their parents or other adults told them.
http://iusedtobelieve.com/
http://iusedtobelieve.com/
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Anonymous
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Well I thought that the dead man in the tell tell heart was buried under my floorboards. And my mom told me this ghost story about a headless woman as a child and I was terrified of her, what is weird I never picture the headlless body, just the bodiless head coming to get me. My parents were generally pretty comforting about most things until I went to school then I was supposed to be a big kid and not believe in those sorts of things anymore. I would either sleep with my parents or one of them would sleep with me until I was school age. Most of my fears developed then, as I was always comforted as a small child I didn't have the fears earlier. Though I have always had very vivid dreams and would sometimes have night terrors. My parents generally kept a pretty close watch on me as I tended to run very high fevers at night and in my sleep and occasionally had seizures from the fevers.
When I was young I used to share a bedroom with my brother. Being the oldest I got the top bunk, the only trouble was that when I climbed up the ladder I had to dodge a hot air balloon shaped lampshade (complete with basket).
I remember waking up occasionaly early in the morning and seeing the outline of the balloon against the blue filtered light creeping through the curtains. In this state of semi-conciousness this horrible blub shape became a 'grey alien' head, looming over my bed. Terrifying stuff.
I remember waking up occasionaly early in the morning and seeing the outline of the balloon against the blue filtered light creeping through the curtains. In this state of semi-conciousness this horrible blub shape became a 'grey alien' head, looming over my bed. Terrifying stuff.