Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Confess The Weirdest Things That Scared Them As A Child

People Confess The Weirdest Things That Scared Them As A Child
Image by Bob Dmyt from Pixabay

One of the most wonderful things about being a kid is not necessarily having the language to say what's going on or why something makes you feel the way you feel at that moment. You just feel that way.

That can be freeing for kids and immensely frustrating for adults. Adults acquire reasoning and think, "Why did I care so much about this?" Kids have no such skill and as such are free to feel the thing unabashedly.


Redditor smitserss asked:

What's is one weird thing you were scared of as a child?

Here were some of those answers.


This Seems More Common Than One Would Think

"Seaweed. I HATED seaweed. I loved swimming in pools, but hated swimming in the ocean because of it. If I went swimming with my friend, I'd have her wade in the water and then I'd grab her waist and paddle my feet so I wouldn't have to touch the bottom because there MIGHT be seaweed. Like a seaweed monster was going to eat me alive or something. Lol."

michonne_impossible

A Tether

"Space."

"When I was young I had this nightmare where I jump up and these giant scissors cut my "gravity". I would go up and I could see my house and my street getting smaller and I'd still keep on going up until I was in space. Past asteroids and planets. And then I would wake up. I was never able to come back home."

Caryophyllaceae

Not Totally Sure Why 

"The weaving of the hair on the inside of a baby doll's head."

"My sisters would take the heads off and throw them under my bed and I wouldn't get in bed til someone removed them."

Wrong_Answer_Willie

Real Life Foreshadowing

"I was terrified that someone could read my mind and know what I was thinking."

"Fast forward 35 years, I keep all my thoughts in a computer and someone could actually read my mind this way. I think I was foreshadowing."

Sabrinacolada

What A Grape

"I was absolutely terrified of E.T. when I was younger."

"The diminutive alien is supposed to be one of those universally beloved characters, despite the fact that he looks like the result of an elephant's indigestion. When I was a kid, though, something about him frightened me so much that I'd refuse to even touch a lunchbox (or its matching thermos) with his face on it. There were even a few times when I insisted on my mother finding out if my friends would be watching the film before I agreed to visit their houses."

"As far as I was concerned, E.T. was "The Scary Raisin."

"I can remember visiting the state fair when I was about five years old, and being thrilled at the prospect of going through the funhouse. (This is relevant, I promise.) Other kids – kids my age – would scream and burst into tears after being startled by the flashing lights, the loud noises, or the life-size images of bats attacking pictures of scantily clad women. They, I thought to myself, were babies! Throughout the entire experience, I smugly suppressed my own surprise and laughed at each hazard – believing myself to sound like a hardened action hero or something – then pressed onward, leaving my frightened peers to run back in the direction that they'd come."


"Then, as I came to the funhouse's end, I was greeted by an incredibly realistic model of The Scary Raisin."

"For a moment, I froze in my tracks. Keep it together, I told myself. You've come this far... so just keep walking. The exit is right there. I took a single step, then another."

"I must have set off a motion detector or something, because a raspy voice suddenly blurted "ELL-EE-OTT!""

"With all the bravado of an especially panicked chicken, I let loose an ear-piercing shriek and sprinted back toward the entrance. At one point, I got hopelessly lost in the Hall of Mirrors, and my intense wailing actually attracted the attention of an employee. She took my hand and led me out through a hidden door in the wall, then somehow managed to decipher my sob-wracked description of where my parents could be found."

"Looking back, I have to wonder what she thought about that event... and if she ever questioned why a random kid had seemingly lost his mind after seeing some dried fruit."

"TL;DR: The Scary Raisin jumped me in the dark."

RamsesThePigeon

Up Ya Nose

"I was convinced that monsters could easily get into my house by crawling in through the garden hose and maneuvering their way through the plumbing until they found an open drain."

"I was terrified of looking down the sink drain and seeing an eye ball when I needed to wash my hands so I would blast the hot water for 5-10 seconds to burn the monster eye and cause it to retreat further back into the pipes."

PigeonGoddess

Generally Not A Thing Before Ten

"I was afraid of losing a foot to gangrene, which is a pretty weird thing for a 5-year-old to be afraid of, I think."

"My grandpa was a diabetic and, if you didn't know, diabetics need to take extra care of bruises/scrapes on their feet, cause they're prone to developing gangrene. And if it spreads, then the solution is amputation. Naturally, my parents never thought to mention that only my grandpa was in danger of something like that, and I spent quite a lot of time scared to death every time I scraped my knee."

"But then after like the billionth scrape without any gangrenous symptoms, I decided I must be immune or something, and stopped caring."

I_hate_traveling

Of Course Of Course

"At Christmas time one of the gifts my brother and I got was a puppet. It was a cute little horse where stick your hand in and you use your thumb and pinky for its arms."

"We have a video of this: my mom casually put it on and danced the horse around and my brother (probably 3 or 4 years old) SCREAMED. He ran across the room and was super scared of this little horse puppet. He was fine having it near him if it wasn't being used, but the minute my mom brought it to life his little child self was terrified."

"Safe to say it wasn't too popular of a toy after that."

EarlyHemisphere

Loud, Unwelcome Moos

"The milk man."

"In the UK they used electric carts (milk float) and I used to think the sound of the motor was a cow. When the central heating came on the pipes and radiators would knock and creak and my conclusion was a cow was in the house and was coming up the stairs to hurt me in some way."

FuzzyBagpuss

Gone With The Wind(ow)

"Windows at night time."

"I haven't the slightest clue why but they freak me out. Like as long as the blinds are closed, it's no big deal, but once they are open, it's sprint across the house time."

"Back when I was younger, the family room had huge windows in then and not a blind nor cover in sight. Nothing could get me in that area at night."

"It's like peering into a deep dark void man. I still have that issue but it's not nearly as bad as the irrational fear of child and teen me."

"God I hate windows."

Reddie_Red

​That creepy tunnel in Willy Wonka. Enough said.

Do you have similar experiences? Let us know in the comments.

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

People Divulge The Best Money-Saving Hacks They've Picked Up

Money makes the world go around.

And in this day and age, finding ways to hold onto every cent of it feels imperative.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pamela Hayden; Milhouse from 'The Simpsons'
Amy Graves/Getty Images for Kash Hovey; Fox

'The Simpsons' Star Opens Up About Why She's Leaving The Iconic TV Show After 35 Seasons

After 35 seasons of performing as Milhouse and other side characters on The Simpsons, Pamela Hayden announced her retirement.

She will leave her role behind after the latest "Treehouse of Horror" episode, "Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes."

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Adele giving speech
@PopBase/X, @chiara297/TikTok

Adele Gets Emotional During Final Vegas Residency Concert Before Cracking Hilarious Joke

British music sensation Adele wrapped up her Las Vegas residency on November 23 after two years of emotional performances and memorable highlights including a tearful interaction with Celine Dion.

To commemorate the curtain coming down on Weekends with Adele at the Colosseum in Caesar's Palace, which started in January 2022, the "Set Fire to the Rain" singer gave a poignant speech that ended in laughter.

Keep ReadingShow less
Glen Powell Announces Epic Prize For Lookalike Contest Winner Judged By His Own Mom
@ChristineRose01/X; @PopCrave/X

Glen Powell Announces Epic Prize For Lookalike Contest Winner Judged By His Own Mom

Glen Powell put a fun spin on a lookalike contest in Austin, Texas.

Though Powell couldn’t attend since he’s filming The Running Man in the U.K., his mother and aunt judged the event.

Keep ReadingShow less
Aubrey Plaza and Adam Scott from 'Parks and Recreation"
NBC

Adam Scott Reveals Hilarious Note Aubrey Plaza Gave Him When He Joined 'Parks & Rec'

Adam Scott recalled the hilariously unsettling way fellow Parks and Recreation actor Aubrey Plaza greeted him when he officially joined the NBC comedy series cast in 2010.

His anecdote was featured in a new book by Jim O'Heir, who played Jerry on the show, called Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation.

Keep ReadingShow less