.
You don’t have to….
But you should.
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Looking back… I realize I must have been a strange child because I honestly can’t think of a single thing.
I was never afraid of monsters under the bed. I always slept in a room by myself, in the dark.
I watched horror movies under the covers, I played spotlight in the backyard.
I liked bugs, and snakes and toads.
Thankfully I grew up in a loving stable home in an era where no one had to warn me about talking to strangers or telling my parents if someone touched me inappropriately.
I had an idyllic childhood and happily sailed through it with no fears.
How about you?
What scared you as a child…
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I know what scared me the most was nuclear war in the Reagan years. It was bad enough navigating through the hormone levels of middle school to then also be afraid that the Russians would nuke us. Bugs scared me & my brother scared me (that was his way of teasing he wasn’t happy unless I was screaming) although I will say I grew to have a love of horror all the same.
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When I was a child I was blissfully unaware of world events. Which is the way it should be… kids grow up too quickly today.
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Worse today I think. I don’t think there was even 1 school shooting the entire time I was in school. In high school there was a knifing and a kid was thrown thru a window on the first floor.
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It’s so sad that kids are exposed this level of violence. There were no shootings when I was in school. No arrests. No pedophile teachers. No drug dealers on the corner. The most violence we ever saw was a scuffle on the playground.
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Haunted Houses and Snakes. It didn’t help that a Neighbor played into my fears and trapped me in her garage while he’s Brother and Friend tormented me while wearing scary masks, or the fact that her Brother had Snakes.
I got over my fear of Snakes pretty much,but, I still cannot go through a Haunted house. Although, I can watch them on YouTube or Television from home.
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Yikes. That sounds quite traumatic.
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I could write a Post on the crap that girl put me through.
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I had a disruptive and traumatic childhood so my biggest anxiety was not knowing where I would be staying or living. I made friends very quickly as moved schools often and they were my safety and comfort, even at a young age.
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So sorry. I can’t even that type of childhood fear…
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It’s affected my adult life a little in that I plan everything, I like stability and routine. Sometimes I have to be spontaneous just to push myself but have great support from family and friends who understand, help and push when needed x
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That’s understandable. I’m glad you have wonderful friends and family to help.
😊
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My parents divorcing!
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Sorry to hear that.
Was it a well founded fear… did they?
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No… my dad ran off before they could! Ha! Sad but true.
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The Vietnam war. If my father wasn’t on the premises I was convinced he was dodging bullets in the jungle and afraid one would catch him. He never went but Walter Cronkite never told me my dad just had the duty and he would be home tomorrow. My heart still goes out to those kids, some of whom I knew, who never saw their dads again.
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Looking bad it’s hard to believe I was completely unaware of that war, but I was. Totally. Statistics say I should have known families impacted but I didn’t. None of my friends lost fathers or brothers. I’m thankful for that, but it’s weird.
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Werewolves and snakes. It was Florida so we got a lot of the latter… or a lat of the lotter…
It didn’t help that, on the day we moved into our home, my mom opened a kitchen cabinet to come face to face with a snake…
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Ah, Florida. If the politicians don’t get you, the reptiles will.
🤣
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Everything? Nothing? Most memorably I was convinced that a witch lived under a bookcase so I’d avoid walking by that bookcase day or night. 🧙🏻♀️
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As one does, yes.
😉
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I had a fear of being abandoned.
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That’s so sad.
I’m sorry…
😰
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Thank you. It creeps up at weird times.
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I was 100% convinced quicksand would be the death of me.
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Of course.
That seems perfectly reasonable…
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It did at the time!
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Being kidnapped. When I was in the 3rd grade we had officers from the sheriff’s department go and give us a talk about stranger danger. Along with the talk they showed us a film of cases of kids that were kidnapped and were found dead. It was a gruesome film of crime scene pictures of dead kids, sometimes in the most horrific ways. I went home and cried to my mom and all she said was “well now you know what happens when you talk to strangers.” Yeah, thanks mom. Of course this was the mid 1970’s so stuff like this wasn’t really seen as bad, nor were there parents protesting the showing of the film. They (parents) used it to their advantage to scare us into listening.
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Damn. I grew up in the 70’s and never saw that film. How horrible!
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Tornados and Russians dropping nuclear bombs.
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Wow.
That’s grim…
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I know. I used to lay a wake at night as a kid swearing I heard the sound of an atomic bomb falling from the sky. No wonder I have anxiety now!
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Reading all these answers makes me twice as grateful to my parents for a carefree childhood.
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Be thankful! During the cold war mine had me thinking there was a Russian hiding around every corner just waiting to jump out and kill me.
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That sounds crazy to someone like me who didn’t live through it.
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Nothing specific from when I was very young, but after seeing the movie “20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” I was petrified of a giant squid coming out of the shower drain and took my showers glued to the wall, I was around 8 or so…Then there was “Brides of Dracula” in full color left me so scared of vampires – I mean totally petrified – to this day I will not watch a vampire movie…
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Well, if you grew up in NYC there’s no telling what could come out of the drain….
🤣
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Tornadoes and house fires. I just wrote about this but haven’t yet published it. I think it was because of all of the drills we did in school.
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I suppose it’s healthy to have a fear of tornadoes…
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