What mis-information scared you as a kid?

B

Bill Marsh

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Mar 26, 2002
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And what can you do to help your kids NOT share a similar fate.

My parents were deeply religious. We attended a one room "Primitive Methodist" Church in the country near our farm.

There I was taught religion. I do not mean to offend anyone here,just to point out a child's perspective in the hope that parents might more fully explain some things to their children.

My mind ran toward the strange. Science fiction and some horror.

My earliest fear was of Christ. I had heard about how first He offered His body and blood to the desciples. This really scared me because the only thing I knew about this was cannibals!

Secondly He 'rose from the dead!' That made a Zombie! They were the only thing I knew about that came back to life. This led into the preacher saying that we must "live in the Fear of the Lord!" And that we would "walk with Christ."

I am curious about how other people here had groundless fears and misunderstandings in the hope that we might better understand our children's perspectives.
 
When I was four I stopped talking to people. My mother finally figured out why.
She had recently started the discussions about Jesus and whatnot, and I had assumed that to be a Christian meant you had to be crucified.
I was a little scared about that...
 
It's amazing what some people do with their religion. Both my parents were Christians, but their gods were a little different.

My father worshipped a war god. Sure, he knew all the New Testament Christian stuff, but he really loved reading and teaching about David~ which got me into trouble when I loudly contradicted my kindergarden Sunday School teacher when he told us how David, as a little boy, fought Goliath! :D Anyway, when the god went away, all I had was war in my heart, for a while.

My mother had a very fear-based Christianity, much more so than most Christians. It's bad enough for children to be young, when your parents kindly advise you that the monsters aren't real, but what about when your parents tell you they are? How healthy is it for children, at four, to hear they will have blood on their hands if they die without telling every single person they meet about their religion? How healthy is it to badger them every week, telling them, "if you have any doubt in your heart, you may die and go to hell"?

For that matter, how $%^&ing healthy is the concept of hell?

I remember telling my mother, when I was four, how the devil had spoken to me the previous night. Instead of suggesting that it *might* have been one of my two older brothers, who slept in the same room and enjoyed pranks on siblings, she said, What did he say?

He said, 'Joooohnnyyyyy'!

Well, the next time he talks to you, say...

I was scared of the dark until I was 16. :rolleyes:

And my mother, who had 38 years or so she claimed to have dedicated to her god, and a degree in theology, with years to prepare (cancer), went to meet the reaper afraid. :(

Let me find my truths early. Let me not pass on fear and superstition to any children I am blessed with, but power, and love, and a sound mind.

John
 
When I was a kid I had really bad allergies, so bad that I sometimes had to sleep sitting up in a recliner and my eyes would turn red, burn and nearly swell shut. Somebody suggested to my parents that they get me allergy shots. I freaked because I thought the shot had to go where the problem was, in my eye. Bad image for a little kid.
 
My mom used to tell me things to try and scare me into behaving how she wanted me to. Unfortunately for her I used to test her theories out of curiosity, so she lost credibility with me at an early age.

My biggest fear was that the "Kid Catcher" guy from the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was going to get me one day, but I invented that fear on my own.
 
My parents didn't teach me much, which wasn't the greatest. But had I the foresight to know enough to *ask* for something, from someone, I would have looked for a lesson in good posture.

I had horrible posture as a kid and into my early twenties. Pretty much destroyed my lower back and had to relearn and rebuild from scratch. Things are great now, and I have learned a lot, but it would have been nice to have someone looking out for me from the start.
 
When I was a kid, I was built tall and willowy. My ornery uncle, recently back from the war, had a lightweight 12 guage double barrel (L.C.Smith) with a sharp comb and too much drop in the stock. He loaded this up with express loads (this was before the magnum craze, thank God) and said "Here, go ahead and try her". Some how I pulled both triggers at once, and Yowie Zowie, bloodied my nose good! My Dad,bless him, immediately put a 22LR in my hands and started the long project of getting rid of that flinch :D
 
When I was a kid, they used to have us do Atomic Bomb drills. They forced us to hide under our desks.

Even at that age, *I* knew the desk wasn't going to do crapola for me.

.
 
I too was raised by religious parents. Step father was a certified nutcase who p!ssed almost every dollar he earned and could steal from me into the church coffers. He would pray piously as he put bloody welts into my back as punishment for the slightest infraction such as looking "funny" at him. My mother was always telling me that I was evil and that God would get me. Not wanting to go to church was a beating offense though the step father often slept til noon on Sunday. Such crazy religious zeal scares me even today because people like that fear nothing because they are doing "the will of the lord".

It was only because of the true God and my inner strength that I'm sane today.

Ice
 
You know how some mushrooms can kill you?

I was afraid of eating ANY mushrooms for a long time. (I like 'em now.)
 
My parents were pretty much total liberals, but up to the time I was in 4th grade we went to this fundamentalist church where my grandmother, who is very conservative went. I used to have nightmares about the devil really often when I was 2 or 3, cause it seemed like that was all they talked about.

We completely quit going for a while and then when I was in college they started going to the Episcopal church. I have gone some with them and it's like night and day. Seemed like the fundamentalist church was fixated on the Old Testament and the Devil. The Episcopal seemed to go more on the New Testament, love, and Jesus.

The only other thing and it's not a fear but a couple funny things:

First I always remembered seeing this same writing at the end of TV shows when I was a kid, before I could read. I never asked my mom what it said but now I know it was "The End"

Second when I first got to where I could read cigarette machines said "no sales to minors" and I thought to myself "Why not to minors? Is it to prevent them from having more problems on top of their black lung?" This was about the time black lung was on the news a lot.
 
For me, it was the gum thing.

You know...teacher sees you chewing gum, you immediately swallow the evidence before an oral examination can be performed, and the teacher, who's on to the little scam, says, "You think you're being clever by swallowing that gum, but now you'll have it in your stomach for the rest of your life."

I did a lot of reading trying to find out what actually happens to chewing gum when it's swallowed. The topic doesn't seem to get addressed very often.
 
If you are a guy, all things pass. If you are a woman, you eventually get a bad attitude.

.
 
Unfortunately I saw this movie as a child.

Closed my bedroom door and every morning, it was open about 8-10 inches, the diameter of the small rolling Blob that first started eating people.

So I put a shoe on top of the door to find out whether or not I was in actual danger of being absorbed by an ET Jello®-look'in thing.

First I got my Ma, then the cat.

The cat was the guilty one.

Still, I sleep better surrounded by uh, things-that-will-wake-you-up.

Who wouldn't?


Ad Astra
 
The Boogerman is going to get you!!!! :eek:

The sonuvabitch lived under my bed for years!!!!
I wouldn't sleep with my arms out from under the covers nor I get out of bed by just swinging my legs over the side. I got out of bed with a jump and run for years to keep the sonuvabitch from grabbing me by the ankles and dragging me under there with him!!!!
 
Like the "Boogerman" I was worried about the "Behinder." This was a name I gave a critter that lived in the woods behind our farm house. Once when I was digging in a pile of decomposing leaves, I felt the warmth and the sticks.

I got the idea that SOMETHING could be born/created here. The rotting leaves could combine to form some strange sort of flesh and the sticks could be his bones.

This creature could gain a zombie like intelligence that placed him 'behind' me. Whichever way I turned, he was always behind me where I could not see him, waiting for an opportunity to pounce on me.


I was a sickly child with bronchial problems. I guess that sickness and the drugs trying to cure it combined with a love of the supernatural gave me a disassociation from reality and many fears. But it also gave me a certain strength.

You CAN reach a point where you get really tired of neing afraid.

I remember that I was out one night, walking. I enjoyed being alone and away from my father and his crazy military discipline "Make a MAN of YOU!"

I KNEW the Behinder was there, menacing me. In a peculiar combination of fear and rage, I turned and screamed at him. I had a sturdy walking stick. I told him to leave me alone or I would smash him to bits.

He is no longer near me, but sometimes I wonder if he is lurking in the shadows.

But now I have a khuk handy and he better keep his distance.
 
When I was a kid I had insomnia and would stay up watching television after my parents were asleep. I think that it might have been when Steve Allen hosted the tonight show they had on an "authority" who said that there really were vampires. Before I could get all of the details my mother caught me up and sent me to bed. I slept with my head under the covers protecting my jugular veins for the next several years.
 
I think this is a great thread idea but haven't figured out my own answer yet.



munk
 
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