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Weirdest fear
When Luke was about 2.5, he suddenly became absolutely terrified of mooing. Toys that mooed, people imitating mooing, and of course, actual cows mooing. He was so afraid that if he even LOOKED at a toy that he knew made the moo sound (like a See and Say), he'd start screaming and couldn't calm down. It got to the point that I had to warn all of his therapists and teachers "don't make any mooing sounds" when he first met them. Then he just suddenly was ok with it again about a year later.
Then last year, at age 11, he became completely freaked out by clumps of drier lint. He loves to help with laundry, but suddenly started walking in a wide circle around the trash can next to the drier and saying "I don't have to touch that." When I asked him what he was afraid of, he said "it makes me stomach feel funny when I look at it." As with the mooing, he just one day decided he wasn't afraid anymore.
What's the weirdest thing your children have been or are afraid of?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ks on -
I let Andrew watch the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid with Nathan when it came out on video because he begged and begged and I gave in. He got completely freaked out by the cheese, so much so that he had nightmares about it for months. So at one point, I had a 5 year old who was afraid of cheese.
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Permalink Reply by Andromeda on -
D was afraid of snakes at about 2.5. As far as I knew he had no negative experience with snakes. We were at my friend's house and he had a couple of baby ball pythons. D freaked! Having a fear of snakes isn't exactly weird, but the way it seemed so inherent to him, that was the weird part.
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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on -
Small person used to be terrified of people wearing masks. To the point where he would have nightmares where people in masks were pinching him.
It was awesome around Halloween and any time a kid on the playground decided to wear his/her Spiderman costume or some such.
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Permalink Reply by Mamawho on
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My kid is intrepid, which is so foreign to me, because I was phobia-a-rama kid. I had a paralyzing and deep seated fear of cats until I was in my 20s. I wouldn't enter a home with cats. I had full-fledged panic attacks if one got within 5 feet of me. Also, scared of clowns. Still am, frankly. Was also scared of the dark and leapt onto and off the bed. Seriously, I would have medalled in the bed long-jump. China dolls terrified me. Not crazy about rabbits, either. I had dreams about this stuff and my family would find me buried under a pile of blankets in my closet where I went to hide.
Issues. I had them. My neuroses are part of my charm.
Oh! My brother was terrified of Alf. Now that he's long since outgrown that fear, I find it hilarious.
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Permalink Reply by ruth on -
Mamawho, until you I thought Anya's fear of bunnies (from BtVS) was pure fiction. It never occurred to me that anyone could actually be afraid of rabbits!
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I blame the book Bunnicula.
ruth said:Mamawho, until you I thought Anya's fear of bunnies (from BtVS) was pure fiction. It never occurred to me that anyone could actually be afraid of rabbits!
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Permalink Reply by wookie on -
I'm more afraid of hamsters than bunnies. But bunnies can be evil. (It could be BUNNIES!)
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Permalink Reply by Kat on -
I knew a kid at our last school system who had a fear of stickers. So, school was absolutely hell-ish for him, because they are handing out stickers like candy as reinforcers. He just was completely freaked out.
Older Son is completely freaked out by larged costume character people. When he was little, we took him to see Elmo Live, because he LOVED Elmo, but 152 larger-than-life costumed dancing Elmo's horrified him. I got it, he liked little Elmo in the television, not big scary Elmo. I thought he'd grow out of it. But then, we moved here to Virginia and we have Chick-fil-A and for those of you who have seen their adds, they have this weird cow thing... where the cows are encouraging you to eat chicken, and so they always have a costumed big ol' cow walking around. He literally would HIDE under the table. Also, Disney World just didn't do it for him.
I have since asked him, why are you afraid? don't you know that it is just someone in a costume, and his response...
"Yes, that's the problem. What kind of weirdo walks around in a cow costume?"
So all along, I thought it was that he was scared of "Elmo" or the cow, but really he's weirded out by the person in the suit.
We don't go to Chick-fil-A anymore anyhow, and they have outgrown Sesame Street. He keeps his distance from the various sundry character suited weirdos we run across in suburbia....
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Permalink Reply by Kat on
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His brain always amazes me. :)
ruth said:LOL that's a pretty damn good answer, Kat! haha!
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Permalink Reply by guinnessgoddess on -
I love this thread. My kids don't have any fears that I've noted, though they certainly dislike people in costumes as characters. When I was a kid, I was afraid of mummers (link taken from Google images):
http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1317&bih=762...
Apart from being creepy looking, they'd also be drunk and loud, and would bang on the door in the aftermath of Christmas. I think this fear is fully justified, although now my parents and other family go out as mummers at least one night every holiday season.
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Permalink Reply by guinnessgoddess on
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I think it's less that my fear is weird than that I am from a weird place.
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