Silly grown-up fears and paranormal experiences
Posted on October 29, 2009 by FoBaM-Jamie
Thanks for sharing all the great stories about your children’s fears. And thanks for the great tips on how to help quell those fears. I know I’m not the only mom who learned something by reading the comments – I have a few new tricks up my sleeve for the next time my daughter wakes with a nightmare. I’m going to get me a bottle of “monster spray.” 
So, now we know about the kids, but how about us grown-ups? A few of you shared your personal fears (glad to know I’m not the only one who still has issues with clowns), but today everyone’s invited to a little group therapy on irrational fears.
So, what’s yours? Do you still have that recurring nightmare about arriving at school pick-up or the office naked? Do you have an aversion to fine dining – worrying that you might pull a Julia Roberts and send escargot flying across the room? Are you still afraid of the dark? Can a good, old-fashioned horror flick make you sleep with the lights on? Come on, it’s Halloween – time to let those fears out of the closet, and maybe – just maybe – even conquer them.
Bonus Question: Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
One day, when I was still young enough to be sleeping in a crib, I woke from my nap crying to my mother that I was afraid of the people in my closet. When my bewildered mom said she didn’t understand, I described them to her: they were kind of white and kind of see-through, could walk through my door without opening it, and their feet didn’t touch the ground. I was too little to have ever heard about ghosts, and yet I described them perfectly. Needless to say, my poor mom was a little freaked out for a while. Luckily for me, I don’t remember the incident, and my ghostly friends haven’t made any recent appearances.
Halloween Heads Up: We wish everyone celebrating the holiday a safe and happy Halloween. Hope your little ones (and you!) have a great time. Don’t forget to snap a few photos of the kids in their costumes. We might be asking you to share them a little later on! Here’s wishing you all treats and no tricks!
Image Credit: Maria Li
I still can not sleep with my closet door open. Drives my husband nuts. I have actually woke up in the middle of the night to get him up to close it, even if its the tiniest crack! I dont like basements! And I can’t walk into a room with out turning the light on first. Hey, you never know what might be in there!! I can’t watch horror movies because I have an over active imagination that works at night over the slightest “bump in the night”.
I have had paranormal experiences. A few actually. Only one bad one, which continued for a two week period. My huband and I moved promply with in three weeks of the first incident.
OMG everything you said I CAN RELATE! The closet is my worst thing too. I can’t sleep without some sort of sound on.
Oh goodness I can’t stand being alone in the dark. Before I had my son I would leave the tv on. Im 23 years old lol. But it doesn’t bother me as much now as it used to. I also can not stand bugs, especially a bunch of them OMG! Ugh getting creeped out just thinking about it >.<
I have a huge fear of snakes. I had a dream when I was much younger that my sister got bit on the head by one. I also so a garter snake in my backyard when I was a kid. I ran like the wind into my house. I am not sure if it is these two things that sparked my fear but I cannot even watch snakes on TV. They totally freak me out. I am also afraid of heights. It’s hard for me to look up at tall buildings and other structures. My fear of heights does not stop me from flying or going to the top of buildings. I just get an uncomfortable feeling about it. I have had no paranormal experiences but I am definitely a believer.
Just noticed a typo in my response…sorry! I should have typed “saw” a garter snake. LOL
I am TOTALLY CREEPED out by the Flying Monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. Can’t look at them, don’t like talking about them. They are CREEPY!
My six year old daughter thinks it is hilarious to joke with me about it though, which is pretty cute. “Hey Mom, let’s watch the Wizard of Oz, I promise we will skip the parts with the flying monkeys.”
When McDonald’s had Wizard of Oz dolls in their Happy Meals, she of course got the flying monkey, and had to get me with it every chance she could, until it “mysteriously” disappeared, never to be found again…..hahahaha Can you guess who made it disappear???
I have never had a paranormal experience. I can’t look into a mirror in the dark. If I walk into the bathroom or down the hallway at night, I have to avoid looking into the mirror. I am scared of what might be there besides my reflection! lol :O)
I’m afraid of clowns. I went to a haunted house last weekend and of course there was a room full of clowns! I had a nightmare that night. I can’t watch movies with clowns, or just see a clown. Ronald McDonald Krusty and Bozo are ok but thats it!
Bonus Question:
When my 8 yr old son was 10 months old and in his crib “napping” he was saying “geepa kisses”. My dad gave my nieces kisses under thier chin and called it geepa kisses. My dad passed away a year before my son was even born. So, naturally I walked in the room and in my dad’s rocking chair (I had moved it with me and rocked my son in it) is my dad sitting there and my son holding his arms out to him saying “Geepa kisses” and giggling! Naturally I did what any good mom would do. Ran out of the room to get my hubby in there quick!
Awww how sweet!! “Geepa Kisses”!!! I haven’t lost anyone extremely close to me in my family but when it happens, I hope I get to see them too!!
Besides clowns and spiders (ucckkk) I won’t sleep with the closet door open. My feet cannot hang off the bottom of the bed. If I walk down a hallway or somewhere that has nothing but darkness behind me, I get an anxiety attack. LoL …. oh the joys!
As far as Paranormal Experience … yeah!! My fiance and I were both folding clothes in the bedroom of our old appartment. We caught something walking through the living room dressed in black, and a few minutes later we looked up and saw this very old woman standing there dressed in black with loonnnggg straggly gray hair.
And later on while living in a different house (last year) I got up because I heard footsteps in the hallway, and I thought my daughter might be running around. While walking to her room I saw the legs and feet of a child running down the hallway – that was all … no body or anything. It disappeared around the corner and I never saw it again.
@Amber – I’m a closed closet door girl, too!
@Alisha – You’re right – lots of bugs are way creepier than one or two. Yech!
@Melissa – Snakes are a good one. My daughter is fascinated with them, I’d rather keep my distance.
@Jessi – Yep. Those monkeys ARE creepy. Good for you and your disappearing trick!
@NaTanya – Good policy on mirrors!
@Kristen – Sweet and scary at the same time.
@Crystal – Really! Wow. Seriously creepy. Were you scared?
@Jamie Lee – Very scared! When I saw the old lady … that night I slept with the TV on and the bedroom door shut … and I had to pee really bad but I refused to get up and go to the bathroom (which was outside of the bedroom) lol.
I also forgot … I hate Chucky. Hate him hate him. When I was younger my brother got a “My Buddy” doll for his birthday and I made my dad put a slide-lock on the closet door so I could stuff him in the toybox and lock the closer door.
@Crystal – I don’t blame you one bit! I’m also afraid of dolls in general. Luckily, my daughter doesn’t like them much (prefers stuffed animals). My mom, however, had an antique doll named Prudence when I was growing up – I couldn’t stand that thing. I used to talk to it – hoping if I was nice it wouldn’t attack me in the middle of the night. Geesh!
LoL @ Jamie! My Grandma had a doll that I didn’t like very much either. One day I cut off most of her hair and then cried half the day because I was scared she was going to be mad and get me in my sleep. I still don’t like her cause it’s like her eyes follow you around the room. I make my grandma put that thing away when I go see her.
I’m still scared of the dark (too many horror movies as a kid. I don’t watch them anymore, lol), it’s embarrassing so I try to hide it, and I have the same fear as Crystal about my feet hanging off the bed!
I’ve not really had a paranormal experience, but my mom has told me about one of hers. When she was younger she says she was in the basement of her parents’ house doing laundry and heard loud footsteps above her going down the upstairs hallway. Well, she thought it was grandpa (her dad) home from work and shouted up towards the door to say hi. When she didn’t get a response she went up to look for him. She got up there and looked around and no one was even there and the back door was open with just the screen door shut! I don’t really like basements either…I’m such a scaredy cat! LOL
Gas leaks scare me. I’m always checking and double checking my carbon monoxide detectors to make sure they’re functioning. Especially now that our heater is turned on more often.
My husband is in the Army, and more than fears of something happening to him while he is overseas (Iraq OR Afghanistan), I get scared that when I am home alone, I will suddenly die from some unknown cause (too many autopsy shows?) and my six year old son will not know how to get help. I have talked to him about how to get help if he is alone with me and something happens to mommy. I just haven’t really gone in depth with him because I don’t want HIM to be scared that something will happen to me, because I am sure that this particular fear is incredibly irrational. It’s frightening I think because I live away from all of my family, and I don’t know very many people where I live. Fortunately, this doesn’t plague me too often. Only during deployments.
My biggest and worst fear is when I’m filling up my tires with air they will explode in my face. I even have had nightmares about this. I always go to the gas station and play the dumb woman and pretend I don’t know what I’m doing so the gas attendant will do it for me. I know it is ridiculous but I can never get that image out of my head. As far as paranormal activity, we have something or someone here in our house. We call him Mr. Man, he has never done anything bad to us just hangs around. He has dropped things on the floor or thrown something across the room, but never anything in anger. I don’t mind having him here he really doesn’t bother me too much, except for when he whispers in my ear. At first I thought I was crazy but the cat gets spooked real bad whenever Mr. Man is around. It’s cool too because my 5 yr. old knows he’s here and she is not afraid of him. We don’t mind when people call us crazy, not everyone can believe something like this can happen.
I have issues with clowns. I can’t even look at a picture of a clown. But the thing that creeps me out the most are zombie flicks. I can’t watch one without turning on every light in the house.
@Mich Mash – I understand that fear of something happening and only your child being in the house with you. My daughter likes to stay the night with her nana (my mom) but she has so many health problems that I won’t let Julie stay there unless my younger brother is at my mom’s house too, just in case something happens. I’ve tried to show her how to call 911 but I have a cell phone so I’m scared it’s way too many buttons for her to memorize to hit 911 and then the green button and it’s a stupid slide phone. Ugh!! LoL.
I have a few irrational fears.
One is the shower. I’m TERRIFIED of having a Psycho remake in my bathroom lol. Not to mention that for some reason my shower curtain blows in on me while I’m in the shower. Doesn’t matter if the window’s closed, and the air conditioner and fan are off… still blows in on me.
I cannot sleep well alone. Every little bump in the night makes me think someone is creeping around my house.
I have a fear of the dark. I can’t stand not knowing what’s in a room before I go in it! So the light comes on as soon as I enter the room. We also sleep with our TV on.
I have this insane fear of roaches, too. This has something to do with the fact that when I was younger our house was infested with the nasty things and they would literally eat at us at night. I’d wake up bleeding or with a bunch of scabs. Imagine having to explain THAT at school… :-/
Bonus question:
I have had a few paranormal experiences… but I’ll stick with one of the more interesting ones. When I was around 7 we lived in an apartment where there was definitely an elderly woman that died in it. Everyone was outside and we heard some clanking around in the kitchen so, naturally, we all went in to check. Nothing was there but while we were all in the kitchen there was a loud crash in the guest room upstairs.
We had a mirror in there that was left behind from the previous tenants. It was shattered all over the floor. My mom picked up the frame and found a picture in it of one of those flapper cigarette selling women. My mom swept up all the glass from the mirror and took the picture out of the frame and ripped it up and put it in the bag with the glass. Then a friend of my mom -our babysitter- took the bag out to the dumpster.
The bag was dripping something red… but the picture was drawn with a pencil and definitely black and white so it wasn’t paint… Don’t ask me to make a definite analysis of what it was, I was 7 lol.
While everyone was inspecting the drips outside I came in -by myself. This is when our table lamp fell over on top of me and our fan just shut off. Still plugged in and still on, it just shut off. It was off for a whole minute before it came back on.
That night we were getting ready for bed and the frame was never thrown away so my mom decided to pick it up and throw it away. When she flipped it over, the picture was back in it. Completely in-tact as if she never ripped it up in the first place.
Maybe this explains my irrational fears a little more haha.
I’m afraid of “THE BLOB”. I love scary stuff and gore but “THE BLOB” freaks me out for days.
I’ve had some paranormal experience over the years. Mostly when I was younger. Seen people that were not there, deja vu, knowing something was going to happen before it did. That kinda stuff happened all the time.
finally some one who shares my irrational fear of “The wizard of OZ” All my family thinks its hilarious, I can’t even watch a commercial about it coming up on TV, I have to leave the room or change the channel. I don’t know what happened to me as a kid that has left me terrified of the littlest thought of any part of that movie. I hope my kids never watch that movie because I will not be in the room to sit with them. Weird I know!
I have always been afraid of the dark. Now that I am an adult, I can sleep in the dark as long as I’m not alone; but forget being alone in it. I actually will turn my sons crib nightlight/music machine on “for me,” as I fall asleep next to my husband sometimes. We usually keep the hall light on outside our door and leave the door cracked for light.
Growing up, I had to have a shut and locked door and a strong night light on in order to sleep. I prefer a door shut when I sleep to this day. If anything is coming through that door, I will wake up when it does. I have trained my body since I was young to wake up to lights or doors opening/closing.
I’m also horribly afraid of being upside down. I have never been on a roller coaster that goes upside down, nor will I ever go on one that does. I won’t dive into a pool either. I rode this ride that is like a pendulum at Cedar Point called maXair with a friend on a money dare. It scared me so bad I was shaking like a leaf, crying, and puking afterward. I screamed so loud on it, that even people on the ground could pick my screams and cussing apart. It was sort of fun in the end, but it terrified me. I won’t be going on it again, unless money is involved of course.
As strange as it might sound, I have a “fear” of unchlorinated water. Rivers, ponds, oceans…the idea of being in the home (and bathroom) of so many living creatures freaks me out.
Let the therapy begin.
I never really had many fears growing up. I went on an amusement ride when I was about 17 and was coerced by my then boyfriend (now partner) to go again. It was apparently the tallest free falling ride in the world. Now I am afraid of falling from heights. The heights them self don’t scare me.
It has transferred across that when we went to the to top of the tallest building in the state, I was freaked out when my children would lean up against the glass or when we went outside that the wire mesh (yes it was a mesh which freaks me out thinking of it now) stuff they had as a barrier so you don’t fall. They would lean on it and my partner thought I was being a little irrational but I felt so sick watching them lean on it to look down.
I have had a lot of nightmares that something bad will happen to my children or partner that i have no control over and that freaks me out quite a bit. For instance one was crossing a road and a car coming over the kerb and hitting the stroller my son was in. So ever since I had that nightmare, I never stood close to the edge of a road.
Regarding paranormal experience. When I was a young baby apparently I was laying in my crib and started screaming and when my mum went in couldn’t work out why i was crying she went to change my nappy and saw several lines which appeared to be burns across my lower/back bottom and she called my dad and the pastor who had come to visit into the room and they all stood there and saw them vanish. that freaked them all out as they said they could see it actually hurt me but just disappeared and then I was fine.
I am VERY afraid of snakes.Thank goodness I haven’t had any bad experiences with them just have always not been comfortable with them!!!!
i really only have 1 major fear. I fear small spaces. I use 2 fear death. Snakes rn’t so bothersome as long as i stay away 4rm them and spiders don’t bother me. I just kill them..i’m bigger than them so i smash them..lol. I have never had a paranormal experience but know some who have.
For me it’s china dolls and bugs..only certain bugs, though. Cicadas, june bugs and spiders will put me into combat mode. If you walk toward me with one of these things, you may die!
to reiterate the last post i cannot sleep with closets open either they must be closed i dont know why but they do so your not being crazy
Hello there, am just on the internet search some info and saw your page. I am engraved by the content that you own on this blog. It displays how good you know this subject. Bookmarked this page, will return for further. You, my friend, ROCK!!!
Watch Serious Moonlight Online Free
Nice post, thanks. Can you expand on the 2nd para-graph in a bit more detail please?