What are you scared of?

[jimmy jazz]

For me, it's rats. Not pet ones, the street ones.

There's a massive spider 🕸� in the shed and I'm ok with it, have named him Simeon but some on here probably would be terrified.

So what are you scared of? What really makes you frightened?

[Lexi Darling]

Like everything lol. I'm the scarediest cat ever but at the same time I never visibly freak out, I just freeze up as my whole body quakes with dread.

I can't do modern horror movies because jumpscares with loud noises really get to me. Same thing with being touched out of nowhere. My reaction is always a visceral reflexive body motion rather than any sound when that happens. I'm always afraid if someone tries to get my attention I'll turn around and whack them in the face.

And speaking of naming critters, I have a crazy story I'll post sometime about the time me and my college dorm mates started a cult that worshipped a bug.

[Guybrush]

I'm not phobic about anything. Spiders are cute. Rats even more so. I'm not too worried about stuff happening to myself.

If I really worry, it's about the kids. Our boy already lost an eye after he fell on a porcelain cup with his face. I worry about them getting hurt, lost, bullied, molested, etc.

Take me!! Just spare the kids, yaarrgh.

Sorry for such a boring parents' answer.

[Seven]

I'm afraid of going deaf and never have a family.

[degrassi.knoll]

Our boy already lost an eye after he fell on a porcelain cup with his face.

How awful that must have been for you, my god! I am having flashbacks to reading The World According to Garp and the terrible "Under Toad" - having worked with children I've seen my fair share of injuries, and knowing how quickly everything can go wrong in terms of accidents, my heart goes out to you. Even if nothing in the world could have prevented it, I know how it feels to be traumatized by the "if onlys." I worked with an infant that fell and fractured her orbital bone as she was learning to walk, and even in the controlled setting of a room designed for infants no one could have foreseen how the accident played out, but I was *right there* and tried to catch her but I was just a little too far away, and a little too late. This was 7 years ago and I'm still beating myself up about it.

I'm not a parent (we know this) but my niece was attacked by my sister's dog when she was only 2, and was left somewhat facially disfigured. Fortunately with cosmetic surgery and the resiliency of toddler bodies she is ok, and except for some obvious scarring you wouldn't be able to tell how bad it really was unless you knew what you were looking for. She's an angel and is absolutely fearless - she still loves dogs but has a healthy fear of them now. I've never had the opportunity to talk to my sister about it, and at this point it's clearly not worth rehashing, but knowing how she and my brother in law must have blamed themselves kills me. I hate when bad things happen to people with good hearts.

Totally not a boring parent's answer.

[DJChameleon]

It took me awhile to figure out what I'm afraid of and it's probably snakes. Not milk snakes but seeing them in the wild on a possible hiking trail. That's why I refuse to go hiking. Also I like to jokingly say it's a white people thing so I don't hike.

[Marie Monday]

I'm phobic about spiders but I think that should be distinct from being 'scared' in the usual sense, it's a different thing. If I see a big spider my brain just short-circuits in this bizarre way and I shut down. I'm also a bit phobic about heights but not too badly and I can overcome it (it's a weird phenomenon where my body just starts to tremble at a certain height even though I'm calm and collected enough mentally).

Other than that no fears of animals, the dark, and the other usual things. In a deeper sense I'm always scared of depression and loneliness somewhere in the back of my mind, and I'm occasionally scared for loved ones

[DJChameleon]

Thanks Marie for bringing up the dark. When I was younger I was afraid of the dark but my cousins made up this game that was essentially exposure therapy without knowing that's what they were doing.

So I lived in a house with five cousins at one point in time. The youngest girl cousin and I were afraid of the dark. So they made up an obstacle course for us to go through.

We had to walk down the stairs with the lights off and then someone would jump scare us at the bottom of the stairs. After that we would continue to the dining room where someone was under the table grabbing at our legs wildly like it felt weird like random hands and stuff.  Next we proceeded to the evil kitchen that was littered with legos and matchbox cars and we had to walk through the kitchen barefoot!  The end goal was to make it to the opposite side of the kitchen to the light switch and turn it on.

Also included in this story is how I kicked my older girl cousin in her pussy. The jump scare at the bottom of the stairs literally made me jump and I kicked at the same time and boom right in the pussy. I was so confused. I was like what's going on. You don't have anything down there like us boys. 


Now that I think about it. I'm terrified of home invasions.  When I purchase my own home, I'm definitely getting a gun to protect myself, my home and my family!

[jimmy jazz]

Being broken into is very scary. I have had this happen before and you can't imagine how it feels when you're in there and you realise what's happened but you might not be alone in the property.

I listened to a true crime podcast once and there was a girl in bed who was being texted by a stalker and he was saying he was watching her through her window. Then he said I'm in your house now (and he was) and I think eventually the police found him under the bed. That is terrifying.

[DJChameleon]

Being broken into is very scary. I have had this happen before and you can't imagine how it feels when you're in there and you realise what's happened but you might not be alone in the property.

I listened to a true crime podcast once and there was a girl in bed who was being texted by a stalker and he was saying he was watching her through her window. Then he said I'm in your house now (and he was) and I think eventually the police found him under the bed. That is terrifying.

There was a horror short film with a similar premise to that true crime story.

[Guybrush]

How awful that must have been for you, my god! I am having flashbacks to reading The World According to Garp and the terrible "Under Toad" - having worked with children I've seen my fair share of injuries, and knowing how quickly everything can go wrong in terms of accidents, my heart goes out to you. Even if nothing in the world could have prevented it, I know how it feels to be traumatized by the "if onlys." I worked with an infant that fell and fractured her orbital bone as she was learning to walk, and even in the controlled setting of a room designed for infants no one could have foreseen how the accident played out, but I was *right there* and tried to catch her but I was just a little too far away, and a little too late. This was 7 years ago and I'm still beating myself up about it.

I'm not a parent (we know this) but my niece was attacked by my sister's dog when she was only 2, and was left somewhat facially disfigured. Fortunately with cosmetic surgery and the resiliency of toddler bodies she is ok, and except for some obvious scarring you wouldn't be able to tell how bad it really was unless you knew what you were looking for. She's an angel and is absolutely fearless - she still loves dogs but has a healthy fear of them now. I've never had the opportunity to talk to my sister about it, and at this point it's clearly not worth rehashing, but knowing how she and my brother in law must have blamed themselves kills me. I hate when bad things happen to people with good hearts.

Totally not a boring parent's answer.

Think I wrote a long ass reply to this and somehow lost it / didn't post it 😅

But thanks for your kind words. It was awful. I had covid and was resting upstairs. My wife was in the kitchen with our boy, but had her back turned to him as she was trying out a pressure cooker we got for Christmas. He tried to climb from a chair up on our kitchen counter. There were some porcelain coffee cups there as we'd recently served coffee to some guests and he managed to pull them down in his climbing attempt and then fall on them face first. He got a big porcelain shard that punctured underneath his eye, but also punctured the eyeball.

Lots of blood and crying. Then they wouldn't treat him because we had covid, so we had to come back the next day. Then he and mom got shipped off to Oslo for days while me and our daughter was home.

Our daughter was 5 when it happened and developed some anxiety after that, but we managed to nip that in the bud. For once, I was real happy to have firsthand experience with anxiety myself. Long story short, I believe I made some absolutely crucial calls that had very good consequences for her.

After the accident, our boy was miserable for a long time and needed surgery etc. I couldn't possibly meet the demands of my management position at work and the stuff going on at home, so I told my boss and he offered me a different position working with quality management. This is like one and a half year ago and I still have my manager's position 😅 I'll probably keep it until new years at least.

Our kids are both doing fine today, so everything is okay. Having only one eye doesn't seem to slow him down these days. Also, he looks like a James Bond villain in the making.

[SGR]

Not much to be honest. But grasshoppers and bats are my true weakness. Fuck both of them. Bats are disgusting disease carrying rats with wings, and grasshoppers are fast and unpredictable - and I hate unpredictable. They jump, they fly, and they do it fast. They are the spawn of satan.

Oh yeah, home invasions suck too.

[jadis]

How awful that must have been for you, my god! I am having flashbacks to reading The World According to Garp and the terrible "Under Toad" - having worked with children I've seen my fair share of injuries, and knowing how quickly everything can go wrong in terms of accidents, my heart goes out to you. Even if nothing in the world could have prevented it, I know how it feels to be traumatized by the "if onlys." I worked with an infant that fell and fractured her orbital bone as she was learning to walk, and even in the controlled setting of a room designed for infants no one could have foreseen how the accident played out, but I was *right there* and tried to catch her but I was just a little too far away, and a little too late. This was 7 years ago and I'm still beating myself up about it.

I'm not a parent (we know this) but my niece was attacked by my sister's dog when she was only 2, and was left somewhat facially disfigured. Fortunately with cosmetic surgery and the resiliency of toddler bodies she is ok, and except for some obvious scarring you wouldn't be able to tell how bad it really was unless you knew what you were looking for. She's an angel and is absolutely fearless - she still loves dogs but has a healthy fear of them now. I've never had the opportunity to talk to my sister about it, and at this point it's clearly not worth rehashing, but knowing how she and my brother in law must have blamed themselves kills me. I hate when bad things happen to people with good hearts.

Totally not a boring parent's answer.

What breed are we talking here?

[Hope]

Not much to be honest. But grasshoppers and bats are my true weakness. Fuck both of them. Bats are disgusting disease carrying rats with wings, and grasshoppers are fast and unpredictable - and I hate unpredictable. They jump, they fly, and they do it fast. They are the spawn of satan.

I hate grasshoppers for their pointy knees. Not fond of bats either. Found one hanging on the under side of my curtain rod once. Accidentally touched it with my hand and freaked out. Called a guy friend over to help me get it outside.  We both ended up squealing and giggling like two little girls as we tried to get it into a McDonalds cup. 

As for me, my number one fear would have to be a house fire. I fall asleep thinking about it every single night of my life.

I also hate heights, panic attacks, and snakes in the wild.

[jimmy jazz]

Been in a house fire. The initial moment of realisation is scary. Then it was just a blur for me.

When we were teenagers my sister cane home drunk and wanted to fry chips in a pan of oil and fell asleep as they were cooking.

My mom used to get up for work at 5am and that's how she knew there was a fire. The alarm didn't go off. Had she not had to get up so early who knows how bad that could have been. The kitchen was fucked and had to be replaced. The downstairs was ruined mostly due to smoke damage and we had to live on a hotel for three weeks then a house for about 3 months.

Also while we were living away, that was when we were broken into and had the upstairs trashed and things stolen.