Everyone was scared of stuff when they were kids — and some of the things that scared us the most were actually pretty weird.
1. "The 'Cheez-It Man.' He was made up by my dad so I'd stop eating all the Cheez-Its. If he saw you taking Cheez-Its...well, I don't remember what was supposed to happen, but I was terrified of him, and thats all I remember."
2. "I was terrified I was turning into a chicken. I kept finding little white feathers on me. Nobody told me what down jackets were."
—u/ShowOffJonah
3. "In first or second grade, we were told we would be 'holding a fire drill.' I got very concerned because I didn't know how to use a drill."
—u/ktappe
4. "When I was really young, I was afraid of big leaves. I had no problem jumping into leaf piles in autumn, and small leaves didn't bother me. But I'd stay away from plants that had big leaves, and I remember going inside and asking my mom to get a big leaf out of the yard so I could play. I have no idea what it was that made me so afraid of them."
—u/Rigel04
5. "When I was 12, I gave some random person in an online game my a/s/l and then couldn’t sleep for a week because I thought I was going to get abducted."
6. "Someone told me that one time they had a centipede crawl up their ass while taking a shit. For years, I did a whole routine of flushing the toilet twice before sitting down, and then, when I would sit down, I would get up every 20 seconds to make sure there were no centipedes. Every time I took a shit, it felt like a life-or-death moment."
—u/frogvscrab
7. "The PS2 startup sound. I used it to play games and watch DVDs, but I would turn it on, run and hide, and wait for the 'scary part' to be over."
—u/plutodite222
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8. "Jesus. My grandmother told me Jesus was everywhere, including hiding in the curtains. I was 5. It set me on the road to atheism."
—u/Hannah6735
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10. "The Ring. Which I never even saw. Someone recapped it, and it haunted me for years…"
—u/Mr_Trumpets
11. "My brother and I used to set our stuffed animals and toys up and stare at them from a long distance using binoculars. We would take turns, but each of us could only last a few seconds before freaking out, squealing, and handing off the binoculars because we were just CONVINCED that they were going to start moving or looking in our direction."
12. "The toilet flushing, LOL."
—u/kediafae
13. "When I was a kid, I watched a TV show about spontaneous human combustion while I was sick with the flu, and I was 100% CONVINCED I was going to burst into flames. The fever dreams afterwards did not help."
—u/Chapstickie
14. "UFOs. The first time I saw a spotlight in the sky (it was a car dealer having an event), I nearly passed out. I was probably around 10 years old."
15. "I was absolutely terrified of overflowing toilets. I thought it just, like, poop-geysered everywhere. I was so afraid that the toilet would overflow that I spent a couple of YEARS hitting the flush and fleeing for my life like a cat zooming out of the litter box."
16. "I was terrified of Santa Claus as a kid. He just looked big and scary to me. He used to freak me out to the point of tears!"
17. "The Unsolved Mysteries intro song."
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And finally...
18. "A giant poop on a string passing by my window."
Have your own to share? See you in the comments!
These entries were edited for length and clarity.