# What was your childhood boogeyman? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 30, 2000, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385 "2000-07-30T00:58:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/41 "2000-07-31T07:12:48Z")
I have always feared to an extent cockroaches. I think I had a lot of dreams about them trying to get me to eat them or something. Barney. Don’t even ask about the dream that provoked that fear long ago. ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/42 "2000-07-31T08:22:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanadianSue \* > **To this day I can’t sleep if my closet door is open.** Yeah! It is impossible for me to sleep with my closet door open at night too. Also, ever since watching “Tales From the Darkside” and seeing the episode with that creature that came out of a small closet door, I could never walk next to my bed at night nor let any extremities dangle from the edge of the bed. ---
**Author:** ![realidad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@realidad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/realidad)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/43 "2000-07-31T11:49:48Z")
Birds Birds Birds Especially crows. They still freak me out. AND they seem to follow me around to taunt me. (A crow came and sat on my window sill the other day - about 30 cm away from my desk and nearly induced a heart attack the other day. The bloody thing just sat there as I ran screaming to the other side of the room and watched me with its beady little eyes. 5 minutes it sat there. grumble grumble grumble. Then I guess it taunted me enough and left.) When I was little, I was scaredy cat of the world. I was scared of the dark, and had that bed thing (you KNOW that’s where the monsters live) and the cupboards HAD to be closed. The boogeyman for me was a big skinny man in my head who did bad stuff. He freaked me out. To the point of tears. almost every night. Shit I must have been a joy for my parents. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/44 "2000-07-31T12:25:51Z")
Seriousart, if you feel the need to face those demons, I’d suggest you order the children’s “classic”: “Free to Be You and Me” (1972) with Marlo Thomas. It’s available at [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) and, happily, it’s now available in c.d.! Happy Haunting! ---
**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/45 "2000-07-31T12:32:12Z")
My mom used to watch the soap “Dark Shadows” when I was a kid. For years I slept with the covers pulled up to my neck, in winter AND summer, to keep Barnabas Collins from biting me. That would stop a vampire . . . wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/46 "2000-07-31T12:45:07Z")
When I was very little, my mother cut my fingernail too short and it bleed horribly. I have a blood condition that makes me bleed horribly, but that was the first time I remember seeing it. After that, my mother had to sit on me to cut my nails. I’d have nightmares about my fingers being cut off. I still hate cutting my fingernails. ---
**Author:** ![robinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@robinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinh)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/47 "2000-07-31T13:10:51Z")
**And I’d like to know if clowns were boogeymen before the existence of King’s It.** Oh yes. I’ve been seriously distrustful of clowns ever since I can remember. I’m 38. I was also, at 4, suddenly terrified of balloons, following a trip to a fair. No one could ever get out of me what happened, but I have always wondered if there wasn’t a clown involved somewhere. **For years I slept with the covers pulled up to my neck, in winter AND summer, to keep Barnabas Collins from biting me. That would stop a vampire . . . wouldn’t it?** I had a friend who, for a long time, slept with a dishtowel over her neck for just such protection. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/48 "2000-07-31T14:01:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyla \* > **When I was very young, my dad and I were looking over an issue of National Geographic together. This issue included an article on giant sea spiders. These things were like 6 feet tall and lived on the bottom of the ocean. I had nightmares about them, and fantasies about giant spiders walking into my room at night** I totally hear you. I remeber looking at the Buiness Book of World Records as a kid where they had the picture of the sea spider that was bigger than the guy standing next to it. It creeped me out for years. ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/49 "2000-07-31T15:01:20Z")
When I was very little (less than 2 years old) I used to have nightmares about bugs. The story as it was told to me was that I would wake up screaming at the top of my lungs, and still not really wake up. Once I screamed for 20 minutes and they stood me up in the middle of the kitchen floor and I just stood there screaming, and occationally gasping ‘the bugs’, ‘get them off me’ and ‘the bugs are in my mouth’ (I talked very early…at least they knew what it was about that way. Of course it ended up freaking them out a little…) That nightmare was the worst that I had, and my family still talks about how horrible it was to try and wake me up, and have me in such terror and yet unable to wake up. It finally ended when my aunt (then 15 years old) couldn’t stand it anymore and tossed a glass of cold water in my face. I stopped screaming and collapsed on the floor. They still couldn’t wake me and I slept through until morning. I didn’t and still don’t like clowns. I think that that is because they paint smiles on their faces, but you **know** that they can’t be happy all of the time, so they’re hiding something. I was also respoinsible for my 3 younger siblings being afraid of the ‘toilet monster.’ I was a very creative child, and more than a little morbid. I used to think things up, and the only one that I ever really told them to were my 2 younger sisters and my younger brother. When I noticed that they were afraid of flushing the toilet after they had gone to the bathroom at night, a story just flashed through my head and came out my mouth. Something like: “Well, I don’t know why you guys are so afraid of the toilet, that’s not where the monster is.” then after nervous promting from the kids, “Well, it comes out of the bathtub drain. They only call it the toilet monster because it’s when you turn around to flush the toilet that he gets you. Not every house has them of course.” After further promting about how you could tell if your house had a monster: “Well, mostly you can tell because things turn up missing. First it’s the soap, but he gets hungrier as he grows. So next it’s always the washcloths. Then the towels. Soon his hunger can’t be sated by mere terrycloth, and he eats the household pets. When he gets that large, only the taste of meat will hold his ravenous appetite in check. Well, I’m going to go read my book now, see ya.” My house was always chronically short on towels. I didn’t think anything more about it until my mom asked me about two weeks later if I had any clue as to why someone had dumped a 2 pound package of raw hamburger into the bathtub. 🙂 K. ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/50 "2000-07-31T15:05:17Z")
I also told my younger sibs (in that same offhand way): 'I have no idea why you bother to run and jump onto your bed so the monster doesn’t grab your legs. Everyone knows that he waits until you’re asleep before he gets you." I was **bad**. K. ---
**Author:** ![horowitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@horowitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horowitz)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/51 "2000-07-31T15:16:39Z")
The Cat in the Hat. You could not trust this guy. He would come over to your house when your parents are out for dinner and trash the place, or try to kill your goldfish, or try to make you eat something you didn’t want to. He didn’t even care, you were the one that was too uptight! God he must have been a democrat. I don’t care if he fixes things in the end, its the emotional rollercoaster of panic and dread I can do without. The fear of swift and sure parental justice. I’m happy the way I am Mr. Cat, just stay away! And that goes double for Thing 1 and Thing 2! ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/52 "2000-07-31T15:39:22Z")
WHAT? I have to pick ONE boogeyman? And what do you mean as a little kid, I had the heebie-jeebies last night, couldn’t sleep until around 1 or 2, called my dad in Saskatoon to chat for two hours (he’s my heroic boogeyman slayer). My imagination is great, I just wish I could control it once in a while. I watch a show that’s slightly scary on Haunted Houses on A&E last night, keep in mind I am 24 years old, I should be able to handle this stuff, right? Nope! My mind waits until late at night to say, “Okay that show wasn’t scary, you know what would’ve been? if THIS happened…” and proceeds to scare the crap outta me. At least when my bf is over I feel a little safer (he’s bigger, the boogeyman will go after him first). I once made him walk me to the bathroom because he started talking about demons late at night (great pillow talk, no?). I used to book it up the basement stairs and slam the door at the top, always sure I’d hear something go THUMP on the other side. Poltergeist scared the hell out of me!! I had a clown mobile that used to start turning all by itself in the middle of the night. Now it’s satanic stuff, cannot handle it at all. Thank you Baptist upbringing! ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/53 "2000-07-31T15:45:49Z")
Clowns. Always. Way before IT…and that didn’t help matter much. My first boogeyman fear was from watching The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (or something like that), with Tony Randall. The scene with the Medusa scared me so badly that I couldn’t sleep for MONTHS. I finally saw the movie years later and realized it wasn’t so bad. But to a five year old…jeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/54 "2000-07-31T15:56:31Z")
All of you have these funny stories and sexy mental scars to show off. I never had a bogeyman. I didn’t even have younger siblings to inflict bogeymen on. I had a nightlight because I was a klutz and fell over things in the dark–not to keep monsters away. I usually kept the closet door shut because I ran into it and nearly knocked myself out one night. I read horror stories late at night, turned out the light, and _slept peacefully all night_. Why does that seem to make me the oddball? My nightmare? Any dream in which I had to be agile or suffer a horrible fate. ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/55 "2000-07-31T16:12:59Z")
When I was four or five, for my birthday party we went to the movies. It was a Disney live action/animated flick in which a scientist, tired of his life, learns a formula, jumps into the ocean, and becomes a fish. FREAK ME OUT!!! I made us all leave - the whole concept of turning into a fish whe you jump into the water scared the crap out of me. As for boogeymen, the people who were going to get me at night were all real people, not monsters. The person in the closet was your average homicidal maniac. This was problematic, as the normal tricks to stop monsters (no body parts over the edge, closing the closet door, etc.) were ineffective. Sua ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/56 "2000-07-31T18:43:11Z")
Last summer I wanted to watch the Exorcist. “Come on Mom, I’m 16 years old! I can handle it!” But, she said no. So I thought to myself “I’ll show her! I’ll read the book. Ha! You can’t stop me.” So, I bought a book at a second-hand book store, and proceded to read it. I made it about half-way through, and I dropped it, and refused to pick it up. When my BF got home he told me to at least put it away, but I would not touch it. So he suck it in the sock drawer, shaking his head about how “silly” I was. And that night, and the whole rest of the week, I couldn’t sleep, and I made him stay awake with me. I was positively convinced that some demons would come after me now that I read the book. ---
**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/57 "2000-07-31T18:53:07Z")
There was always the flying monkeys in “The Wizard of Oz”. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/58 "2000-07-31T19:06:42Z")
Pepperlandgirl–ditto on the Bloody Mary thing. I heard that story back in grade school at some point. I still hate to look in a mirror in the dark. One thing I remember from childhood was a Bugs Bunny cartoon version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The green-faced monster really creeped me out. I loved watching Bugs Bunny but I used to sit in front of the TV praying that cartoon wouldn’t come on. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/59 "2000-07-31T21:41:47Z")
I’d take the freakin’ flying monkeys over the Wicked Witch riding that bike through the cyclone anyday. Brrrr! ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2000, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385/60 "2000-07-31T21:49:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by realidad \* > Birds > Especially crows. They still freak me out. AND they seem to follow me around to taunt me. **realidad** , be-caws you were nice enough to respond to this thread, I won’t tell you the origin of my username nor my profession. \ I’ve met a number of people who did not like crows, but never one that had a fear of them. A hint - just wave your arms at them and they’ll fly off - they are really and truly scaredy-cats at heart. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-childhood-boogeyman/27385.md?page=4)