at home

When I was little I used to sit on my bed and read, but because I thought there was something nasty under it I had to keep moving my legs so the nasty thing wouldn't be able to grab me.

What is it with beds? They're supposed to be a comfort zone!

I used to believe…

another belief kindly handed to me by my older sister was that animals (don't ask why animals) watched people through uncurtained windows at night. i used to be so scared of the skylight outside my room! but i did get my own back - i would wake my sister up when i needed the toilet cos i was too scared to go by myself!

my older sister gave me lots of phobias! one was the monster under the bed. so to avoid him i'd run from one side of the room and jump onto the bed. fine unless you have bunk beds - and i had (the bottom one). i only stopped once i'd knocked myself out about a dozen times.

As a very young child, I was traumatized by Mister Rogers. It had never occurred to me that one could be sucked down the bathtub drain, so I didn't have that fear until I heard him sing the song about how it's impossible.

My mom used to send me out with a little paintbrush and some special solution, and I would paint the outside of the house, to protect it from winter (we lived in a trailer). It was a very important job. Years later she admitted it was plain water.

I used to think that dishwashers would fill completely up with water. Imagine my surprise one day when my Mom opened the dishwasher to add another dish! I braced myself for quite a torrent.

I used to believe that monsters would get me in my bed UNLESS I completely hid under the covers and lay really still. For some reason I thought that I could make myself flat enough that it would look like no one was in the bed, thereby fooling the monsters.

I used to lie perfectly still when trying to get to sleep when I was about five. This was because I believed that all of the creatures that lived in my matress would feed off any dead skin that I managed to slough off in the night.

Alas, the belief is actually true - my parents let me watch a TV programme about dust mites, which do live off shed skin... but had merely failed to point out that they aren't huge... it was just that the pictures were taken with an electron microscope. So actually, I suppose I believed that dust mites were the size of, say, a comon domestic cat.

I used to believe…

That there were ghosts in our basement, but that they could only come out if the lights were off.

I'd typically be the last one out of the basement, and one of my older siblings or parents would tell me to turn the lights off. I'd check around just to be sure I didn't see any lying in wait, then I'd turn off the lights and run as fast as I could through the room and up the stairs, thinking they were right on my heels. (I was way too scared to even think about turning around to check)

I believed that monsters were out to get me - but I didn't have the belief that they weren't interested in my head. I knew they would get any bit sticking out from under the covers, so I would keep my head under the covers, and form a little air channel in the blanket so I wouldn't suffocate.

Okay, so when you go to bed you must have thought of monsters who only came out at night and do whatever to harm you when you're asleep. Who didn't think that only if you cover your entire body with the blanket (not including your head, they cannot do anything to your head), they can'y harm you? Who didn't realize a monster can flip your blanket over?

I always saw people on TV take suitcases with them when they ran away. So I would threaten to run away when I was mad and grab my empty suitcase from the closet and go sit at the end of the driveway. I wasn't allowed farther from the house than that and didn't get the concept of actually running away.

When I was little I thought that there was a hand that lived under my bed. I refused to walk on the floor of my bedroom for over a year. I would jump from the door to a chair and onto my bed.

I shared a room with my older sister. She had our brother hide under the bed one night. I had to go to the bathroom, the chair was too far away and she refused to pick me up and put me outside the door. I finally worked up the courage to step on the floor and my brother reached out and grabbed me. I peed all over him. But after that I wasn't afraid of the hand because I thought it had been my brother down there the whole time.

My parents innocently told me one night that if I got out of bed to get water or go to the bathroom (for the hundreth time that night) that a nasty horrible crocodile monster with gigantic sharp teeth would eat my feet as soon as I placed them on the floor next to the bed. He'd come jumping out from under the bed and surely clamp on, and I'd be doomed, I thought.
This only promped me to start launching myself from the bed to the door, using the bed as a trampoline! *Boing!* Freedom!

I used to believe that the drain in the tub would swallow me up with the water - as such, I always leapt out just before the water ran out, sometimes streaming water all over a surprised parent who had no idea why I was jumping out like a frightened frog!

my best friend had one of those doorbells that you have to turn that works like a bell on a bike... he once told me that when i rang his doorbell, if i didnt leave the ringer dead straight the door wouldnt open. i still to this day turn all the doorbells like that i ring dead straight although i know now he was lieing

To combat my older sisters' fear of the monster under her bed, my mum invented "Charlie the Monster" who would occasionally leave candy under her pillow. And because she was such a fair mum, Charlie would leave sweets for me too! It was like an all year 'round Easter Bunny.
Charlie has recently made a come back with my 3 year old nephew.

At our house when I was growing up, the carpet at the top of the stairs was not quite fastened down, and you could lift up the corner of it. Whenever my younger sister would climb to the top of the stairs, she'd lift up the corner of the carpet and exclaim "Nope, the bacon's not done!", and then go on about her business.

She has no idea why she did this.