Growing up we are always eager for a little excitement and to be a little scared now and then. I often would watch movies my mother warned me about, she said they would give me nightmares. I didn’t have many nightmares growing up, I was frequently pacified with the end and was able to teach myself it was all pretend and just a story. My mother never told me that these movies would haunt me for life and these little nuggets of fear would be so innocently exploited by my children.
I’d feel it’s a safe bet that everyone after seeing Psycho is a little fearful when they take a shower. I always quickly rinse my face so my eyes aren’t closed for very long and I’m always listening for sounds, waiting for someone to surprise me in the shower with a knife. Well I have yet to experience that. However, I do get the sudden feeling of terror as the shower curtain opens and one of my children has something extremely important to tell me. At least via their point of view. They are extremely loud every minute of the day. As soon as they go into that bathroom they turn into sneaky ninjas or cats who don’t make a peep. You hear nothing till they grab the curtain and scare you half to death. You consider locking the door but that just makes it worse.
Have you locked the door to your bathroom or any room with kids around? They pound on the door screaming for you to let them in. You again saw way too many scary movies and can only assume there is a serial killer downstairs trying to kill everyone cause that is the only logical reason to have four fists and possibly feet banging and kicking on the door. You move quickly to investigate, almost slipping on the wet floor, to discover someone is telling on someone else with the reasons never being serious. At the complete and utter hysteria they presented you can only assume someone must be bleeding profusely, they never are. You weigh the options and decide just leaving the door unlocked may be a safer alternative for you. Â After all, who doesn’t enjoy thinking they are about to get murdered in the shower?
My fear with scary movies is always in the build up. I know something is about to happen but it will still always jump out and scare me. I’m the one in the theater that screams and scares everyone else. My girls love Jack in the boxes. They are always eager to turn that crank with that annoying song that builds the fear of the item inside suddenly popping up. Every single time I jump and they think it’s hilarious. I do enjoy the feeling of anxiety knowing what will happen with the lovely jump start to my heart. It’s a great way to know you are alive.
They are also great at getting help with their practical jokes and being able to take their scarring to the next level. They love to hide behind corners and jump out. Thankfully they are like most kids and can’t keep quiet if they are trying to scare you so there are giggles to tip you off.
I’ve seen a lot of iconic horror movies however, I don’t really remember a lot of them. There is always a reminder of them and something stands out in memory. For example, I was visiting my in laws and took a nap. When I woke up I stepped outside to be greeted by two red tricycle that I tripped over and luckily caught myself. I immediately panicked and imagined them circling me and falling to my death. Which is pretty much all I remember from The Omen. Â I made sure to keep those out of sight to maintain what little sanity I have.
If a toddler riding a tricycle doesn’t scare you, what about two little girls standing in the hall together super innocent like. My favorite was watching tv and when my little one here’s the door knock she’ll happily shout, “their here.” My husband is trying to get that one perfected. I think he even got Kaylin’s teacher involved. There are certain things I was never going to teach my children, one of which was “Ring Around the Rosy”. If hearing a young child sing that slowly and constantly doesn’t strike fear in you, nothing will.
Kids are truly impressive with how far they will go to play a joke on you. I’m pretty sure the creepiest toys have to be made by kids at heart still looking to scare their parents. Of course my children insist on having these scary toys. They seem innocent enough, a castle that makes noise, a doll that talks but what you don’t know is they randomly go off at night. At first you yell at the kids to go to bed and stop playing with their new toy. Next time you think they have been playing with it way too much and you are hearing it in your sleep. Then you are wide awake, know everyone is asleep and you hear it go off. Thankfully, you know you aren’t in a horror story. You do have to decide at that moment though; do you hunt down the source of the noise or do you ignore it. You almost always choose to ignore it, eventually you never even hear it.
It’s amazing what you learn to eventually ignore. All the things that would strike fear in you initially start to become reconditioned to be just part of being a parent. You don’t even remember it bothering you until someone looks at you in utter fear as Kenzie lets out a blood curdling banshee scream that first makes you think she’s being murdered and then possessed at the fact she can hold her breath that long, possession was the only answer when she would start uttering gibberish which had to be some unknown tongue as she’d be even more angered if you didn’t understand her. You always expected her to start to spit pea soup at you and have her head start spinning, it never happened. You even tried to make it easier for her to walk on the ceiling and put her in the top bunk but alas no real demonic possession presented itself.
After you have given in to realizing your unknown childhood fears, your children quickly help you to overcome these fears. Ensuring you are fearless towards anything that may come your way because in the end you always know, you are the hero of the story and the hero always wins. You are their hero and that’s always what will matter most.