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♦ Why is it that children have fears like this?


Children get scared easily. Being so young they don't truly know what is real and what isn't or what could or couldn't happen.


♦ What were your fears as a child?


I was usually feared of the normal things. The 'boogey man', some character in a horror movie. The usual.


♦ Do you still have them and if so why?


I still fear some things. But it's something I have a phobia over is all.



♦ Why is it that these fears usually dissapear in adulthood?


Because when a child reaches adulthood or adolesence, their mind is more developed. They can think logically and their fears they had as children seem rather hilarious.


♦ Where did the stories such as the "boogeyman" and "monsters under the bed" come from?


I doubt anyone knows. More than likely it's something mothers told their children to prevent them from getting out of bed in the middle of the night.


♦ So where do you believe these fears come from?


They come from a child's mind to over exaggerate things -- get them out of purportion. Children as I said early get scared over things easily.

Even if a parent doesn't "introduce" a child to the Boggy man, other children are likely to, those children may have been abused, or molested. The thought of a Monster is an aid to express what is, and must be unimaginable for a child to accept.

But like.... I mean the story of the boogeyman and such, it had to come from somewhere. my parents never told me anything like that and I was always afraid.

What about the child that has a Cat Burgler hide under his bed, then when everybody goes to sleep.. out pops the thing under their bed.. whooo that would imprint.. I think the answer lies in The Grimm Brother Tales, keep in mind that their tales have been very watered down, and had the original intent of keeping kids safe in a primative culture.

darkXwhisper -



It's possible the story could go back hundreds if not thousands of years. It would seem logical that parents hundreds or thousands of years ago did tell their children stories like that.

Like an urban legend it serves a purpose, a child will look under the bed when while the light is on. as well as the closet, when the child is spooked into obsession it is time to "kill the Boogy man, I have mentioned the way to do that in the last thread, as well as some where in my journal.

LunaOBscura:


That is what this thread is here for. Discussion. There are no right or wrong answers in my threads. Just oppinions =)

Right but pressing others to present an opinion that directly answers your thread is not discussion, when you dismiss it as not exactly to your objective. This topic has been done so much, I can only wonder what it is you are fixed on hearing. Are you waiting for a specific answer? Correct their is no right or wrong, so why press for detailed answers?

The bogeyman, boogyman, bogyman, boogieman, boogey monster, or boogeyman, is a folkloric or legendary ghostlike monster often believed in by children. The bogeyman has no specific appearance, and conceptions of the monster can vary drastically even from household to household within the same community; in many cases he simply has no set appearance in the mind of a child, but is just an amorphous embodiment of terror. Bogeyman can be used metaphorically to denote a person or thing of which someone has an irrational fear. Parents often say that if their child is naughty, the bogeyman will get them, in an effort to make them behave. The bogeyman legend may originate from Scotland, where such creatures are sometimes called bogles, boggarts, or bogies.

Bogeyman tales vary by region. In some places the bogeyman is male; in others, female, and in others, both. In some Midwestern states of the United States, the bogeyman scratches at the window. In the Pacific Northwest he may manifest in "green fog." In other places he hides under the bed or in the closet and tickles children when they go to sleep at night. It is said that a wart can be transmitted to someone by the bogeyman.[1] Bogeymen may be said to target a specific mischief – for instance, a bogeyman that punishes children who suck their thumbs – or general misbehavior.


Origin of the word

The word bogey is most likely derived from the Middle English bogge/bugge[2] (also the origin of the word bug), and thus is generally thought to be a cognate of the German bögge, böggel-mann (English "Bogeyman"). The word could also be linked to many similar words in other European languages; Buse (Nynorsk), bòcan, púca, pooka or pookha (Irish Gaelic), pwca, bwga or bwgan (Welsh), puki (Old Norse), pixie or piskie (Cornish), puck (English), bogu (Slavonic)[3].


Other purported origins

In Southeast Asia the term is commonly accepted to refer to Bugis [4] or Buganese [5] pirates, ruthless seafarers of southern Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. These pirates often plagued early English or Dutch trading ships, namely those of the British East India Company or Dutch East India Company. It is popularly believed that this resulted in the European sailors bringing their fear of the "bugi men" back to their home countries. However, etymologists disagree with this because words relating to bogeyman have been commonly used centuries before European colonisation of Southeast Asia and it is therefore unlikely that the Bugis would have been commonly known to westerners during that time.

Fair point. ;]


Another way I'd have to think of it is perhaps it is some kid [a bully, so to speak] spread it around to scare kids that were ... well ... easily scared and it caught on.

see now I am confinced that thiswas a trivia question.. Notice how myself and Luna hit on all the points.. your pressing for details that you already knew.. Arn't you just a research geek? (Thats a compiment BTW)

That was posted in the last thread as well.

I just notice that the same post are looping.

Part of the mystic of the Boogy man comes from the veiled origin.. it adaptes in each telling, custom made like ghost stories, every town has a "White widow".

When I was a kid, I was afraid of a gooey corpse under the bed. He was definitely something I made up when I was young. No clue why, but it certainly made bedtime fun!

Most kids are afraid of the dark (not me personally) so their little imaginenations make up reasons why they should be. That's my guess on it.

Oh, and I did tell my younger cousin about the boogie man and scared her shitless. I wasn't abused, I was just a bitch. LOL

While the subject is open I would like to hear a few parents opinions on what age to tell a child that Santa and the Easter Bunny is not real? And the Tooth Fairy.

The reason I bring that up is that it is a good base to use to dispell a childs fear of Boogy man.. example" Johny, just like Santa is not real, remember when I told you why people believe in Santa?, well the boogy man is not real either."

Ummmm yeah i think this thread is OK.


Dabbler:

The best time to tell a childabout those things not being real is the 5th grade. Yup the 5th grade.

I found out about Sants in second grade. I was heart broken.

By the time a kid hits fifth grade they will have heard already that santa isn't real. I would say third grade, fourth a the latest. But always discourage ideas about the boogie man.

do you tell the child to respect the belief in santa of other children? How old is the Third grade, I had a lag in my grade school..

As a parent you should inform them by 5th grade. 10-11 years old. just to make sure. Well, no you shouldn't. it isn't other kids jobs to inform kids that these things aren't real. It is their parents duties.

For me it was never what was in the closet, it was what was in the basement, basements scare the hell out of me. My younger sister wa always terrified of what was under the bed, I used to have to check under her bed every night before she would go to sleep and if she had to get out of bed in the middle of the night she would leap off the bed. She was convinced there was something under there.

Or she was crafty enough to make you think she thought something was under there, because it was to her a bonding ritual. I have a friend who admited that about her monster in the closet phase, it knocked me flat, as far as behavior studies go.

That could be possible, shes a sheriff now all grown up chasing "monsters everyday " never saw that coming
Ironically the one thing that scares the life out of me is clowns.....Saddly can't even take my son to the circus, or i will have nightmares for weeks.

Cloraphobia.. I believe it is called..

Yes I do believe that is what it is. Strangly alot of people have it, its not as uncommon as I had orginally thought it was.

I hate clowns! Not to the point of a phobia. It's just unnatural, clowns I mean. I used to leap from the bed too.

Regardless of it being the parent's duty to tell their kid. A lot of the time the parents are too late and the child does learn from friends or school-mates that Santa doesn't exist.

I used to think their were alligators under my bed. What in hell could that represent?

I think children probably learn about such monsters through the fairy tales they're read while growing and later these same stories/monsters are used to manipulate children in hopes of disciplining the child through fear.

A similar thread has been discussed in the forum. You can find it here, The Boogeyman.

Kids are afraid of everything new and what they dont understand. Its easy to understand how they can be afraid of the dark. You cant se in the dark and therefore its not your normaly enviroment.

Another thing. The human rase is over 10 000 years old. What happend at night for lets say 2000 years. Predetors lurked just outside your door. I think we inhereted the fear of darknes from our great great great..... grandparents how knew dangers where out there.

last
The movie "Darknes" has an interesting twist on this, se it if you like, sure its fiction but anyway.

Closed per the thread starters request.