Did you tell your kids about the Boogie Man?

[N.Bailey]

When my kids were little, I went to visit a friend one day. This particular woman and I were very close at one time, but once I married and had kids, we just didn't see one other very often, but I've always considered her to be a very close friend. Still do actually. Anyway, on this visit, my kids were about 3 and 4 I'd guess and she started saying, The Boogie Man is coming, etc.... Something to that extent anyway. My kids just stood there and stared at her like she was a freak of something. She yells at me, YOU DIDN'T TELL THESE GUYS WHO THE BOOGIE MAN IS? Keep in mind that she's much older than me and would NEVER do a thing to hurt my children or anyone for that matter. I just told her NO, and they don't need to know about him either!! She just laughed at me and it was blown off.

This afternoon, I was out and ran into her again. She comes over to our table and amid the conversation, this Boogie Man incident is brought up. Everyone at the table laughed and thought I was the crazy one (not that it's that big a deal really), but they said every child knows who the Boogie Man is. Honestly, I'd never given it much thought at all. I always felt that we tell our kids about these monsters that lurk, then we're shocked when our kids are paranoid that something or someone is going to get them. I always thought of it as a very minor form of child abuse (LOL). We also NEVER had monster issues in our house.

So, what say you? Did your children know who the Boogie Man was or do they now for those of you with young children?

 

[BillSears]

I never intentionally frightened my child by lieing to her. Some people may want to "tease" thier kids keeping them awake in fear at night but I'm not one of them.

 

[RadioNate]

No, why would I try to scare my child?

 

[kidshop]

Dang, the real world is scary enough. No need to make up anything to terrorize my kids.

 

[rhanditresmom]

not a chance....not worth their time!

 

[dmslush]

No, there are enough real fears out there that I never felt the need to give her imaginary things to be afraid of.

 

[diznygirl]

DS has a stuffed Oogie Boogie - does that count for anything?

After spending lots and lots of time trying to tell them monsters DON'T exist, why, oh why would I want to TELL THEM something scary????

 

[disykat]

I thought that older brothers or bigger kids that wanted to torment you were who were mentioned the boogie man. It never occured to me that parents would actually use the boogie man to frighten their own kids! My kids have never mentioned the boogie man, although I'm guessing at some point they heard of him.

 

[Cindyluwho]

When I was little my Aunt Ginger told me that if I got out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom that Yahoodi would get me. She said he hid under the bed! Egads! I was terrified of the boogie man, yahoodie and the dark. I still have problems with closet doors at night. Thanks alot auntie ginger

 

[rascalmom]

Am I the only one? I was thinking the thread title referred to a song.

No "boogie man" at our house. When oldest was about 3, she became afraid of a monster in her closet. This went on for a few weeks, with her usually ending up in our bed at night. We got a big cardboard box, went into her closet, packed the "monster" up & "shipped" it to Georgia. Voila! No more monster!

She's 17 now - I wonder if a connecting flight through Atlanta will be a problem?

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Nope, never informed my kids about the boogie man. Seems a silly thing to do! My kids didn't have any serious monster fears, either. My 6yo fears some things, but not monsters.

 

[Sparx]

No, there are enough real fears out there that I never felt the need to give her imaginary things to be afraid of.

what about that thing that lived under the couch? -eek-

 

[lbgraves]

Now there's a good idea. Get your kids afraid of something that doesn't exist so they wont sleep in their beds at night? No way! DD has managed to dream up her own monsters. We insist that they aren't real...she still climbs into bed with us in the middle of the night. Why on earth someone would think that scaring their kids is a great idea? They are the crazy ones...not you.

 

[tmt martins]

It was the only way to get her to use Kleenex in her bedroom

 

[N.Bailey]

When I was little my Aunt Ginger told me that if I got out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom that Yahoodi would get me. She said he hid under the bed! Egads! I was terrified of the boogie man, yahoodie and the dark. I still have problems with closet doors at night. Thanks alot auntie ginger

Am I the only one? I was thinking the thread title referred to a song.

No "boogie man" at our house. When oldest was about 3, she became afraid of a monster in her closet. This went on for a few weeks, with her usually ending up in our bed at night. We got a big cardboard box, went into her closet, packed the "monster" up & "shipped" it to Georgia. Voila! No more monster!

She's 17 now - I wonder if a connecting flight through Atlanta will be a problem?

You've probably scarred her for life!


Thanks everyone. When they all seemed to act like all kids knew this, I thought, boy there must be a lot of cruel parents out there. It just makes no sense to me why anyone would do this. I certainly can understand the older kids informing younger ones to scare them, but the parents? I knew of the Boogie Man when I was little though, but I can't remember who told me. Prolly my older sister. She did after all inform me that there was no Santa Claus, and if that didn't traumatize me enough (I was in tears), she included the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy too.

 

[whosyourdaddy]

My 2 year old loves the Veggie Tales. There is one sing along song on the DVD called God is bigger that has a verse in it that reads like this. "God is bigger than the boogie man and he's watching out for you and me!". She now proudly exclaims at bed time that shes not afraid of the boogie man cause God is watching out for her.

 

[Marseeya]

No boogie man here either! That's just crazy.

My parents were boogie men kinda people. They told me about the boogie man and made it seem like the devil would get me too. Jerks. Oh, and we also had a guy in our neighborhood who was pretty severely mentally retarded. They always said he'd get us if we didn't behave. What's worse, they KNEW this guy was the biggest sweetheart in the world. How dare they use him to frighten us!

 

[Beth76]

Uh, no way! What's wrong with people? Are these the same people who purposely scare their child, video tape and post it on the internet?

 

[binny]

no we would never intentionally scare our children like that!


However I forgot about the Veggitales song. So they have heard about it but theyve never asked what it was they just happily sing along LOL

 

[Nancy]

Nope never said a word to them. BUT my 2 oldest were really good at terrorizing their younger sister. She was afraid to flush the toilet for the longest time because her sisters convinced her that when the toilet flushed a monster jumped out. She started going to the bathroom with the door open (she was about 3-4) and when she flushed she would run like crazy from the bathroom. I didn't find out till months later why she started doing this. Took about a week of me staying with her when she flushed to make her realize nothing popped out of the toilet. They also had a doll named Janet (Barbie doll type) that they told her would come alive at night and eat her hair. (DD was very into her curls at that time) They would lay in the bottom bunk after they went to bed and whisper "Janet doll" over and over to scare her. Poor thing....big sisters are so mean.