What Was Your Childhood Monster?

Today I have a lot of guests on my blog. I am taking part in a fun blog fest, What was Your Childhood Monster?, started by Christine Rains. Christine is an author, and her latest book, a  paranormal romance novella, Fearless was  released yesterday. She came up with the idea of having lots of other folks write about the monsters of their childhood as a fun way to promote her book.  She says on her website that one of her favorite parts of writing the story was creating monsters spawned from children’s imaginations. Some of them are silly, but there’s no rhyme or reason to a child’s fears.

There are 49 authors participating in the blog fest, and the stories are varied. The blog fest started yesterday and will conclude tomorrow. If you have time over the next few days, visit a few of the other blogs to see what monsters frightened some of my author friends. A full list of the blogs is at the conclusion of this post.

My childhood monster always came to me in a dream that recurred frequently over a period of about a year or so when I was about 7 or 8 years old. This was a human monster who chased me from the field on the corner of my street, brandishing an ax. In my dream I would always slip and fall on the gravel driveway leading to the house and would have blood seeping out of the scrapes as I ran into the house.

There I saw my mother at the stove so I called to her, “A man is chasing me with an ax. Don’t tell him where I have gone.”

Then I would run and hide deep in the closet that ran under the staircase, listening as the man burst into the house. I heard him say, “Where is the girl?”

“Under the stair case.”

I would always wake up just as the man pushed clothes aside and found me, which was a good thing. Some experts at interpreting dreams say that if you die in a dream, you actually do die. I wonder if that is true?

Now that I am all grown up – well, maybe – I have forgiven my mother for the betrayal, although I always did wonder why she was so cavalier in giving away my hiding place. In my dream she always just kept stirring the pot on the stove and nodded toward the hall leading to the bedroom and the closet.  I asked her once and she just told me to stop being silly. In some ways I’m glad I didn’t listen to her.

So what is the monster from your childhood? We’d love to know so you can share your story in a comment here or any of the other blogs. Have fun!

19 thoughts on “What Was Your Childhood Monster?”

  1. All the elements of super creepy here. Guessing you had some trust issues with your Mom. I also wonder that about dreams. I have never died in one so I can not say. Nice to meet you, new follower.

  2. Thanks for stopping by Siv and S.L. You are right, I did have lots of issues with my Mom. So thankful that it is all behind us and we have a good relationship. Not perfect, but good. She is now 93 years old and I am anxious to go visit her. We live a long way apart.

  3. We’re not likely to know if when we die in a dream, we die in reality… until it happens to us, then it’s too late to tell anybody. So, perhaps it’s true.

    I can’t remember a scary dream from my childhood or even a childhood monster. Wonder why?

    When you go visit your mom, give her a hug from me. Mine is long passed.

  4. Oh man, the mom part is even scarier than the guy with the ax.

    And on dying in real life if we die in a dream, only in that movie Inception, right?

    Thanks for stopping by my blog!

  5. Thanks for coming by Robin and Helen. I really didn’t think about the Mom thing until so many pointed it out here. I guess I really have gotten over it. (smile)I do remember telling her about the dream and asking her why she told the guy where I was. She just told me I was being silly.

  6. Bugs. Those were my nightmare dreams when I was a kid. But not big, scary things like spiders. Swarms of pale green, tiny flies. Isn’t that weird? I never remember seeing anything like them anywhere except in my dreams when I was 10-12 yo.

  7. Nothing scarier than a human! Probably it was your mother giving away your spot that might have been more frightening. Thanks for sharing your monster with us and for helping promote my novella.

  8. Interesting doorway to the psyche of a child. I remember having “betrayal” dreams with my mother as well–and yes, I also have issues with mine. I put it down to the sense of betrayal a child feels when a parent chastises us or otherwise “betrays” what we expect. I’m pretty sure parents don’t do it on purpose, but they can be somewhat inconsistent 🙂 Thanks for sharing!

  9. Thanks for coming by Sherie and Guilie. I think you are right, Guilie, about the betrayal issues. I had significant family problems growing up, and I am so glad that is all behind me. I had not even thought of this dream in years until I had to come up with something to write about for the blogfest. I was not afraid of much as a child, so this was the only thing I could think of. LOL

    This blog hop sure was fun. I enjoyed reading about some of the childhood fears from skeletons to Santa. Yes, one person was afraid of Santa. LOL

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