Things that go bump in the night

Posted on by WritingfromtheheartwithBrian

When I was a kid, I was scared of the dark. I worried especially about the ghosts underneath my bed and things that went bump in the night. I was pretty clueless about what these mythical creatures might do or how they would harm me, but it didn’t stop me from coming up with horrible scenarios that would make falling asleep challenging to say the least.

Being scared of the dark is a pretty common fear for kids, but you couldn’t tell that to me. I’m not sure where it developed: a scary tale from a friend, something I saw on TV, or from a million other places. Like most things in life, spending time in the dark was actually rather painless, what was bad was the worry and fear that it created in my head.

The fear was especially bad when I woke up and had a full bladder. I would run to the bathroom, my little legs racing as fast as they could go in my onesie pajama pants, trying hard to be quiet, lest I wake up the ugly monsters lurking behind every corner. It was always better to keep them asleep.

If I was really worried, I would try to hold my bladder until morning. Oh my, can you imagine that? What in the world was going through my little brain? I mark that idea down as a horrible idea built upon a sand castle base of horrible ideas.

Outgrowing our biggest worries

Humans are lucky in that we learn and outgrow our juvenile fears and worries. For me, I learned that the growling noise that came from the vent in my room was not a monster growling at me, but nothing more than our furnace and the movement of warm air. In addition, the monsters underneath my bed were simply dustballs and my old sneakers. If something was alive under there, heaven help it, because it wouldn’t have been able to survive long — the sweaty stench coming from my sneakers would have soon suffocated and killed off anything they came into contact.

Of course, as I got older, I learned that the dark wasn’t my enemy but a friend. I learned too that the better I could control my worries over things as silly as being scared of the dark, the more I could control other things in my life.

For example, I happened to watch a trail camera recently that a National Park had set up and it was interesting watching the variety of animals — the hunted and the hunter — all frequenting the same spot in a 24 hour period. There were no monsters or goblins, just a variety of different animals watching and going about their business.

Yes, as my mother used to tell me as a kid, what’s there in the day, is there in the dark. (Okay, I get it now, but I still want to see her watch a Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street and say that!!!)

Rock-a-bye-baby

Fortunately, I don’t worry much anymore about the dark. My problem now is that I’ll fall asleep for an hour and then wake up wide awake with my thoughts and worries and plans for the day. For example, the other night I woke up at 1 a.m. and I couldn’t get my kids out of my head. I felt like I was in a game of 20 questions:

  • How are my kids doing?
  • How’s their jobs going?
  • How are they juggling all the many different balls that they have up in the air?
  • Are they taking of themselves? Are they eating and exercising enough? When will we all be together again?

Finally after a short while, I told myself to knock it off, they’re doing quite well on their own and don’t need me wracking my brain over questions that they’ll figure out the answers to in due time.

Same problem, different day

Our worries change as we age. Yes, as I mentioned, I find the dark welcoming. It brings a silence and a calm that I can’t always find during the day. Oh yes, my mind will find things to worry about, but the darkness reminds me that I’ll be okay.

I guess being scared of the dark says something about life and our worries. Our fears change over time and that’s good. The best thing we can do is face our fears; get up when we’re down; and keep looking forward.

And oh yea, remember to laugh at the things that once scared us and enjoy the ride! The crazy-looking monsters can’t get you if you’re laughing at them.

…….

Please join in on the discussion. In addition, please visit my personal blog at www.writingfromtheheartwithbrian.com to read my companion piece. You can follow me on Instagram at @writingfromtheheartwithbrian.

All the best, Brian.

Images by Pexels.

24 thoughts on “Things that go bump in the night”

  1. Pingback: Um, boo right back at ya! – Writing from the Heart with Brian

  4. I love your approach to defang the monsters by laughing at them! Such a wonderful encouragement to face our fears and keep our eyes up and moving forward!

    And I laughed about the smell of your sneakers knocking the monsters out. Sheesh – you could have bottled it and sold it to your friends!

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  6. I remember my son at age three or four frightened to death in the middle of the night. He said the lady in white came into his room with a dagger. He’d run through her to our bedroom and crawl into bed with us. Once asleep my husband would carry him back to his room and tuck him in. Yes, as a worry wort, I’ll wake up and my mind will race about our kids, too.

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  7. “Our fears change over time and that’s good.” This is great, Brian! We overcome old fears, are faced with new old, and use the lessons and skills we’ve picked up to overcome the new batch of things that go bump in the night.

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  8. I do miss those innocent days when the dark was our biggest worry, even the full bladder moments. It seems now there are bigger worries that keep us up at night. I often think about this when I see my little one exploring these emotions. Enjoy them while you have them, I want to say!

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  9. I used to wake up all the time in the night when I was teaching and start worrying about individual kids in my class and how to help them. Then, I couldn’t get back to sleep for hours, which then affected my sharpness the next day. Really not a good pattern to fall into. I think we all worry about things; it’s just the things that frighten us or we worry about change.

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  10. I’ve never been afraid of the dark, but then again, King Kong used to scare me. I’d barely be able to watch those movies, and had to keep repeating my mantra – man in a monkey suit, man in a monkey suit – to keep from freaking out too much.

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