Fear of Children

[Ken]

I am curious how many of you are afraid of children.

I have been afraid of children my entire life – even when I was a child. Hearing children scream sends chills up my spine, terrifying me to near petrified.

I am afraid of people in general, but children are the most fearful. I can generally tolerate calm children that seem to have good control of their behavior, but most seem to be extremely chaotic.

 

[SchrodingersMeerkat]

Children honestly give me the creeps too. I think it comes from being bullied as a child, even though I know the children who bullied me are adults now. I don't like adults all that much either, but at least most of them know their place. As an adult, children generally respect me. I honestly never could have children of my own due to the fact they terrify me. I'm generally okay with other people's kids, by but if I had any that depended on me, I'd be giving them up for adoption before they were born. I never liked other kids even when I was one and made up my mind at four years old that I never wanted to get married, let alone have children.

 

[Bolletje]

I’m not afraid of children, but I get really nervous holding babies. Which was quite challenging during my pediatric medicine internship
As for toddlers and children, I just feel uncomfortable with them. I don’t know how to talk to them and I generally avoid spending time with them.

 

[unperson]

The noise factor is a problem. They don't scare me.

 

[Magna]

Yes, children make me nervous. The only babies I've ever held were my own children save for a few uncomfortable exceptions when I was inwardly counting down the minutes/seconds until I could hand the person's baby back.

 

[clg114]

I am curious how many of you are afraid of children.

I have been afraid of children my entire life – even when I was a child. Hearing children scream sends chills up my spine, terrifying me to near petrified.

I am afraid of people in general, but children are the most fearful. I can generally tolerate calm children that seem to have good control of their behavior, but most seem to be extremely chaotic.

I am the father of five kids, so I understand your fear.

 

[Major Tom]

I love children but strongly dislike those ear-piercing squeals and screeches they make. As fate would have it my son who is on the spectrum enjoys a stim which is a high-pitched squeal that makes me want to run away and hide. I've learned to deal with it through listening to music with earbuds. It still hurts my ears even with music blasting, but it's more tolerable. I have to endure it because he's my son and I love him.

 

[Fino]

I'm a therapist for children. Adults make me nervous. Teenagers sometimes too.

 

[Au Naturel]

I love children. Raised two of my own, subbed for classes, helped with scouts. It is the chaos and noise that can develop that I don't deal with well.

A Chucky Cheese is an intolerable nightmare due to noise.

 

[Booknerd515]

I'm not afraid of children, but I am afraid of sudden loud noises. Children can be loud and chaotic, but not all of them I have interacted with have been like that. When I was younger I was socially anxious about interacting with others my age and even felt more comfortable interacting with adults because they were less suddenly noisy.

I was forced to become used to all sorts of screams due to some of my nightmares. So I have far more of a tolerance for hearing screams than most of my family does. They all just blend together after a little while for me, but before that, they gave me anxiety and I'd be unable to talk for quite a bit and would have to meditate to calm myself down.

 

[Crossbreed]

I've learned to deal with it through listening to music with earbuds.

Headphone-style ear protectors are more effective and you can still hear with them, to a degree.

Even as a teenager, my youngest would scream when he didn't get his way. The whole house would be in an uproar over it. We found no way to correct him because of his mental illness. Once we bought the aforementioned headphones, he gave up on using that tactic. We could still hear him if he wanted to talk, but it took the edge off of his screams.

 

[Gracey]

Those piercing shrieks can rattle ones bones,
particularly when I didn't see it coming (would be unusual for me)

I will try to avoid those purpose built play facilities such as the chucky cheese type. I have no desire to subject myself to that level of torture voluntarily.


Other than that, I'm mostly in awe of young children, especially toddlers. The advancement of cognitive ability is achieved at a phenomenal rate.
To witness it feels like a privilege.

 

[Crossbreed]

The same pitch in laughter did not bother me, but it wasn't forceful, either.

 

[Major Tom]

Headphone-style ear protectors are more effective and you can still hear with them, to a degree.

Even as a teenager, my youngest would scream when he didn't get his way. The whole house would be in an uproar over it. We found no way to correct him because of his mental illness. Once we bought the aforementioned headphones, he gave up on using that tactic. We could still hear him if he wanted to talk, but it took the edge off of his screams.

I do have those kind of sound suppressors, but even with those and earplugs, the screech physically hurts. I never react to it and do my best to ignore it. It's a stim and I just hope that he moves onto something different or his voice gets deeper so that it's not so high-pitched.

 

[Thinx]

There's a baby next door who is one, she's cute and just recently up on her feet now. She's fairly vocal but her voice isn't high pitched, and the walls are not so thin, I quite enjoy hearing her making the transition from babble to some nearly words. Hey we were all children once, they aren't a different species, I find them interesting.

 

[SDRSpark]

For me it's a sensory issue. I am kind of afraid of babies and small children because they shriek unexpectedly and it HURTS. Also, they smell funky, are often sticky and prone to grab me/my things with sticky fingers etc. I'm very, very uncomfortable around them (less so outdoors). I'm really uncomfortable if I'm in a restaurant or somewhere like that where I want some semblance of peace and tranquility and there's a baby or small child present. I'm just waiting for them to start shrieking and totally spoil it for me.

 

[Starfire]

I’m not afraid of children. They can be noisy and irritating, but I would have no problem beating one in a fight so they don’t cause any fear for me.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I am curious how many of you are afraid of children.

I have been afraid of children my entire life – even when I was a child. Hearing children scream sends chills up my spine, terrifying me to near petrified.

I am afraid of people in general, but children are the most fearful. I can generally tolerate calm children that seem to have good control of their behavior, but most seem to be extremely chaotic.

I don't fear children, tbh. When they are screaming I am more annoyed than anything else, though. Also, all children are chaotic to some extent.

 

[Judge]

Not fear per se, but like others I have no appreciate for sudden and unnecessary high-pitched screams.

Having periodically taken care of a girlfriend's child, I found them to be uncomplicated and honest. Little persons without adult agendas. Refreshing for this Aspie.

But overseeing infants or preteens and teenagers? Uh....no thanks.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

Not fear per se, but like others I have no appreciate for sudden and unnecessary high-pitched screams.

Having periodically taken care of a girlfriend's child, I found them to be uncomplicated and honest. Little persons without adult agendas. Refreshing for this Aspie.

But overseeing infants or preteens and teenagers? Uh....no thanks.

Yeah. Kids tend to speak their minds, which I actually appreciate. Sometimes this could end in some awkward moments tho because kids also tend to overshare.