10 Different Monsters that Scare Children

There’s something uniquely human about our need to scare ourselves silly. As far as anyone knows, no other species goes out of its way to invent reasons to wet itself from fear. Children have the best imaginations, of course, and the list of things that scare them seems to get longer with each generation. What were your biggest fears as a kid; which monsters scared you the most? Here’s our list of 10 different monsters that scare children:

1. Monster Under the Bed – It’s unseen and usually unheard, but we know it lurks … just beneath our mattress, waiting for our feet to hit the floor. Yikes!

2. Boogeyman in the Closet – The scariest of monsters are the ones we never really see, even in pictures. So this monster has reigned in the nightmares of children for as long as there have been bedroom closets.

3. Evil Clowns – What could be more terrifying than a demonic version of those circus mascots and jesters, the clown? We confess that some of these guys, like Pennywise here, give us a real bad case of the creeps.

4. Witches – Sure, sure, we know. There are good witches and bad witches, good spells and bad spells. All we know is that hags like this one scare the crap out of kids.

5. Zombies – Heck, this bunch even has adults obsessed with their imminent invasion. They’re everywhere in pop culture now – movies, books, comics, video games. They’re everywhere and they just keep coming. That makes them very, very scary.

6. Puppets – Let’s face it, even the most charming of these still has at least a little creep factor. Children (and adults like us) have a tendency oftentimes to create our monsters out of the familiar, as with our aforementioned clowns.

7. Namahage – Leave it to the Japanese to incorporate scary monsters into their culture as a way of training their kids to behave, work hard and not be lazy. Hmmm.

8. Cuco – It appears that the Japanese have not cornered the market on scaring their young’uns into submission. Seems our Hispanic cousins have an ace up their sleeves as well, in the form of this legendary bugaboo.

9. Dolls – They walk, they talk; their heads spin and their eyes follow you around the room. They are just plain ghoulishly scary, and some of them are bigger than the kids themselves. Yikes.

10. Ghosts – Sometimes the monsters are more than monsters, beyond flesh and blood. Sometimes they’re not even living. Not in the way we think of living anyway. Spirits, ghouls, poltergeists. Call them what you will, but whatever you do, don’t call upon them, lest you be haunted evermore.

Taken From Find a Baby Sitter