A few months ago, I saw this toy at wal-mart that I thought my son would love. It blows balls up into the air, the balls land in a tube, go through the tube, and then shoot back up into the air again. As soon as I turn it on and the balls start popping up, he starts screaming. He is terrified of that thing!
Remember those rubber fish that hang on a plaque on the wall? You press a button and they start flopping around and singing. My dad has one and I thought my son would like it. So I put it on the floor next to him and turned it on. Oh my god! He was hiding behind us, shaking, because he was so scared of it.
So what toys did you buy your kids, thinking that your kids would love them, only to find out that they don't? Lol
Tickle Me Elmo too! Grandma got it for her when she was 12 months old. It wasn't until she was 18 months old that we were able to pull it out again and it not be scary to her. Now at 2 years old, she loves it.
2 year old birthday wielded a couple small wind up toys, and she was afraid of them at first.
I have to agree with Tickle Me Elmo! But we kept playing with it and soon she didn't hide behind us anymore
I just had to reply although my son wasn't scared of any toys but he was terrified of dust bunnies!!!!! we had jut moved into a new house that had new carpet and it took a while for all the little carpet pieces to not fall out and go all over the kitchen floor so he would be playing and some dog hair and carpet would make a tiny appearance and he would FREAK out. HAHAHA good times, he is 7 now. Thanks for bringing that one back!!!
HAHAHA!! My second daughter was terrified of that singing fish too!
These aren't toys, but still kind of funny:
My eldest child is scared of NOTHING. It's... scary. She kills bugs and spiders for me :) She finds snakes and brings them to me. She thinks zombies are funny. The child will watch Stephen King movies with us. She's just like her mom ;)
My middle child, she's scared of daddy long legs... or was, until I showed her how much the baby loves them. Now, she's always bringing me the damn things. Great.
My son, HAHA! We recently took him to a small indoor aquarium, he loves fish... well he got face to face with this HUGE turtle... and screamed so loudly I'm pretty sure someone thought we were murdering him!! He was SHAKING he was so scared! I'm so glad no one else was in there, because my husband was doubled over laughing and I had to sit on my knees on the floor to stop from peeing on myself. Sheer terror = hilarious. Needless to say, we didn't stay after that!!
hahaha that is AWESOME!!
So far my son seems fearless..well until today. He is 3. We were at Joann Fabrics with my mil and there was a candy dish with a skeleton hand. Ya know the kinds that move when you put your hand in?
Well he goes "whats this mommy?" Puts his hand in, the thing grabs him and he SCREAMED. I was laughing my a$$ off
He keeps talking about how he doesn't want one of those haha
My daughter is afraid of my son's ridable dinosaur. If you press a button it roars. Every time she starts to frown and cry haha
tickle me elmo! He's 17 months old
Ah the ball popper, my daughter was afraid of that too. She was also afraid of tickle me elmo. After her second b-day she loved them both.
When my 9 yr old was little, he hated that talking grill set. It had the big eyes on the front with all the grilling accesories. The eyes eyes moved back & forth. It totally creeped me out , also.
My daughter was terrified of Thomas the Tank Engine on TV - from ages 1 to 3 she couldn't stand him and would start crying and want the TV shut off or changed if Thomas came on. Funny thing was, she loved Thomas toys and even had some Thomas pajamas that my cousin bought her - but hated him on TV!
Tickle Me Elmo! The 4 year old got it when she was 8 months old (grandma) and is still terrified of it! Maybe if you could turn his volume down.....
I haven't found one that my daughters are afraid of, but I have to tell about the one my 22-year old sister is STILL afraid of! Do you remember the Happy Apple? It's just an apple that has a rattle inside it. She freaks every time she sees it! My parents still have it at their house, so when we are visiting, my husband and I take turns hiding the Happy Apple in her room! It's freaking hilarious when we hear a little scream!
LOL! My son was also afraid of the ball shooting thing! That, and this (hideous) large yellow bird thing that sang "If you're happy and you know it" and jumped up and down. (Um, thanks Grandma....)
My daughter just informed me that she was terrified of her Cabbage Patch Doll. It would creep her out just looking all weird in the night. I asked her what happened to it and she said she had to keep in burried under the stuffed animals.
It took a loooooong time for my son to warm up to the Ball Popper that you mention. I don't think he really liked it until he was about 3 - it is kind of loud. I also bought him one of those bounce and spin zebras - I don't think he ever really liked that thing. I would have loved it as a kid.
My stepmother bought one of those dancing/singing Rudolphs that sang "Winter Wonderland" one Christmas. He was really scared of that thing!
My daughter was terrified of the ball popper too! Lol. She is not afraid of anything now, but when she was a toddler, she was terrified of anything that made a whirring sound. Fans, the weedeater, the ball popper, a scooter that her granddad got her...
Well I haven't found a toy that she is really scared of yet. The only thing that has frightened her so far is the vacuum cleaner.....she hates it and will run and hide behind something if you turn it on. HAHA!
I'm really hoping she grows out of it because I'm looking forward to the day when I can pawn that little chore off on someone. ;)
I was racking my brain and I can't remember any one toy that any of my kids were terrified of. However, my oldest, now 8, was terrified of dryer sheets when he was a toddler. My husband was so mean, he'd tape them to things he didn't want our son touching (the screen on the tv, kitchen drawers, garbage cans etc...) because the way our son reacted towards them made my husband laugh so hard. At one point I had to put a stop to it because our son wouldn't even dare enter the kitchen.
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My brother bought my daughter a polar bear toy where you put these balls into the mouth and it plays music and talks The balls follow a track you setup with penguins figures holding it up and they go into a tray at the end. She was almost 2 at the time. She was terrified of it, even if I turned off the sound. She would not play with it until earlier this year.
My son was terrified of the same toy! He got it for his first birthday but screamed and ran if you turned it on. We kept it though and two years later: "Momma, lets play with the poppy ball!" LOL
My answer is not regarding my kids, but my nephew. When he was 2 years old I bought him a ride-on stuffed bull that sang a song when you squeezed his ear for his birthday (kind of like a rocking horse, but baby-sized). I guess he fell off of it one time & my sister put him right back on & squeezed the ear to make it sing which freaked him out even more. That poor kid wouldn't go near it again until he was about 5 & much too big for it. His younger brother, now 18 months old, rides it like a lunatic now & loves it though.
My oldest son was scared of a part in one of the Baby Songs video tapes. There was a large man who played the tuba and my son was terrified of him. He loved the tapes, but whenever the tuba guy came on we would have to fast forward through it while my son ran into another room or buried himself under a blanket.
Our friends have this remote controlled Bigfoot robot thing. My 18-month-old daughter screams every time they turn it on. They have to hide it when we come over. But at least she's not the only one. It freaks a lot of our friends' kids out.
I personally have always hated that ball popper. My kids aren't scared of it, but the dang balls always go everywhere. I was always having to chase the balls when they were littler. They might do better with it now.
Glow worm. We bought it for him for his first christmas (he was 4mnths old) and now at 2 yrs old he is still scared of it. These are not toys but he also scared of bugs (mostly ones that fly, ever since he got stung by a bee a year ago...our air condtioner had a hive in it so there were a ton in our kitchen for a while) and small kittens, he is fine with cats but bursts into tears around kittens.
Sing-a-ma-jig. My oldest daughter hates that thing. She was scared of it at first and now she just ignores it.
Grandma gave us a battery-operated turtle with a propeller that whizzes around the bathtub. My daughter is terrified of it (although she's scared of floating fuzz in the tub as well) and I've heard my husband using it to get her out of the tub without a fight at the end of bathtime. As in telling her older brother, "Want to play with the turtle now?" at which point she jumps up and begs to get out. Ah, the manipulation.
One of my daycare kidlets from a few years back screamed like a crazy person when I would make our older Chicken dance Elmo do his thing. My now 17 year old daughter bought it for her Daddy as a Christmas gift many years ago (they have this "chicken" joke between them since she was a toddler), but it always sat on my big TV in the daycare playroom (no more as I have a thin tv now..bummer). This little boy would just go bonkers..all the other kids loved it...but not him...Whoa Nellie!
I'll never forget how terrified my son was when he was introduced to a remote control car at the age of 2. Just scared out of his mind. Now he's almost 14 and ISN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING, of course. He's too cool for that...
My youngest daughter is terrified of bugs. Especially the nasty creepy, crawly centipede we found on her pillow a couple of weeks ago. Truthfully, it terrified ME. And I was extremely proud of her courage in sleeping in her bed that night. As a kid, I would have chosen sleeping on the floor over a bed where a centipede had been!
OMG, I totally forgot: the magic airplane potty that violently flushes automatically. My son REFUSED to use an airplane toilet for YEARS and even now prefers to not use them. Even on 10 hour flights. Not that he's still *scared* of them or anything...
