Go to sleep or the __ will get you!

[GistoftheFist]

So while browsing random articles on Cracked the other day, I came across and reread this one again: http://www.cracked.com/article/174_7-horrific-boogeymen-used-to-scare-kids-around-world/

Did anyone here ever have their parents (or peers) warn you about a monster or creature supposedly lurking around and would eat/get you if you didn't go to sleep or whatever they wanted you to do or not do?

I honestly can't think of very many here in the US, the one I heard the most about was the boogeyman but there never really seemed to be any description or backstory, or even what specifically he did as far as I know. All I really knew is it was some menacing figure lurking in the dark corners of children's imaginations. I guess there's always Bloody Mary, but you had to summon her through the mirror to get her to appear.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah, El Coco. That's Spanish for Bogeyman. But nobody really believes in that, it's just a joke you tell your kids before they go to bed.

EDIT: Oh wait I remembered, there's also El Hombre de la Bolsa ("the man with the bag"). Same story though.

 

[Darken12]

Yeah, El Coco. That's Spanish for Bogeyman. But nobody really believes in that, it's just a joke you tell your kids before they go to bed.

EDIT: Oh wait I remembered, there's also El Hombre de la Bolsa ("the man with the bag"). Same story though.

Same here. In my case, they used the man with the bag more often, because it works on teenagers and smart children by preying on a fear that actually does happen. Children, particularly girls, do get abducted and sold into prostitution, and there is a very tight lid on underage prostitution (and prostitution in general) as it is a very lucrative affair that many politicians have their fingers on.

I'm still absolutely shocked that a middle-aged woman was able to uncover a deeply steeped network of prostitution in the search for her missing daughter and wasn't immediately assassinated. She's still alive, right now! I'm quite pleased she isn't dead.

 

[uzo]

When I was a kiddie I was always warned about yowies (yowie is the Aussie version of Bigfoot). I grew up in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, so surrounded by bush all day every day. I still remember the first time I heard a possum hissing/gurgling outside my window and the brix that were shat.

There wasn't really any story that I had heard that meant the yowie was something to worry about. But I guess it was the fear of the unknown?

Needless to say, I grew out of that fear.



... eventually.

 

[DoPo]

No my parents (or anybody else's parents, as far as I'm aware) haven't seriously said "Do this or this figure would come and get you" or anything similar. There were mentions of some figures but not that many or that serious, either. There was baba Yaga (mentioned in the article) but she wasn't really that bad. Usually depicted as an evil witch but not always - some stories had her more of a witch - dangerous but could be negotiated with or outsmarted or similar - not necessarily malicious. There was "torbalan" (literally "the bag man"...ok, more or less, could also be "the one with the bag") but he wasn't really described in much detail. Or that often, either. He's presumably male and has a bag. And does stuff to children - not that stuff but he puts them in the bag and...well, I dunno it was never specified, actually.

As for other monsters from legends around kids, there was the local version of Bloody Mary - she's called the queen of spades...for some reason. But from what I gathered, it's pretty much the same thing - you do need the actual queen of spades playing card to call her, though, also a mirror and...I don't know, I think candles and calling her name. Never really done it myself, but I know that plenty of others have tried it.

Those were actually the most well known and most used. There are other monsters but weren't really used that much.

 

[lechat]

when i was a kid there was a dark scary hallway on the way to the bathroom and my parents would often say "watch out it's gonna get you" "quick it's right behind you"
i remember being terrified and running as fast as i could to the bathroom
bastards seriously that could have permanently scarred me

 

[Dags90]

My sister was warned of the "Mamoon" living in the closet near the dining room of my grandma's house. It was just something my uncle came up with to keep her away from the toolbox and stuff that was in there and weren't child safe. My brother, cousin and myself were instead told there were alligators in the basement, because one time it flooded and my uncle didn't want us messing around down there.

 

[DoPo]

when i was a kid there was a dark scary hallway on the way to the bathroom and my parents would often say "watch out it's gonna get you" "quick it's right behind you"
i remember being terrified and running as fast as i could to the bathroom
bastards seriously that could have permanently scarred me

My parents didn't even need to say anything - the hallway was full of monsters, I'm sure of it. I always dashed past it without need for encouragement, here is a handy diagram of what my apparment looked like

 

[Biodeamon]

I don't know why but the first that came to mind is the the "D". yes just the plain letter D. "go to sleep or the D will get you".

I need to get off of tumblr.

 

[game-lover]

I was never told any stories by my parents that were this variety.

So what I know of such things I know because I heard it from others.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah, El Coco. That's Spanish for Bogeyman. But nobody really believes in that, it's just a joke you tell your kids before they go to bed.

EDIT: Oh wait I remembered, there's also El Hombre de la Bolsa ("the man with the bag"). Same story though.

Same here. In my case, they used the man with the bag more often, because it works on teenagers and smart children by preying on a fear that actually does happen. Children, particularly girls, do get abducted and sold into prostitution, and there is a very tight lid on underage prostitution (and prostitution in general) as it is a very lucrative affair that many politicians have their fingers on.

I'm still absolutely shocked that a middle-aged woman was able to uncover a deeply steeped network of prostitution in the search for her missing daughter and wasn't immediately assassinated. She's still alive, right now! I'm quite pleased she isn't dead.

I always imagined El hombre de la bolsa to be a Slenderman kind of monster that dragged away kids in his bag. I'm afraid the high rate of dead-kids-found-in-bags in Argentina makes the story all the more creepy.

 

[Darken12]

I always imagined El hombre de la bolsa to be a Slenderman kind of monster that dragged away kids in his bag. I'm afraid the high rate of dead-kids-found-in-bags in Argentina makes the story all the more creepy.

Do we really have that many children found in bags? I remember that headless torso in a garbage bag that they fished out of the river a couple years back, but that was an adult. Though I don't keep up with the news so you're probably better informed than me.

 

[geK0]

I didn't have my parents tell me anything specifically, but I did have recurring nightmares of a colossal bear with a rotting tree stump over it's head that would besiege my house, eventually gain entry and devour myself or members of my family..........

This one sort of stemmed from my mother's paranoia of bears; she always warned me about bears (we lived in sort of a wilderness area by a highway at the time) so naturally my 4 year old mind assumed they were Godless killing machines.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I always imagined El hombre de la bolsa to be a Slenderman kind of monster that dragged away kids in his bag. I'm afraid the high rate of dead-kids-found-in-bags in Argentina makes the story all the more creepy.

Do we really have that many children found in bags? I remember that headless torso in a garbage bag that they fished out of the river a couple years back, but that was an adult. Though I don't keep up with the news so you're probably better informed than me.

I didn't remember the torso, I was thinking of that one little girl who was found dead inside a garbage bag on the sidewalk, also a couple of years ago. You know the one. I can't think of more recent cases, and that's a good thing, considering they never solved that one in the first place.

 

[Darken12]

I didn't remember the torso, I was thinking of that one little girl who was found dead inside a garbage bag on the sidewalk, also a couple of years ago. You know the one. I can't think of more recent cases, and that's a good thing, considering they never solved that one in the first place.

Oh, I didn't know about that one (had to google it and everything). Yeah, I agree it's a good thing, though after Maria Marta Garcia Belsunce's complete parody of a murder investigation, I am completely unsurprised whenever I hear "they never solved that one."

 

[Fijiman]

I don't remember ever being told anything like that. I never got anything more than a "don't let the bed bugs bite" from my parents.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

My mother used to threaten to sell me - to gypsies, to the circus, to whatever came to mind at the time for her I suppose. Little silly since my grandma (her mom) told me we've got gypsy back in the ancestry somewhere (who knows where, no one kept track lol). No monsters under the bed or in the closet, just a hard quick cash transaction. It didn't happen as often for me as for my little sister, I was a good kid generally and pretty mature/responsible, but my little sister was a hell-raiser soon as she could walk and talk.

Wow this post was a mess before I edited. I need to go to bed soon.

 

[lechat]

when i was a kid there was a dark scary hallway on the way to the bathroom and my parents would often say "watch out it's gonna get you" "quick it's right behind you"
i remember being terrified and running as fast as i could to the bathroom
bastards seriously that could have permanently scarred me

My parents didn't even need to say anything - the hallway was full of monsters, I'm sure of it. I always dashed past it without need for encouragement, here is a handy diagram of what my apparment looked like

pretty much how my spooky hallway was except my room was the kitchen and the bedroom was the bathroom.
problem was i was too scared to close the door but if i left it open i could see into the spooky hallway and the problem with spooky hallway monsters is they only attack if you look

 

[RedDeadFred]

My parents never tormented me with anything like this. My imagination did it all on its own.

After having a nightmare where a hammerhead shark burglar came out of my closet door I was always terrified that if I didn't get to sleep in time, the monster would fling open the door and kill me. It didn't help that my nightlight created a reflection on my closet's doorknob that looked exactly like glowing red eyes. Ya every night for a few years was pretty scary.