Fears of My Childhood

April 19, 2013

A week or so ago I was checking out different shows on Netflix during the afternoon of my one day off. I came across an image that haunted my young mind for years... this blue monster shown above was "my monster." Kinda like in the Disney Pixar Monsters Inc. each child had their monster, well Maurice was mine. 

Now for a little backing story time. One night my parents were out on a date and Jackie Neilson, one of our neighbor girls was over babysitting. She had already put my sister Kristal and I to bed, so she was free to watch what ever tv she wanted till my mom and dad got home. Well, i sneaked out of my room because i wanted to stay up. I was laying on the floor in the hall way behind the couch were Jackie couldn't see me and i watched tv with her. Well she flipped between a few shows and stopped on this one. Not knowing anything about the movie and coming into it at a part where all the scary monsters were tormenting a little baby i was so terrified! I couldn't even move i was so scared, so i sat and watched more of the movie, until finally Jackie realized i was there crying. She cuddled me and told me monsters weren't real and didn't live under the bed, but the damage had already been done. Since then i have had a fear of a civilization of monsters living under my bed, and images of Maurice, the blue one, filled my nightmares. 

Ok so back to seeing this movie listed on demand on Netflix... I decided to face my childhood fear and watch this 80's PG movie. As i watched it from beginning to end i learned that of all the Monsters, Maurice (the image of my fear) was the good monster, and actually helped the kids escape! I also could not believe how dumb the plot and the acting was. Even though the movie is PG i would not allow my kids to watch this movie till they are older because of the vulgarity and scary images. An older child would be able to learn the valuable lessons and see past the junk that is in it.

If any of my readers want to watch a crazy movie about weird monsters living under the bed, Little Monsters is a pretty good one. to be honest it kinda reminded me of the Goonies... anywho, i learned a lot about my childhood memories and was able to revisit and resolve some of the "skeletons in my closet" from my past. Who knew that facing my fear of Maurice would make me feel more like an adult!