I'm with you. ******* with kids' fears and insecurities isn't funny. You just can't predict which kids will shrug it off and which will end up in therapy later. Granted, most parents do things to put their kids in therapy, but at least try not to do those things on purpose.

You have a point. If these kids were teenagers it would be fine. I know I would be scared but it wouldn't tramatize me. When I was younger, there was this green spider.. it was just a plastic toy that was once my Aunt's. One day, my Dad decided to throw it at me or whatever (I'm not sure how this started) and it scared the shit out of me. I was already scared of spiders to begin with; add in this green plastic spider that is just creepy! I would scream and run and hid whenever he brought it out (always for his own amusement. He thought it was funny how it scared me shitless) To this day (I'm seventeen, by the way) I'm still scared shitless of that spider.

You sound like someone who'll grow up to be one of those "home by 9, no tv after 7" boring parents. If the kids have phobias of gorillas or monkeys and he does it more then once, that's understandable. Just once though and it'll plunge them right into their fears.. Anyways, as long as the dad does it playfully and not "rapistontheloose" style then it's all just ***** n giggles even for the kids. Don't get your ****** tied in a knot, god damn.

Obviously you've been traumatized. Worst case these kids have a well justified fear of gorillas. They might need therapy the next time they visit a zoo. The horror. For most camping and scary things in the night is a rite of growing up. Coddle the kids and they'll be unable to deal with their fears. This leads to further and worse mental trauma as they're unable to deal with the environment. If these kids are camping in the backyard they're not toddlers. Maybe 8-10 years old. Most kids are frightened when something like this first happens. They learn to deal with that fear rationally. With rational thought the fear no longer consumes them. Then they start to think of what it could be that caused the fear. It occurs to them that the most likely candidates are someone they know or their parents. They relish the thought of returning the prank in kind. Some years later those kids will be keeping the tradition alive with their own kids. The husband certainly gets a kick out of it because doing so he remembers his parents and childhood friends. If the kids cannot handle the situation best to identify it as young as possible. This way the kids can be given the tools to handle their fear. As an adult I have some irrational fear in some situations due to what scared me as a child. I handle the fear just as I learned when I was 5 years old. The larger issue is that the wife ignored the kids completely. While kids often have a foreign viewpoint there is often a grain of truth to what they say.

i have to disagree. scaring kids shitless is ******* awesome.

I feel sorry for those kids, it's not like they are out their telling ghost stories or talking about scary stuff, they are just little kids sleeping in the backyard. I totally agree, this can make them very afraid and traumatized of the backyard for no good reason. And as for mom can you imagine what it's like to be a parent in this instance and telling your kids it's nothing and thinking your kids are just plain annoying and pretty much calling them liars in a very minor way. Then you find out your spouse is actually scaring them, thats not that funny, thats an asshole thing to do. The kids are not willing participants it's not like they are also playing pranks on dad, it's really mean. Once my uncle decided to scare me and lock me in the basement for a few minutes with only one light, at the time I was wary of the basement beyond the stairs where I could have turned the lights on, not to mention it was night already. My grandmother was the one who let me out and she scolded him, but to this day when I am in the basement I turn on ALL the lights and run up the stairs like some one is chasing me, because being down their makes me feel panicked and alone. Don't do that to your kids, it's really not good parenting.

To everyone saying kids are being scared shitless: Thinking that getting a sense of humour is funny isn't being scared shitless, it's ******* awesome. My little brother once had a scared person drop on his head from a shelf when he left his room, in broad daylight. He was laughing too much to sleep in his own room for over a week, laughing at scared people in general for a year, and is STILL laughing at that particular scared person. Now imagine that person (or in this case, snorlax) cumming into your mouth, chillin out and maxin shooting some b-ball outside of the school, when a couple of guys, who were up to no good, started makin trouble in my neighbourhood, I got in one little fight and my mom got scared she said: 'you're movin with your auntie and uncle in bel-air!' Granted, my brother is probably a good deal scarier than the OP's kids, and thus more likely to laugh. But it's pretty damn obvious these kids are laughing too, and the father apparently thinks a quick scare is worth ******* horribly with his kids' mom. That said, this is only an FML in the sense that you married such an awesome guy. The kids are way more funny.

"They're just kids"? Great excuse. If anything, that's a reason -not- to **** with their heads. They're a hell of a lot more impressionable than adults. I don't know how I'm being a prick for actually giving a shit about kids. Stuff like this hits close to home for me, so yes, I'll be pissed about this kind of thing, if that's what you mean. If I need to stop caring about the wellbeing of others so that someone can enjoy some ***** and giggles at others' expense in order to have a life, then I don't want one.

oh sure, a total prick for pointing out that this is the type of stuff that emotionally scars kids and causes phobias. Because, guess what, it's when they're kids that they're most affected by these sort of things and causes problems for them later in life.

Oh please, kids are so ******* coddled, THEY'LL BE FINE.

Thank you, Kaly. There have been countless kids who have had things like this happen to them, Emz. Some turn out fine. Some don't. There is absolutely no reason to take the risk, unless you're a sadistic monster and a waste of oxygen. Have you ever wondered why kids are "so ******* coddled"? Because they're kids. They're more vulnerable. They scare more easily. They become traumatized more easily. To them, having their dad scare the shit out of them is a betrayal. They look to their parents to PREVENT this sort of thing, not CAUSE it. Notice how whenever a kid is scared of something - they've had a nightmare, for example. Who're the first people they run to? Their parents. If a parent's doing something like that, who do they have?

did you not see where she wrote that her kids were complaining to her about the monster, and she brushed them as lying/imagining things. This could have been a stranger, prowler etc and she didn't even consider the fact there might be some basis to her kids. She just brushed them off as being lying, silly kids when they were telling her legitimate happenings that were scaring them