I didn't know i would ever have a favorite comment.

So basically you're saying to tell a four year old "Your parents didn't want you, and unless you do things we like, we don't want you." brilliant plan there. Please don't have kids.

You must be fun at parties.

She has feelings and the screaming scared her so she took matters into her own hands to make it stop. OP needs to tone down the screaming or she goes to a friend's or babysitter's house.

I agree with this, only because I feel bribery will only encourage behavior like this, and I assume when you say punishment you don't mean something over the top.

I am not an expert, but I have taken parenting classes. You don't bribe the child or punish them for this behavior. You talk to them about what scares them, assure them you will work on the behavior, and then you tell them not to do things like this again or there will be consequences. Yelling and bribing only makes the child feel like the parents have lost control. While you want your child to feel like they can come to you, they are your child not your friend. You can have a friendship with them when they are adult and you no longer need to help develop their moral code. In this case, Op obviously did not listen to their child. I have never seen a child go so far as to 'hide' something unless it scared the shit out of them. I hid matches, because fire scared me. My sister hid dolls because they scared her. And my brother broke the TV because my dad let him watch Poltergeist. He got in trouble for breaking property, but not for being afraid. They just told him to talk to them about what scared him and not to break things. Op needs to explain to their kid what is going on. They need to stop screaming and watch sports like normal people (without being obnoxious.) They also need to learn to listen to their kid and not put sports above their mental health.

normal people yell at football well in Australia...people go crazy over football.

The kid should learn enough football to know when to scream along with everyone else. That's the fun of sport.

She is FOUR YEARS OLD.

You really couldn't tell that he was joking?

four year olds are very capable of learning through imitation.... so joke or no joke teaching her to scream along is a valid option.

And?

Maybe the kid doesn't want to scream. I know how football works and I still don't want to watch it. Its all just personal preference, so what if the kid just doesn't like watching football and screaming? She doesn't need to join in. People should respect what their family members like, but that doesn't mean they all have to watch the same shows together and get excited over the same things.