A Worldwide Tour of the boogeyman: Scared kids don't learn

Did you have a boogeyman as a kid? Something that scared you witless? Something that was used to make you behave?

The Toy Zone, a pro-kid site (and adult kids, too!), has completed this incredible map set of the boogeyman and shared some insight.

Table of boogeymen

Scared kids don’t learn
Cultural and folklore representations of the boogeyman
Folklore representations of the boogeyman in Africa
Folklore representations of the boogeyman in Europe
Folklore representations of the boogeyman in Central Asia and the Middle East
Folklore representations of the boogeyman in North America
Folklore representations of the boogeyman in the Rest of Asia
Folklore representations of the boogeyman in South America

The blog used Google to find boogeyman matches for countries, cultures and folklore worldwide and trusted only high-quality sources. They found an important nuance and that the boogeyman has many forms.

Scared kids don’t learn

Citing a research paper by Purdue University (PDF link), The Toy Zone highlight;

Some parents try to scare children into following rules. It is not a very effective way to control children’s behavior. Fear uses the lower levels of the brain, so children do not learn to think when parents use fear.”

The nuance and good news for tabletop gaming families is that, according to psychologists, mythmaking, dramatisation, and allegorical figures can help children process their feelings and figure things out.

Cultural and folklore representations of the boogeyman

The Boogeyman is a mythical creature adults use to frighten children into good behaviour. It has no specific appearance and varies drastically by household and culture, but it is most commonly depicted as a masculine or androgynous monster that punishes children for misbehaviour. The Boogeyman is often described as living in dark places and coming out at night to punish bad children. It can be used as a metaphor for anything feared or dreaded.