Fear is a subjective emotion and it’s based on many individual factors. So it’s good to be tolerant of other people’s fear.

Up to a point.

Check out why this person didn’t have a good time on a Halloween hayride.

Entitled parents shouldn’t bring small children on haunted hayrides and expect others to calm their kids down.

I used to live in a community that sometimes one could get signed up for events that a group of people would go on together. And during the Halloween season several of us wanted to go on a hayride. As it was my last year before I moved out I decided to go too.

We had a group leader who was in charge of tickets and we had someone in charge of snacks and such.

Somehow I ended up being in charge of calming people down if they got too scared.

Her role was a huge burden.

There was this one girl whom lived next door to me and wanted to go, but was a huge chicken so she was already clutching my arm scared.

I would pat her head and say soothing things and pretty much explain what all the scary things were or pretty much deny they were there for her. This calmed her down but yeah she was still clutching my arm. This continued onto the hayride.

I was trying to calm her down as she was already spooked and complimented her for trying so hard to learn about something new. She only stopped when we saw a young woman and man get onto the hayride with children that were clearly too young for it.

The family sat next to me near the front of the hayride. This was a tactic since it was less scary around the front part. If you have a good eye you can spot the scares before they happened.

So I looked at the small children and said “Hello, how old are you two? are you excited? do you watch horror?” I asked trying to gauge their possible fear level since what scared me more was if I was gonna be with constant screamers.

The girls smiled. “I am 5.” said the smaller of the two first.

“I am 8. Mommy said we were strong kids.” said the other.

It should have been fun, but alas…

The mother and father were not paying attention to their kids at all and were talking about the ride to each other.

I sighed, knowing I was gonna not have a fun ride.

My neighbor clung to my arm whispering her fears in my ears as the hayride shook about going down the path. We came to the person who told us about the ride and it’s rules.

I felt small hands creeping onto my other arm and one of my legs. I sighed, This was my fate. Nothing scary yet and now three people were clinging to me, scared. Why? I don’t know. I explained to them that person was not gonna do anything to them.

After the introduction the hayride really started. Whoosh! Flames from the first scare part. A trio of screams as I became sandwiched between 3 people clinging to me as they screamed. I reassured them. And sighed.

The 8 year old was clinging my arm. “Excuse me, if you are gonna cling to me, can I have my one arm free? You can grab my waist or my jacket or even my leg. I need to be able to signal that you are too scared to scare to the staff if you or the others are. I would tell her, but she hasn’t let go even when I did tell her.”

The girl grabbed the waist band of my jacket and curled up under my arm as her sister now climbed onto my lap hiding her face in my chest.

I waved to the parents. “Your children are scared, want to do something about it?” I called over to them.

I did this a few times during the calmer moments but when there were scared I was calming down the three females clinging to me.

Then the evening became even more baffling.

The parents ignored me each time I tried to get their attention, so I gave up after a while.

When the scary characters jumped onto the hayride I would give them the no scare signal which I had asked one of the ride operators about before hand.

They were very nice and understanding. I even acted scared with them so they didn’t feel foolish. Got to say it was exhausting and not fun.

The hayride ended after an hour or so, Not sure. it felt like forever to me. The people started to get off.

That was when the parents noticed their kids at last. “Kids, you can let go of the worker. The hayride is done. Did you have fun with the nice scaremaster lady?” said the father. The girls let me go and thanked me.

“What? I don’t work here.” I said but the father and mother were not listening. they were already walking off with their kids whom were waving bye to me.

Her work quelling fear is not over yet.

I had no idea what they were thinking. I struggled to get off as my neighbor was still clinging onto me crying.

“Glad you had a great time.” said the employee before they went to ask another person what they thought.

I and my neighbor rejoined the group from before. “Didn’t know you were meeting friends. you should have told us.” said the leader of the group.

“I wasn’t. They thought I worked here. Can we go home now?” I asked more tired than I should have been.

When I got home I found marks on my arms, legs and torso from the trio clinging to me too hard.

Next time I am going with a friend only.

Here is what folks are saying.

It sounds frustrating.

I would probably snap at the person.

I agree!

It’s bizarre. I don’t get it.

I agree. It’s weird to bring them.

I bet she isn’t white and that’s why they assumed she was there to help them.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.