There’s a running joke in one of the great comedies from the Eighties, “Mr. Mom,” about how a little boy around Annie’s age is absolutely terrified of the family vacuum. Whenever his Dad (“Mr. Mom”) tries to vacuum the house, the little boys loses it. It’s funny stuff, but I always assumed it was pure fiction because I don’t remember being even remotely afraid of the vacuum as a boy. It was no fiction, though. Just ask Annie.
It’s pretty crazy – all I have to do is pull the vacuum out of the closet and in a split second Annie goes from zero to losing her poop. The thing scares her so much, in fact, that even before I plug it in she dashes off to one of her favorite hiding places.
Under The Counter:
Behind The Arm Chair:
Under The Covers:
Look close and you’ll spot a foot!
In The Playhouse:
Since I don’t want Annie to freak out every time I vacuum, I sat her down recently and tried to explain that the vacuum is actually a great thing because it helps us clean our house. “You should think of the vacuum like a friend!” I suggested, over selling it. Annie, however, was buying none of this. In her eyes the vacuum was pure evil.
This posed a bit of a problem because, as much as I would like to never vacuum again, that’s not really an option unless I can convince Heather it’d be awesome to live like one of those people on “Hoarders.”
Having said that I should mention that I do try to do most of our vacuuming when Annie is out of the house, but that isn’t always possible. Yesterday, for example, I heard Annie’s little voice call me from the kitchen saying, “Look, Dada!” When I turned I saw Annie smiling from ear to ear while holding the salt and pepper shakers upside down. Salt and pepper, as you can imagine, were pouring onto the floor like sands through an hour glass.
“No!” I yelled. This startled Annie who ran away leaving a trail of salt and pepper on the carpet. Just great.
Upon finding Annie on the couch I took the salt and pepper shakers from her, then pulled the vacuum out of the closet. This time, for whatever reason, Annie didn’t run off to a hiding place. Instead, she stayed on the couch and frantically pointed at the vacuum.
“No, Dada! You put that away! Put that away! You don’t need it!”
“This will be quick, sweetie. It’s okay.”
“It’s not!” she screamed hysterically. “You don’t need to vacuum! The house is clean! Put the vacuum away!”
It was one of those moments as a parent where, even though you feel bad for your kid, it’s also pretty funny.
Luckily, we all survived my hasty vacuuming (including Heather who must have loved hearing this drama while trying to sleep off her migraine in the back room).
I can’t wait for Annie to outgrow this vacuum fearing stuff, but if there’s one good thing to come of it it’s that the phrase “Don’t make a mess or I’ll have to bring out the vacuum” means Annie is a lot less messy during meal time!
Gwensarah says:
What kind of monster vacuum do you all have lol
karen says:
Google the tricks for helping pets deal with fear of the vacuum, then go shopping with her and buy a toy sweeping brush, dustpan AND hoover, let her choose and try them out. Try letting her clean up with her toy things and vac whne she in bed, then work on the getting used to the real vac tactics for pets.
It might take a while but eventually she will be stealing the vac to do her room herself!
Mike says:
I like the idea of getting Annie her own little hoover… and I really like the idea of her cleaning her room herself!
Karen bennett says:
Try having Annie watch the brave little toaster. There is a vacuum on there that is grumpy at first but saves the day and becomes everyone’s friend in the end. It might make her like vacuums s little more. It’s a cartoon too and a fun movie.
Mike says:
Thanks! We’ll check it out!
Auntie_M says:
I just bought that movie for my nephew!!! It’s about 20 years old but a classic!!!
Becky C says:
Neither of my kids were afraid of the vacuum, but my first thought was to run to Target and get her the $20, plastic Dirt Devil, kids vacuum! She can “clean” with you and maybe if she has one her size, it’ll seem less scary!? Bonus: she’ll have enough practice to start vacumming for you as soon as she’s big enough to maneuver the real one!
egl says:
This is what I was screaming in my head while I was reading this post. “buy the little dirt devil” She’ll have fun with it, and then realize it’s not so scary after all. My daughter is 9 now and owns not one but two vacuums (real ones but small) of her own… it’s very handy!
Annalisa says:
Not to put a damper on it, but it didn’t work with my daughter, who’s also terrified of vacuums and other loud noises. She has no problem with the DD, mind you, she even tries to use it, but our real vacuum is louder, so in her mind the two are as different as, say, a cat and a dog.
Lauren says:
My 2yr old son is terrified to the vacuum as well. We solved the problem by having him wear those fun ear muffy type ear protection that NFL players have their kids wear to games. We sit him down on the couch with his ear protection and some trucks. Maybe Annie needs ear protection and princesses.
Amy W says:
Ask her if it hurts her ears. My son is sensitive to loud noises. It took him forever to not freak out over the hand dryers in public bathrooms.
Tonya says:
I’m wondering if a quieter vacuum would help? Also, since the vacuum is necessary, I would vacuum only WITH her there….sort of an exposure therapy. Maybe the more she’s around it and realizes it isn’t going to eat her, the better she will handle it.
Anna says:
I’m 24 year old….I still hate the sound of the vacuum cleaner. Me having aspegers may have something to do with it…
Sara says:
We got our daughter a little pretend vacuum, it’s yellow which is the same color as our Dyson. Now she’s happy to get out her vacuum and follow daddy around while he uses his big one.
Maria says:
In my experience, the less of a big deal WE (the parents and/or caregivers) make about these types of things, the more the kids react to them.. It’s as if they’re thinking “if they’re trying so hard to reassure me, then what I’m afraid of must be true!”.. I’m not saying ignore her fear completely, but I wouldn’t have a long drawn out conversation about it either. Just matter of factly use it when she’s there without making a big deal about it. I have to say, I cracked up with her persuasion skills so you wouldn’t use it, haha. She is too much!
Kara says:
My daughter was not only afraid of the real vacuum, but afraid of the vacuum– aka the “Nu Nu”– on Teletubbies. It ruined her favorite show when the NuNu would come motoring around the Teletubbies hut.
Me, I was just afraid of the Teletubbies.
Holly says:
Be careful! We have the complete opposite situation – our 3 yr old LOVES the vacuum so much that one of her favorite birthday presents was a toy vacuum. Now, we have to vacuum way more than ever before. “C’mon, Mommy. Let’s vacroom together!” lol. At least that’s been an improvement from when she was trying to push the Dyson with me or by herself!
Margie says:
I vacuumed when my son was still a newborn. He slept right through it. It was marvelous. Now, when I vacuum, he will cry when he is sitting in his high chair. However, he will look at it and laugh when he is in his jumper.
Mr. Mom. I love that movie. I believe the vacuum was named Jaws.
“Get in there and vacuum the kids’ rooms!”
Mike says:
Yes, it was named “Jaws!” No wonder the kid was afraid!
Jen says:
My 18 month old is also DEATHLY afraid of the vacuum. The only thing that I’ve found to help him is to let him push it. Of course, this means that it takes forever, but at least he’s not screaming or trying to climb my leg.
jannette says:
My 2 year had a similar reaction to vacuums, hand dryers in public bathrooms, thunder, fire alarms. It was all about the noise level. At 4, she still doesn’t like it, but handles the situation better by covering her ears.
I like the comment above about putting ear phones or ear muffs. Looking back, I think this would have worked.
Sarah says:
This sounds silly, but we let our 3-year-old twins (who are terrified of the vacuum!) decorate it with stickers. We pulled it out one day, didn’t plug it in, and let them put stickers all over it. Still not their favourite thing, but now they don’t freak out every time we try to clean the carpet!
Chris says:
My grand daughter was afraid of the vacuum also. We got her a toy one and that seemed to helped. It actually does suck up stuff too so she thinks she’s helping us. Which she wants to do all the time. My own kids weren’t afraid of it but I think it’s because I used it when they were sleeping and awake so they were used to the sound. She’ll out grow it I’m sure.
giselle says:
What does Annie say when you ask why she doesn’t like the vacuum? Maybe finding out what is scary about it and showing her that it’s not true would help?
Dianne says:
My daughter was (and still is) very sensitive to noise. The vacuum, the lawn mower, fireworks, etc. were are all on her “terrifying” list. This continued until we let her wear the shop headphones that Daddy wears when using power tools in his carpentry shop. They do dull the noise and also provide a bit of a placebo effect for her benefit. You could get some for Annie and let her decorate them with ribbons and stickers.
Lynnette says:
For the quick jobs, like the salt and pepper, could you try a hand held vacuum? My 2 year old loves to help vacuum with this one but is afraid of the regular vacuum.
Jen says:
She can put some big googly eyes on it & give it a name. That might help. Good Luck!
Gina says:
My daughter was, like so many others, afraid too, but then I let her hold the vacuum hose to get the edges of the room and now when I get it out she wants to use the hose and doesn’t mind the rest of it anymore.
Annalisa says:
Wish I had any helpful advice, but as a former scaredy kid (my triggers were thunder and the blender, since we had hardwood floors, and thus no need for a vacuum), I’d say that she’ll just have to grow out of it on her own, in a year or so.
I can at least say I feel your pain, my daughter is the same way. She also is scared of the hair dryer, the blender, and the carpet steamer (we have a cat more or less lovingly nicknamed ‘vomit cat’, so we have to steam stains out a lot). I usually send her out on errands with her dad, but as you mention, it isn’t always feasible, so the rest of the time I just try to be quick rather than through (if possible… blending things halfassed doesn’t always work), and then take a break from cleaning to hug her and reassure her that what I was using only sounds scary, but actually isn’t at all, and could be kind of fun in the right circumstances. She’ll hopefully start to believe me, in a couple of years…
ColleenMN says:
My kids used to love sitting on the vacuum while I vacuumed! The dog attacked it…that was really inconvenient.
Gail says:
I know exactly what you are talking about. I have a two year old and four year old, both girls. A 13 year old Golden Retriever, a 2 year old Flat Coat Retriever, and a 2 year old cat. All FIVE are deathly afraid of the vacuum. I think it has something to do with how loud it is, because both of my girls hate anything loud. (public toilet flushing especially) Oddly enough, the four year old doesn’t seem to mind it too much if she is using it…aka in control. Either way, I don’t let them stop me, if I want to vacuum, they can go to another room. It’s weird though, they ALWAYS go into the room I do next. It’s not rocket science, I do them in the same order. Maybe it is just one big game to them…
Jenb says:
At this age my son was terrified of highways. We would get in the car and start driving and all of a sudden he would start screaming “no highways!!!!!” and wouldn’t calm down until we had to point out we were just on side roads. Don’t know where it came from, but it lasted less than a year. Now we laugh about it all the time.
Breanna says:
Our cats are terrified of the vacuum. We got a neato (a little robotic vacuum cleaner) for our wedding though, and they don’t seem to have a problem with it.
Granted, it’s an expensive solution, but my goodness, I love ours.
Auntie_M says:
I love all of Annie’s little hiding places…bless her little heart. She doesn’t seem to be afraid of much, so it sucks that she’s afraid of something that gets used so regularly! I do really like people’s suggestions of ear muffs /protectors. Maybe some safety goggles for kicks. Heavy boots. Workman’s gloves. I say go all the way with the protective gear! LOL