Have you ever felt Afraid of a parent, step-parent, or legal guardian?

No, but I put my children in that position without realizing how horrible it was for them. Unfortunately by the time I was strong enough to rectify the situation it was far too late. For that I can never forgive myself.

My father was a terrible tyrant. He is dead now & got even with me for turning my back on him; I was disinherited when he died. That's one old man I sure don't miss.

Yes, I can remember being afraid of my dad - who gets angry. He uses his anger to get what he wants, as a child (not understanding this very well) - it was scary at times. Still, my mom kicked him out and things have been mostly fine ever since. I pity him and the small life he leads.

what a horrifying thought!

What daver said. Of course I grew out of it, though.

Nope...I've been afraid of them finding something out that I didn't want them to know but never actually afraid of them.
**Wow...what a disturbing answer distribution (currently 11 to 4).

Yes, but usually unreasonably. I've often been afraid of my mom's reaction to something, which is usually much less extreme (or more repressed) than I was fearing.

I presume you mean mine. I've met several parents that scare me, but...

Never. Y'know I find this survey really interesting, seeing how deeply this affects people (driving them anonymous, for example, generating very black & white anwers) and how closely the comments mirror what I've gathered about people from their comments on other surveys. Good question.

My father was an unknown entity in the sense that he was a workaholic and I just didn't know him very well, except I could predict when he'd start yelling about something, and his yelling always scared me.

Oh, yeah. *** In response to reality's comment, and in the interests of full and accurate disclosure, I said yes and meant it in the sense that I think the survey author intended. Now, in fact, I was never beaten, but I was chased, and my father broke down a door while drunken and raging and I'm going to go hide and shudder now, thank you very much.

This is WAY to vague. any question that contains the word 'ever' in it is way too vague. even if it was once, because you did something that you knew was wrong (broke something, stole something etc etc) then you knew fear because you would be in trouble, whether the trouble was grounding, a talking to or having to face the shame of apologizing for doing something wrong. your question is ill posed, poorly thought out and won't yield the results you seem to be aiming it to get (IMO). I picked yes btw, an incident of breaking a window. I was afraid that my parents would be upset. do you want to know what the punishment was? A talking to, understanding that it was an accident and the money to replace the window coming out of my allowance. I can name any number of similar incidents.
*now I feel somewhat like a jerk. steve, I just had to rant about this. I am sorry if my rant belittles the legitimate fear some may feel (or have felt). I find it implausible that there are people who have NEVER felt even an instant of fear (or butterflies in the stomache or something that equates to fear) about a parent or their reaction to a situation(a fear of a reaction is, as far as I am concerned, the same as a fear of the person whose reaction you fear), which was the intent of my rant. have they never even felt an instant of "geez, I'm really late, my parents are gonna be mad that I didn't call and let them know where I was" or the window breaking or whatever. basically you did something wrong, you knew it was wrong, even if it was an accident and you didn't know exactly how your parents would react, whether it was a grounding, a talking to, being forced to admit and apologize.

Oh yes, my mother's boyfriend was an alcoholic and abusive. He never touched my sister or me, but he and my mother got into all sorts of fights. They're married now, and he's mellowed, but we still don't like him.

I agree with Reality - there's the fear of "Oh no, I got a stain on my dress, what will mom say?" and there's the fear of "My stepfather is drunk and pushed my mother down the front steps, is she dead, and what will he do to us now??" I think those two are different (yes, both taken from real life).

I think I have, but very very rarely. My dad is pretty controlled, and when he loses it, it can be frightening. Not dangerous.

I still have nightmares about my step-dad at least every week.
Three words that have always frightened me are "respect", "hero", and "demands".

No, never. My father is my only parent. My father demands respect by his mere presence. Even with all his flaws, even the ones I don't know about, he is the closest thing I have to a hero. ***Daver: it's 17 to 9 now. This is a scary distribution. ***Badtzmaru: if you love someone a great deal, there mere presence is enough to demand respect.

Yes. My father was clinically paranoid schizophrenic.

I have a very wonderful family. I love them all. No one has ever hurt me or threatened to.

Geez, folks. I just read the answers, and I feel bad for many of the responders. I do have an uncle (who WASN'T at the time) who threatened me quite seriously, but that was the worst. And when I was a kid my grandfather (my legal guardian) used to have a bit of a temper, but he kept it well in check regarding me. I never really FEARED him. I certainly RESPECTED him.

yes. i can remember having been sent to my room by my mom to wait until dad came home work (i was ~11 years old). i can't remember what it was i did wrong, but i remember dreading my father's return and his reaction. i didn't fear him hitting me or anything like that, i was just afraid of his anger and of what his opinion towards me would be.

***ok, my response is WAY different from the other responses up here. i was never afraid that my parents would actually hurt me.