I'm not the boogeyman...please

 

I was walking down the hallway on my way to the ward, minding my own business, when—

“If you don’t behave, that doctor is going to come and inject you.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned to see a mother looking up at me triumphantly.

At her feet sat a little boy, wide-eyed and terrified, staring up at me like I had crawled out of a horror story.

Oh no, I thought. Here begins another child’s lifelong fear of doctors.

I’m not the boogeyman… please.

Stop using us—doctors, nurses, health workers—as a threat to scare your children into behaving. Please. It doesn’t help anyone.

Not me.

Not you.

Definitely not the child.

It’s incredibly frustrating to walk into a room and see a child start wailing—not because I’m holding a needle, not even because I’m unfamiliar, but simply because I’m wearing a white coat and a stethoscope.

We don’t come to punish. We come to help.

What’s even more disheartening is that this fear doesn't always go away with age. Some of these same children grow into adults who avoid hospitals altogether, showing up only when they are critically ill. They avoid checkups, dismiss symptoms, and delay treatment—not because they don’t understand the risks but because they’ve internalized fear from childhood.

All phobias have a genesis. No one is born afraid of hospitals, syringes, or doctors. These fears are shaped by experiences, by words, by seemingly innocent threats made in passing.

Yes, hospitals can be intimidating. No one wants to be in a sickbed surrounded by suffering. No one wants to be poked with needles. I get it. But instilling a fear of doctors crosses a line. We shouldn’t be painted as the villains in a child’s story.

Instead of saying, “If you don’t behave, the doctor will inject you,” why not say, “The doctor is here to help people feel better”? Let your child see health workers as allies, not punishers. Help them build trust in the healthcare system from the beginning.

It’s a small change, but it matters.

So the next time you feel tempted to say something like that, pause.

Remember, your child is listening. Learning. Internalizing.

And somewhere down the hall, a doctor is silently begging:

“I’m not the boogeyman… please.”