"I have a toddler who is afraid of clowns..."

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Last Saturday, my 3-year-old daughter and I were invited to attend a friend's child birthday party. As we were on our way to the area and were seated in the car, my daughter was so excited and she kept on telling me that she wanted to see the clown. When we arrived finally, we were met by some common friends and the clowns went to meet my daughter. I thought she was going to have so much fun but to my horror, she went into screaming and telling the clowns to get out of her way! I was totally shocked and I immediately grabbed her and went outside to pacify her. When the party started, we were told to come in but my daughter won't budge and she was constantly crying, saying that she was so afraid of the clowns and she thought that they were monsters actually... We kept on encouraging her and telling her that the clowns were actually humans only dressed in a different way but she never really even wanted to get closer to the gate. As a result, we were totally outside...outside the gate, in front of the street, that whole party while the other kids inside were having so much fun, and we have just eaten our food there. Lots of people kept staring at us as if we were gatecrashers or something. I never thought I had experienced something like this. I was never humiliated in front of so many people like this by my daughter in my entire life. I swear to God that I would never ever let my daughter attend a birthday party with clowns in it and I will never even bother getting a clown on her birthday party. Is your child afraid of clowns too? Or has your child embarassed or humiliated you already in front of the public?