How many childhood memories do you have?

My memory is hideous. I'm only 40 but have NO memories of my primary school years bar one single memory of my Reception teacher tucking me up in the tiny wooden bed in the home corner and giving me a cuddle because I was so poorly. I vividly recall feeling so safe and loved. Oh, and the taste of the chocolate custard at lunch! I can't name any childhood neighbours, friends, teachers, anything like that, and can barely remember what my childhood home looked like.

My family don't reminice about the past, or talk about childhood memories, or look at old photos, which I think plays a huge part. My MIL was telling me a funny story about DH and SIL playing as children and said "I'm sure your Mum has lots of stories like this about you!" and I just remember thinking, well if she does I've never heard them. I couldn't tell you a single game my brother and I used to play, or how we spent our time, or what we enjoyed doing. No memories of holidays, or days out.

Its not just down to that though. I often struggle to recall very basic words, so must have a spectacularly awful memory in general.

I have very few memories, DH has loads which I find weird as he’s 5 years older than me so his memories are further away than mine!

I barely remember anything, he remembers teachers names, full names of friends and lots of little details. Blows my mind really!

I remember far too much... I wish there was some way to forget - is there such a word as "un-remember" - my entire life up till I was in my 20's.

I don't remember much, and what I do I think it's actually from photos and talking to family about the past. I have a friend I went to school with who has an incredible memory and if I'm thinking about a teacher or friend from school I'll call her and ask, she remembers everything.
Can you see pictures in your mind OP?
I can't and I wonder if that's something to do with it.

I won't ask you any more questions, sorry about that.

It sounds like you are thriving now, if you want to leave the past where it is, then that's where it will stay!

I wish you a very happy future x

I remember loads from my childhood from the age of 1. My first childhood house that we moved out of when I was 16 months old, my cot, my childminders and the other children there, playgroup and nursery, my parents friends and their children, my friends, my friends home phone numbers, every holiday we went on, school dinners and packed lunches, activities, school trips, every car we had including the make, model and number plates, most of my friends parents cars. I can replay a lot of it in my head as if the memories were videos. I have ASD, I do wonder if there’s a link.

I remember loads. Maybe it’s an age thing?

I'm glad you've asked this question as I've been recently wondering about it myself as my menories are either blanks or very very vague. I wondered if this was perhaps due to selective memory or deleting what was actually a pretty difficult childhood.
Watching my own children growing up has made me wonder what they'll remember..
Interesting to hear it could be a form of amnesia.

I remember loads from my childhood!
I have visual memories of being dropped off at nursery, I also remember quite a bit from year 1 and more from 2. My more regular memories come from the age 8 I think.

I'm so sorry to hear that. People who had trauma in their childhood will often only remember strong feelings like this, it can make recalling exactly what happened to them very difficult and painful.

Some people can disassociate completely and only remember faint feelings that something was "wrong" or "off".

I have great long term memory and can remember specific lunches at school from when I was about . I can even remember the conversation that was happening at the time. I remember the way the orange squash had a slight taste of the plastic beaker too.

I remember various playing out sessions throughout my childhood years and again, the conversations of those days.

I can’t remember what I did yesterday however

There’s 20 months between myself and my sister. One day in a random conversation I told my Mum a story of how I remember going to meet a baby in a hospital I could remember (still remember) the green dress and sandals I wore. Mum is convinced it was the day I met my sister. I remember back to when I was at least 4, my first day of primary school, I remember all my teachers names from nursery and primary school even remember dinner ladies names. I’m now 46. I can however, not tell you what I had for dinner yesterday. My long term memory is insane my short term memory is just awful.

I have a terrible short term memory but have lots of memories from nursery school onwards. Home was unhappy and abusive. School was a bright spot amid the misery, and I remember lots about it.

I can remember loads. Pretty clear memories of all of primary school, and I have memories of being under 2 - and then increasing amounts of memories from then onwards up to school age.

@HourlyTime I hope you don't mind me asking this, but how do you feel towards your parents? What is you relationship like with your mother?

I was also an 80s kid, so i understand about parents being less hands-on. However that didn't mean that parents weren't caring and nurturing (even if they did whack us!)

I hope that you did receive care and attention that you deserved from your parents and they weren't neglectful.

All I remember is moments of shame, insecurity, embarrassment and paranoia.

There is a condition called Developmental Amnesia, which people are born with. It affects your ability to form long-term memories, but weirdly doesn't affect your ability to learn facts and skills, so might not be noticed at school.

The other possibility is that school, and maybe your childhood in general, was unpleasant or lacking in nurturing, causing you to disassociate (retreat into your mind) to avoid things you found scary or uncomfortable to experience.

I remember things I’ve been in trouble for mostly- things I’ve lost, broken, been told off for doing. Not loads but that’s all I have.
Almost no memories of actually doing anything with my parents or older sister. A couple with my other sister, and some with a school friend I'm still in touch with.

I too remember being in my cot and feeling lonely and wanting my mother to come. I think in those days (early 1960s) children were in cots until about 3 years old, so I would have been a toddler at the time of that memory.

Gosh, I have absolutely LOADS of childhood memories! I can remember more about what I was doing 50 or 60 years ago than what I was doing last year!

I remember the names of all my teachers from primary school and can picture them in my mind's eye, what clothes they typically wore, what they smelled like etc. I remember the games we used to play in the playground, the children I used to play with, what the classrooms looked like. I remember specific incidents, like the day there was a partial eclipse when I was 8 and we looked at it through two negatives (ie photography negatives) or the day, when I was 6, when we got two baby rabbits as classroom pets and the name that I proposed was voted the winner. I remember starting school (although, curiously nothing specifically relating to the very first day), school dinners, the dinner ladies, the scary teachers and the lovely teachers and on and on. I remember all our family holidays and what we did on them. I remember my clothes and which were my favourites and which ones I was sad to have grown out of.

I have so many memories from years and years ago.

My earliest memories date from when I was about 2.5 - 3 years old and are very brief little cameos of specific incidents. As I got older, I remember things in greater detail.

I can't imagine not being able to remember my own childhood. That seems really strange, to me.

I can remember being sick in my cot and being desperate for someone to come and get me. My other toddler memory was my brother being born when I was 18 months old. I have loads of memories of him as a baby/toddler, he was so cute!