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Original poster

Do you have any memories from 2 years old?

106 replies

AGHHHH · 12/10/2018 18:06

I want to see a healthcare professional today and recollected two important memories I had from the age of 2. I don't have many of them from a young age but I do have some that have stayed with me. I recollected them to my mum when I was younger and she didn't understand how I could remember the events, and the specific details.

He basically said I was lying and said I'm obviously just recounting a story someone told me, and that your brain can't remember things before the age of 5... in some vaguely scientific way. Hmm

I didn't think I was some child prodigy but I can't be the only one who remembers something at that age and he's talking shit surely?!

OP posts:
LadyMacbethWasMisunderstood · 12/10/2018 20:00

I had surgery x 2 when I was very little. Once at 18 months and again at just 2. I remember being in hospital. I remember,her being thirsty on the day of my op. I remember my Pre-med. I remember being taken away from my mother. I remember the room where the anaesthetic was administered. And the smell of it. I remember a mask on my face. I am very clear about these memories and have no doubt at all they are true.

NutellaFitzgerald · 12/10/2018 20:01

It's thought that girls/women have earlier first memories than boys/men and it's unclear why.

It's utterly ludicrous to claim pre 5 is too young. I have memories of my grandparents house age just under 2 years. I remember my nursery vividly. Could draw you a floor plan of the place. I remember my first day when I was shown where everything was.

CoodleMoodle · 12/10/2018 20:01

I remember going to visit the house I then went on to grow up in when I was about 2. There was a little alcove with a shelf as you went into the front room, and the people who lived there before us had some decorative shells there. I asked DM about it recently and I was right.

And I remember Christmas morning when I was 3. It was the only year I ever opened my stocking without waiting for my parents to wake up. I got a toy hairdryer - I remember it so well!

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Behaviour & development
Howmanysleepstilchristmas · 12/10/2018 20:09

I can remember visiting a great uncle I’d never met before in a hospice and him telling me that the drip in his arm was keeping him alive and when it ran out he’d be dead and not be here anymore. He then offered me some flavoured toffees. I remember being shocked he could think about sweets at a time like that!
My dad was out of the room at the time talking to a nurse. He didn’t realise I knew that my great uncle was dying, never mentioned him again before or since (they were estranged, dad thought it best not to tell me he’d died as he wasn’t someone I’d see anyway). He died when I was 18.5 months old, and apparently always liked those toffees.

almondsareforevermore · 12/10/2018 20:14

I have many memories from age 2 to 3. Several are things I asked my DM about after I grew up and she told me when and where they happened. By the time I was 5 everything is as clear as yesterday. I’ve tried writing an autobiography but gave up because of the sheer volume of things I remember.

Boptopus · 12/10/2018 20:15

Yes, loads under 5. Sense memories from around 2, if that makes sense-moving house especially. I have a very clear memory hurting myself at a friend's house-my mum wasn't there-and her coming to take me to hospital. The doctor who did my stitches was the first black person I'd ever met and I just remember being so awed by him and the whole situation. I was under 4.

Nephrite · 12/10/2018 20:23

your brain can't remember things before the age of 5
He's talking rubbish.

Nephrite · 12/10/2018 20:26

According to him my dd should have no memories of being in Reception at all, let alone nursery

abbsisspartacus · 12/10/2018 20:31

Green carpet and moving furniture which was in a house we moved out of when I was 2/3 ish I remember being stung by a wasp on my arm too I was very young

Namebot · 12/10/2018 20:31

I remember my heavily pregnant mother being examined by ( I presume) a midwife at an antenatal check up. Her bump was big and my sister was born a couple of weeks after my second birthday. I definitley remember visiting my mum in hospital, having had the baby and remember her dressing gown ( white with navy flowers).i also remember my sister coming home and being placed in the cradle so a cluster of memories around age 2 that are accurate.

BackIntoTheSun · 12/10/2018 20:33

I knocked my front teeth out aged 2 and that's my first memory but I also remember being at playschool (aged 3 or 4) and coming home and watching Neighbours!

NannyR · 12/10/2018 20:34

I have lots of memories of being nursery age (prob 3+) but my earliest memory is when I was 18 months old, being held up by my dad at the window in the maternity ward and him pointing out my new brother in the row of cots, I also remember sitting on my mum's bed and being given a toy telephone. I don't know if I actually remember it though or if I remember "remembering" it at some point, if that actually makes sense! My parents have confirmed its accurate though.

keyboardjellyfish · 12/10/2018 20:34

I remember going to meet my little sibling for the first time which was just before I turned three

Littlefish · 12/10/2018 20:36

I remember my sibling being born, just before my 2nd birthday, and I remember being in hospital for my 3rd birthday.

BlueGenes · 12/10/2018 20:38

I remember having my nappy changed and wearing a bright orange jumper that I can see myself wearing in photos. Have several memories from nursery (3).

MrsWireman · 12/10/2018 20:41

I remember my mum being pregnant with my sister and her being born and leaving the hospital. Very vivid memories. There's 2&1/2 years between us. I was very excited to have a baby sister though! I remember nursery school at 3 too. I was friends with a little boy who was in my class and was devastated he didn't go to my primary school. So I suppose both of my memories are quite memorable (for want of a better word!)

coatsandats · 12/10/2018 20:42

Yes I remember a few things from that age. And for various reasons I know they're real
memories and not "creations" (which also do happen).

Related to a discussion PP had above about early memories perhaps being stored but often inaccessible, I had an interesting experience of some memories being "unlocked". We moved countries when I was 3 and I didn't return there until I was in my 30s. I was assailed by rushes of memories at every turn. It was amazing. And also, seeing things (nothing exciting, a tennis court or a street of buildings) that had only ever been a vague non-definable memory... suddenly right there in real life. It was an extraordinary experience!

HeyMicky · 12/10/2018 20:44

Two: one of going into theatre to have my tonsils out, and one of being in the bath with my cousins in the first house i lived in.

Fatted · 12/10/2018 20:48

I've definitely got memories from earlier than 5. We moved house when I was 3 and lived in the house until I were 5 and I have memories from that house.

My sisters were born when I was 3 and I vividly remember my mum and dad wearing scrubs in hospital when they'd gone to see them while my brother and I sat outside with my granny (they were premature and in neo natal for a while).

But there's lots of other memories I have. Not perfect, but definitely there and stuff only I would remember. Like once I made a lego house and I dreamed it was under my bed, but it wasn't and I woke up confused about why it wasn't there!

Spankyoumuchly · 12/10/2018 21:13

I have memories from before I was two. I think it's because I'm autistic, our memories work differently. Also they were memories of my mum physically abusing me. Although I don't have many good memories of childhood.

OhHolyJesus · 12/10/2018 21:17

My earliest memory is my 3rd birthday when I got my cat and I remember naming her. Nothing before then but I'd say it's certainly possible that you could have memories from before then, surely it's all relative to the individual and the memory?

Careofcell44 · 12/10/2018 21:23

The memory I can definitely date is being at my grandparents house and being very upset that my mum was leaving me there when she was going to hospital to have my sister, I was 22 months.

I have another memory of being at nursery and spitting out the skin from the custard and being thrown on to a hospital type bed and being told I was a naughty girl. I was under 4.

ileclerc · 12/10/2018 21:26

I distinctly remember being at home with an aunt before my sister was brought home when I was 2 1/2. Other memories I have are I think gleaned from conversation and photos do not true memories but I definitely remember that day as there was a massive stag beetle in the drain, I had never seen one before and there are no photos or conversation of that.

3secondsfromchaos · 12/10/2018 21:29

I remember being in a very old hospital and a nurse lifting me up and sitting me on a high window sill. I think I remember it being cold. We had. Gone to visit my Nan in hospital. I was 2 years old when she died.

Bestseller · 12/10/2018 21:31

Yes, I swallowed the tuppence my GPs gave me when they came to visit my new baby sister, so I was just turned two.

I clearly remember putting my fingers in my mouth to try and find it, I couldn't understand where it had gone.

I also remember the doctor giving it back to me after they removed it from my throat.