Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

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:
MoonlightMedicine · 12/10/2018 21:32

I was 2 years old and my dad burned me through the back of my pushchair with his cigarette. By mistake. I remember where we were and I remember my dad cuddling me and saying how sorry he was. I’m 40 and he was horrified earlier this year when I told him it was my first memory!! He assumed I’d not remember it and it’s the first time it came up in conversation.

My mother also remembers witnessing a horrible accident when she was 2 years old.

FoofFighter · 12/10/2018 21:35

I can remember being in my pushchair looking out, I recall the Greek style key trim pattern around the opening. It was hailing and my mother was leaning over to shield me. I can't have been more than 18m 2 years I guess.

I also remember being in my bedroom and trying to climb into my cot.

UpstartCrow · 12/10/2018 21:42

I have several from when I was exactly 18 months old. I couldn't talk or think, they are just pictures and emotions. They can be accurately dated by the event I can remember, it was pretty memorable.
It wasn't something we ever discussed, and I haven't made up the memory to match any conversation.

I can remember climbing in and out of my cot, and my bedroom, and we moved from that house soon afterwards.
I can also remember being in my pushchair going round the park, and taking off my sandals because they were irritating.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Behaviour & development
DontHarshMyMello · 12/10/2018 21:44

I remember my brother being born. I was 2 the week he was born.
My mum had a home birth and I was in the room when she delivered him.

SequinsOnEverything · 12/10/2018 22:01

I have some. I have a memory of the night my sister was born, when I would have been 18 months and a couple memories of a holiday when I was about 2 1/2.

Magicpaintbrush · 12/10/2018 22:12

I can remember having chicken pox aged 2. And sooo many more memories prior to age 5 - your GP is talking abdolute crap, as the rest of this thread clearly demonstrates.

My nan (80 years old) can remember being washed in a tin bath with blacked out windows during WW2 Blitz when she was about 2 years old.

LarkDescending · 12/10/2018 22:41

My first memory is of my first flight, to Portugal aged 2yrs 9mo - or rather the excitement of the airport terminal with trolleys, luggage, aircrew in uniforms. Rather tragic that my first memories are of Luton Airport, now I come to think of it!

I then remember meeting my baby sister a few weeks before my 3rd birthday. I wanted to help give her a bath, and was furious that my assistance wasn’t wanted.

Lots of memories from age 3, when I spent time in hospital (horrible memories of that - parents didn’t stay with you in those days) and then we moved to a different country so there were loads of new experiences. I can even remember the name of the hotel we stayed in while we waited for our new house to be ready, and the address of the nursery where I started soon afterwards.

DinosApple · 12/10/2018 22:42

Definitely my second birthday.

I also remember play school, being in the pushchair in the rain, standing in my city, the feel of crawling on my parents fluffy carpet prior to a flood when it was replaced with something much harder. I have very vague recollections of trying to stroke my grandparents last cat (which ran away). Poppy died when I was around 18 months.

DH doesn't remember much from below the age of 8!

yellowplumpreserves · 12/10/2018 22:57

I have a vivid memory of having a dream that my parents weren’t going to take me to a particular place. My uncle told me not to worry, it was only a dream and I went back to sleep.

I told my mum about it years later. My uncle died when I was five and couldn’t have told me about the incident. I could describe the bedroom despite having been only lived there until I was two and having seen no photos. She worked out based on the timing of my uncle’s visit and the place I dreamt about not going to, that I must have been 22 months.

I don’t have any other memories from thy yours my but still quite a few from before I was five.

AnotherPidgey · 12/10/2018 22:58

I've got a few fragments of being 2.
I can remember being in my cot and discovering that ear wax doesn't taste very nice and wiping it on the wall in disgust Grin

Quite a lot at 3. I remember the hotel room with its bay window and bunk beds... and being sick. I can also remember the fluffy puppies on the farm the day we got our dog.

My brother had hypnotherapy to deal with a phobia and was regressed back to infancy. The trigger turned out to be when the offending creepy crawlie got on him while he was in the pram down the garden, and he screamed and cried and was ignored because he cried too much. He was 18m The occupational hazards of a 70's childhood!

My DCs have long memories. Although they are still young, they can recall things from when they were 3, jogging my memory.

JellieEllie · 12/10/2018 23:00

I can remember a room we used to live in (temporary accommodation) while my mum was on the run from my dad.
I described the room layout to my mum and remembered that one morning I was eating weetabix in bed and feeling like it was a treat.
She was shocked as I was only 2 at the time and there wouldn't have been another way for me to know unless I genuinely remembered. There were only the 2 of us there.

Camomila · 12/10/2018 23:10

Someone (vague) is doing a big study atm trying to disprove the whole no memories before 3 thing.

My earliest memory is from age 18 months. We were in a pear orchard and all the older kids found pears on the floor and I didn't so DM gave me a caramel pudding/ yoghurt. DM says the pear orchard would have been in Sicilly and I was about 18m when we went.

delilahbucket · 12/10/2018 23:16

I have quite a few memories pre five years old, of the house we lived in, things I did or my family did in that house, like my older brother pretending to grab my feet through the gaps as I ran up the stairs or asking for a coffee because my mum drank coffee and I wanted to be like her, but then hating it! I do not remember my dad in that house at any point. I was three when my parents split. We moved when I was four and ten months. I remember bits of my fifth birthday party in the new house. I have large memory gaps between the age of 7-9. Things you would expect me to remember like family holidays.

Nacreous · 12/10/2018 23:24

My first memory was of a holiday and how we kept pillow cases in the fridge, and there was a donkey and chickens and I fed them and the kitchen with a table in the middle and a door under the stairs that led to a bedroom.

I remember my mum being amazed when I described it, because there were no photos of those things and I was 18 months old. Under 3, I have quite a few memories really about my nursery and how I really hated it and my parents used to bring me milk when they picked me up, and over 3 they are pretty numerous - I remember nursery school which I started at 3 and left at 4, and the things that happened there and the playground and teachers and the such.

kaytee87 · 12/10/2018 23:27

Yes I remember my childminder from when I was 18mo-3yo. Also remember running round my grans table with 2 dummies in my mouth aged 2 Grin

BlackeyedSusan · 12/10/2018 23:33

yes also remember from just two (old house before we moved. ) and the interim house. (grans) and looking at the new house with the vendors being there . one is less than 2 and 2 months, two less than two and 8 months,

others I know I have been told and can imagine, but imagine from the outside, not the inside looking out. some of them are of memories when adults were not present.

BlackeyedSusan · 12/10/2018 23:36

I remember several incidents from preschool. the vomitting child, finding vomit in the apron pocket, losing ted, eating biscuits, getting lost as we ran off and did not know where the new room was, singing in the green car, some christmas song in the middle of summer and getting laughed at by other children.

Amaaboutthis · 12/10/2018 23:49

I remember a swimming pool from a holiday when I was 2. I also have a vivid picture of 2 twins in velour dungareees at a playgroup I went to before I was 3. I’ve lots of memories from when I was 3 or 4. I remember my sister sleeping in the pram in the garden with a net over it when I was 3. I remember eating tomato soup and drinking milk at the same time in our old house which would have been pre 4. Lots of other memories too

Takemetovegas · 12/10/2018 23:56

I remember parts of a house that I lived in before I was 9 months old. I can describe the front entrance and the furniture/phone that was there. I remover what it looked like through the glass from a claw long perspective too. My Mum was gobsmacked when I came out with it. No photos of that part of the house either.

Everythingsr0sie · 13/10/2018 00:00

I remember my second Birthday party and my two cousins, who would have been 8 and 10, walking me around. They had a hand each and were really looking after me.

I also have a lot of memories of my brother being born when I was two and a half.

Purplepinkpurple · 13/10/2018 00:08

I think 3/4. Hospital ones mainly. Significant events.

Similarly (or not) i have memories that my mum & dad says arent true.

I used to tell people i had been in a car crash. We had crashed into a wall. My dad overheard and said it wasnt true - not even remotely. I can t remember faces but i was in the car with my dad and auntie. I was so shocked to find out it wasn't true.

I also have memories of going to get teeth out at hospital. Twice. I remeber everything quite vividly. First time the gas mash going on and counting back. The second time wanting to get further than 9. Even got a lego gift of a christmas santa. Again my mum said nope, i never had teeth out and has no idea how i 'remember'this. I've tried asking my dentist but they don't have any record as after x number of years childrens records get archived.

Sorry that may have been more off topic than i first thpught.

SeaEagleFeather · 13/10/2018 00:34

I remember quite a few things from very early on and I think they're probably real because the angles tend to be really low down. My cot, a staircase on holiday, nursery and sitting at very low tables.

Lot of very clear memories from 4,3 months when I started school.

HildaZelda · 13/10/2018 00:37

I can remember sitting on my grandmother's knee. She was wearing a yellow and white striped dress. I remember the dress very clearly. She died 3 months after I turned 2, so that's why I'm so sure of the age

Inthetropics · 13/10/2018 08:38

I remeber being in my yellow crib. I also remember a few other brief scenes. My mum donated this crib when i was aroud 2 and a half (my dad also confirms this).

ShackUp · 13/10/2018 08:44

Yep, moving house when I was 27 months! Walking down the stairs in our old house and saying 'ow' because my parents had lifted the carpets.

I tend to think it's real because it's quite specific and a 'feeling' of something being different.