Tonight I have been hit by a huge wave of nostalgia and longing to go back to my childhood

[StealthPolarBear]

Does anyone else get this?

Yes, more and more as I get older. Sometimes it's so powerful I can almost taste my mum's cooking

I'm glad it's not just me. Embarrassingly my parents are still alive, together and (touching lots of wood) healthy. They even live in my childhood home. I didn't feel this way until recently but I keep having random thoughts pop into my head such as my childminders house, or the toddler group I went to.

I miss the world of childhood books

No. I sometimes think I'd like to revisit my early adulthood, but my childhood wasn't the happiest so I'd never want to go back there.

A couple of years ago I went back to the town where I grew up, I moved away almost 50 years ago. I looked at my childhood home (from the outside) and did my walk to school. It was lovely.

Yes, I get this a lot. Would love to find wallpaper etc. that I remember from my childhood. I also love seeing things from when my parents were young, and I have kept so much stuff (toys, clothes, photos and home videos) from when my children were little!

Not often. I have generally found adulthood to be easier than childhood so I don’t get nostalgic too often. I do sometimes get nostalgic for my teen years, growing up in the 90s, the magazines I used to read, the tv shows I loved, the fashion and the music. I suppose it’s a time of life that we’ll never be able to recreate.

I totally get this.

My parents are dead, there's no family home to visit. Sometimes i drive past, just to feel close to them but it's not the same, nowhere near it.

I get this too. I drive past my old homes and schools and miss the people I used to have in my life.

When you're a child you think those days will never end and don't realise friends and family, your home and possessions will one day change or disappear.

I wish I had more stuff to look back at. I'm sure that would make me feel better. I'm in my 50s and don't have a lot of photos and posessions from childhood and certainly have no videos. Parents are long gone. I only have memories. I'm a bit jealous of my dc the younger generations having the tech to have their childhoods more documented and friends easier to keep in touch with. My dc have videos of themselves from the day they were born, with friends, their bedrooms and toys, holidays. They love watching them and it sparks lots of memories for them. They also have boxes of favourite toys, a couple of outfits, artwork etc.

Yes I get it. More so since my parents died but had it before too. Very happy childhood. Often dream of university too which was one of the happiest times of my life.

Yes, all the time! I quite often get to a certain point in the afternoon and am hit by an intense longing to be in my childhood home watching Mr Benn or Pigeon Street while my mum was pottering about or ironing. Some Monday mornings I can physically smell the hose from the twin-tub as she positioned it to drain into the sink (I am showing my age here!!) Just simple, ordinary times that I thought would last for ever.

I was watching a programme about the 90’s and missed it so badly. It was my era as a teen I turned 11 in 1990. It was like homesickness washing over me for a home I can’t go back to.

I saw a photo of my ex-SIL’s teenage daughters (17 and 19) on FB the other day and was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of longing to be their age again. It was a strange feeling, almost one of anticipation - what’s going to happen, how will it pan out.

In reality, I didn’t enjoy my late teens / early twenties very much, whereas life has been brilliant since I got 30; but seeing them got me remembering all the milestones passed and a while unknown ahead, at the same time.

I started a nostalgia board on my Pinterest which has been unexpectedly emotive. It's mostly toys and things from the late 70s to mid 80s and has thrown up a load of things I'd forgotten I even had. It's made me realise how much my parents sacrificed for me and my brother to have all the lovely toys and games we wanted. They were on low incomes and it breaks me to think of how hard they worked and how much they loved us. Both are gone now so I can't even express this or thank them again.

Isn't there a Welsh word that means "sadness / longing for things that have passed"? I saw it on here a while ago and thought it was a lovely concept - I just can't remember the word though! (I'm not Welsh)

"Hiraeth": I googled it

Yes - hiraeth encapsulates itperfectly for me (I'm Welsh)

@CheerfulBunny

I started a nostalgia board on my Pinterest which has been unexpectedly emotive. It's mostly toys and things from the late 70s to mid 80s and has thrown up a load of things I'd forgotten I even had. It's made me realise how much my parents sacrificed for me and my brother to have all the lovely toys and games we wanted. They were on low incomes and it breaks me to think of how hard they worked and how much they loved us. Both are gone now so I can't even express this or thank them again.

Thats a lovely post. I feel the same way. And its the way your parents were like this, right to the end. I remember a few weeks before my mum died, i took her a drive to get her out the house, as there was no one else to take her except me. Anyway we got a bag of chips to share in the car, and you know how the smell of salt and vinegar chips is sooo good!!! I was driving and mum opened the chips on her lap and immediately handed me the first chip, with her wee bony fingers. She was 85 and for a long time, id been like her mum. But in that moment, she was my mum again.

@ssd Beautiful. It's the moments like that that stay with you x

I get it. I didn't have a very happy childhood but what I think it is for me is that there was so much more time then than there is now- time to do better at school and uni, time for better jobs, relationships and decisions. I find myself looking up my old school and the area I grew up in a lot.

[quote CheerfulBunny]@ssd Beautiful. It's the moments like that that stay with you x[/quote]
They do. I can still be back in that car in a second and smell those chips. It was the way she opened them and immediately handed me one without having one herself. I recognised it immediately as a mum of 2 kids myself. Knowing there was still someone in the world who gave you the first chip without thinking...but also knowing I'd be losing her soon. And I'd never get that back. But I'm grateful i had it.

I miss my childhood so much,i was carefree and happy. We were poor ,my single mum working all hours to feed four of us plus our grandparents but my God we were loved and the happiest memories were made in the simplest of places with the simplest of things.we had each other,its all that mattered.

No. I'm not nostalgic for much in life (except certain times when DC were small and snuggly and cute) My teens were good fun and I was a fairly happy child but my childhood wasn't great. I certainly wouldn't want to land back in my parents' house and have them in charge of my wellbeing ever again.

@ssd and @CheerfulBunny, your posts have given me a lump in my throat. I can relate exactly to what you've both said.