Do you remember much of your childhood?

[Spencer2]

I only ask because… I really don’t!

I didn’t have a bad upbringing, in fact I do just remember it being lovely and I was so content. We weren’t well off but we could afford an annual holiday abroad and I just loved being at home playing and watching films. I loved feeling content, warm and in my safe place which was always my childhood home. Of course I remember random things and events as we do…. But I mean a handful at most. I really don’t remember much of me and my brother growing up in our home, I don’t remember much of the yearly holidays abroad. It’s really sad and these are years without any memories I will never be able to look back on or play back in my head.

I’m just curious to know.. am I the only one? I struggle to be honest to remember much from my teen years either, although I do remember a lot more than childhood years.

For the record.. i’m 27.

I have children now and sometimes I look at them and I think ‘I hope you remember this moment’ or ‘I hope you don’t forget all of this’.

I hardly remember a thing. I’ve felt sad about this for years. DH spouts memories all the time, but his childhood was cut quite short when his DM died so maybe he needed to remember as he grew up, whereas we kind of took things for granted that we’d always remember if that makes sense?

I have next to no memories of my childhood, I always thought that it’s weird!

Some of them are coming back now I have a child, like, oh I remember my granny sang me that song; but it’s all very hazy.

There are very few photos of me being little as well so more difficult to go down memory lane that way. I am taking a bizzillion photos of my child, he might forget this time but I sure don’t want to forget any of it.

Hardly anything. It's quite sad really.

I hardly remember anything! Major things like moving house ( we moved around the country several times in my childhood), but not the small stuff.

DH can recite his teachers names, children in his class etc, I can't remember anything like that! My only thought is due to us moving a lot I have a lot of teachers/classmates to try and remember

The memories I have of actual events are all traumatic/negative really.

Sometimes I’ll see something which will trigger a (positive) throwback to something. For example, a recent post on social media of 90’s toys.

I remember a lot of our family holidays abroad so bigger events.

Playing with my brother etc

I don’t remember a lot of secondary school though for some reason.

I had a great childhood too from what I do remember.

I can’t remember any primary teachers names although I can remember really liking one.

I can remember all my class mates though.

I can remember quite a lot of stuff to be honest.

Playing with my sister and cousins. Going on holidays and playing with friends we made there from other countries. Playing out a lot on the street with our local friends. Going on bike rides with my dad. Grandparents taking us to National Trust places etc.

I remember as a teenager looking at some of my friends and what they were dealing with and thinking "I literally have no worries or concerns in comparison to them". I felt lucky tbh.

I'm 62 and I remember masses of detail including watching the moon landing.

When I think about it there are core memories but there’s lot in-between that I don’t really recall. Which I find odd as I generally have a brilliant memory. I don’t remember starting infant school, don’t remember finishing primary school. Don’t remember being my DD’s current age (10). Just random bits of memory dotted about from year to year. I do remember every house we lived in (quite a few), and I remember most family holidays and childhood friends. I did a competitive sport throughout my childhood though, and I do remember everything about that.

I remember a fair bit, some of it is from others mentioning something then a memory flashes up… I’ve got a pretty good memory for that sort of stuff..

Does looking at photos not trigger any memories?

Also have barely any childhood photos so that may be why

I have lost a lot of the detail but you can awaken a lot with taste and smell.

I have soooooo many memories of things from my childhood and when I think about them it’s so vivid, it’s as though my memories are happening all over again.

And some of the things I remember are so random!

It helps that me and my sister are very close (only 12 months between us) and so every memory of my childhood is wrapped up in her as we were pretty much inseparable until we went to Uni etc. We spend hours upon hours upon hours just laughing about all the shenanigans we used to get up to.

But yes, I pretty much have a crystal clear memory of thousands of points in time of my childhood.

With regards to my own children, I have photos albums full of solely them and everything we do together, toys they played with, the holidays they had, their sleepovers with friends, their first bedrooms, painting and play-doh days, every trip out we ever took, parties, first pets, first bike rides, birthdays, trips to the park, school plays and ward assemblies etc etc - anything and everything within their childhood has been captured. The list is literally endless.

My children are only 5 years and 9 years old and already I have over 7000 photos printed off and put into albums. The first photo album starts with a photo of my very first positive pregnancy test with my first son and all it unfolds from there. I dread to think how many photos I’m going to end up with!!

Me and my children sit for hours at a time looking through all the photos and talking about them and reminiscing and I absolutely love it as there are events/moments captured in those albums that even I had forgotten, never mind expect them to remember.

I love to imagine their future when they’re in their 20’s, looking through the albums and laughing about all the memories they have of the events and experiences captured in the photos and see how happy it makes them.

My own memories of my childhood with my sister are so precious to me, that I really want to be able to give my own children the opportunity to always have that bond of shared childhood memories.

I can remember absolutely loads, all the names of all the kids that were ever in my class, what my teachers used to wear, entire conversations with friends, the exact textures and fabrics in the (many) houses we lived in. What I can't remember is much of my twenties, when my MH was very poor. I think I was very firmly 'me' in my childhood and later on I lost that sense of myself.

I remember my childhood really well. It's the childhood of my 3rd DC that I struggle to remember. I think it was probably because I was ill for most of it and and my mind must have blanked it out. There was a time when I was asked what their date of birth was and I couldn't remember.

I'm 60 and I remember every detail. Much if it was quite bad, tho my parents tried their best. There were some huge mental health issues that were multi generational and that was tough in the 60s and 70s.
But yes- I remember it all.

I remember really bad and really good stuff, but nothing in between.

Pretty well yeah. Funny looking back as an adult.

I remember much more than I’d rather tbh.
I do have some happy memories but an awful lot of horrible ones unfortunately.
Sadly there are loads bad things that I remember and I’m now in my mid fifties.

Same, OP, I only remember random bits, mostly unpleasant school stuff. Same for my teens (the less remembered about those years the better!). I didn't have a bad childhood but I didn't enjoy it, so I don't miss having mkore memories of it.

I had a happy childhood and lots of memories - I remember conversations, food I ate, clothes I wore, how I felt etc.
Some is probably a little garbled and some helped by photo albums but generally my memory is pretty good. My brother, 18 months older than me, remembers almost nothing which I find so weird.

My childhood was extremely violent and terrifying with constant neglect. Id be sick on my way home from school because I was so afraid of going home.
I remember every last thing about it.
I dont think you remember calm happy times so much but you do remember being afraid and unhappy sadly.

I think a lot of people cannot remember their childhood especially anyone 30 and under purely because mobile phones have had a huge impact. We store most memories on phones now rather than having to use our actual memory to store it. I'm 26 and can't remember a darn thing. And my first phone was when I was 13! It'll only get worse...