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’.

This is really interesting. I had an awful childhood and always thought I'd blocked most of it out. It's actually weirdly comforting to hear that those who had nice childhoods can't remember either.

No. I'm well over 60, sorry @ALongHardWinter!

I was frightened most of the time. My dad was a violent bully.

Of course there were plenty of good times with my siblings, school friends and even Dad sometimes. My grandparents were lovely to me. But I only have little snatches of memories, none of them significant.

After Dad died, my siblings and I got together to share memories - as you do, although abuse featured regularly in ours. I was amazed at the memories they had with me in them: even after the stories were told, I've no recollection of those events!

For most of my life I thought my childhood was "strict". I now realise I was a hypervigilant, traumatised child who was so preoccupied with trying to protect herself and younger siblings, she didn't have the mental space to internalise sequential memories.

My memory's still very episodic. I forget experiences, often so completely that I can revisit books & films and they're like new to me (makes me easily entertained, if nothing else!) I've now learned that all this is fairly common in people who lived with abuse as children. It's not the only possible reason, of course.

I was thinking exactly the same thing! Thanks for saying it 🥰

We’re all in a simulation , the creator has to delete some earlier memories because our brains only have limited storage space

Nope. My friends will often say “remember when we x, y or z” and often I’m sitting there thinking “did we?”

Some bits from under 7, lots from above 7. We moved to a few different places so it's easy to place age and memories. I has such a happy childhood, full of lots of memories with family. We had a year off when we travelled, that part really stands out.

Unfortunately, yes I do!

However, I went on to disown all my family
in my late teens and now - many, many years later - I have the life they could only dream about. (Most of them are dead now anyway from what I have discovered via the internet.)

If nothing else, my childhood was certainly character building.😂

I remember very specific moments but hardly anything from day to day. My 5 year old daughter is seriously poorly at the moment so I’m comforting myself by reminding myself that I have no memories from that age at all and hopefully neither will she!

I remember lots sadly. It wasn’t a happy or secure childhood.

But when my kids were little, I do remember thinking that they aren’t going to remember any of the fun things we did so I started a diary. I only managed it for 3 years but I would say what we did, where we went, what we had for dinner etc. My DC are 18, 21 and 24 and they love reading the diaries.

And music

Goes to show what a waste of time "making memories" with the kids is - save yourself the bother, they won't remember a damn thing!

Although I remember loads (I'm early 50s). Maybe it all comes back to you eventually.

Early 30s and no I don’t remember much at all. My partner & friends could talk for days about their childhood memories though and it makes me wish I remembered more.

I'm the same, 50, was happy and content, can barely remember anything. But I'm ok with that.

I remember a lot, partly thanks to my parents taking lots of photos which I loved to look through, and dad had a camcorder so lots of home videos which we got digitised a few years ago so been watching them again. But also remember lots that wasn't in the photos or videos, certain moments are clear in my memory, I can see and hear them.

I find this so crazy. I remember so much including thoughts I was having etc.

I remember lots! I am 40.

I am haziest actually on my 20s/early 30s. My DH is always talking about plays we went to or things we did on holidays over that time and I can't remember half of it.

But I have lots of memories from childhood. The things that I remember most clearly are injustices.

So I remember being on a nursery trip to the playground and thinking the teacher at the end of the group was going to be run over so I shouted "hurry up!" and she thought I was being rude so I had to go without my lunch (!). They later relented and I could have the sandwiches no one else wanted and I remember the horrible dry peanut butter (would not be allowed today!) sandwich and feeling so upset that I couldn't explain myself properly. I was a summer born and this was definitely nursery so I can't have been older than 3

Oh and I remember when I decided that I was an atheist - I was no older than 8 based on the house we lived in at that point.

I remember a great deal from a handful of memories when I was younger than aged 2, to loads at age 3 onwards. Every Christmas and family holiday etc. But I have ADHD and it is a known factor that we have very good long term memory and very poor short term memory. What I do remember sticks.

Funnily enough, despite my many childhood memories, my late teens and early 20 memories are scant. But I put mine down to alcohol/drug use during that phase... I also have a similar injustice memory. Schools trip to the park to (watch the teacher) catch tadpoles. We were instructed to stand back on the bank away from the edge of the pond. Someone shoved me so hard I flew down the hill into the reeds in the edge of the pond and it was ME who got told off. They didn't believe I hadn't excitedly run down. I was 4 also.

I have lots of very clear memories, starting from when I was around 2 and a half. Between 2.5 and 4 the memories are more like flashes, and they are scarcer, but nonetheless I still have quite a few, but from 4 onwards I remember most of the important things, and in detail. I have very clear memories of the decor in our house and family members' houses, I remember people's voices, events that happened, teachers' names. I've been to places as an adult that I hadn't seen since I was a young child but I still remembered my way around. I remember what my favourite clothes looked like, and my parents' and sisters' clothes too. The food we ate, holidays we went on, the details of family dramas that happened, the details of other people's family dramas that we were told about... Very clear, vivid visual memories.

I have a few but nowhere near as many as other people have.

I have lots of memories! And I count myself lucky in that respect. I think a previous poster is right in saying that mobile phones have had a great impact. I grew up in the 70s and had my teens in the 80s and I can remember Bulin's chalets (!) and hotel rooms we stayed in. I can remember that long, hot summer of 1976, learning to swim, begging my Dad to let us go to gymnastics class. How my Dad used to make the front room into a disco for us when the Top 20 was on on Sunday nights. I could go on....

I need prompts for memories- photos, going on trips to the same places, going back to old neighbourhood, talking to parents/ childhood friends.

Without all that I think I'd forget too.

I wish I could forget tbh. Maybe it's the trauma that makes it stick?

Loads and loads. I can clearly remember all the houses we lived in, classrooms at school from reception onwards. And have a few memories of my pre school too.
My sister however remembers nothing at all. I sent her some old photos lately and had to explain where there were taken.
And we're only in our 40s so no age issues there, she has always had a shockingly bad memory.

A few but not many - I am quite old though!