To believe that I have memories from as early as age 2 or 3?

[Pyjamaramadrama]

Inspired by another thread

I believe that I've got memories from age 2-3. But my dad is adamant that I can't have and I'm imagining things.

I can remember my cot. Also having a stairgate on bedroom door and standing crying against it and my mum coming to get me. I can remember my pushchair and rain cover, the potty I had, I remember mum changing my nappy (and I was out of them by 2.5), And i can remember the game she'd play while doing it. I remember mum leaving me in the hallway in the buggy and being afraid if the dark. I remember being put in babygros with the feet cut off as they must have been too small. I can also remember my dad chucking my baby bottle out.

Lots of other things too. I remember quite clearly and in more detail, and I can describe the colours of these things and where in the house these things were etc.

My dad says it's not possible, but he can't explain how I can tell him the colour of the straps on my buggy and various other things, when I've never seen photos or been told these things.

Does anyone else have such early memories? Or believe it's impossible to have?

I remember loads,We moved when I was three.I remember the moving lorry I was sooo tired I just needed to sleep,I remember the door which was blue with stained glass.I remember getting cakes in a cake shop and the christening cake that had a tiny baby on it i was very upset about that baby.Squashing tomatoes that mum was growing in the back garden.I would have been tiny,Mostly I remember that I could not stand the feeling of clothes.Running down the lawn striping off.Ialso ate loads of dandelion flowers once and lost control of my bladder I literally could not stop peeing it was running all down my legs.I was mortified even then.

You can. I have memories of being three when I was taken away from my grandmother into foster care, I remember the smell of my mum when she was drunk and high, I remember the red colour of the car that took me away and the back of the social workers head against the head rest.

I remember the smell of the foster family's house when they opened the door, the brown colour of the door, the smiles on their faces that looked a bit fake and scary at the time and the high pitched tone of their voice. I remember the way they stooped down to speak to me and the green wallpaper in the hallway. None of these things I could possibly have seen in a photo or read somewhere as most of them are sounds or smells or even just feelings.

I remember being shunted off to stay with my grandparents when my dsis was being born (I was 2.8 when she was born). I also remember a conversation with my mum when I was asking her when I would turn 3. So yes, definitely possible.

I can also remember bits from a holiday in Cornwall when mum was pregnant with my brother so I'd've been 2 ish - being lifted to look at a horse in a stable. I have seen photos & cine film from that holiday but I'm pretty sure I have a real memory of it.

My earliest memories are of parts of a holiday when I had just turned two. I sincerely hope my dd will have memories from now. She is just 2 and we have just had to have our family dog (which she loved) put to sleep.

I have a theory that your early memories are linked to how verbal you were...

The earliest I can remember is being 3 and running away from my parents at butlins I hid in a softplay area. I remember sitting in my pushchair and having my raincover over and kicking my feet at the footrest thing at the bottom. When I started nursery I remember there was some wooden steps I ran my hand along and got a splinter and sat in the cloakroom crying while the teacher got it out. I think I was about 4 when my grandmother died I remember going to hospital with the family and sitting in the waiting room playing with an enormous connenct 4.

Yanbu. I definitely remember stuff from when I was 3 - we moved house (and country) when I was that age, and I have some quite vivid memories from before the move.

DH and I moved when dd was around the same age. Six years on, she has lots of memories of where we used to live, and I expect some of them will stay with her as she grows up. DD really surprised me a while ago by describing the outing we took her on for her 2nd birthday - she has never seen pictures and we hadn't ever talked about it, but she clearly recalled where we'd been and what we had done!

I'm sorry your early memories are not good lally, apologies if the thread is triggering.

YANBU, I have lots of memories from when I was 18 months old onwards.

I am still in contact with friends from primary school and they find it odd I can remember all of our teachers in the order they taught us and the order of the register

I remember my 2nd birthday, and the presents I received, but I think this is my earliest memory.

My DP remembers nothing about his childhood, or primary school. Really, just no detail at all. I find that so weird.

YANBU, I have some very specific and mundane memories of 2yo and 3yo.

But also, we moved house 3 months before my 3rd birthday into a rented house and then again when I was just 3yo. I can remember my bedroom in the rented house, and no photos exist of that room.

I can also remember the house we lived in before that and one particular toy I had.

I can vividly remember being sent to stay with my grandmother when my brother was born just before I was 3. Dh, on the other hand, had meningitis when he was 14 and has no memories of anythig before that. Weird...

I definitely have lots of memories of being 3 and possibly back to 2.

A few months ago DS (3) shouted out "animals" "toys" when we pulled into the carpark of a garden centre that he hadn't been to in 6 months since about his 3rd birthday. He went directly to the rack that had the die cast tractors. There is a pet section there too. I remember tye previous timing because of looking at Christmas decorations with a heavily pregnant friend, so he must have remembered himself from the previous time.

My friend remembers lying on a changing mat next to his older sister having their nappies changed.

My mum remembers where she lived aged 2 during the war when the family moved frequently.

I remember a few things from two onwards as well, possibly even from before. I described my cot (no photos) to my mum once and she confirmed it.

(Hello PigeonPie! )

I have some very clear memories from 17 months old, of my mother being hugely pregnant (and a couple of other very memorable things - eg being taken to the zoo while my mother was pg). I have a lot of memories from before age three - wallpaper, buggy colours, playgroup, local church etc etc.

Some people don't though - DH remembers nothing before 3.5.

ds1 (severely autistic, non-verbal) has very clear memories from age 2. He's 15 now. We used to live in London, moved when he was 2. He's never been back. I can ask him to find me somewhere on google maps (eg 'find me X's house') and he can do it, despite not having seen x or his house since he was 2.

So yes it's possible.

We moved house just as I turned four, and I have several clear memories of the old house, so must have been from age 3 and younger (which was knocked down soon afterwards, so I haven't dreamt them up from seeing it again when I was older). I remember the blue and white patterned curtains in my room, I remember spitting out cauliflower on the sofa, I remember being in the basement with my dad's band mates, I remember being carried down the front steps in my buggy, I remember treading on a bee in the garden and later watching a stag beetle there, I remember my parents cheering and clapping because I'd put my pants on all by myself.

The house was knocked down, I mean!

Yanbu.

I can remember being stung by a way and my mum sitting me on the kitchen counter feeding me a milky bar to distract me!

I was under 2 at the time. I can also remember staying with a neighbour for the day the following year when we moved from London to Hampshire and mum and dad were getting the removal van packed, and have a few memories of the playgroup I went to when we moved even though we only lived there for a year.

I remember moving house when I was 2. Just bits of it. The big vans and furniture being taken out. I remember waking up at the bottom of the stairs having fallen down walking in my sleep, and being taken back to bed - this was all before I was 3.

My younger sister was a great one for walking in her sleep too but she could reach the front door lock and had been found in the street. My parents put reins on her to clip her to the cot! (this was 1974)

I have a dreadful memory but I can remember the taste of the rails of my cot (which I would have slept in 'til I was 2.5 or thereabouts). I also remember throwing away my dummies when I was around 3.

There are great gaps of things I don't remember but I can remember running around a table at primary school, crying, aged about 4.5. I can also remember the details of the first nightmare I remember having IYSWIM.

My late Dad told me that he could remember an image of lying looking up at the patterns of light and dark made by a tree. He reckoned he'd have been around 18 months, left in the garden in his pram.

No, no no Pyjamaramadrama not triggering at all, I just meant that some memories are ingrained there. There aren't typical happy memories like birthday parties which are likely to have photographs and things to be able to jog your memory - these are deep seeded emotional memories that include sounds and smells, not typical things you can get from say looking at a photograph and thinking 'I remember that'.

I'm more than happy and completely fulfilled with my life now.

I have a memory of visiting an old lady in hospital. She had white hair, was very small and was sat up in a bed which had a frosted window behind it. I was with my dad and I remember sitting on the end of the bed.

For many, many years I thought this must have been Dad taking me to see his Aunt who died when I was 6. But a few years ago I was talking to Dad and mentioned that I remembered him taking me to see his Aunt in hospital. Dad was adamant that this had never happened because he had never been to visit her in hospital! So I described what I remembered. Turns out I was describing seeing my Nan, dad's mum. He took me in to see her one last time before she died. I was not quite 2.

I can also remember moving into our new home a few months later and the sensation of being given the bumps at my 3rd birthday party.

Very early childhood memories are very, very possible.

I'm positive that I have a memory from when I was about 22 months old. It's my dad coming home from the Bradford City fire. I remember there being a nasty smell and all the adults were acting very oddly.

I can also remember being a pushchair with a rain cover on it but I'm not sure when that was from.

I have memories from the age of 2 and not things I have seen in photos.

My great mans house I was describing to my grandad only the other day and she died when I was 3 and I never went into the house again after that so no other way I would have known or seen.

You're not imagining it I'm sure.