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 had a memory of waking up in a chair under a blanket in the dark in front of a coal fire and being frightened because my mum and dad weren't there.

I mentioned it to my dm and apparently during the blackouts in the early 70s they used to put me to sleep in a chair in the sitting room where there was a coal fire so I would be warm, I couldn't have older than 18months to 2 years old

I remember my granpa dying. I remember seeing him lying in his coffin in my grans bedroom.

I was born August 76 (6th in fact, today is my birthday). I thought for years I was about 4 when he died. When I went to see my grans grave act she died, He had died in early 78.

Andi have a few clear memories of him alive as well.

I vividly remember a moment from my first birthday. I was on my mums lap and my nan was opposite. The cake was in front of me. Dad wasn't there and I remember a feeling of "where's Daddy", although not in words, just the feeling. He was laid up in bed with dreadful food poisoning although I didn't find out til years later.

Also have lots and lots of memories from our first house and we moved from there just before I was four.

I remember the view of a frilled border , looking out of my old fashioned pram and playing with the coloured plastic bals on elastic.

I can picturenthenview , it's definite a view out of a pram.

I can remember the red eiderdown on dm and dd's bed and my cot in the corner. I can remember throwing snowballs at the wall. And my sister holding me up to see the barges go past on the canal. We left there when I was 3. I can remember president Kennedy being shot and mum watching it on TV-3 and a half then.

I can remember being in the kitchen of the first house I lived in, sitting on my dads knee on the back doorstep sharing his sandwich. I was 10 months when we moved out of that house.
My Parents didn't believe me until I described the detail of the kitchen and said the grass outside was really long.

I can also remember crawling across the floor to my Mum, she was wearing a petticoat and I pulled it down and started rubbing it. This became my comforter. This was in the house we moved to and I was about 11 months. I can clearly remember the big swirly carpet.

My very first memory is of being in the big coach built pram with the big hood up. It's a very short memory but there was thunder and lightning (i realise now the memory is flashing and loud bangs)and I wasn't with my mum and I was scared. Told mum about it a few years ago (thought it must have been a dream as surelytoo early to be a memory) and she knew the day I meant as s he had let her younger cousins take.me.for a.walk. they were gone hours and she was panicky (I was pfb) turns out they'd gone to meet boys and used taking me for a walk aged 16 months as a cover.

I think (vast generalisation here) that women seem to remember earlier than men. Dh can hardly remember anything infants and younger.

My earliest memory I can definitely pinpoint is waving dsis off to preschool. She used to be picked up in a huge estate car by the owner of the preschool (with about 20 other children!). She left preschool when I was 20 months old.
I remember the holiday we had when I was 2.5yo-we went to see Sooty and Sweep. And the cousins coming to stay when I was 2yo. My cousin#3 broke my duck!!!
I have several memories from aged 3yo, but they're all big memories-moving house, being in hospital.
If you didn't have big events that you could pin point the age, then you might just assume it was older.

I remember discussing first memories with a group of couples and almost entirely the women could remember things from 2-3yo and all except one of the men's first memory was well after starting school.

The biggest memory surprise was given to me by dd1. Her second Christmas she was 14 months old. When she was about 22 months old a catalogue came through the door. One the front cover was a Christmas tree. We hadn't talked about Christmas at all, or had books about it or anything.
She sat down with the picture and said. "Christmas tree. At Christmas, our tree goes there, i had a big present which was this, and we had presents in a big bag (the stocking), my bag was red and white...." and continued telling exactly what she remembered about Christmas, all correct, but things she couldn't have seen in photos nor had we told her. She was a very good talker, and so was able to tell us these things. I suspect that a less vocal child would remember as much but we wouldn't know because they wouldn't tell us.

Apparently, most people's memories start around 3 or 4. If that's average, then obviously some will have memories that start younger or older.

I have one memory from from when I was 9 months old - my mum has confirmed that age for me, based on my description of events. She remembers VE Day, when she would have been almost exactly a year old. My grandmother lost her mother when she was eight, and as an adult had no memories prior to that. It seems to vary rather widely, obviously, but 3-ish does seem to be the norm.

On the other hand, I have only very vague memories of being a teenager or young adult and some years seem to have escaped me altogether.

I have tons of memories from being a toddler as I have many memories of/with my Dad, who died when I was 3. Infact, I remember being in my bed when the police came to the door in the middle of the night to tell my DGM that he had been killed, and hearing them. I never mentioned it though and wasn't told until I was a bit older.

I remember getting annoyed and ripping my nappy off at night and throwing a tantrum because I didn't want it on (I was fully trained day and night at 2 so have no idea what age I was then).

I remember we had a puppy when I was really little, he died as he ate rat poison, I was about 18 months then.

I also have a few memories of my Mother, those ones are not so good and I once remember her in a drugged up state burning me on the bum with a cigarette when I had been rolling about the floor without a nappy on (I think it was an accident, must have been about 18 months).

I have memories of when we lived abroad as babies. I was four when we came back. I remember things like my holding my sippy cup, shaking my brother's cot, playing with my dolls or my mother's handbag. But my first vivid memory is going to a Christmas party, aged three, and standing at the buffet table wondering whether I was allowed to eat the sausage rolls. I suppose it might be the age where you start making your own decisions & don't have to ask adults anymore... I also have memories of my Granny, from before we went away when I was two. She died when I was four & we'd just returned home.

I have a fleeting memory of a string of ducks across the hood of a silver cross coach pram. I can't be certain of that one as is have only been one or so but mum confirms the blue pram and string of ducks so who knows.

The one I can recall vividly is sitting in an empty bath aged about 18 months watching dad mirror tile the bathroom (it was the seventies,I forgave him). Anyway, whatever he did one by one they fell off and I clearly remember taking my dummy out and howling with laughter at the crashing noise.

I have memories from just after 1. I can remember my cot mobile, which had been made by a family friend, so not generic, and there were no pictures of it. My parents were shocked when I described it in perfect detail, as an older child. I have several memories of my Great Uncle who died just before I turned 2, and loads of memories from being 3, which I can place easily because my brother was born on the day I turned 3 1/2. Lots of my memories are of my mum being pregnant, for example.

I've been pissed off over the years being told I can't have memories that early, and discovered that there are 3 reasons why some people remember very early memories: they have a more photographic or easy-recall memory than average, they had a stressful or traumatic childhood (the memories aren't necessarily bad, however), which meant they became hypervigilant and hyperaware, or they have some Autistic tendencies (or are on the spectrum itself). The first two apply to me (stressful, not traumatic childhood) and ASD runs in my family, so it seems pretty obvious why I have excellent early memory recall. My brother's is also excellent.

Now I feel odd
I have one memory from age 5, nothing after that except vague ones until maybe age 10
I don't remember one of the schools I went to at all, and I struggle with the other one

There's a common misconception that children don't form memories before they are 3 or 4, but what actually happens is that they form memories right from their earliest days, but start to lose those earliest memories once they get past 3-ish. My DS is nearly 3 1/2 and has always spontaneously recalled lots of stuff from being very wee, but lately, if I mention some of those memories, he can't remember them, or remember them very well now.

I remember the wallpaper in my bedroom of the house we moved out of when I was 9 months old. Was talking to my mum about the house once and mentioned the design (little dogs). She couldn't get over the fact I remember it. Have no memories of being in hospital for a good few months when I was 13 months old though and nothing else really until about age 3 which are just snippets of being at nursery.

I have memories from being under 2, snippets rather than full narratives. We moved house frequently, so it's fairly easy to pin specifics down to a particular year.
Lyong in bed with a pillow across the bottom to shorten the bed and a hot water bottle on the other side, so I'd be warm without burning. Blue candlewick bedspread. The landing light was on and the wall was pale green. That was the winter when I was 19 months old.

Oxford All three of those apply to me, it makes sense.

Oh yes, DD on the spectrum has an incredibly detailed memory for events and can quote exactly what was said a decade or more later.

I have lots of memories from under 2. My mum has verified them!

What haunts me though is that I read on here a MNer said that her mother died when she was 4 and she doesn't remember her. My DC are 5 and 2, which means that if anything happened to me, they would probably not remember me. This is despite the fact that the little one has slept next to me every night since she was born. I should really not worry about such things

I have a lot of visual memories from around 18/24mo, but a lot have morphed into memories of memories IYKWIM? Some I think I may have invented/extrapolated from photographs, but most are 100% guaranteed true memory.
Some of them are fleeting glances, literally two seconds of memory (reaching up for my music box string in my cot), others are slower observations with more detail (Punch and Judy show at a party, later being carried to bed and seeing the sunset thru the window).
They were very accurate when I was younger, in fact in my teens I drew the layout of my grandparents old front garden for my disbelieving grandma, inc shrubs and fishpond etc, even got the colour of the roses and front door right - they moved when I was 2.
I have a couple of unpleasant memories that I'd prefer to think are not accurate memories, but the thought they're real plagues me. Ho hum.

I remember dad sending me back to bed and some how I know it was the morning my sister was born. I'm 2.5 years older. I also remember standing on the drive of that house as buys came and took our van away.

We moved when DSIS was 6weeks old. I also have one really clear memory of the house we had for about year after that.

OP - just realised my DM doesn't believe my memories either! She was very when I told her recently that I remembered visiting her in hospital after her sterilisation (walking down the ward holding CMs hand, carrying a little bunch of garden flowers, her in big high metal bed).
It turns out she was the one misremembering, I was a small toddler, around 2yo, but she thought I was much older at the time, 3/4. She was a bit put out when other people corrected her and confirmed my 2yo version of events!

I remember having my head stitched up in hospital after I fell over and can picture how big the bandage looked over my forehead when I looked in the mirror at home. I was 2 at the time.

I also remember being in my cot and waking up very early one morning. I felt bored so called out 'mum' then 'dad' and my father came in to tell me off as it was still dark!

There's a common misconception that children don't form memories before they are 3 or 4, but what actually happens is that they form memories right from their earliest days, but start to lose those earliest memories once they get past 3-ish.
Yes. I should have been more specific in my post. As adults most people can remember things from around the ages of 3 or 4. Obviously children can remember things from before that age as it was far more recent for them, and so can some adults but it's not as common.