To not remember much of my childhood

[Psycobabble]

Well not an aibu really but thought I might get some answers here :) studying long term memory at the moment and it got me thinking along with a post someone made on here along the lines of "you will genrally remember wether your childhood was good or bad but not individual stuff "

It really did get me wondering if my memory is bad in comparison to other people because my memories of my childhood are not clear at all !! I worry about it sometimes !! I often read autobiographies ( reading one right now ) and the detail people go into such as remembering numerous conversations they have had always amazes me .altho I appreciate it may be bulked out in order to add to the book!

I of course do have memories and remember places we went clothes I had old friends school etc etc but nothing in great detail like I can see my old primary school in my head almost like in pictures but i couldn't recall for example a conversation I had during that time yet people often seem able to do this

I did have a period were there was a serious family illness that was a very difficult time for us for q very long while and I developed anxiety after this so I do sometimes wonder if I had to much of a foggy head at the time and maybe that's why I don't remember a lot

So I'm not sure if my memory is bad or normal

Do you remember exchanges and conversations with others clearly from when you were young ??

Sorry this is very geeky but I find it interesting !!

I find it amazing how much some people forget and wonder how much they noticed in the first place - eg some people say they can only remember the names of a couple kids and say one teacher from primary school, whereas I can remember every single teacher's name I ever had and for at least junior school, all my classmates' names (3 different schools). One person swore she never knew more than half her classmates's names even when she was at school!

Maybe you just never paid much attention to conversations when you were young?

My memory goes back a long way, I remember being in the old house before we moved, and we moved when I was 3.

I can recall a lot of conversations and incidents and experiences. I remember the day I started school in quite a lot of detail. I remember my first teacher's name, the name of the headteacher.

I can remember emotions too, I was not a happy child and can remember feeling different and wrong sad and scared.

I wish I couldn't remember so much actually, because it was not a good time in my life. I'm much happier as an adult.

I have lots of memories from 2 til 11, then virtually none from 12-14.

My earliest memory is of riding a plastic trike up and down the path to our front door and my brother trying to persuade me to do a wheelie. We left that house when I was two and a bit, so quite wee.

I remember the first time meeting my primary school head and the conversation - my parents expressed concern about me eating school dinners, the head said 'you'll be ok, won't you clash?' And I said 'yup, I have very sharp teeth'.

Interestingly, I was going through some old photos recently. I can remember every name of my year five and six class, but only about half of my secondary school form.

I've got a good long term memory (but terrible short term memory, particularly for mundane tasks). It probably helps that I moved house and area at 7 which helps fix a chronology.

I've got several distinct memories of being 3 including getting a dog, and the bunk beds on holiday. Possibly back to being 2, but that's more hazy.

DS seems to have a good long term memory too. He's 5 and in the last few days mentioned a museum exhibit that he saw 2 years ago. At the weekend we went to an event that seemed to jog a memory from when he was 2. Last year, he beat me in an argument about going on a canal boat; I'd insisted that he hadn't been on one, but he was correct that he had been on one at a living museum over a year earlier.

DH on the otherhand didn't really remember existing before he was about 10 I suspect that his childhood was more monotonous than mine. He does hold the advantage of generally remembering why he's in a room at any given moment!

I suppose I have years of general blur interspersed with a few very sharp, detailed memories. I can definitely remember conversations, but not many of them. I have more detailed memories of my grandparent's house than of anything else.

See I can remember like layouts of rooms and things for example my reception classroom I recall so so clearly but I can't recall one solid memory in terms of a conversation for example during that time a pp said maybe I didn't pay much attention to conversations when younger and yea definitely a possibility I was very easily distracted as a child !! I think memory is effected by how well you actually take it in at the time

I can remember a few specific events from my childhood but hardly any actual conversations. I was very shy & probably didn't have that much interaction with people outside my immediate family & a couple of neighbours. I remember the area we lived, where I played, my first school, the park etc, in quite a lot of detail so I could retrace my steps quite easily 50 years later. I can date this accurately as we moved away from that town when I was 6 and a half, and I only went back 2 or 3 times before my grandparents died.

Strangely, my grandson now lives very close to where my grandparents house was.

I do have a very good memory for facts though, and sailed through school. I did a degree as a mature student & remembered stuff I learned over 20 years earlier.
Perhaps my memory is selective & I've blocked out things that weren't too good. I was a very healthy child, the house was kept clean & I never went without food, clothes etc. But my dad used to tell me I was born miserable. My school reports said things like "conscientious" and "earnest".

I remember bits and bobs but most of it is a blur. I think photos help, for example there's a picture of me and my brother with our Halloween pumpkins, I can remember carving the pumpkins on the wall outside with mum and dad. There's a picture of me at about 2 on my trike with a little basket I used to hang on the handlebars, I can remember scooting around on the drive way on it. But if it wasn't for those photos, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to remember those things.

I can remember other stuff that there wasn't photos of, some from when I felt very scared, like the teacher shouting at me, some when I felt very happy. Mostly the extremes. The mundane everyday stuff has mostly disappeared.

I remember very little , it worries me. I get the odd memory from aged about 7 and over, even secondary schools a blur and college. DD is a teenager now and I don't remember her as a baby very clearly!

I wonder if it's how much things are talked about, done a lot or otherwise reinforced.

I remember quiet a lot about primary school - but I went to secondary with several people our shred memories were about only thing we had in common so were gone over.

Family trips out - not really talked about when done and pictures not gone through but put away. A rear one was a trip to more distance relatives with GP - that got talked about by GP and wider family so I think I remember it.

Takes a few trips to places before my children start to remember that they have been - or being reminded by pictures and then a discussion.

waiting for something - we share memories...did we go to school together

I have very little memory of my childhood. Due to a trauma at a young age I blocked most of my memories out. I always feel a bit sad when you school friends can clearly remember specific things and I can't

Jemmapell that or it was an amazing teacher training course.

I can remember a lot but my df had an amazing memory and l think l have inherited that. Remember every person in my class even in the whole school. My dh has very little memory but he hated school and seems to have blocked it out. I loved school. Also as a family we chatted a lot so l think that kept things alive while dhs family had no idea who anyone was. As a teacher l can remember classes l taught years ago once l hear someone's name l remember who was in that class.
I only really remember actually conversations if it was something really good or really bad. Mean stuff people said in school l could quote word for word or any praise l got.

I remember my childhood vividly from soon before my 4th birthday; I'm always quoting things my parents had forgotten!

It's sometimes a shock to visit somewhere I knew as a child, and suddenly it seems much smaller than I remembered it!

I agree with Rhaegal, I think usually you will remember something if its replayed in your mind soon after it happens. That's how we learn things in school. So we don't tend to remember mundane things. Presumably if someone upset you, you'd think about them for a while and that will reinforce the memory. You'd remember your school, the streets near your house etc because you see them more than once and they become familiar. Photos will trigger memories if you've seen them before & talked about them, holiday pics for example.
I remember my first class in primary school, and making a calendar shaped like a robin the first Christmas. But I don't remember my first day. I liked school.
I can't remember what I had for lunch last Friday (or even what the weather was like) because it wasn't anything important & I didn't think about it afterwards.

My earliest memories are of my brother being born and people looking in the pram to see him at toddler group - I was 17 months when he was born.

I've got quite a few memories that I think are easier to recall because there were quite a few big changes during my childhood - we moved house 3 times (1 move involving living abroad for a period of time) and I went to 7 different schools.

I can remember certain conversations but only ones that really resonated with me and then not word for word recall. It's odd things like someone saying unkind or kind or that was shocking to me at the time. I can certainly remember how I felt.

Mind you, when I went back to a school reunion 10 years after leaving, I discovered I don't actually have clear memories of all the people at school - only my closest friends and the odd teacher. Some people's names were familiar and I had a general feeling of whether or not I'd like them but no memory as to why!

I remember quite a lot and quite a few 'significant' conversations, but I put that down to a good language memory. I easily remember all the words from songs I like all the way through after a couple of listens and can recall them years later. I can still remember poems and speeches I was taught at school, not sure if that's unusual though.

I'd say on the whole I had a good childhood and I remember quite a mixture of experiences. The conversations I remember tend to be the negative ones though unfortunately.

Dh remembers nothing. He'd say he thinks he's blocked it out because it was a tough time for him - his real dad walked out, his mother wasn't particularly maternal and was quite strict, there was a fair bit of upheaval etc.

Some really interesting answers here and also reassured me that my lack of memory isn't out of the ordinary

Hi OP
This is such an interesting question! I too have what feels like very little proper memory of my childhood, I get what are more like photographic images of a person or place, things which were obviously important to me, however when old school friends start reminiscing about times gone by I have virtually no recollections at all, it's like I just wasn't there!
It may be relevant that I suffered from anxiety quite severely as a child and also had some difficulty. Stuff to cope with so I think that maybe I wasn't actually 'attending' fully enough to lay down memories, if that makes sense.

Hardly anything here. I have a pretty poor long term memory though as an adult. eg I can barely remember the holiday I went on 2 years ago, and really struggle to remember details of where we went, what we did, what places look like etc. The friend I go with has an almost photographic memory of every holiday we have ever been on, so that makes my memory seem even worse.

It really troubles me how few memories I have of my childhood and of - well anything - more than a year or two ago. I'm good with every day things - don't forget appointments, to pay bills on time, get stuff like MOT sorted in advance. But longer term memory is very weak indeed.

I have never drunk alcohol and never smoked or taken drugs, apart from prescription ones .

I have extremely clear memories of my childhood until the age of about 17. After that, I can hardly remember anything. Most of university and my twenties is a blur I can't really recall. I wonder if leaving school has something to do with it? You lose that frame of reference about how old you were when something happened.

sohere

Yea I think that makes sense and I was the same with anxiety too. as though with other stuff on your mind you don't process and take things in properly at the time

My memory is so bad that I can't remember much of my children's childhoods let alone my own. We have old friends who often reminisce about holidays we've been on and I can only remember tiny snippets. I remember things wrongly too. I once recounted a story of how I hit my head on a castle staircase and my DH pointed out that it had happened to him, not me. It makes me quite sad really. I keep a diary and take lots of pictures.