If you could be a child again, would you?

[imscaredpleasehelp]

YABU- I wouldn't
YANBU- in a heartbeat

I would. I miss running to the otherwise of the playground because walking was too slow. or walking along walls because the floor was too boring. Stuff like that. I read quite a lot of books written from a child's perspective. And listen to the hits from when I was about 5-8 whereas my DH listens to music from his teens and early twenties. My parents have said they would go back to being a young adult over a child.

I am in the midst of child rearing but when this is over I suppose I would long for these years and might forget about my own childhood.

No way. Not for a million pounds. An absolutely miserable home with an abusive step father and a weak mother who saw nothing and heard nothing either. That part of my life has been a closed chapter from the minute I left home at 17. In those days childline didn't exist. I never have anything good to say about childhood when friends chat because it was like a prison sentence but I had committed no crime.

Another one not wishing for childhood back. Maybe if I could have different parents and different siblings...

No, I like my adult freedom too much. I wouldn’t want childhood friendships again.

Argh no way, what an awful scary thought. Can't you do those things now though? I love being an adult because I can do the things that made me happy as a child but I was generally not allowed to do: walking barefoot whenever I get the chance, swimming in the sea, eating warm raspberries out of the garden, getting lost in a book, making a wonderful messy painting
without any of the scary things that made up my childhood.

Oh good no my childhood was hell.

If I could go back to my childhood in the late 90s then yes in a heart beat. If I had to be a child nowadays then no!

IndanthroneBlue So true.

I use to go on the swings at the park when I took the DC, and go as high as I could then jump off, it was something my best friend and I use to do when we were kids, I will still do it now if I find a swing when out. (but maybe not jumping off so high )

lots of little things I still do because I can

I would love to go back to being around 8 in 1970. It was so idyllic. I had a lovely childhood.

My own childhood? No. I don't want to live through that again.

But with different parents, or my parents but with my best interests rather than power, control, and not desperate to show they're not 'that parent' and to prove to the world I'd never be the stereotype child of a step family, causing trouble and with mental health issues (which is exactly what I became) rather than just loving me and supporting me.
I'd love to experience childhood as a child without all the responsibility of the adults that was piled on me to conform to.

For a week, definitely.

So sad for everyone who had a rotten childhood.

100% I would love it again. I just loved school, particularly primary school. Everything was so new and amazing, discovering the world for the first time. I remember being really in awe of the beauty of simple things like dew on a spiders web or the colour of an autumn leaf. I still appreciate those things but it will never be with the wonder of a child.

Yes I would 100%

Being carefree and the simple things make you happy. I have 2 very small children 2 and 3 months and I would trade places with them anyday 🤣

No, definitely not. I had what I think of as a good childhood but my overarching memories are anxiety about my parents’ finances, even at primary age (which is crap when you can’t do anything about it), friendship issues/loneliness, and worries about academic performance. As an adult I was quick to move countries, make friends, make money and I’m a much happier person.

I would in a heartbeat. I had a wonderful childhood and I would re-live it all if I could.

Not if I had the same experiences.

However, it might be nice to have another go at childhood, with the parents I needed and with a suitable mentor from around age 13.

I’d love to; there are friendships I wish I hadn’t walked away from, musical instruments and hobbies I wish I’d taken up, and I wish I’d worked far, far harder at school.

When you get older you revert to a child again. Bit like Benjamin button.

No way! And my childhood wasn't that bad.

No control would be the thing I would hate most. Visiting my grandparents would be the best bit. Actually, I might suffer the rest of the week just for those two glorious hours.

Gosh, it could possibly be a thesis study. Did most MN people have unhappy childhoods and how has that effected their online presence and responses? I'd happily go back for a week or two to my childhood.

No fucking way.

I’m a grown up! My own money! I buy food so dinner is what I like! There is wine! There is sex! I don’t have to share a room (ok i actually do but my husband is mostly ok except when he talks too much). Coworkers can be difficult but unlike my schoolmates they’ll never eg throw my backpack out the window or pull my hair. And I can exercise without the ritual humiliation of PE.

I mean, many thongs about being a grown up suck, but you have so much more agency.

No. But then, I barely remember my childhood because of previously repressing the memories of the SA I went through.

Although I suppose I wouldn’t mind having the kind of childhood my DDs are having (obviously apart from lockdown).

Don't want to relive what happened, but wonder if I had social skills now, if I would have very different insights to the people around me. Reliving it better would be nice.

Not in a bazillion years

All these no answers are so sad.
I loved being a child. I was very lucky. I would be 8 again in a heartbeat.

I would live to go back for a visit for a week yes but I think it would break my heart getting to See my mum again and then leaving.
I had a lovely childhood on the whole, I hated secondary school though so I’m playing truant from that. I would sit in our garden and chat with my mum and gran and then we would have Sunday tea and watch antiques roadshow.
I’m sorry so many had childhoods they don’t remember fondly it’s one of the comforts of my life to have those memories and take strength in them.