Magical (retching at the word) childhood

[december2020]

I couldn't think of a better term but bear with me.

FTM to 18month DS and the older he gets the more I'm thinking about the amazing things from my childhood that made it somehow special.
It's something I want to try give him as well as much as possible.

I don't mean materialistic things like fancy stuff, expensive days out or grand holidays but the little things like getting to stay up till midnight on New Year's Eve even though it was past their bedtime or jumping through sprinklers on a hot summers day or having an impromptu garden picnic dinner.

I'd love to make sure DS gets moments like this as he grows up.

I'd love to hear any moments like this from your own childhood or with your DC.

One of mine was New Years Eve. My parents and a few family friends who all had kids would come together for it. We all got to stay up late and do the countdown, do our resolutions and fortunes, playing games, chatting, usually got to make our own mini pizzas and eat together, got some candy and fizzy drinks. There was something so simple yet so special about it.

Tbh just simple stuff that no-one planned as magical! Playing in an old broken down car, sitting 🪑in my dads lap and making him drink the leaves at the bottom of his tea cup whilst he pulled faces and I giggled. Waiting till it was 8am on Xmas day till we were allowed to go downstairs. Playing in the snow. Eating sweets whilst watching Saturday night to with my mum.

Basically magical moments involved playing, or feeling ‘together’ with mum and dad. Just let your kids have loads of free play and spend time with them.

@smallbeetle you're absolutely right!
I think I was feeling a little nostalgic and hoping DS will have the same feelings as he's older with those spontaneous moments
And I love those memories - they sound full of love.

I guess some strong childhood moments for me were:

Going to hear Holst's 'The Planets' at the Proms and there was a massive thunderstorm outside, and we had to run to the tube through the pouring rain

Going ice-skating with my mum, who was a good skater because she grew up in a county with freezing winters

Doing children's trails at the National Gallery

Watching Top of The Pops together- sadly you can't do that anymore. Well, except for old editions!

I think I do a lot of that sort of thing with my dcs.
They'll stay up late on ny eve. We'll lie outside on a summers evening looking out for shooting stars.
I've taken my dcs up mountains and across streams etc but the times they always speak the most fondly of is when I chased them round the garden trying to hit them with a soft wet ball and the time they played with a random Labrador all day on a weekend away.
Spending lots of time with them will help to create those magical moments, but they might not be the moments you expect.

7 year old ds's favourite moment of this summer so far was running around the garden at dusk in heavy rain, getting soaked to the skin and then eating bread and honey whilst standing up in the kitchen.

His little sister still talks about going to the woods after preschool and seeing the light dancing off little mirrors in the trees. Because of all the fairy houses, she thought the lights were fairies.

I dress the kids up at Halloween and we go for a walk in the woods at dusk. Get some great photos and most passerbys play along pretending to be terrified of the mini monsters. We started it in 2020 because they couldn't trick or treat but they loved it so much, they asked to do it again last year.

This is such a nice thread!
One of my favourite memories is walking to the primary school on bonfire night to watch the display. It would always be muddy and cold but the fireworks would more than make up for it. When we got home after we’d have grandparents/aunties and uncles/ neighbours round for jacket potatoes and chilli (and mulled wine for the adults)

Special breakfasts with the ‘good’ plates and cups. Sometimes we’d set the table the night before. Mostly we ate at a breakfast bar in the kitchen or on our knees, so this felt like a big deal and I used to get excited looking at the table all set ready for the big occasion the next day. Only really for Christmas or special birthdays.

Caravan holidays with my grandparents - playing cards or doing fuzzy felt and listening to the rain on the roof or if it was sunny tearing around the caravan park with the other kids. We’ve started doing caravan holidays with my daughter now who is nearly two and they still feel pretty magical haha.

Dancing in the front room - we had a light fitting that had like little crystals on it and mum used to shine a torch at it so it reflected on the walls/ floor kind of like a disco ball.

Decorating the Christmas tree.

Whenever we went on a car journey having tinned salmon sandwiches or egg Mayo ones and crisps. My sister and I used to demand mum made a car picnic if we were going anywhere together well into adulthood.

As an adult/ parent now - On our way down to our holiday a few weeks ago we broke up the journey in a travel lodge. It was pissing down with rain so we didn’t feel like venturing into the town, we cobbled together a picnic from petrol station food on the way and ate it whilst watching tv in bed all three of us - it sounds like nothing at all but something about it was such a lovely family moment, and also the sense that we were on holiday so normal rules didn’t apply and we could eat biscuits in bed but also the proper holiday (which was lovely and not rainy after that) hadn’t really started yet so there was the excitement looking forward to getting there the next day.

DD is far too young to remember or care about much other than she could jump from the double to the little single and back in the family room, but I do remember thinking it was something that should have been a bit shit but actually I will remember fondly.

I remember an absolutely perfect day when I was about 6, hot summers day and we went to the forest. There were loads of other families there and all the kids played in the stream together from morning till night while parents stationed at barbecues doled out hot dogs, burgers and cold drinks. I'll never forget the forest smell mixed with the barbecue smell and the shade of the trees, coolness of the stream on a really hot day. I was never happier and it really was 'magical'

I remember wild swimming somewhere up north when I was about 5, just me my parents aunt uncle and cousins were there and it was a small pool of water in a forest with a waterfall, that was pretty magical.

One year it snowed at Christmas and “Santa” left me a packet of sweets with snow on them.

Building a sandcastle by the sea with a moat and watching the water fill the moat.

On holiday getting to sit up with my parents and drink “cocktails” of various mixes of fruit juice.

What a lovely thread