Specifically, as in having memories from being younger than 3 years old and even further
I orient myself’s own timeline upon some early-childhood memories, but some people have questioned it as false memory… which, understandable
But I can draw the layout of every house I’ve lived in, who’s room was who’s, where furniture was, certain events (like having gum melt in my diaper, crying in my crib about not trick-or-treating, seeing my first “flying-leaf” insect) and a lot of other random tidbits
A lot of it I’ve been able to confirm as true, which is what has always intrigued me. How far back is average? I think the furthest I can grasp is around 2 years old or maybe a little less
Maybe some of it has to do with trauma-ish things or something? But I can literally remember the potpourri on my mom’s dresser when she was holding me, who was at my 3rd birthday… and just, kinda far back
What’s everyone else’s memory like here? I feel like my early pre-teens was kinda a blur, but my early childhood seems more vibrant sometimes. I dunno, I was just curious
I have very small flashes of my life from when I was very small. I can’t say if any of them are false memories. I certainly don’t experience them in a way I can think about what the furniture looked like or anything.
Youngest is when I was at my grandparents house. I was crawling past the door to the bedroom I slept in. It wasn’t a scary place for me but it was dark and I couldn’t see I in and I was scared and crawled past it fast. I think I was old enough to walk, but I wasn’t for some reason.
I remember moving out of an old house we lived in and it had a tire swing. I was definitely younger than kindergarten, but I don’t know exactly how old. I probably wouldn’t recognize the place if I drive past it, but maybe I would.
I remember sitting in a high chair at my grandparents cottage being fed bananas by a young girl with dark hair. I don’t remember her face at all. It might’ve been the granddaughter of my grandparents neighbor, or there’s a small chance it was my bio-mom. But if it was her that would have to be from the first few months of my life.
That’s all I have from before I was school age.
3ish. I remember being tasked to pick up sticks, remember the back yard, the towering white pines, my mom trying and failing to start a lawnmower.
My early childhood memories are weird because they’re out of order.
Like, what I consider my very first memory is my dad telling me that today is my 5th birthday. However, I also have memories that, to me, happened later in my life but I was told those happened when I was younger. One example I can think of is sitting in a chair having my picture taken. And my parents showed me that picture and said I was three at the time. Another is getting bitten on the face by a dog and looking at the wound in a mirror, which apparently also happened when I was three.
I don’t know if that’s common for someone’s early childhood memories to feel disordered like that.
Quite a bit. Most of it traumatic. A happier one was when I was nearly two I remember the last moon landing and how everyone was talking about it being the last one. I was really sad since it seemed like something I would want to do. As for the trauma I have far too many memories. Just one from around the same time. I remember my mother slapping me off the kitchen counter and ending up with a life long scar on my face. I have no idea what I did to ‘earn’ it.
Barely anything from childhood to adulthood except for maybe a few memories per year. Even then I need a pro.pt to unlock the memory. Like I remember one or two things from early elementary and don’t really remember middle school at all. A bit more of high school, and early 20s. Pretty much everything is difficult to recall at will, but will get floods of memories with the right triggers.
My entire memory runs on being reminded of things for the most part. Like I might remember associations and positive or negative opinions of things, but without a trigger I don’t really remember why.
Funny enough it works great in a technical environment where there are plenty of triggers to remind me of some random obscure thing and a searchable emails and documentation that help to guide the flood of recall. The memories are there, just lost in a giant soup of memories blending together.
Have ADHD.
Never been diagnosed but yet another “oh hey that sounds like me” followed by those 4 letters.
I remember visiting my uncle and being young enough I slept in a crib, but I was old enough to walk around. I barely remember anything else about the trip though.
I don’t think i can place another memory until preschool. I can remember the layout of the preschool and some activities we did at it.
I have 2 memories from when i was around 2 years old. 1 happened shortly after my second birthday where i got half my hand ripped off by a dog. I remember it pretty well too. Including the ride to the hospital. The other is where my father severely beat my mother. Both very traumatic memories and both i vividly remember.
Not my earliest but age 3 or so I had a similar dog experience. The next memory after that was us giving away the dog. Even though it bit me I was sad to see her go.
My earliest memory is from preschool around 4 years old.
My memory seems to come online surprisingly late.
The first memories kick in around 6, but really it’s just a few small disoriented flashbacks. At 11, I vividly remember my first relationships, but not much more.
Comprehensively, I remember myself since about 16. That’s when I can finally tell the order of events, and can visually recall key points.
Interestingly, I have otherwise good memory.
I remember my mom changing my diaper and then vomiting. It surprised me. Not sure how old i was.
When I was about three years old, I walked down the hallway from my room toward the living room. I remember that even in that moment it felt like I had blacked out halfway through and my brain started working a couple of steps from the living room door. Everything before that is blank, yet I have tons of memories from the weeks and months after that event.
Interesting! Like, “I have suddenly awoken”
Not the same person, but my first memory is essentially that. One day when I was 3 I walked into the garage for some reason and thought “Huh. This is my first memory”. Then walked back inside.
I do recall some things from before that time, but those were only through dreams as a kid and I only remember the barest flashes of them
Pretty much that, yes. I remember stopping for a moment and wondering what had just happened. I was of course aware that I had existed before. Who and where I was. At the same time it felt like all that was vague and distant, like suddenly waking up from a dream.
Realistically, it was probably just an unusually intense doorway effect but the fact that I can still remember it so vividly, even decades later, shows how significant it must have felt to 3-year-old me.
I’ve forgotten most of my childhood. I have a few flashback memories per year, but otherwise, even for 3rd/4th grade, I barely remember anything. In general, the older you get, the more you’ll forget them, but some people do have better memories than others.
The oldest thing I can remember is wandering around strangers at a party in the backyard of the first house I lived in as a kid. When I told my mom and described everything I could remember she said the only time they ever had such a party was when my brother was born and I was 2.
I have a handful and none of them really good. My parents divorced when I was 4 so they’re at the latest from them and some definitely younger.
My parents separated right before my 3rd birthday, and I still remember the argument (not the words, but the emotions and some actions). My mom threw a shoe and I remember thinking it was funny, because it landed on the window sill. I remember my dad leaving out the side door, and I guess it stuck with me cause he didn’t come back (not out of my life, just never came “home”). And then I remember my 3rd birthday party, who was there, and even a remote control car that my friend’s parents got me
But because of that, I can make a timeline a little easier, of whether my parents were together or not. And also which house, because they separated after moving to “my” second house
My first house we moved out of when I was maybe 2-ish. And I can still draw the layout, and what room was what. I can remember a Mr Yuk magnet on the fridge
My mom making fishsticks in the oven and they caught fire
A net of stuffed animals above my crib
Jumping in my crib and laughing with my sister, and then pretending to be asleep when the babysitter opened the door.
Shit, I still remember staring at that damn mobile above my crib a little, cause it was so soothing to me. I actually really liked that crib, it felt so safe lol
And then at our second house, I got a “big boy” bed and had my own room. Old memories are so strange in the way they’re recalled, almost like a fever dream or something
My first memory is being in a car seat driving around bawling my head off because I didn’t know anyone around me. I was probably 14 to 18 months old.
I know how it was my birth father but he was never around, he still likes to complain about it as well but doesn’t know that I remember and that I still can feel the fear I felt.
