Earliest clear childhood memories

[Teakafrog]

My birthday is right before Christmas, so I know that I had just barely turned 2. I remember that Christmas I got my big white teddy bear that became my favorite, and a doll that was as big as me. I remember looking at all the presents under the table with the Nativity set on it at my Grandma’s house, then opening those 2.
I also remember several things from when I was 3, like getting my first puppy, but only start having coherent memories (not just bits and pieces) from about age 4 or so.

 

[KCT]

I think I remember being in the hospital w/ pneumonia when I was around 2. —KCT

 

[paradoxy]

My parents had a poodle when I was born (he died of parvovirus when I was 4). Apparently the dog was jealous of me until I was old enough to sit in a highchair and eat solid foods. At that point he decided that I was his new best friend.

A similar, though sadder story:

On a 10-day school trip when I was about 9, we were given gross cooked dabbage almost every day for lunch and weren’t allowed to leave the table until our plates were empty. Lots of that horrible stuff somehow ended up in the hotel fish tank.

The fish DIED!!!

 

[masondoggy]

I have memories of sitting on my grandpa’s lap at the kitchen table. He had toy cars and one of those magic scarves in his pockets that he was letting me play with. I also remember his funeral. I clearly remember jumping up at the casket to look inside and see him. I was 2 when he died.

I also remember getting my diaper changed on the sofa. Don’t know how old i was though.

 

[SMHW]

I have several memories from when I was somewhere between two and three and a half. I know they were before I was three and a half because that’s when we moved into our first house. Before that we lived in an apartment.

I remember standing in a crib in the same room I shared with my younger brother. I don’t remember anything else except that there were windows on two different walls.

I remember sitting on the steps in front of the builiding with my Dad’s sister and her husband.

I remember being at the home of some friends of my parents who had an in-ground pool. I was holding on to the edge of the pool and moving along the sides. At some point I lost my grip and slipped under the water. I remember staring at the side of the pool from underwater and not being afraid at all. (I don’t remember this part but apparently my Dad pulled my out immediately because he had been watching me.)

My clearest memory is running ahead of my mother as we went to visit Mrs. Lynch, an older woman who also lived in our appartment complex. My mother was calling to me to please knock on the door this time but for some reason I was scared of knocking on doors so I just opened the screen door (that’s all that was closed) and burst right into her home. Unlike my mother, Mrs. Lynch didn’t care if I knocked. Or at least that’s what I thought.

 

[paradoxy]

I remember staring at the side of the pool from underwater and not being afraid at all.

Ooh, this is one of my earliest as well! I’d just turned 4 and was at a pool with my mother, learning how to swim holding a float, when a “nice” lady decided to help me learn by taking it away from me! I just sank, deeper and deeper, and it was peaceful and silent and blue… and then my mother saved me.

 

[rpp]

Ooh, this is one of my earliest as well! I’d just turned 4 and was at a pool with my mother, learning how to swim holding a float, when a “nice” lady decided to help me learn by taking it away from me! I just sank, deeper and deeper, and it was peaceful and silent and blue… and then my mother saved me.

This gives me shivers.

It helps me understand how a small child can fall into a pool and not struggle or make noise.

 

[pink]

How far back into your childhood can you remember?

I have clear memories of things that happened when I was 4 or younger. The reason I know the age is because we moved to Michigan when I was four and these memories are from our old house and/or neighborhood. Also my grandmother who lived below us is in some of the memories and she died when I was three.

One clear memory I have is from when I was four. My family owned a three family house, we occupied the the middle floor and it had a large balconey that spanned the front of the house. Shortly before our move I was out on the balcony staring at the houses across the street through the railing because I was too short to see over it. I remember thinking “I wonder if I will remember this when I’m older.” My mother scoffs at this memory and said young children don’t think this way at four years old but it it so clear. I remember the weather was overcast and somewhat chilly, I could tell you what toys were on the balcony. I knew it was shortly before the move because I remember packed up boxes in the house. I have other very early memories too.

I wonder if others have very early childhood memories?

I was in a crib trying to do a tumblesalt, while banging into the headboard of the crib. I also remember climbing out of the crib. I also remember my step brother (who was an adult at the time) making me hit my fist into a wall, then he laughed when I cut my hand up.

 

[paradoxy]

This gives me shivers.

It helps me understand how a small child can fall into a pool and not struggle or make noise.

If it’s any consolation, the feeling was so beautiful! I remember thinking I would die (I knew about what death was back then) but I really didn’t mind - I wouldn’t have dreamed of fighting something so pleasant.

 

[rpp]

If it’s any consolation, the feeling was so beautiful! I remember thinking I would die (I knew about what death was back then) but I really didn’t mind - I wouldn’t have dreamed of fighting something so pleasant.

Still shivering!

 

[Truly_Beloved]

If it’s any consolation, the feeling was so beautiful! I remember thinking I would die (I knew about what death was back then) but I really didn’t mind - I wouldn’t have dreamed of fighting something so pleasant.

If your experience is typical, then it’s very comforting to me, to think that some children who drown weren’t scared.

 

[ack]

Interesting topic. It’s true that many childhood “memories” are actually false. People remember stories told by their parents and confuse them for actual memories. This becomes a problem in sexual abuse cases because the brain will invent false childhood memories if someone suggests them strongly enough.

My first memory? The candle flame was so pretty, I wanted to touch it. So I did.

It didn’t feel good, at all…

I have read that some early childhood memories are not recollection of the actual event but a recollection of being told of an actual event. An example of mine is as child remembering a great big Lime Green Chair in an aunts living room. What I really am recollecting is my eldest sister telling me this story along with some black and white photos of the event I viewed as a youngster… Turns out years later we discovered a color version of the picture along with verification that the chair indeed was pink and the child in the picture was not me it was my cousin…I have been told for decades by my eldest sister that it was me in the picture only to be told by my mother that I was born quite a few years after the aunt had died and sold the house along with the ugly chair. What I had done was incorporated the story into my “childhood” memory since the story was told to me the first time as a young child. I cannot remember the name for this phenom but I guess most of the time it is the case instead of a person actually remembering the event. Oh by the way I really did remember the event as if it really happened.

 

[paradoxy]

If your experience is typical, then it’s very comforting to me, to think that some children who drown weren’t scared.

I think so. I know yet another person who almost drowned as a child for whom it was a pleasant experience.

Perhaps young children still remember being cuddled in water in the womb?

 

[Altesse]

I was 2 years and 10 months old. My brother had just been born and Grandma was staying for a week to help. I usually had PBJ sandwiches for lunch. Grandma made me tuna. My first “grown-up” kind of sandwich. I distinctly remember sitting on the chair by the cutting board watching while she put it together.

 

[rayne89]

Interesting topic. It’s true that many childhood “memories” are actually false. People remember stories told by their parents and confuse them for actual memories. .

Except the some of things I remember there was no one else with me (like the first one I mentioned on the balcony) and in the second one I never got caught tossing my dinner over the railing so nobody knew about it but me. Alot of of memories are things I was thinking about at the time of the event that people couldn’t know. Another memory is of me and my grandmother, my parents weren’t there and my grandma died when I was 3 so she couldn’t have told it to me. I’ve heard that too, that some memories are from stories told or seeing photos but many that I have my parents didn’t even know about. And then there are many things that my parents tell me about that I don’t remember.

 

[paradoxy]

My FIL remembers details of a nasty fight between his parents when he was a year old or so. He was the only one there and when he mentioned it to them later, it turned out it was real, and his parents had never told him about THAT. His father kept saying “You CAN’T remember that. You were a baby”, but couldn’t come up with a rational explanation.

 

[rpp]

My FIL remembers details of a nasty fight between his parents when he was a year old or so. He was the only one there and when he mentioned it to them later, it turned out it was real, and his parents had never told him about THAT. His father kept saying “You CAN’T remember that. You were a baby”, but couldn’t come up with a rational explanation.

Paradoxy, you are full of warnings for parents today!

Remember this you moms and dads out there! You never know was your dear son or daughter will recall or what impressions you will make.

 

[Gearoidin]

These have all been so interesting!
My first memeory is of being in my neighbours house. My neighbour smoked and at that time they were giving away little models with the cigarettes. He had constructed the model, a pink and blue carriage, and had put it on top of the electric socket in the kitchen. I wanted the carriage and kept pointing at it. Everyone thought I wanted the socket and kept telling me that it was dangerous. Finally he remembered he had put the carriage on top and gave it to me. I’m not sure how old I was but I couldn’t talk. My mother has told me that I was talking in sentences by 18 months and I walked at 10 months so this memory is somewhere from 10 months to about 18 months.
We left this house when I was 3 and revisited when I was 13. I was able to tell the changes that had been made, like a gate had been bricked over.
I also remember when my sister was born and my father lifting me up to look at her through the window. Apparently I told everyone that her father was the man who cleaned the floors in the hospital. (I don’t remember doing this.) I was 18 months at the time.
Gearoidin

 

[Gearoidin]

My earliest memory was from when I was 2. And it is not a pretty one.

I had an accident at the baby sitter’s house and severed my left hand at the wrist.

Fortunately doctors were able to re-attach it, one of the very first times in medical history this was successfully done to such a young child.

.

That’s awful. I’m glad they were able to reattach it.
Gearoidin

 

[Gearoidin]

II remember sitting on the steps in front of the builiding with my Dad’s sister and her husband.

I remember being at the home of some friends of my parents who had an in-ground pool. I was holding on to the edge of the pool and moving along the sides. At some point I lost my grip and slipped under the water. I remember staring at the side of the pool from underwater and not being afraid at all. (I don’t remember this part but apparently my Dad pulled my out immediately because he had been watching me.)

.

That is really scary!

Gearoidin