[Closed] what is your first memory as a child?

I have a memory of being in my pushchair, on the way to my aunt’s, watching the light catching on the alloy spokes of the wheels; I would have been around three...

I can also remember hearing some songs on the radio, in particular ‘Freight Train’, by Nancy Whiskey, which was released in 1957, I was born in 1954, so that again makes me around three.

I have a vivid one of “helping” my mum steer our old Passat as she pushed it down the road. I was 2.

My son (4) will recall places we’ve been to, holidays we’ve been on from when he was a year old.

Cow looking in our window.

I think having no memories before 11-12 is unusual, maybe you're some kind of robot.

Most of my earliest memories are me sitting on my Mum's knee in the car, her crying and holding a towel to my head to stop the bleeding cos I'd fallen down the stairs again.

I'm kind of lucky that there's loads of photo's from 5th April 1982

But I was (aged 2.5) up on the right on the hot walls - there's a picture of me, with HMS Hermes in the background somewhere at just about the same time as this

I have little short-term memory, but an almost supernatural long-term memory. Consequently, I can remember details about things I didn't even know I knew - much to the surprise of my family.

In any case, I remember my second birthday, and everything I got. I'm 46.

Weirdly I vividly remember dropping a toy car out of my cot and bursting into tears as my Mum picked it up as I was unable to communicate that I was sorry for dropping it.  I was in a baby grow so I was probably pre-two yo.  I wondered later in life if I'd sub-consciously mad it up but my Mum remembers the incident as I was inconsolable at the time.

I can remember the day out when this photo was taken.

The date on the back is June 1960, when I was two and a half years old.

I wonder if it’ because I’ve never really seen any photos of when I was small to remind me.

it takes a big change that you can reference to in order to be able to place early memories really. We moved house when I was 6 so its easy sort childhood memories into older than or younger than 6 simply by the places those memories are of

photos can be a bit of a red herring - they can be something to build a memory from - as you've had access to that photo ever since it was taken you can have forgotten the real event but have a memory based on a familiarity with the photo.

One of my earliest memories is of my dad on a ladder in the kitchen pulling the valve that should have been attached to the pressure cooker out of the ceiling with pliers - while it rained hot rhubarb.

I can remember top of the pops from the age of two, and when this forum took less than twenty seconds to reply.

My dad being in a bad mood. I might have been anywhere from 2 to 12 years old.

It's dark in here ...

I was stung while in  the pram (not a push chair) in the garden on a boiling hot day. Notnaure what age but i definitely couldnt talk and remember no way of communicating.

I also have 1 "memory" of being in mynmums arms in a country club but my mum reckons the details make me about 1 so inthink ita doubtful and must be based on a photo or something.

Got a fair few 'memories' from the ages of 3 or 4, but never quite sure whether they're genuine our 'built' memories based on what I was told happened.

Earliest memory I'm pretty sure is genuine is actually a cycling one. I had a red trike with a blue boot/trunk that I used to run solo errands to the village shop on when I was 4 (different times and we lived in a pretty small, pretty quiet village).

I can remember asking where my mum was when she went in to hospital to have my brother so that's 3yrs 3 months. I can also remember the severe winter of 1962/3 which was the winter following that.

Riding in the bugger down Beggar’s Lane while going on a walk with Dad, older brother and Dad’s fried and his son, I was 2. I was desperate to get out of the bugger as my brother and the other guy’s son ran ahead to look over the bridge into the stream.

Not remembering anything before you were 11 or 12 is well weird.

My sister floating in the Stour at Dedham plastic pants holding her upside down and dad jumping in to stop her drowning! I was about 3.

I’d rather not remember.

I lived with my grandparents until I was six years old ..earliest memories are waiting on the street corner every night for my grandad to come home from the pit ..he always had a sweet in his hand behind his back ..and I always guessed right .

Slices of bread in the hot beef dripping in front of the coal fire ..for supper ..

The outside loo  next to the coal house lit with a paraffin lamp ..and the technology of a polystyrene seat cover to keep your cheeks warm..luxury  !

Just warm memories of being totally loved by my grandparents ..and the utter devastation I felt when leaving to live with my sister & brother in our first family home ..something which I later learned hit them equally as hard ..

I can remember going to practically every playschool I went to, and also first day at school (just before my 5th birthday, and it was snowing).

I remember a christmas or new year dinner, which I can date to when I was either 3 or 4 (4 is more likely).

Walking to nursery school with my mum. 3 or 4 years old.

There was a bright light, and someone slapped me.

Shitting myself on the school bus because I was too scared to ask to get off... age 5

Quite vivid memories of how I got the scar in the middle of my forehead. I think the "memories" of how I actually banged my head on the fireplace are from my parents description of it, but I really remember the white towels my mum grabbed to mop up the blood, and my dad carrying me to the car with a now red towel pressed against my head. I think I was 3 or 4.

Funny one was from school, first year of infants, a girl called Penelope painting a picture and me grabbing a brush and having a paint on it too. I didn't know you weren't supposed to share! Can still see her frowning at me. Aged 4-5.

Absolutely loving a song on the radio Top 40 at my auntie's, aged about 4.  Years later I could still remember bits of the chorus but not the title, so it wasn't until Google came along that I found out what it was... the shame...

Some lovely memories above 😊.  I have several from when I know I was 3 or 4 but they are a lot more prosaic.

- Enjoying a Strawberry Split with my dad on the way from South Croydon to pick up my mum from her work near Caterham

- A trip to get new tyres with my dad and getting well bored

- Going to London with an aunt and uncle and walking by the Thames embankment

- My cousin Roshni breaking her arm trying to reach something for us from a high shelf and falling off the chair arm she was using as a step

- My mum falling when she was pregnant with my brother - he arrived ok!

My brother being born at home. Loads of commotion and me being rushed off to granny's house. I met him a day later. I was aged 2.

Aged 4 I remember first day at school, sitting on the teachers lap and being given a custard creme.

Aged 2 - 5 family holidays on a farm. There after many happy holidays. Back then you would have one holiday a year and treasure the time. This was a childhood in the 60's and 70's. Where all the fields were green, summers were hot and skies were blue - haha.

the haberdashery in hemel hempstead probably 3 or 4

Wanting to turn round and crawl back up the tube because I knew that there was such a lot of crap to come....

Really early one of my dad bending over my cot and laughing. Really fuzzy, but I can remember he was wearing a hat. I remember being happy, but also not being able to move much, sit up properly or even roll around. I was quite happy with this, it didn't seem unusual.

Being bathed in the kitchen sink by my mum.

I know that both of the above were easily pre 2.

I can remember learning how to walk too, the low  side table I could use to practice holding onto and my aunt going crazy when I waddled across the floor toward her.

I thought everyone could remember really early experiences for ages as a child  an was shocked to discover that it varies so much....

I have memories, not just built ones, of staying in the family house -- I'm guessing aged 2 or so. Some climbing club trips with me playing in the snow by the river, either Torridon (Ling Hut) or possibly up by Mar Lodge. Some memories of visiting my grandparents terrace house in Glasgow, the warmth and smell of the back porch and the impossibly steep outside stair. But equally there are huge gaps where I  think - how did I get to school in early years - can't recall, or school pals, or often school teachers which others seem to rattle off..

I remember playing ring a ring a roses with the lady next door in I think our living room - it had a carpet print with sort of vase shapes and flowers on that you don't seem to see much of these days 🙂

I think I was 3.

I also remember being in a bike shop insisting on getting a bike rather than a trike, possibly aged 2. And I vageuly remember insisting on finishing a portion of chocolate fudge cake with ice cream age 2 also. Apparently it took me about an hour.

Er, the ring a ring a roses one is always what I recount as my earliest memory, but as you can see it might not be!

I remember being made a fuss of because it was my 2nd birthday.

I also remember being tired and trying to climb into my  gigantic, blue Silver Cross pram for a sleep and getting told off for nearly tipping it over onto myself, I couldn't have been much older than 18 months.

 I can’ really remember much of anything from my childhood.  memories kick in around 11/12 walking the dog!

You have no memories of Primary School? That's incredible.

 I remember first day at school, sitting on the teachers lap and being given a custard creme.

Ah, the 70s (I presume), when teachers were allowed to be nice.. 🙂  (And bloody horrible, of course!)

I remember talking to my Mum about my memories of Paris, she told me I was only two and a half. I can clearly remember the with the lifts going between the girders at the Eiffel Tower and my brother buying a badge at one of the kiosks. I could also remember the Arc de Triomphe though for many years I thought the lift went down then underground from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe and back up, I suspect perhaps I just fell asleep in my pushchair and woke in the new location. For many years I didn't want to go back to Paris for fear of mixing my memories up with new ones, but finally I went back in my late twenties - after walking up one leg of the tower I looked back down at the lift coming up, my goodness exactly as I remembered it.

I can remember being allowed to climb the little trees in the grass playground behind our nursery school.

I can remember being read to, but not the books themselves. Remember early morning milk and the head's name,  even individual conversations with her. None of the other staff though. She had a xylophone and a glockenspiel in her office and I can remember being introduced to her on a visit before I started full time. I can remember her facial expressions and being fascinated by the really thick make up she wore....loads more like that.

Great thread, thanks....

🙂

Can vaguely remember my Nana in bed in a darkened room, curtains shut, she died when i was about three and a half. This has to be my earliest memory closely followed by running down into a shared garden at a new house we moved into and meeting my best mate at primary school, this was just before school started, must of been about four

I guess around 3 years old at play school in London.  I remember the outside area and when I found an ants nest.

Early memories come shrouded in a weird fog.  Strangely, or not really, I remember little between the ages of 9 and 12, I assume because of an awful family situation and living in various shelters.  Before and after that, full clarity!

When I was about 3 my big sister thought it would be interesting to tip me off the towpath into the canal in Bletchley; I can still clearly see that greenish water closing over my face and bubbles rising away from me. Next thing I remember is standing on the bank surrounded by people, being rubbed down with a towel and thinking: "I'd better make a fuss" and wailing a bit. My Dad heard a splash and a scream and jumped in to pull me out. From then on, whenever I saw the Gordon's Gin ad at the cinema with the green liquid and tumbling lemon and ice cubes I was reminded of my near-drowning.

My sister also found a razor blade one morning and tried to shave the fluff off my leg. Apparently she bumbled into our parents' bedroom with a bloody razor blade in her hand. I didn't even realise this until I spotted the scar as a teenager and asked my Mum about it.

really interesting, seems I am a minority, when I said I can' remember much, that doesn' mean I can't remember anything!  I have the odd fuzzy recollection which must have been around 7 as it was with my father and I remember playing with a spider in infants (is that 5ish?) definitely nothing much pre siblings.

my wife can describe colours, sounds, smells

tbh my longer term memory is poor now, so I.really like things like prime which show.you photos from previous years.  I check it every day especially as I have 2 boys both born in may so really interesting to relive their development.

Walking to play school with my deer stalker hat on so 3-4 years old. I remember the toys at play school, the lunches and post lunch sleeps.

I also remember getting my legs slapped at play school for asking the assistant to 'tie my bloody shoe laces please'........my parents were v shocked as this was not their type of language! Infact I am 47 years old now and still never heard them swear!

We moved house when I was about 2 or 3 yrs old and I can remember walking around upstairs (with dad I think) and the emptiness being unusual

A few snippets from being 4 or under, as we were living in London at the time. Getting the bus to nursery - it had a white roof and my mum went ballistic the time we had to go on the top deck, because it was smoking. Some kid biting me on the ear at nursery. And I think being made to sit at the table until I finished my sprouts on Christmas Day - I was probably 3?

It's not all specific narrative memories though - more a feeling, or tiny fraction of a room, y'know?

Must be one of the first flights Concorde made in the UK, escorted by the Red Arrows. 1969/1970 from the garden in the house in Brentwood, S. Essex.  I must of been 3 or 4 years old.

Funny as watched the three Concordes fly over on their last flight when worked at Waitrose in Bracknell in October 2003.

3/4 yr old, at Nursery drinking those small bottles of milk and huge chocolate digestive biscuits (the ones in the foil wrapper) Also the toy cupboard and sitting in a circle being read to.

1976/7 !

I remember being out with my mum doing shopping and it started to rain. My mum had arranged for our dad to collect us if it did start to rain but he forgot to do it because he was watching the Mexican World Cup at home. I was approx 3 yrs 9 months (depending on exactly when in the tournament it happened).

One of our daughters remembers several things that happened during a family trip to LA when she was 3 yrs 6 months old (she can remember some pretty specific details, some of which I fail to remember). The other daughter (her twin) doesn't remember a thing.

Being thrown out of upstairs window of a house!

Ok, the house was on fire and my Dad caught me.

Sitting on my grandpa's knee in the viewing car of the narrow guage train upto Ootacamund.

That and joining in the hunt for cobras with the villagers.

No I didn't grow up in Preston.

Around 3 to 4 years old, riding around on toy cars at playschool and milk & biscuits at breaktime. My dad in the kitchen washing up with abba on the radio, Christmas day unwrapping presents with Roland rat on tv. They are my earliest ones but can't remember which was first.

The other one was messing around on my mums shopper bike and falling off backwards, apparently i hit my head & knocked myself out so looks like I started off early with bike related concussions as I've had a few since then!!

Going to the cinema with my mum and dad circa 69 watching Oliver I think it was the fact it was my first experience of colour on screen that made it memorable.

I would have been about four when we were at my aunt's house to watch the 1973 FA Cup Final. A house full of Yorkshire born Leeds supporters, and my South Shields born Sunderland supporting Dad.

Watching the funeral of Winston Churchill on a tiny black and white TV in Suriname with adults all round deadly quiet and emotional. It was only many years later that I understood how momentous that moment was for those who had lived through the war. I was 3 and a half.

Germany (Dad was RAF) in the winter, I had a light blue one piece now suit on, and I slipped on a sloping path,  I remember just being bloody cold and not finding it all remotely fun. Also Germany, Strapped into the back seat of my Mum's step through orange bike as she did her Avon rounds. Must have been about 3 I think.

Potty training aged 2 I think, weeing in the welsh dresser that the parents had in the HUGE living room (in a tiny cottage, damn it'd be small now)

I can remember most things from then on, but not the chronological sequence,

I can also remember the first day the stabilizers came off aged 3.5. Couldn't work out how to pedal but dad came and sorted it just before bedtime. Red bike with white tires and a push rod front brake (no rear at all)

I precisely remember mine: December 30th 1976. It was the day before my third birthday and my clear memory is of knowing that it was the day before my birthday and I would be 3 tomorrow.

^^^ funny that. I have memories from my childhood but no reference as to when they were. However, I can still, even today, vividly remember jumping onto older my brothers' bed (we shared a room) on the morning of my 3rd birthday and shouting at him "i'm 3, i'm 3" That would have been Feb 1970

This is a really interesting thread. I’ve skimmed some of it (but will return).

I can remember being in my pram in Devises, with my mother pushing.

I can remember that at that time they had big cushions on the floor of their flat (it was the seventies) and cuddling up to my (late) Grandpa. I can remember vividly when they got a TV on a wooden box. I would have been two.

Then it jumps; I can remember talking to the old man that was in the attic room at my Grandparents house in Wynchmore Hill - there was never an old man in the attic room - eek!

jeez. Then it gets odd. I blanked my childhood after my parents divorced. Aside from glimpses I can hardly remember a thing.

That’s it really.

I don’t want to hijack the thread, but if you could be suddenly given 20/20 recall of your youth . . . Would you?

No thanks.

A thunderstorm, or beetles in paddling pool. I can vividly remember both.

I would have been 3 as we moved house after just before I turned 4.

Can't remember what happened last week mind

This is really interesting!!!

I was born in Stirling and spent the first 2 years there. I don’t have any memories of that at all. We moved to Bishopbriggs, near lenzie, Glasgow. We were there from 75-77 I think. I do remember bits but not in any order really.

I remember looking out my bedroom window at dad cutting the grass one summers evening. I remember the river through the park bursting it’s banks and the swings being flooded!

I think I remember my sister being born in 1976. My gran was at the house and I’m convinced I remember mum being taken to hospital in an ambulance and gran looking after me!

i have a very vivid memory of packing the house in bishopbriggs up to move to south Manchester in 1977.

My room was completely empty but I couldn’t find a box for a toy truck...!

There’s other bits in bishopbriggs I remember, playing out on the street, there was a school at the end of the road. I remember how busy it got at certain times of the day!