Do you have any memories of being a baby or little child?

[feetintrouble]

As they age and get older, your parents will remember less and less about when you were a child. I have a very good memory in certain areas because I have Autism (which of has mostly been a thorn in my side, as being Autistic in itself already leads to being bullied), and I remember a lot of things from even preschool years or kindergarten. But my mom who is in her 70s, not really that well anymore. My brother who isn't Autistic (40 years old) and is married with a wife and two boys has said to my mom "do you remember this from when I was a child?" and my mom doesn't remember. I've found this to be true of other people's parents as well. For instance, I went to kindergarten in 1981 to 1982 (I'm 45 years old), and one of my best friends I met in kindergarten who is my age (45), wore these light brown (more like burnt orange) T strap Mary Janes when we were both in kindergarten. I remember clearly, but my friend's mom does not remember and those were shoes she bought herself for my friend in 1981! I remember what I wore too as a 3 year old in 1979 as well. I also have old photos. I remember these unicolor burnt orange saddle like tie lace oxfords made by Jumping Jacks Children's Shoes I wore. I have photos to prove it. The thing is, I more vividly remember the shoes (from when I wore them) and pushing my shoes kicking the back of the front seat of our 4 door Ford Fairmont. There are no photos of me doing this, but I vividly remember. My mom doesn't!! I remember the leather creasing too as I kicked the back of the front seat while sitting in back. But remembering what the shoes looked like was much more vivid when I was 6, then when I was, say 22. I guess because at age 6, I hadn't worn the shoes that long before (2 1/2 years prior). I remember these yellow overalls I wore too as a 3 year old. I tend to remember things for a long, long time. Some people with disabilities can have a long memory too. I know this 57 year old lady who has an intellectual disability. Maybe she's like a 10 year old intellectually. The thing though, is, if you don't talk to her for 4 years, she'll pick up from where she left off the last time she talked to you. Her mom and her now deceased dad always told me her memory was incredible. They couldn't even remember that well...

You mentioned about watching Barney. Haha. My mom was fondly remembering I used to love Barney the dinosaur about a year or two ago. The thing about me though, is, I was already in senior year in high school when Barney came out. It was no secret at my high school that I loved Barney, either. Although I was bullied most of my life, I was not in my junior and senior years in high school. In fact, I was well respected and no one even made fun of the fact I loved Barney. I was a student body rep for 2 years (there were maybe 35 reps out of a high school with a little over 900 students), a Homecoming Prince in 12th grade, the school's weatherman, and the year I graduated, I won a most valuable student award. Only 9 or 10 students out of 900+ got that honor. So no one ever bullied me about liking Barney. I watched Barney when I was in community college and university too. And then came Wimzie's House, Arthur, and Teletubbies. I was a big Teletubbies fan in university in 1998 to 2000. I must have watched every Teletubbies episode at one point. I have several Teletubbies backpacks (some of which were only available in the UK or in Australia or New Zealand). I was also a big Maurice Sendak's Little Bear cartoon fan (the one that was shown on Nickelodeon). Pink Panther and Care Bears too. My point is, my mom did remember that I loved Barney. It's interesting that she has fond memories of me liking Barney at age 17 to 21, because that's not usually an age where parents have a fond memory of their child liking Barney. Most parents might remember their child liking Barney at age 4 or 6 or 8, not age 17. But also remember I have Classic Autism and I'm quite developmentally disabled and that even now, emotionally and socially, I am like a 4 1/2 to 5 year old. (Actually it isn't unusual for autistic college graduates to be emotionally and socially like 7 to 11 year olds, by the way). Of course, emotional and social age isn't the same as academic ability. So a lot of Autistic adults go to college. My mom is also strange because she has conflicting feelings about me being like a child. I'm not even technically an adult baby as I don't wear diapers (and probably don't qualify). On one hand, she seems to like this perpetual childhood in one way. On the other hand, she thinks it would be embarassing to be seen with me if I wear longalls (a outfit I absolutely adore that are like dressy overalls that little boys wear in the Deep South like Alabama and Georgia and South Carolina) with T strap shoes. I also now have a bowl haircut. I originally did that for Halloween in 2019 via a children's hairdresser. But because of COVID, now my mom cuts my hair. And all she knows how to cut is ...a bowl haircut. I have read bowl haircuts are coming back into fashion with a vengeance. Maybe because of COVID and people have to get their haircuts at home now? LOL.

I absolutely love long-alls, jon jons, and love T strap shoes. Not easy to find t strap shoes made by a children's shoe company in my size though (I wear a size 9 men's / 42 European). There are some companies that make T strap shoes for children, in Spain, and Start Rite of England used to make T strap shoes for older boys up to my shoe size back in the 1980s and 1990s. Not anymore though, sadly.

Have a good day.

- longallsboy

Re. T-strap shoes, search for "red or dead". There are some which are very like children's ones - I wear them.

 

[feetintrouble]

Other things I remember from childhood:
- Being strapped into a high chair for a haircut.
- Dodging playing pin the tail: while the other children queued eagerly, I played with toys, trying to remain unnoticed. But the party mum spotted me, and coaxed me to have a go, smiling at me with the dark red blindfold stretched between her hands. I had my go, but I didn't win.
- Finding lifts (elevators) scary, especially the old-fashioned ones with a black metal grid-like gate, rather than modern sliding doors.
- Seeing a man get stuck between the doors on the London Underground.
- Seeing my brother losing a Wellington boot in really sticky mud.
- Trying to pick up a cat, as I had seen someone else do, and getting scratched for my trouble.
- Being locked up like a zoo animal: I had found a pet cage in someone else's house, and crawled in. One of the older children secured the door so I couldn't get out, leaving me there, but I was very happy. (I liked being on my own - I was uneasy around older children.)
- Having a hearing test: I was told to say "yes" when I heard the little noise in headphones. I didn't like wearing the headphones, or the long nails of the woman conducting the test.

 

[djg]

I remember first going to preschool at three and commenting on how it smelled like pee and how lame the toys were there. Inside there were some small rooms with lots of toy cars and other stuff. They also had a small gymnasium with nothing in it but some disgusting old mats, needless to say many of us chose to play outside.

 

[diaprsoakr1999]

One of the interesting things about memory is that it can be jogged with a simple tour through a family photo album, and can contradict things you thought you knew about yourself. Recently I looked through my family photo album and I came across a photo from when I was about 5 (if I hadn't technically turned 5 yet, I was no more than a couple months away from doing so).

I vaguely remember it, it was just me, my little brother and my little sister running around barefoot & pantless in the backyard in the morning. We had a big backyard. All three of us were in white undershirts, my younger brother (age 3 1/2) stood out as having colorful cartoon undies, my sister was clear in a diaper, she was only 21 months old. What puzzles me is this.

It looks like I'm wearing a onesie. The kind the that snaps around the crotch for kids wearing diapers. I'm pretty sure I was potty trained by that point, and I don't remember wearing a diaper, my guess is that either it's a sorta optical illusion, i.e I'm wearing an undershirt just like my siblings, but my all-white underwear is blending in with the all-white undershirt to make it look like I'm wearing a onesie, OR I actually did wear diapers and a onesie at night past the age when I was potty trained in the day, thereby explaining why I'm running around dressed like this in the morning.

I've asked two different people what it looks like to them, each give me a different answer, one thinks I look like I'm in a onesie/diaper, the other says it's underwear and an undershirt. I don't see any break between underwear and undershirt, but I guess it could be the lighting.

This is working at the edge of my memory, I don't really have memories that stretch that far back. Only fragments. I distinctly remember running around that morning with my siblings and getting my picture taken, I wasn't focused on what was between my legs.

The thing is, the explanation where it's an undershirt and underwear makes sense based on what my siblings are wearing in the photo. The diaper/onesie explanation makes sense on the basis that I know my mother used onesies to prevent diaper sag into toddler years, and I think I may have vague recollections of it (I can't exactly pinpoint when, fragments of being at grandma's house, having it unsapped between legs for pool time).

I'll have to just ask my mom the next opportunity I get. Things blur together, I might have had a bedwetting problem back then and I just don't remember (particularly if I was diapered and didn't experience waking up feeling a wet bed).