This thread is obviously half factual inquiry, half pointless poll. A flip of the coin (and my seething hatred for the letters g and q put it in IMHO.
Here’s a little background on the factual inquirty part of this thread. A couple of my young relatives–a niece, “Nicole,” and a cousin, “Kat”–came over to Rhymer Manor the other night, along with Kat’s year-old daughter. I love babies, so I spent not a little time with the little one in my arms, singing to her. One of the songs I sang was Tom Lehrer’s Element Song. Nicole smiled broadly when she heard me singing that song; she claims she remembers me singing it to her when she was about two years old. Kat called bullshit on that, claiming that Nicole must have heard me singing it to one of the younger cousins when she was older and conflated the memory.
Though I’m inclined to think Kat is right, a few things give me pause. I’m certain I would have sung that song to Nicole when she was a baby; I was 16 and still living with my parents when she was born and frequently babysat for her mother. But six years passed before I had another niece; I was in my senior year of college and living elsewhere. I didn’t spend nearly as much time with that niece when she was a baby; I can’t recall ever singing that song to her in Nicole’s presence.
Anyway, back to the thread questions. Is there any chance that Nicole has a valid memory from the age of two or so? And what are you earliest childhood memories?
From threads like this before, I gathered that earliest memories average right around that 2½ year mark, so it’s entirely possible.
My earliest memory is of climbing a particular flight of stairs to help put the angel on the top of the Christmas tree. After checking with my mom about when we were in the house in question, I would have been about 2 years, 3 months.
Age 2 and 2 months: I have the vague memory of a lot of people in the house, wearing a white-striped shirt, and someone giving me a blue and white checkered blanket.
My preemie sister’s funeral, and my idiot sexist grandparents had to give up their cherished hopes of a boy yet again (hence the BLUE and white blanket) and decided to give the blanket to me rather than “waste” it. My mom has pictures of me in the same time frame in the shirt I remember, so that part may be a self-selecting thing; I’ve seen pics, so I THINK I remember it. Mom says that though she doesn’t remember what I was wearing that day, it’s not out of the realm of possibilty. The rest happened the way I remember it, and if pictures of that day exist, I’ve never seen them.
Yes, it’s totally possible. My earliest childhood memory is from when I was 19 1/2 months old (I remember being in the living room at the house where we lived until I was ten, looking up at the Christmas tree, and according to my parents that was the only year they had a tree in that house, since we normally went to my grandparents’ for Christmas). I also remember a lot of little things about the day-care center I attended from age two to three.
Sure that’s possible. In previous threads of these type, it seems that most people report their earliest memory being from around age two. My earliest memories are of my mother being pregnant with my sister, which would make me less than two-and-a-half at the time. I remember being at the park with my parents and feeding a goose a piece of my bologna sandwich with mustard. The goose shook his head wildly in disgust, which caused great hilarity.
I remember the moon landing, or rather, I remember standing in front of the TV while the grownups all yelled at me to move and it was the moon landing they were watching. I would have been not yet three. I remember my sister in a bassinet. I would have been not quite two.
My father had me sitting on his shoulders, holding onto his hair for balance. We (the family - at that time only myself, my mother, and my father) were walking down a snowy street. I was telling what I thought to be a very funny story.
My father said “hilarious”.
I asked “What does that mean?”
He said “Very funny.”
And I asked “Are you being sarcastic?”.
…He was. I was a precocious child.
I’ve asked my father about this memory; he tells me that I must have been around two and a half at the time. He didn’t carry me on his shoulders after that, he said.
I was four and fell backwards off a lawn swing at a neighbor’s house. My nose started bleeding and I remember everyone crowding around me. I have a lot of injury memories from around that time but that stands out the most.
Every other memory I thought I had was probably from seeing a photo or hearing a parent re-tell it.
My earliest clear memory is a dream from a little less than age 3. I had learned that my sister would be stillborn because her bones weren’t forming. The dream involved infant skeletons hidden in the house, so it left quite a permanent impression on a 2 1/2 yr-old.
I also have a much more vague memory of my mother nibbling on my ears. I don’t know what age, but I’m pretty sure she never did it when I was a teenager. Probably less than 2.
One of my earliest memories is of visiting a family member while they were in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt. I was a little over two at the time. It’s not one of those cute stories parents tell you and you think you remember it - my folks were upset when I asked them about it, and shocked that I remembered.
I remember visiting a house that had a “roundabout” layout (where you can go around in a circle through the rooms)* and joyously running around the circle, because it was such a novelty. My mother says she remembers that, and I was two-ish.
Mr. S can remember being potty-trained. :eek:
Our current house has TWO roundabouts! The dogs love them.
We moved shortly after my second birthday. I don’t remember anything about my old house, but I’ve told my family about my earliest memories (really, more just flashes of things) and they say they must have happened during the first few months after we moved.
My daughter has some pretty clear memories of her grandmother, who died when she was three, and was more or less bedridden for about four months before that. So those two examples would point to around age two-and-a-half, plus or minus.
I clearly remember crawling into a cupboard underneath the kitchen sink to retrieve a can of Heinz baked beans… because I wanted baked beans. I was two and a half.
I remember my Mom singing to me as a baby when she was nursing me - it’s not a clear memory, it’s not like I remember everything in detail - just a recollection of the song and a feeling of comfort and warmth…
I really have almost no clear memories till I was, say 6. Even then, I have no memory of my 2nd grade teacher, although my mother said I loved her.
My youngest, however, definitely remembers being potty trained, although it became a family story and he may recall the retelling. We had told him that while the calendar told us he was 4, it must be a mistake because it was impossible for a four year old to still be wearing diapers. He understood the sarcasm perfectly well and was completely out of diapers in six days and we the we had a small birthday party for him.
My 11yo old son can describe details about an old house we used to live in. He was only two when we moved.
I personally remember wearing footie pajamas. I’m not sure how old one is when they stop wearing those things but there ya’ have it.
One thing that trips me out is that I swear I can remember cigarette comercials on TV. Thing is I wasn’t born til 1970; five years after the ban. My mom assures me it was at the theaters I saw those comercials and not TV.
I remember my brother’s birth. Not the actual birth, but the trip to the hospital.
Because it was a family story, told enough times, my mom assumed I had crafted a false memory and was not actually remembering it. She said this to me once when I was about fifteen. I indignantly told her I remembered it, and proved it by describing the colors and positions of people and cars that were in the story, details that were never mentioned inthe retelling.
I was 2 years, nine months old when my brother was born.
I understand that memory is tied to language development, and that is why we can rarely remember things that happened before speech, and why many first memories are around two years old.