Was listening to radio the other day. Radio folks talk about the most random stuff to fill the airtime. This time they were discussing a memory from their childhood. Specifically, when, as a child, they returned to home from their school, who was the first person that would look for they asked. Someone called in and said they wanted to see their mother the most and now that they have children, the children do the same thing.
I was thinking about myself and I have no idea what I did in this situation as a child. I know both my parents worked, so maybe they weren’t there when I returned. I had some nannies take care of me but I don’t recall much about them other than their names or faces. Or maybe my parents were done with work by then. Maybe I didn’t look for anyone and wanted to do something else, but I have no concrete recollection of that either.
I wonder if this is normal.
Great post, I feel the same way all of the time. People twice my age will reminisce about their primary school teachers and other stuff from being that age, and I’m not even quite 30 yet but I basically don’t remember a single thing from that time of my life other than the most vague non-concrete type of stuff.
I forget almost all of my friends from back then, all the people I knew and things I did. Even stuff when I was a teenager that was only 10-15 years ago I really do not remember well. My parents especially I don’t recall having much of a relationship with as a child but I don’t think it was that bad or anything, I just literally don’t remember. My entire relationship with them is based on my experience with them as adults in my mind, they could easily just be some of my other older friends or something I met through work in the last decade.
I often feel bad about not remembering stuff mostly in a jealous sort of way. A specific example is with football/soccer. I know for a fact that I religiously watched every match my team played in say 2010 for example, but my recollection of it is mostly vibes based sprinkled with a handful of acute memories. I’m envious of people much older than me who can recall such a laundry list of specifics about menial stuff like that. This is true in basic every field of my life but sports seems like the most obvious example.
There are whole more recent years I basically don’t have a single concrete memory of but I’m going to attribute that more to my lifestyle at the time. I’ve always felt like I have no memories though so I’m glad to hear others have had the same concern. Honestly, I’ve always gotten the sense throughout my whole life, even when I was a child and didn’t have tools to analyze or self reflect, that I’m not really participating in the world or “life” and that I’m just watching it happen around me. Perhaps that has something to do with my lack of memories.
I used to religiously follow football as a child too. Played a ton of FIFA and watched all the games. I don’t recall the details either but that is probably a defense mechanism against the trauma caused by witnessing the clown era of post-Benitez Liverpool.