Saturday, February 03, 2007

How early does your memory start?
This is an interesting conversation piece with children. Ask them what their earliest memory is. For my son, two things came to mind. The first was that he was on holiday in America. He remembers waking up, being in K1 (the year he turned 5 yrs) and thinking that's the beginning of his life. The second was going into his brother's room and that his brother had no hair. Oddly, that memory would have been when he was younger (3-4 yrs old).

There were so many things of him as a toddler which I thought he would have remembered but he doesn't.

He doesn't remember biting his brother (a major issue for us parents which stretched for a seemingly long time). He doesn't remember moving into our present home (a traumatic event for him and us because of a strong attachment that required some severing). He doesn't remember how much he disliked attending nursery and how the teacher had to forcibly pry him from me. I felt such guilt as I walked away. Then on picking him up afterwards, I would have to gently persuade or extricate him from under the table (positively heart wrenching to see him there).

Good thing is he doesn't remember me caning him either. What a relief! And to think that I may have felt partially guilty or responsible for all the 'abuse' my children had to bear because of my experimental parenting. There's no memory of it. All those tears they shed are probably harmless. Now that's something to think about.

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