Remember when? :: Day 10 [31 days to being a better mama]

9.  Picture yourself at your child's age.  Try to remember how you felt. 


I can IMAGINE that I wanted to be loved, cuddled and played with--pretty basic stuff.  So that is what I will focus on with my littles today.


But this is a tough one. My littles are 2.5 and eight months.  I do NOT have memories from that age, so I am just going on assumptions.    

But thinking about this, it led me to the question, "When do children start having memories?"

Source: dustjacketattic.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

 My first memories are from when I was five.  Sitting on the counter in our kitchen, my Mom working with me on the alphabet {I was almost held back in kindergarten because I couldn't match the big letters with the small letters}.  And memories of being at our cabin on Mille Lacs Lake. 


I asked my husband, J#1, the same question, and his memories stem back to between three and four years old.  He remembers dancing around his parent's family room with a stuffed bunny {that was bigger than him} that he had gotten from the state fair.  

Source: etsy.com via Lynsee on Pinterest

Next, I turned to the intermanet {as I like to call it} to see what the word on the street was.  


This article is really technical, but talks about childhood amnesia.  Here is a great, "in lay person" explanation given on Yahoo! Answers from a psychologist in training: 
"actually baby's make memories the day they are born. but their brain is so fragile and not really developed yet so the memories will be jumbled up and thats why sometimes people will remember vague things in their childhood or you may not remember anything at all about your childhood because your brain made the memories but couldn't process them correctly so your brain "threw them away", as people call it.

for the age when you start making memories that you will remember when you are older it is typically 3-6 (give or take a year) but it can vary alot depending on the child/infant/baby's memory capacity and how fast their brain develops the memory portion of the brain. but in general it around 3-6."


Tell me.  What was your first memory?  


If you are just joining me, please be sure to check out my 31 days to being a better mama page for previous posts.