Life with two kids: The eternal sunshine of the three year old mind

[andrewducker]

Sophia's memory surprises me.

I'd assumed that memories were lost as change happened. My working theory is that memories recorded on a mind that thinks one way can't be easily retrieved by a mind that thinks another, and that so as minds learn and change they find it harder and harder to remember the memories formed in the before times.

And that still seems reasonable, but I assumed that these changes happened slowly and that memories could be retrieved for at least a year or two.

And then I discovered, over the course of the last few days, that Sophia doesn't remember me hanging her out of the living room window (so she could run, giggling, round to the front door and be let back in again), and also doesn't remember me reading an interactive book with her dozens of times (because she kept asking me again and again, it was one of her favourites - "There's a monster in your book".)

And these things happened so many times, and within the last year (I showed her a Facebook memory of the window a few days ago) that I would have been absolutely certain she'd remember. And yet!

Children really are full of surprises.

Comments

[cmcmck]

What the memory retains (or not) can offer constant surprises.

I still recall locking myself in the loo at my grandparent's prefab and having to be rescued.

I'd have been two going on three.

[symbioid]

Do you think this is just due to different brains having different importance on things so you remember different things? Does she remember other things? Have you asked her what she remembers from the past few days? I think that would be interesting to find out what she remembers on her own compared to what you're thinking of. Maybe she remembers something you didn't remember, be curious to see what you don't recall that she does - or that you thought was too trivial and was important to her.

Brains.

[birguslatro]

I don't remember doing anything with my father that I enjoyed doing. Just stuff I didn't enjoy doing with him. Maybe negative memories stick better?

The saddest parenting advice: If you want to be an example to your children, be a bad one.