Memories emerge earlier in some cultures than others, but researchers have long puzzled over our inability to recall events before two or three years of age
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Life must be great as a baby: to be fed and clothed and carried places in soft pouches, to be waved and smiled at by adoring strangers, to have the temerity to scream because food hasn’t arrived quickly enough, and then to throw it on the ground when it is displeasing. It’s a shame none of us recalls exactly how good we once had it.
At Christmas, I watched my daughter, somehow already a toddler, being passed between her grandfathers and thought, wistfully: she won’t remember any of this. In parks, I push her endlessly on swings, making small talk with fellow parents who have been yoked into Sisyphean servitude, and think, ruefully: why won’t she remember any of this?
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
About Author
More Stories
Bees face new threats from wars, street lights and microplastics, scientists warn
Bankrupt DNA testing firm 23andMe to be purchased for $256m
Sea level rise will cause ‘catastrophic inland migration’, scientists warn