I remember some years ago—probably before I had kids—I read something somewhere saying that it’s speculated that small children up to around 3 years old can remember, at least a little bit, what it was like being in the womb.
When my oldest son, who is now 7, was around 2 years old, I asked him, “Do you remember being in Mommy’s tummy?”
He said yes.
So I asked him, “What were you doing in there?”
“Swimmin’.”
My middle child, who is now 4, never had anything to say about it—either he didn’t remember, or he wasn’t talking!
Now, just yesterday, I asked my youngest, who just turned 3, “Do you remember when you were born?”
“In Carolina?” he asked. (We talk to the boys quite a bit about where they were born, since each was born in a different state of the U.S.)
“Yes,” I said. “You were born in North Carolina. Do you remember when you came out of Mommy’s tummy?”
He looked thoughtful for a moment but didn’t reply.
So then I said, “Do you remember when you were still a baby in Mommy’s tummy?”
His answer: “You were squishin’ me!”
Hm. Swimming and being squished do sound about right. Perhaps the “squishin’” referred to the actual birthing process, which I had inquired about first.
Have any of you other moms out there asked your kids about this and gotten any kind of response (sensible or otherwise)? If so, please do share!
