Special Interests as a Child

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Curious to know what special interests you had as a child. I was big into watching the same movie over and over again, at least twice a day, for a year a piece. Simple example, but just curious.

The Legend of Zelda, Free Realms, Animal Crossing, primates, dogs, hamsters. A lot of different animals and video games throughout my childhood. lol

Honestly, not much has changed besides the fact I at least have a minimal interest in all those things, and I cycle through them instead of becoming fixated on one thing for months and months.

Building forts, tents, and small spaces to be alone.

Bathtub boats.

Ducks.

Coloured lights, playdoh, and music (stims).

Santa Claus and Christmas.

Climbing things (attics, trees, ladders).

Wallpaper and broadloom.

Pioneers, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Holly Hobbie.

Leotards (cotton tights).

Elton John and Art Garfunkel.

Collections: Rag dolls, books, coins, egg cups, souvenir spoons, vinyl records.

Books, video games, animals, and lights. Still like them all but in a more mature way.

Dinosaurs, other prehistoric life, modern wildlife, cars, military aviation, military history, chemistry.

Arthropods of any kind. Also reading any “scary” story I could get my hands on. Pokemon. And I loved playing pretend.

Climbing.
Sneaking.
Crafting.
Boxes.
Graffiti.
Secrets.
Encode-decode Scripts.
Symbols.
Games.
Video Games.
Puzzles.
Colored ink Pens.
Notebooks.
Small spaces.
Specific Music.


Not sure if that's all.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

idk,
reading, reading, listening
playing with bro-s, crafting, at grandparents they saved drawing paper and all drawing/coloring competions,
being a smartass but that's the age, when i learned jokes i would repeat that thousand times
exploring the things in and around the house, there were so many hidden places and mysteries
eg one quite smaller room with old shop walls, crammed full with all kinds of things,

yeah, like that but used for random storage, eg, old childrenbooks (1930-ish, i learned reading dutch in the old dutch fashion as well)

Traven,

That wall gave me a nightmare until I could see order in it!

So interesting to see the diversity in special interests. Was anyone’s intensity on the interest ever disrupted? If I could not watch a particular movie more than once in one day... yowza!

The first I remember is at at 4 or 5 Greek mythology (after watching Clash of the Titans eleventy-four times), which mushroomed into mythology in general.

Then dinosaurs

Then Native American cultures

Finally, I settled into a life-long obsession with cartography and geography. Pick an obscure, little-known country and I can locate it in seconds, and list the previous names and for said country, lol.

I didn't develop any special interests until I was 11. Before then I just had casual interests like any other child.

I liked trains when I was little, but not in the stereotypical autistic way. It was because we only had a few videotapes, and most of them were Thomas the Tank Engine, so that's what I mostly watched. So I liked playing with toy trains or pretending I was a train myself. I wasn't obsessed though.

Then I started to like jungles because it just fascinated me. I would draw lots of pictures of jungle scenes and I would play make believe jungle games.

Then I got into South Park in 1998, which I absolutely loved. Yes, my parents let me watch it but I didn't understand most the adult stuff in it. I think most parents let their kids watch it back then because it was all the craze and kids weren't so mollycoddled like they are today.

Then I got into Pokémon, which wasn't really my sort of thing but it became the latest craze at school and I wanted to be a part of it. I never actually watched the show though, as I thought it was too boring, but I collected Pokémon cards and swapped them with other kids in the playground, and I collected the plushies too (I was only 9).


Then when I was 11 the obsessions started, where a special interest would choose me and then I let it take over my mind and I couldn't stop talking about it. That happened right up until I was 24.

I really got into Early Man (especially austrolopithecines and Neanderthals) starting about 6th grade and extending pretty far into my adolescence.

Used to watch Pocahontas a lot and have memories of playing saga and Nintendo 64 . Always liked music and art but never was obsessed with anything really

Did alot of dancing as a kid and danced around at home as well as had lessons. Maybe that was considered obsessive? Don’t feel like I had OCD or special interests. Great post but I can’t say I had fixations on things

An "obsessive interest" is when this interest adversely affects other aspects of your life.

If I'm interested in trains----but this interest prevents me from eating my dinner, or going to work, it's an adversely obsessive interest.

There are times when I might really get into a subject----and I'll be late for work as a result.