• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Common childhood interests you did not have

We seem to share a lot of commonalities.

I didn't care much for toys in general, and was more interested, if I sought entertainment, in making up my own games with simple things like popsicle sticks, cards, dice, etc.

Nor was I into sports or other group play, though my poor coordination and hypotonia probably didn't help.

One thing I got when I was about 7 or 8 was an encyclopedia set - and I read it one volume at a time, A to Z.
Definitely not normal child behavior. LOL.

The toys I liked were my Gilbert Chemistry set, an Erector set, and a stereo microscope. I didn't get a bicycle until much later. I was not into the sports the other kids were into. I was not well coordinated and I had poor proprioception.
I had the erector set, electronics kits, hated sports (also poorly coordinated - still shows at 65).
Kept myself occupied more than interacting with neighbor kids, had zero interest in action figures (dolls, I considered them), would sit with an encyclopedia and read for pleasure, same with dictionary.
 
I wasn’t into dinosaurs like other kids were at the time the first Jurassic Park movie had come out. I mean I didn’t exactly dislike them as it was interesting to learn about them but I wasn’t into the craze of playing with dinosaur toys that had followed. Also never like the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers at all. I had a Red Ranger action figure and I used to put him on trial and sentence him to be trampled to death by having a full float parade run its course on top of him. I also wasn’t all that into Hot Wheels toys. Used to make them all crash into each other and keep building the pile up as more cars crashed into the crash site. The police and ambulance were always added into the pile up.
 
I did have typical interests under the age of 10. It was over the age of about 12 when I didn't.

I played with toys the typical way when I was a child. I didn't like dolls much because they scared me, so I preferred playing with teddy bears instead, like I'd dress a teddy bear up in pink dolls clothes (even though I gendered them as boys lol), and laid them in my dolls pram, stuff like that.

I liked the latest pop music and Pokémon was all the rage at school when I was 9 and even though I didn't like it I still found myself getting drawn into the craze and I joined in the swapping Pokémon cards fad in the playground.

When I was 6-7 I was the only girl in my class who wasn't into horses, so all the girls would play horses every lunchtime and I'd get bored playing the same game day in day out. But they said I couldn't play with them unless I wanted to play horses. I preferred to play 'Mums And Dads' but they never wanted to. Just horses.
 
I didn't like dolls much because they scared me,...
When my figures are facing me, it feels like they are looking at me.
But I only collect heads with positive or neutral expressions,
so it never feels malevolent.

Once, when I was doing an inventory, they were all gathered, facing me.
It felt like they were waiting for me to give a speech or something.

If you are talking about baby dolls, I love my real babies,
but fictional babies do not lend themselves to much variance in plot or dialogue...
full
 
I never was really into sports either. I sort of liked basketball for a bit only because throwing the ball into the hoop was one of the few things that I could do okay in gym class but that interest went away when I was in seventh grade at the private Christian school and on the school team where I discovered that I was bad at the sport. I was also pretty bad at soccer and had joined the team only because I wanted to try it as I had never played it before and then I discovered how bor it was and that I didn’t like it. I got on automatically only because it was a private school with not too many students wanting to play on the team. I remember once not knowing that there was a game after school and not having my stuff so I went home normally and told my abuser that there apparently was a game and she got super mad because i didn’t stay behind to play. The thing is I knew she would have been angry if I had called her to bring my gear and say that I had “forgotten“ about the game on purpose and yell at me for being “stupid” and for not coming home at the usual time. This was the point where I really didn’t want to be on the team anymore but didn’t say anything because I knew that she would never let me quit the team. I missed a lot of practices because of doctor appointments and half of the games yet I was never kicked off the team either. It was a weird situation.
 
I had a lot of dolls but I didn't know what to do with them. I named them all Amy because I'm face blind and couldn't tell them apart, and I didn't have enough imagination to give them each a personality or distinct character.

My interest in dolls was sensory. I liked to wash their doll clothes by hand so I could smell the soap and bubbles. I liked to put their little receiving blankets in the tumble dryer so I could feel them warm and soft, or smell them being clean. I liked to smell my actual dolls too, because they smelled like baby powder and vanilla.

My dad hand-built a wooden crib so I liked to wrap up the dolls in their swaddles, and let them take turns in the cradle. Then I could walk away and ignore them. I wasn't into cuddling them or making up stories about me being a mum. I hated playing "house" and had no interest in growing up or getting married. I was afraid to get married because I feared my husband might die before me, and I wouldn't know what to do with his body.

I didn't like team sports but I did participate in the school's track and field team. I was on a running relay squad so maybe that counts as a team, even though I just thought of it as running by myself when it was my turn. I also did some individual events like sprints and long distance. That all stopped when a girl named Sian made fun of my running posture and I started to have Scopophobia.

I didn't like playing with other kids, or especially girls. I was so locked into my head with my imaginary life that I was ashamed to tell others about it. When I tried to involve them they made fun of me. I was always teased for being spaced out, "spacy", or stunned.
 
I didn't like dolls or clowns because they gave me the creeps. I preferred teddy bears. I had a toy doll's cradle that I sometimes laid my favourite teddy bear in. Or I'd take my favourite teddy bear out in the toy stroller I had. Poor thing had to be dressed in pink dollies dresses and bonnets I had even though he was always a he to me lol. But back then you couldn't really get boy's dolls clothes. Well maybe you could but I never had any. I remember my grandmother knitting a blue and green suit for my bear and he looked a lot happier lol.

I guess I played with toys the 'normal' way, like "cooking" a dinner with my toy kitchen, or making my Thomas The Tank trains interact with each other. In fact I loved making my toys cliquey towards each other. Don't ask why lol.
 

New Threads

Top Bottom