Common childhood interests you did not have

[Stuttermabolur]

The question isn't well worded, but basically, I am wondering about what "play" behaviour you exhibited as children which was atypical: More specifically, what activities did your peers perform but you didn't care about at all? I am mainly thinking about ages 10 and under.

When I was a kid, I wasn't really into toys. I didn't mind having them, and I would maybe try them out once or twice, but they were quite honestly a waste of money for those getting me them. I much preferred reading and playing video games, both of which I could spend hours absorbed in. I started reading at 6, and by 8 I was reading fantasy novels which were many hundreds of pages long. I didn't draw or colour as a child in kindergarten even though all the other kids were doing it, and would instead stare at some random details in my environment. I did not play with the other children much during recess and would often wander around, sometimes playing out elaborate stories in my head. I did like making LEGO sets, but was not interested in creating random buildings without instructions. I got a baby doll at a flea market, and I really liked it when I was 6 despite being a boy though I must have lost it pretty quickly. When I had a slice of bread, I would eat the crust and then roll the white part into a doughy ball which I would eat chunks out of, like it was an apple, attempting to make the ball as round as possible first.

I really disliked most of the social "games" the children sometimes played in elementary school. In one of them, someone would mention some word (or maybe they noticed something), and then they would keep hitting you in the shoulder until you touched a door handle. However, I didn't want to play spontaneous "games" like this, and so would refuse to touch the handle and instead asked them to stop. However, they would keep doing it and get annoyed as all I needed to do was touch the handle. As a teen, I also didn't like "question" or "truth" games since I didn't have any interest in the private lives of others, nor did I want to relinquish my privacy. It is the same with drinking games, especially since I don't drink alcohol.​

 

[Metalhead]

Team sports.

Forget that BS.

Give me a game controller instead.

 

[VictorR]

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.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

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.

 

[Rodafina]

I only think of it is atypical now because people always poked fun at me and thought I was kind of bizarre – but I used to really like to hole up in the pantry in my childhood home. I had a little corner that I just barely fit in and I had my own little space there where I would do whatever – usually I liked to grade fake school papers – I guess I would play the teacher and the student. I would fill out the “homework“ in different ways, and give a different name to each one – the “good“ students had names that I thought were beautiful – (in the 80s, mind you) Felicity, Heather. The “bad“ kids who got lots of marks on their paper had funny names like Apple or Blueberry. They used to call me the “Pantry Queen” and everyone would laugh, but I didn’t understand. I did a lot of solo imaginative play, but it was mimicking the people around me, I think I was trying to learn all of the socializing.

 

[Atrapa Almas]

Well, I shared my strange games with my friends and they shared theirs with me. That kind of being accepted by my friends started to end when girls entered into the stage. So probably untill 10 everything was well and by 20 I was almost alone. Lets think on some of those strange games when I was an inocent kid...

Non Shared:
- Pet praying mantis and feeding them. Release in october, catch in spring. I had them in big Coca cola plastic bottles.
- Making fly ballons.
- Testing the electrical conductivity of beetles.
- Reading
- Drawing
- Building with TENTE blocks
- Creating my own rulebook to see what movements, attacts, etc could do my toys so battles of me vs myself could be more strategical.
- Creating my toys bases, the walls, floors, doors, traps, etc so I could play for hours. I used cardboard.

Shared:
- Creating a secret climb club, just for male kids.
-Setting wire traps for those who could follow us.
-Table sliders. You take a school table, put lot of mashed grass on it so it becomes slipery, turn the table upsidedown, selec a good slope. Fill the table with kids, and down the slope you go.
- Stop the tire. Another good slope, one kid on the top throws a car tire down the slope the fastest he can. A brunch of kids armed with stones and sticks at the end of the slope will try to stop the tire. If they stop the tire they win, if they dont they lose. Firs aid kit recomended.
-The last braking wins. We need a super slope this time, with a nice solid wall or building at the end if possible. Place a group of kids with bikes at the top. The one who brake last win. Simple.
- Launching water ballons to wall painters so the paint will get down the walls. Then run.
- Push all the doorbells of the street while you avoid adults. It must be the same hour everyday, so adults can have a chance.
-Creating dirt clouds. Select a dirt road, close to houses if possible. If there are hanging clothes, thats a bonus. Put a group of kids with bikes on the dirt road. The wind must go to the houses. Now take speed, brake in a way you create a dirt cloud. Take turns, the one who create the biggest one wins. Teaming is allowed. Run when adults start shouting.

Yea, then came roleplaying and then videogames. Good thing there were no smartphones at those times.

 

[Richelle-H]

I was little interested in dolls. Back when I was a child, there were a great many more dangerous toys that no one gave a second thought to. For boys there were Dart guns, cap pistols, erector sets, and such. For girls there was a toy iron that on surface posed no problem but one of my siblings managed to heat it hot enough, using matches, to burn a hole through a bedspread.

Toys were more dangerous and fun when I was still maturing. I remember asking for and receiving a chemistry set when I was a child with which you could actually make your own gun powder. Lots of very dangerous chemicals in that which you would never see now, more's the pity.

 

[LadyS]

I liked all the typical toys kids in those days did but could never afford them so I ended up always using knick knacks around the house for toys. Used to use large hairpins as dolls, make my own "toys" out of paper. At first friends would think of it as weird but then they always ended up playing along with me and even playing with the same stuff on their own. I guess my enthusiasm was infectious.

 

[Stuttermabolur]

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

I was not into the sports the other kids were into. I was not well coordinated and I had poor proprioception.

I have no clue what hypotonia or proprioception means, but good call. I wasn't into sports as well, though I couldn't really escape it in elementary school. I was always in goal or defense during the football/soccer matches which made my role simple. I made a beeline to the ball if it got to our third, and smashed it away as hard as I could (never even trying to pass). If I ever scored a goal, it was only be accident.

Usually I liked to grade fake school papers – I guess I would play the teacher and the student. I would fill out the “homework“ in different ways, and give a different name to each one – the “good“ students had names that I thought were beautiful – (in the 80s, mind you) Felicity, Heather. The “bad“ kids who got lots of marks on their paper had funny names like Apple or Blueberry.

This is actually also unusual for me @Rodafina. I can't remember ever roleplaying as a specific image of a person. I never roleplayed as a doctor, parent or cowboy. Come to think of it, I tended to play multiple characters in my fantasies, and there was a clear continuing storyline between games. Some of them even ended with a bad ending, and then I had to create a new game and the corresponding characters. They weren't licensed or iconic either.

Pet praying mantis and feeding them. Release in october, catch in spring. I had them in big Coca cola plastic bottles.

I'm surprised you can even get them into a soda bottle. They must be smaller than I thought. You probably would not have liked me as a kid. At one point I tried to stop a kid from digging worms out of the ground to "save" them.

Push all the doorbells of the street while you avoid adults. It must be the same hour everyday, so adults can have a chance.

There's no way I had been able to do that. I had very strong aversion to rule breaking or annoying others. Even as a kid, I would have been mortified. Nice of you to give them a chance though.

 

[Shamar]

The question isn't well worded, but basically, I am wondering about what "play" behaviour you exhibited as children which was atypical: More specifically, what activities did your peers perform but you didn't care about at all? I am mainly thinking about ages 10 and under.

When I was a kid, I wasn't really into toys. I didn't mind having them, and I would maybe try them out once or twice, but they were quite honestly a waste of money for those getting me them. I much preferred reading and playing video games, both of which I could spend hours absorbed in. I started reading at 6, and by 8 I was reading fantasy novels which were many hundreds of pages long. I didn't draw or colour as a child in kindergarten even though all the other kids were doing it, and would instead stare at some random details in my environment. I did not play with the other children much during recess and would often wander around, sometimes playing out elaborate stories in my head. I did like making LEGO sets, but was not interested in creating random buildings without instructions. I got a baby doll at a flea market, and I really liked it when I was 6 despite being a boy though I must have lost it pretty quickly. When I had a slice of bread, I would eat the crust and then roll the white part into a doughy ball which I would eat chunks out of, like it was an apple, attempting to make the ball as round as possible first.

I really disliked most of the social "games" the children sometimes played in elementary school. In one of them, someone would mention some word (or maybe they noticed something), and then they would keep hitting you in the shoulder until you touched a door handle. However, I didn't want to play spontaneous "games" like this, and so would refuse to touch the handle and instead asked them to stop. However, they would keep doing it and get annoyed as all I needed to do was touch the handle. As a teen, I also didn't like "question" or "truth" games since I didn't have any interest in the private lives of others, nor did I want to relinquish my privacy. It is the same with drinking games, especially since I don't drink alcohol.​

When I was very young, my neighbor, who was in little league baseball. came back from a game shouting "We won! We won!!" I asked him which person won the game. He said "We did." I could not grasp the concept of a team over the individual. Later,, when I was in little league, I was the worst player of the last place team in the crud division (They had a more polite term, like "minors", but it was composed of players not good enough for real teams). A few times the coach had to give a bat to the winning coach instead of a ball, because we ran out of balls. This made the next practice ...... interesting. How do you decide if an imaginary ball is inside or outside the strike zone? I have always been athletically inept. Not to mention maladroit and just plain clumsy. Things have a tendency to leap out of my hands and throw themselves against the floor. I could never under understand social interaction, and why everybody seemed to know what was going on except me. I was always one fad behind. I was a loner, but not necessarily by choice. I was simply not accepted. In games, I wanted to participate, but I did not know the rules or how the game was played. I was more interested in getting down on hands and knees and studying the minutia of nature.

 

[Fino]

Up until 6th grade, I would make up games, imaginary games, board games, card games, anything, and I would tell everyone what to do. I had to be in charge or I refused to play. Sometimes toys were used as props. When I switched schools for 6th grade, all of my friends went to other schools.

 

[Progster]

I was a tomboy and wasn't into dolls - I'd much rather have a Mechano set or lego. I liked making things, but not playing with things. I liked experimenting with things I found round the house.
I didn't like pretend play - pretending to be cops and robbers, or tea parties or whatever.
I wasn't into sports, didn't like team sports - though I do remember playing tennis and I loved swimming and horse riding. I loved roaming the countryside, looking for hazlenuts, crab apples, conkers or mushrooms, alone or with my sister.
I didn't like social games, either. At school, I was onto the field and looked or bugs, and actually prefered to stay indoors.
I was an avid reader from an early age, but didn't read very fast.

 

[Rodafina]

Birthday parties! Going to birthday parties as a little kid was the worst. It made me so uncomfortable and then I had feelings of great guilt for not feeling celebratory. Everyone else seemed to have a general idea of what to do, but I was usually quietly panicking and terribly confused.

 

[FlowerFlo]

I loved and still enjoy to put my toys and play sets ub and create worlds and places wiht storys behind them, instead of playing wiht them in a more typical way.

I was very careful wiht my toys (i can get very upset if people break my stuff) and loved everything around collecting and toys that i could set up. (This is still true)
But i also loved things i could care for, like my baby dolls and my stuffed animals

I also loved to line up my stuffed animals on my bed, when i couldn't sleep
Since i did this, mostly at night and had a bunch of them, my mohter was quite unhappy wiht me doing this, instead of sleeping.

When it came to play wiht ohter kids i was more typical,but by most of my friends my mohter keeped contact and helped me getting things like mettings wiht my friends.

 

[SusanLR]

First obsession around age three was taking a tablespoon and digging in soft dirt
around the edges of the house. I thought there was something good buried there
and I was going to find it.

Drawing cartoons, comic books, toy dinosaurs, (had a special interest in dinosaurs and started studying about them by age four.)

Playing with bugs, frogs and the weird things like snails, newts, watching how
spiders wove web designs.

No dolls or typical girl toys for me.
I liked board games, making up games and BB pistol.
Collected feathers and rocks.
And I read the Encyclopedia set also when I was 10. That desire to know.

 

[FlowerFlo]

I also had an oppsesion for bugs and ohter small creatures

 

[Slim Jim]

Before 10? I was into all the common interests. It was my friend who taught me how to kiss. (WITH A GIRL lol.) He set me up with her. It was like he was trying to take me under his wing, help me out, cause I was so clueless with girls. (And maybe I still am..lol)

 

[Raggamuffin]

Star Wars - I just didn't get it. Also football/soccer.

Ed

 

[Misery]

Hated sports. Really hated sports. Just... ugh. Even in school, I typically just refused to participate (and eventually they gave up trying to get me to join in).

Also didnt really do social stuff. Like, I had a couple of friends, but not many. In school I kept to myself.

My primary interest was and still is video games, and computers. I also had plenty of toys, so there's that at least, and for some reason a huge number of stuffed animals of all sorts. I also did a lot of reading, still do that too.

 

[Slim Jim]

Also football/soccer.

I don't know how anybody can grow up in the British Isles and not play soccer. It's almost a religion here.