Strange behaviors as a child

[Shawn D]

What sorts of weird behaviors, routines, collections, or habits did you have as a kid? (Weird by society's standards, anyway)

For example:

*Any time I got a new pair of shoes, I would wear them to bed the first night I had them.
*I collected Scott bath tissue wrappers.
*I wore thick-framed glasses without the lenses.
*I wore different colored sweatsuits with a white turtleneck every single day.
*While my classmates preferred peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I would have a salad with blue cheese dressing every day for lunch.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

I used to echo sounds like the sound of the wood pigeons or walkie talkies when they went out of signal.
I recorded every episode of The Simpsons available on television at the time for a time, that was my collective behaviour.
I also ended a friendship twice because I think I wanted some drama, I think I was mimicking the soap operas my brother and sister would watch.

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

OK so I used to make "art" out of anything metal in our yard. I pulled shoe laces out of shoes and played with them.

 

[granolaturtle]

I was bullied as a child but I didn't really realize it. I only became aware of it when I entered sixth grade.

I would walk around in circles talking to myself, because I used to entertain myself with my imagination. Come to think of it, I still tend to pace whenever I want to think about something.

 

[RidingDutchman]

I think I just progressively got weirder over the years, when I was young I was kinda obsessed with showing socially acceptable behavior. Some of the most interesting things were how I tended to downright refuse doing thing for school (Christmas celebrations, school camp etc). I also walked with a limp for almost a year just because I wanted to be able to walk with a stick, but I never really realized where this desire came from.

Idunno to me I didn't really seem all too weird but I wasn't exactly normal either, I think I was more normal when I was a kid as I am now

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

I was bullied as a child but I didn't really realize it. I only became aware of it when I entered sixth grade.

I would walk around in circles talking to myself, because I used to entertain myself with my imagination. Come to think of it, I still tend to pace whenever I want to think about something.

Yup I would walk in circles and hmmm

 

[Beverly]

Well, not too outlandish except to my overly gender focused parents but, I played with Tonka trucks and Lincoln logs, not dolls and, I preferred to bang on my drums rather than crochet as my mother wanted me to do. No so much an aspie thing, more a musical tom boy thing. Never really identified as strictly male or female internally so, whatever made me happy was my thing - still is.

 

[Adonisus]

I had a very vivid imagination as a child, so if I ever got bored I would sort regress into this fantasy world of my own making. I could literally swing on the swing set by myself or just walk around in circles, talking to myself lost in my own little world of make-believe.

I also was REALLY bad with loud noises, especially in school when the teachers would yell. They never yelled at me (I was a very well behaved child), but the noise still upset me a great deal. Eventually, I started rubbing my hands across my ears, hoping the rubbing sounds would drown out the noise (it actually worked rather well). But it looked EXTREMELY odd to everyone else.

 

[Datura]

• As a toddler I would maintain a beat on a drum pad for hours. When my parents bought me a toy drum kit I promply wore through the skins.
• Could stare at a picture or album cover for hours on end.
  
• When my feet transitioned from carpet to lenolium I would scream and bang my head against the floor.
• Before I could read I demanded that my parents read the title of each show as it came on television. I remember every opening credit sequence being a suspensefull affair as I feared they would blink at the wrong moment and I wouldn't know what the episode was called.
• Starting at three I began the habit of walking around and shaking things while unconciously muttering to myself. My parents were not happy about this, so I learned to hide it well into my twenties.
• In public spaces I would plug my ears and then experement with opening and closing my antitraguses to manipulate the white noise around me.
• I would pretend I had the ability to move objects with hand gestures, like automatic doors, or birds in flight.
• Named dust motes.
• Watched spinning fans.
• Played with insects and harvestmen.

 

[Larisa]

Yup I would walk in circles and hmmm

In 3 I ran in circles (in the room) and repeatedly muttered 'Tataika' (that's a nonsense, doesn't mean anything)

• In public spaces I would plug my ears and then experement with opening and closing my antitraguses to manipulate the white noise around me.

Yes! I entertained myself this way in the kindergarden - to change the noise around me so everybody croaked like frogs around me.

• I would pretend I had the ability to move objects with hand gestures, like automatic doors, or birds in flight.

Me too - I dreamt of having any superpower, telekinesis, foresight, a magic wand.
I wished very much to have just any sort of influence over things and people surrounding me. I felt absolutely vulnerable and defenceless among them. I still shudder at my childhood memories: normal children are not supposed to be conscious of their vulnerability and dependance on adults' good mood and lucid mind.
I felt my assigned role as my parents' property for them to play, to punish or to destroy - and I was powerless to change it.

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

Well, not too outlandish except to my overly gender focused parents but, I played with Tonka trucks and Lincoln logs, not dolls and, I preferred to bang on my drums rather than crochet as my mother wanted me to do. No so much an aspie thing, more a musical tom boy thing. Never really identified as strictly male or female internally so, whatever made me happy was my thing - still is.

I think aspies are more accepting of their non binary souls. I'm definitely a girly girl but I love monsters, mafia, batman, g I joes, legos, nature, explosions, dnd, etc etc...

 

[patchwork-boy]

Adonisus, I totally feel you about the fantasy worlds. I was the youngest of four, so I had plenty of toys to choose from but I tended to prefer choosing random objects and pretending they were other things. My gradmother ended up giving me a whole set of hair curlers because I liked to play with them so much, pretending they were all little sheep (not sure why I thought of them as sheep), and I also loved socks, tissues, maps... One time I was in geography playing with my map and I started making screechy bat noises without even realizing it and that sorta stopped class for a bit. I still love playing with papers.

I feel you Beverly and Hedgehog Instigator, I'm a boy but I never really liked thinking of myself as one, and I still don't really. I'm leaning towards identifying as a demi-boy. As a kid, I liked dolls and pretend games a lot, and when I did play with my pretty extensive car set, it was always a story driven imagination game where the cars were like people and just talked and did things, more like dolls. Though I also enjoy plenty of 'boy' things. I guess I mostly just try not to draw a line between them and enjoy both, though that can be very hard with society wired the way it is.

Also, for general weird childhood behaviors... I collected leaves in a bucket. When I found a leaf I thought was worthy I would put it in the bucket, but this was like an open bucket on the back porch? So not so much a leaf collection as a damp compost pile in a bucket made of only the finest leaves. I also would get frustrated with schoolwork sometimes and just sort of flail around angrily to release the tension, still do that now kinda. I also had a very strong aversion to jeans, which I now wear exclusively.

 

[Dirtdigger]

I use to gallop around in circles talking to myself and pretending I was playing Indians and Cowboys. I used my pointed out finger as if it was a gun. I pretended I was a horse as well eating out of my feedbag which was half of a rubber ball. I also turned my bicycle upside down and either spin the front wheel or turn the back wheel with one of the peddles.

 

[Dirtdigger]

Well, not too outlandish except to my overly gender focused parents but, I played with Tonka trucks and Lincoln logs, not dolls and, I preferred to bang on my drums rather than crochet as my mother wanted me to do. No so much an aspie thing, more a musical tom boy thing. Never really identified as strictly male or female internally so, whatever made me happy was my thing - still is.

Though I'm female, I was like you and played with the boy's toys. I use to destroy my dolls. I hated dolls.

 

[Laughingowl1975]

My hand flapping and scrunching used to get me teased, also I used to collect spent firework casings and admire the labels. If someone threw a ball at me I would duck or back off, I preferred books to toys in general and would throw a tantrum if I couldn't find the one I wanted. When others were playing sport I would stand about talking to myself or spinning about on the spot pretending I was time travelling.

 

[biblophile]

when I was angry or nervous I would do this strange movement with the fingers of both hands. I was bullied relentlessly for that. I ended up in special Education because of my ticks, and my refusal to talk, or participate in class.
I have managed to control some of my ticks, but I still get strange looks in public so there must be some I am not conscious of doing.

 

[Guppyfry]

I sucked my thumb into my teens (in private of course).

Still sucked my thumb in class ocassionally around six or seven years old, then just at home, then just in private as I got older.

Happy to say that I completly kicked the thumb habit, LOL!

I would play "ballerina" which consisted of me spinning around for 30 minutes at a time.

As a young child, I did not want anything but Legos to play with. My parents were horrified, that was for boys!
I pined for legos! Dreamt Legos! Asked to go play with kids that freaked me out just so I could play with their Legos! Every B-day and X-mas whish list had Legos on them. No Legos - Life was unfair.

FINALLY got Legos when I was 15! LOL, I thought I was getting a bit old for Legos, but it was a MOTORIZED set!!! Never too old for a Motorized Lego set!

 

[Dirtdigger]

when I was angry or nervous I would do this strange movement with the fingers of both hands. I was bullied relentlessly for that. I ended up in special Education because of my ticks, and my refusal to talk, or participate in class.
I have managed to control some of my ticks, but I still get strange looks in public so there must be some I am not conscious of doing.

I forgot to mention it earlier, but I have a terrible face tick where I move one side of my nose rapidly back and forth and sort of up and it is impossible for me to even control in public. This is one face tick which I had since childhood that I wished I didn't have because I get stared at too. Another thing that cause stares from people is one of my eyes turn in that makes me looks like I'm cross eyed.

 

[MissyMoo]

OK so I used to make "art" out of anything metal in our yard. I pulled shoe laces out of shoes and played with them.

I made curtain friends out of curtain tassles. I flipped them over and chopped their tassle hair and put different faces on them. My parents were not happy. I thought that was their point.

 

[MissyMoo]

I use to pull of my barbie dolls heads and put them on my fingers.

I used to make milk foam from a coffee plunger and dip 4 romany cremes in them at 3 in the afternoon.