are their any behaviours you still do that are childish?

but you do them either because you enjoy them, or because you have a strong child inside? (I believe their's a child in all of us after all!)

some of mine are:

tickle my own toes/ obsess over the fact that I really want to know why they are tickilish (1 day i'll find the answer!)

make vomit sounds when I don't like something (or I feel like doing it with something I like)

bounce on the bed and go boing boing boing

in sted of saying hi, respond with a sound of a meowing cat or a barking dog

believe in santa

make kissing noises to the empty air

[eskielover]

I didn't even have a child in me when I was a child. I never did childish things...I was always more mature than my age which caused problems because I always knew I was older & wiser than my parents wanted to allow me to be. Understanding their dysfunction long after their death I now understand why I not only felt that way but I WAS that way.

I don't believe that everyone has an inner child in them & have had that confrontation with a couple of psychologists I have come in contact with.

My inner child has been dormant! I kind of miss her. :-(

I like to color, go to the playground and play on the jungle gyms and swings.

[DechanDawa]

Originally Posted by eskielover

I didn't even have a child in me when I was a child. I never did childish things...I was always more mature than my age which caused problems because I always knew I was older & wiser than my parents wanted to allow me to be. Understanding their dysfunction long after their death I now understand why I not only felt that way but I WAS that way.

I don't believe that everyone has an inner child in them & have had that confrontation with a couple of psychologists I have come in contact with.

I agree.

[Fuzzybear]

I growl when I look in the mirror (even in a clothes shop the other day)

I like lego...

When I think of my inner child the thoughts that come to mind are far from pleasant. I suppose I never had the opportunity to listen to it - or even be it.

Originally Posted by GoldenWaves

My inner child has been dormant! I kind of miss her. :-(

I like to color, go to the playground and play on the jungle gyms and swings.

swings are always fun.

I am glad you like them too

[Open Eyes]

Everyone has an inner child, and not every inner child is "childish". Also, a lot depends on if one has been an only child or had to contend with sharing with siblings and competing for attention.

[littlethistle]

I have two distinct personalities of one is childish I suppose. I do not mind but it is not an inner child. I probably do childish things in both states but more true child like open curious just in my child state. It can be very pleasant. I enjoy the world in it. I am happy and I feel things without filters. Most of all I like nature.

I can't see a hopscotch scrawled on the ground in chalk without hopping through it.

[eskielover]

Everyone has an inner child, and not every inner child is "childish".

Maybe being an only child kept me from having an inner child. I had NO imagination. Everything was ALWAYS about reality. I didn't like being around kids. Always found them too immature. I got along with the kids in my class & in my neighborhood but was just as happy alone doing my own thing. School & studing was my life from the time I started school.

I thought girls playing with dolls was the most boring activity & never had anything in common with the few girls that were in the neighborhood. Was NEVER attracted to babies & never had a desire to have children. I couldn't relate to my daughter when she was born & always said she needed to be born a college grad so I could relate to her. Luckily my computer engineering career kept me busy so I really didnt have to be a mom until she got older & I could relate to her....but I was very dysfunctional mostly when it came to being a mom though I was always there when she needed support & someone to stand up for her. She was always included in my adult activities because I swore that having a kid wasn't going to get in the way of my life. I back packed her into the Calif Sierra wilderness when she was 6 months old & she was skiing with us from the age of 2 1/2 years.

I don't remember much about my childhood other than being embarrassed to death by my parents & not wanting anyone to know I was associated with them when out in public. I wanted my own place when I was 13 & if I could have worked then & qualified for an apartment of my own I probably would have. Instead I ended up staying at home & delving myself into my schoolwork. My one fun activity was marching band but I went about it as work not fun.

Much of inner child work is about a person going through a trauma & having a part of them stuck at the age the trauma happened or possibly like in my xH's case his emotional maturity never grew up past a child not because of trauma but because that was the part of his brain that just quit developing at that stage.

I just don't buy that everyone has an inner child whether childish or not. You don't have to be a child to like coloring, or painting. My paintings are not childish either. They have the details as if they were a photo of what I paint a skill that was NEVER developed until after 60. Again like with EVERYTHING else in my life, based on reality, NOT imagination. My brain was ALWAYS in problem solving mode & always has been except when depression hit & I gave up on everything because my brain couldn't function in problem solving mode during those years.

It doesn't take having an inner child to enjoy walking in the snow with my dogs through my woods or playing catch with them in the yard. Those activities are just as much adult as child.

I don't even grieve the emotional connection that was missing in my childhood or that my parents weren't capable of being the kind of parent I wished they had been. It was what it was & the things that happened because of it I wasn't even aware of until a few years ago. If things had been different I wouldn't have ended up with the good life I have now which I am very thankful for. Yes it would have been nice to have either had a good marriage or never gotten married in the first place but that's not what happened & there is no inner child moaning around about what I didn't have & grieving it. I acknowledge what I have discovered was missing but that is as far as it goes. There is no inner child stuck somewhere inside because of it. Life is what it was. My suicide attempts were because I couldnt tolerate life as it was during those years not because what had been missing in my growing up years. It was at the time my logical mind finding what seemed like the only way out of the trapped situation I found myself in with the bad marriage, i had no sense of it being an emotional reaction because it was something my logical mind thought through very rationally looking at ALL the posibilities that existed at that time. There was no inner child at play even then.

I think the inner child concept is a treatment THEORY just like every other psych treatment & NOT every THEORY fits every person. Theories are something that should be applied where appropriate & where they fit but to cram everyone into having to fit into a theory is not helpful where the theory doesn't apply.

[-jimi-]

You really jumped really fast from playing with dolls to have a real child... I don't even know what to say...

[eskielover]

Lol......it took many years between IRL