Common childhood interests you did not have

[Pirina]

I was a tomboy so I liked building forts, riding my pony to the beach, we had a pond and I loved playing with the pollywogs and watching them turn into frogs. I was a daydreamer and would lay on the lawn for hour’s staring at the sky. My biggest wonder was if I was really alive or if I was dreaming I was alive. I loved counting the stars at night and wandering around in the forest. I wasn’t afraid of anything so I spent a lot of time in the forest day or night. We didn’t have a TV and the few times I did watch cartoons at other peoples houses I didn’t like them. I couldn’t make sense of them. I did like watching The Wizard Of Oz at my great grandmothers house when it came on TV once a year. My great grandmother used to force my brother and me to have pink tea parties with her. My brother loved it. Me not so much so. I thought that was silly. I did not like sports but I did like swimming in the River and the ocean. I almost drowned a few times but that’s how I learned to swim. I preferred my pony and my dogs to most kids but I did have two friends I played with. One was another tomboy like me and one was a boy. I don’t remember having any toys except the few I’d get for Christmas and I don’t remember playing with them. I had a wild imagination and believed anything anyone told me. My dad was a butcher and I liked going in his shop and cutting meat with his extra sharp knives. I don’t remember ever being bored before the age of 10. All of this was before the age of 10 like you asked.

 

[Raggamuffin]

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

Only thing I was good at was tackling/defence. I'm tall, and was good at sprinting, so I could gain ground on players quickly. My long legs used to be pretty blunt with getting the ball from other players too, and it seemed to work.

Only played it in school. Back in secondary/high school they used to play on lunchbreaks on a tarmac area with a tennis ball. Upper years were intense at times. One side was the school building wall, and the other side of the tarmac was a wooden fence with metal chain link over it. The fence was surpsingly bouncy and springy. Almost like I imagine boxing ropes being like. Some used to tackle like we were playing Ice Hockey - oof.

A running theme for me was missing a goal every time I had the ball/spotlight. I just panicked and would miss. A bit like my experience of FPS games online.

In my second job we had a stressball that we used to pass to one another across that cheap carpet tile stuff you get in offices. Travelled very well. Relaxing. Manager was quite chill about us doing it...usually.

On weekends we went overboard and would drop kick it and punt it as hard as we could. Got us hyper and in hysterical fits of laughter at times. God knows how we didn't end up breaking something.

Ed

 

[AprilR]

I hated board games, anything that requires physical activity and Ball games since i had poor motor skills and coordination

 

[Slim Jim]

Roller skating and remote control cars. One I couldn't afford, pretty expensive...other, well just had no balance.

Spoiler

@Raggamuffin Oh yeah I was relegated to goalie. Not really that good at football. Or I think I was lazy, and just didnt want to run around....not sure which. Yeah, participate,yet not exert myself...goof off, while the more skillful players, took the spotlight. That was In school, during breaks.

I also would play in the streets, a bit. Or anywhere kids congregated. But that was all very loose and informal.

@AprilR motor skills....I actually went to a football training camp, but dropped out like the first day. I liked football, but I hated the discipline. And It was not what I imagined...it was really hard actually, and no fun. I was 10.

 

[AprilR]

^Roller skating was a nightmare for me also, never tried it, but everyone else around me loved it.

 

[Slim Jim]

Yeah one kid like going 30mph backwards down a hill and turns around at last moment before incoming car beeps horn at him coming around the corner. Just laughs it off.. meanwhile I'm looking at these things from the sideline, I can't even move a meter in them. lol.

I have no idea what the brand was...but they would looked something like this:

Riding bikes, was more my thing. Waaaay easier.

 

[Sunny1]

When I was little I read insatiably. Before I was twelve I had read through most encyclopedias and the dictionary, (and I was very particular about not inadvertently touching a picture of a spider as I turned the page. They still creep me out a little.)

I was crazy about science fiction and read the old greats like Asimov, Bradbury, and Frank Herbert. I was especially taken with Asimov and as a result, read his mystery stories as well. I started reading the autobiographies in my local library in alphabetical order. I practically lived at the library like it was my second home. It is still one of my happy places that I go to mentally when I need a break.

I wrote a neighborhood newspaper for my street and the few around me and drew, copied by hand, and delivered them to the neighborhood.
I loved language and would diagram sentences for the fun of it.

My favorite "toys" were my microscope and my chemistry set. I was especially enamored by mercury and spent hours playing with it. My uncle, 5 months older than me, used to order mercury by the LITER, by MAIL, so we always had a ready supply! His chemistry set was much more advanced than mine was, so I loved experimenting at my Grandma and Grandpa's house as well.

I gathered pond water and saw amoeba and paramecium in the water I collected. I also collected frog eggs and hatched them, watching avidly as they changed from eggs to pollywogs, to legged pollywogs, and eventually to frogs with no tails. Fascinating. My miniature frog eggs turned out to be mosquito eggs and gave me quite a surprise when they hatched into first larvae, and then actual flying creatures! I was embarrassed by what I considered a rookie mistake, but I still was fascinated by my experiment.

I also did genetic experiments by breeding multiple generations of hamsters. I did the same with guppies and tried to enlarge their fins.

I guess I should quit here. I got so entranced by answering that I didn't realize I had gone on and on and on. Sorry if I bored you.

 

[Sunny1]

To answer your question that you were really after, I don't honestly know. I don't know what they did with themselves when we weren't playing games or going on our famous "bike hikes". I operated alone quite a bit.

 

[Sunny1]

As for video games, those were called comic books in my day. (-:

 

[AprilR]

^I was also an avid reader. I used to read books at the bookstore when my mom was shopping. I might have completed some books, my mom was worried that they were going to chase me out lol.

 

[Slim Jim]

^ You must be a speed reader. I was chased out of shops, but for shoplifting, not speed-reading. I did enjoy browsing books, and I did buy all my books though. Actually I was thrown out of many shops for being a nuisance.

 

[clg114]

Team sports.

Forget that BS.

Give me a game controller instead.

I agree 100%. For me it is a bag full of golf clubs.

 

[1ForAll]

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

It's like Canadians with hockey. They all were born with skates on their feet.

 

[FlowerFlo]

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

Similar to germany,at least where i live.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I loved small plastic dolls and figures. I would take them to beaches and campgrounds and the woods and have them go on adventures and see the world through their tiny plastic eyes.
I loved drawing cartoons. I was especially fond of Disney, Loony Tunes and Garfield. But I would make up my own characters all the time, which were mostly inspired by Loony Tunes and Disney.
I loved swimming. Seems to be the only summer activity or any real activity I was good at. I can't really remember not being able to swim.
I was not usually interested in playing with other kids. I did play occasionally, but other kids were loud and erratic and wanted to be in control of me and everything else. I wasn't allowed to do things my own way. Then they'd be all butthurt when I just left or went to play by myself.
I hated most sports and physical activities and I still do now. Even "girl's" activities like skipping rope was hard for me. I was lucky I could walk without falling down. People in Canada treat hockey like it's something everyone has to absolutely love. I think that's stupid. Why are sports always such a big screaming deal in nearly every country?

 

[GrownupGirl]

It's like Canadians with hockey. They all were born with skates on their feet.

Skates are the worst, it's like wearing daggers on my feet. I somehow learned on my own to skate a little by pushing with them on across the ice, but I never got any better than that. I haven't gone skating since I was maybe 11, and if I did now I know I'd be in utter agony just trying to stand up in skates.
And why do people outside of Canada call it "ice hockey"? That's really redundant. Nobody ever says "water swimming" or "snow skiing".

 

[Thinx]

I liked to cycle to the library there were 2 actually in different pleasant parks, I loved particularly one that was in an old building with a room for children's books. I felt so happy just looking at rows of hardback books by favourite authors. I liked the cycle rides too and the parks the libraries were in. Each had a lake.

The other was ultra modern, like a space ship, a flying saucer. Odd really. They had a children's separate room too, and some great books. That one was near my junior school so went there a lot. Same when I was 11, I went to secondary school, loved the school library and sat there all of lunchtimes, reading. And eating sweets. I had few friends. Not sure what others were doing. Talking to each other?

I was terrible at sports tho initially keen. I was clumsy. Mostly I played games involving imaginary scenarios with dolls and ourselves, with my sister. We liked being a cartoon characters, Johnny Race was it? And Haji his friend. I was Haji and my sister was Johnny. I rode a bunkbed elephant. Also we were uncle John and aunty Peg with their 3 children, my father's brother. We sailed the carpet ocean in a boat made of a rocking horse on its side, and nearly drowned often.

I cycled to a nearby park with a lake if I had threepence, I think it was, to rent a little boat for a half hour, think they had pedals or maybe a curling handle to make them move. Loved that. And rowed on the Thames as an older child. Solitary due to lack of social skills, usually. I did play conkers with a boy at school sometimes. I loved collecting conkers. So shiny and nice to hold and see. I had varied odd collections, and oddments that I treasured.

 

[Sherlock77]

My biggest one is sports (any sports in general), I think my parents realized that I wasn't good at any of them, as did any school I attended

I have wondered sometimes that if I had been exposed to sports more when I was younger if I would have developed at least some level of skill... I guess I never showed the interest, so my parents didn't push me much in that direction...

 

[Sherlock77]

Skates are the worst, it's like wearing daggers on my feet. I somehow learned on my own to skate a little by pushing with them on across the ice, but I never got any better than that. I haven't gone skating since I was maybe 11, and if I did now I know I'd be in utter agony just trying to stand up in skates.
And why do people outside of Canada call it "ice hockey"? That's really redundant. Nobody ever says "water swimming" or "snow skiing".

Actually there is a sport called field hockey, mostly played by women, admittedly it doesn't have a super high profile... And here in Canada ball hockey is quite popular, basically hockey without skates inside a gym, running replacing skating

 

[Thinx]

Hockey is played in UK a lot, and taught in schools, more commonly for girls. On a grass pitch with hockey sticks and a ball. I think it would predate ice hockey.