Did your childhood prepare you for our current situation?

[Luminous]

I'm wondering how many people had childhood experiences that have prepared them in some way for what's currently happening with coronavirus/social distancing/shortages of certain items, etc?

I was a high introverted only child who tended to spend most of my time away from school alone or with my parents. I had some friends I might see on the weekend, but especially during the summer, my time was spent reading, watching tv, playing video games, playing with my toys, daydreaming, playing with my pets... so what's currently happening isn't very foreign to me in terms of the level of social interaction. In fact, I have more social interaction right now, with the internet existing and old friends who live far away having zoom meetings.

 

[Hermit of the Forest]

Yes, my childhood prepared me for almost every facet of the current situation.

 

[The Cat]

More than I thought it would.

 

[typologyenthusiast]

I wouldn't say prepared as if the corona virus pandemic that makes the government impose lock down or social distancing was already anticipated since I was a kid. I would say I am accustomed to the social distancing and lock down because I rarely get into joining crowd in my childhood. There were moments that I got along with my friends in bicycles convoy after school hours (14:00 till afternoon), with me as one of the biker but it only lasted for couple of months and ended eventually since my parents moved to other town. Packed with passengers in bus and minibus would be the only habit of being in the crowd since I was in elementary school until at the moment but I did not do it because I love to; I undergo it because I have to go to school or office by spending more affordable fares than other transportation means like taxis. Others like Gathering,trying to get along with colleagues is practically new to me that I experience only since I worked professionally. When I was working as a real estate broker, almost every week or so, real estate developer held product knowledge gathering and the event almost always finished with eating lunch together. Another one was when I was working as a journalist, Businesses, NGOs, Government agencies, usually held press conferences, some of which I attended and at the end of the event, they serve some food also. The venue was usually teeming with journalists each of whom is representative of different news agencies. Of course in my childhood I attended also birthday parties of my friends but I did it just to show my appreciation to the invitation but since usually only the wealthy ones held party to celebrate birthday, partying for me is occasional. To the best of my memory, Two parties that I attended in my elementary school years was one from one of my classmate whose parents owned a Hotel (he held the birthday party in his parent's hotel) and from a neighbor that owned a store. One birthday party that I attended when I was in high school, was held of my former classmate whose father worked as an accountant. However, On occasion, in my childhood I used to play also video game machine that needs coin inserted, the place where it is located at are usually also crowded. I owned PS1 , so I used to play it at home. But Since PS2, and later series (PS3, PS4 )was released, I don't own any of those consoles so frequently I played at rental, which of course is usually packed with video gamers.

 

[ceecee]

No not really. Early adulthood did.

 

[Obfuscate]

fucking lol... my entire life has prepped me for this shit... the only change this has introduced into my current life is i can't go to the bar for a couple drinks before i leave town... despite the social skills i keep tucked in my belt i prefer not fucking about with all the assholes out there... my life has been one of absence and refusal... the worse things become, the better adapted i feel... time to myself? fuck you, that was the plan anyhow...

 

[anticlimatic]

When I was a kid my parents shipped me off to this summer camp in another country (Canada) a couple years in a row, that lasted two months and specialized in weeks-long camping expeditions down rivers in canoes. It taught me independence, an appreciation for the cruelty of nature (one trip rained the entire week), and how to live off it in small ways. I was also an alter boy, so entertaining myself while being stuck sitting in one place unable to move around or talk to anyone is a skill I've had for a long time.

 

[noname3788]

I would say it prepared me for being alone. My parents micromanaged me a lot, so I would either stay at home or leave it and justify everything I did to them. I chose the former. And also, at school my classmates made sure that I woudn't belong to any group of people, so I learned to be on my own quite early. Until recently I thought I was an introvert due to this. I practiced social distancing my whole life, but it doesn't make things better. At least I can distract myself.

 

[FemMecha]

Yes, because we often ran out of toilet paper and couldn't buy more, so instead used newspaper.

 

[TrueMirror]

Considering that I inherited the family manor, I have horses -yes.

 

[prplchknz]

Honestly my life hasn't changed, i don't know if that's sad or not. but even with me staying in it's any other day for me

 

[Maou]

Yup, but more from an anarchy survivalist perspective. My cynical view of human nature and what happened when this shit happened confirmed itself to me once again. Humans are selfish greedy animals.

 

[cascadeco]

No, I don't think my childhood prepared me. Though I did almost everything on my own, and was very introverted, I wasn't isolated and lived with a family whom I felt love from and I loved.

My adult life has 'prepared' me a lot more for it, emotionally. There are lots of emotions that shift and one works through that only really come with living alone, and had I not already worked through all of those previously, this period would have been a lot rougher. For example, even ten years ago, when living alone and unemployed, or six or seven years ago when again without a job, I was far more stir crazy and unsettled than I am now. But those were just new iterations of living alone that I hadn't dealt with emotionally, yet. As it is, now I'm faring pretty well.

 

[á´…eparted]

Only in a small way. My parents divorced when I was 3 and I am an only child, and as such I had lots of time to myself which I enjoyed.

Due to past issues with mental health and difficult circumstances mostly in grad school I experienced a lpt of prolonged isolation. Being forced to stay inside doesn't bother me at all because of those experiences, nor does the restricted social connections.

I have also had many robust and long term friendships via online throughout my life and still do to this day, and generally can remain very close with people via just the internet. Thus my social life honestly has barely changed at all.

What I am not prepared for and won't be able to handle is loss of infrastructure. Loss of a home, food shortages, civil unrest, anything that brings things to a 3rd world country state or requires the use of survival skills. It would psychologically break me fast and I would not last long. It is partly due to lack of experience, and extreme aversion to even preparing for such things. It is mostly due to mental health and a reduced capacity to tend to physical things. Also due to my authoratarian father.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

I currently have no privacy, with everyone stuck in the house with me. My childhood did not prepare me for this. I had privacy, and I consider it a basic need.

 

[Population: 1]

I grew up in the Cold War so the answer would be yes to a certain extent. The constant threat of nuclear annihilation or at the very least WWIII lends itself to a certain psychological conditioning. Those threats still loom but aren’t showcased now. Culture wars seem to have taken center stage until very recently.

I was an introverted only child so isolation was often experienced. In fact it was often preferable and is certainly tolerable to a fair degree.

 

[Saturnal Snowqueen]

I'd say so. As a kid, my house was pretty quiet. I mean, I was an only child, and while I did hang out with friends once in awhile I wasn't allowed to have any friends over. My mom was just distrusting like that. Plus, I was just a socially awkward kid who had varying levels of friends over the years. Freshman year I had like 8 friends, senior year I had one who I rarely saw. Also I was a huge third wheel so I've developed somewhat of a distaste for groups. Was always forgotten about in my squads. Lol, I was in an anime club my junior year but everyone ignored me so I just left and didn't join any clubs my senior year. No matter how socially adept I was, I'd always liked playing alone, whether it was playing Barbies or playing with imaginary fairies and bees.

Resource wise, I suppose. We weren't really short of anything, but we were in the ghetto and mostly ate frozen and canned stuff. But then again we haven't had many problems now except some paper product shortages and if you count slimy organic pasta a problem.

Lol, I'd say college prepared me more than anything else. First semester in my dorm I was like I should try to make some friends, but then next semester I was like nawwww and spent a lot of time hiding in my room with mealtimes drawing me out.

 

[The Cat]

I grew up in the Cold War so the answer would be yes to a certain extent. The constant threat of nuclear annihilation or at the very least WWIII lends itself to a certain psychological conditioning. Those threats still loom but aren’t showcased now. Culture wars seem to have taken center stage until very recently.

I was an introverted only child so isolation was often experienced. In fact it was often preferable and is certainly tolerable to a fair degree.

This song pretty much sums it up.

 

[Sabbathhhank]

Considering that I inherited the family manor, I have horses -yes.

What

- - - Updated - - -

It was the first time I heard a name for it “social distancing” I’ve always spent a lot of time by myself so t’s not really strange or that unusual for me, I’m quite used to it yes, but it’s starting to bother me, I just went through this slough of isolation and I wanted it to be over with, I do that a lot go through long periods of isolation and then venture out into the world again. I’ve spent lots of time practicing things on my own I’m quite studious and introverted. Well, it’s not a case of being introverted I just find most people to be quite fickle and shallow.

 

[RadicalDoubt]

Yes and no? I've always been pretty hermit like in personality and, mostly due to social difficulties and a challenging mental health, I have had elongated periods of isolation I suppose by choice. I've always had to entertain myself on my own, but then again it's really more of a personality trait then an environmental change. It's bad, my anxiety has actually been reduced to a minimum with this whole thing because I'm not incredibly used to having people around me all the time like I had to in college, so I do think there was probably some effect.

College really prepared me for this more than anything because quite honestly, I'm on the computer doing work constantly in my house almost all the time. It's not something I particularly enjoy, but it's something I've been doing for at least the last year and what I've continued to do through this all. If I didn't have that, I'd probably be a bit more stir crazy, since I am a somewhat active person by nature.