Childhood

[spockguy]

Was anyone else a rebellious asshole as a child? Especially in the family household? I used to yell and cry to get my way all the time when I was in elementary.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

not rebelious...............still an asshole though.............

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Rebellious - check

asshole - check

as a child - check

yell and cry to get my way - nope

 

[Ermine]

I was a little rebellious, but not in a brattish way. I often rebelled against my parents whenever they asked me to do something that appeared arbitrary "because they said so". I'm still that way, though I understand the reasons behind most of their demands now. I always kept on asking why, which usually started an argument about who's obeying who.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

I was very quiet, some people thought I couldn't talk, I just didn't talk to them.

But if I trusted somebody I would be constantly asking questions, lots of questions; my parents would joke that they couldn't get me to shut up. This of course would earn them strange looks from preschool teachers who had never heard me make a sound.

Imagine being in the body of a small child but having a fairly developed mind, for me the preschool years were like being a human in a cage full of monkeys. Although when I think of it even today it can seem like that sometimes, except now the monkeys expect me to act like them.

I don't think I ever cried or screamed, although I did have tantrums.
But that was only until my father took me home one day and locked me in my room for an hour or two; then when I had calmed down he asked me what I was so upset about. In that moment he had taught me that emotions come and go, but reason and logic remains; hence forth there were no more tantrums.

Anyone else have a childhood like this? Or remember so much about their past?

 

[loveofreason]

Similar.

I was silent and exceedingly stubborn. I guess rebelliousness wasn't dramatic so much as... well, complex. I had my ways.

...come to think of it, once I rid myself of my father I was not really openly challenged. At some point adults gave up trying to make me conform.

I was polite though with the general world, but that didn't spare my Mother.

I never cared enough about them, and took them for granted except where their actions clashed with mine. Truthfully I despised them. Childhood misanthrope.

They were such pathetic examples of humanity, really - and I an alien among them - what could one expect?

 

[Artifice Orisit]

I wonder where INTP sits on the sliding scale between "typical human" and "non-human".
Slightly off topic, I know.

 

[Cegorach]

I was quiet and polite at first but I remember very clearly each stage, each point in my life, where the stress built up to the point where I simply snapped. This happened several times, and I began to loathe everything, I began to hate existence, I was so full of hate back then...
I learned to manipulate systems quickly, how much I could get away with, who was easy to deceive, I shunned school, and despised all that it encompassed, refusing to accept knowledge as useful, and I wasted a huge portion of my life in self pity.

Eventually I woke up from this malicious rampage, but it took a long time to understand that despising existence caused me nothing but pain.
I still feel cold. I don't hate anymore, but I can't trust and I have no ability to love at this moment. (Yes, I know how dramatic that sounds; but it's true.) I can like somebody, I can emulate love, but it's not real... at least it hasn't been for a while.

I have faith that I can fix this, with time. Hopefully.

 

[Bluey]

I can still remember childhood pretty vividly since, well, it wasn't too long ago. Well when exactly does childhood end? 9? 10-12= the preteen years and then 13 is entering the teenage years? It's probably not as clean cut as that. But whatever. now I guess I'm a teenager, I'm getting so old. I can't believe how time is flying by now. As a child I remember I was really quiet and nice. a really nice kid and everyone liked me. I eventually let myself grow out of that. now I'm on the untrusting side. Probably because of 6th grade experiences. drat you alexis and lauren.

I had tantrums once in a while. I always noticed all of the little things, processed them in my brain and used it to my advantage, pretty level headed. I had high morals and I always tried really hard to be the best I could be and lived up to my morals. I made really good grades, top of the class. A nice happy little kid, I guess. Childhood was a good time for me. Not that teenagehood is terrible....

 

[echoplex]

I was rebellious, but without all the yelling and crying. I just thought the senseless traditions and customs around me were stupid, and everyone just tried to make me feel guilty for that. Everyone in my family is way too sensitive.

 

[Kianara]

I asked questions and was therefore classified as rebellious. Lucky me.

 

[sagewolf]

I was incredibly, and overtly, weird as a child. After my first day at kindergarten, the teacher took my mom aside and asked her if I barked like a dog at home (answer: only if I was pretending to be one, which was, indeed, sometimes). I was solitary, too, though, and imaginative, because my mom was out working often, and my grandmother would be busy around the house, so I played by myself a lot and made up games involving knights and wild animals and robots and so forth. I probably looked like a loony, running around the backyard with the nozzle off the hose (read: laser gun) in my hand. (Until I eventually got yelled at for pulling the nozzle off the hose AGAIN.)

I wasn't quite rebellious, but I was contrary-- I rarely stopped doing things because my mother told me not to do them. I made sure she didn't see me doing them, but I didn't stop by any means, especially when no reasons were forthcoming. I don't remember having any tantrums, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen. I remember I puked on my mom once during a car journey, though. Good times.

 

[sings2high]

Both my parents are IN_P. I think they are both very balanced between T and F, though I'd say my dad leans to the F. I'm definitely a T and I think my two sisters and brother are also. With that family constellation, we grew up understanding each other pretty well, and with the knowledge that we were definitely different from most everyone around us. We (every one of us) also have a metabolic imbalance that causes depression; finally diagosed when I was 17. Life suddenly got much more manageable after that though the massive change in diet was a hard thing.
I am grateful that my parents were close to my type. Once I was old enough to think, they approached discipline and training through reasoning. They believed a child should always understand why he or she is being disciplined, and always be reasssured of the parents' love afterward. I do not remember a single spanking that I did not earn and I always knew they loved me. I also remember a good many times I earned a spanking that never came. Yes, INTPs can also exhibit mercy, LOL. By the way, I include slapping the back of a hand in my definition of "spanking". That was the spanking I hated most.
They also believe in having logical reasons for the things they required of us, and they required us to have good reasons for the things we did. "Because I felt like it" was not acceptable. We learned pretty quickly to substitute things like "Because I liked the way it squished between my toes and the flowerbed needed water anyway."
Please do not think my childhood was idyllic. I was talented and arrogant, I started working in the fields when I was 12, and everyone in school knew that my dad had spent time in the state mental hospital (before the correct diagnosis was finally reached). We were very poor, but were still expected to get ourselves through college on our own. And it only took 20-25 years to pay off the college loans.
But I can see how growing up with parents who substantially shared my type was a very good thing. And knowing that my son is also an INTP has helped me to understand him better (and the dynamics between him and his ISFJ father are now crystal clear!)

 

[chocolate]

It depends how far back you go. Apparently in preschool I refused to say please and thank you and got in a few 'arguments' with other babies. I was pretty loud and bossy I've heard...

But once I hit grade 1, I became very silent and afraid of talking to people, even the teachers.

 

[Concojones]

I still remember the first day at pre-school. I really didn't want to go (shy + stubborn) but my mother guided me around the school and tried to appease me by saying I could skip that very first day. When I saw my future teacher, I knew I'd have a wonderful time and I begged my mother to leave me there, immediately. The rest of the year I loved going to school and was said to be very outgoing.

The next year was a disaster. Bitch of a teacher (in my perception), I revolted, not at school (where I pretended to be a good pupil; it's like going into a shelter during war) but at home, opposing my parents every morning when they wanted to send me to preschool. After a few months I had become so unmanageable that my parents sent me to another school.

Another great year followed, where I could be myself most of the time. I came out of my shell, lead a group of friends, etc. There were some tensions (me not agreeing with school staff, and rather than continuing a battle I saw I couldn't win, I secretly tried to outwit them, which wasn't appreciated the few times it was discovered). But all in all a happy year.

Then my parents moved to a large city with smelly air and a huge, overpopulated, intimidating school, where I withdrew again. I can't complain (I had a reasonably good time), but I believe my defensive stance made me a more introverted & shy person. From late high-school till now, I've been trying to reverse that. It's a very slow process. When it comes to expressing a big emotion, there's a real power struggle going on inside of me! (Do I or do I not show anything, and how much?)