Childhood Memories Quotes Revealing Helpful Insights for Parents

Sometimes I wish I could take a single childhood memory and go back to relive it. For a long time, we grew side by side with childhood friends. But then we grew up and grew apart, not realising until it was too late how special those times were.

Feeling nostalgic, we collected the most inspirational childhood memories quotes and sayings and looked for patterns that we could learn from. In this article, we share 7 insights about why childhoods are so special, enabling us to give our children the very best start to life.  

Parents, as you read these seven insights and the quotes within each, consider how they apply to your children’s childhood. 

As you will see, they need your love and attention far more than the things money can buy.

Jump to section:

• Why Are the Childhood Years so Special?
• What Are Helpful Thoughts When Raising Children?
• How Simirity App Helps Preserve Childhood Memories
• Summary of Quotes About Childhood Memories

Why Are the Childhood Years so Special?

Insight 1 – Children appreciate simple things

Magical childhood experiences don’t come with hefty price tags.

• Cuddling up with a pet .
• Playing with a sibling in the bath.
• The smell of vanilla as you lick Mum’s mixing bowl clean.

Us adults can learn from young children.

No latest app, no charming outfit, no impressive car needed. Kids appreciate what they have, without wishing for something new.

"Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet."

— Alain de Botton

• “I miss being the child whose eyes shone brightly at the thought of seeing the simplest of things."

  — Anonymous

• "There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again."

  — Elizabeth Lawrence

• "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

  — Robert Brault

• "Childhood means simplicity. Look at the world with the child's eye – it is very beautiful."

  — Kailash Satyarthi

Insight 2 – The precious innocence of childhood

There is great freedom in not knowing about things.

As children, we didn’t judge things as we do as adults. Things were as they were. We often didn’t need to understand how things worked, and that was OK. It wasn’t up to us to do anything.

We were truly innocent. Until we weren’t, and there’s no going back…

Let them enjoy their innocence – their time will come soon enough.

"What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles, it was a miraculous world. "

— G.K. Chesterton

• “When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”

  — Patrick Rothfuss.

• "The price of wisdom is innocence. So, I have definitely become wiser but sadly a little less innocent."

  — Mahira Khan

• "Once you start asking questions, innocence is gone."

  — Mary Astor

Insight 3 – That unmatched feeling of freedom

In our whole life, we’ll never feel the same freedom of childhood.

I cherish the magic of childhood, when:

• Minutes lasted hours.
• I didn’t feel the weight of a single responsibility.
• I could choose to do something, or not, and it really didn’t matter either way.

I remember sitting in the gravel collecting shiny stones and watching people for hours at a time without a care in the world. Nothing seemed to matter. I was free.

Unburdened from past mistakes, or troubled by future woes, children get to live 100% in the present. 

As an adult with children, jobs and financial burdens, it’s hard to even imagine how childhood freedom felt.

As parents, try to ensure that their sense of freedom is not taken away too soon.

 “Childhood is where dreams are born, and time is never planned.”

— Anonymous

• "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away."

  — John Lennon

• “I miss being a child and doing practically senseless stuff and yet having the time of my life.”

  — Anonymous

• "My childhood memories are amazing; I had freedom in every way – but I see everything from a different perspective now that I live outside."

  — Ana de Armas

• “The older I get, the more I appreciate my rural childhood. I spent a lot of time outdoors, unsupervised, which is a blessing.”

  —  Barbara Kingsolver

Insight 4 – Authentic human connections

Childhood is filled with meaningful moments shared with others, honest moments where we said what we thought, before the veil of adulthood masked our true thoughts and feelings. 

Those childhood days were filled with people who genuinely cared about us: parents, sisters, brothers, cousins, teachers, and friends. For the most part, our agenda was simply to have fun together. 

What wonderful memories of childhood and old friends…

Help your children befriend others so they can enjoy these simple and genuine moments of connection with others who want nothing more than fun.

“Great childhoods are made of feelings of connection and positive experiences, not things.”

— Anonymous

• "I don't want to grow up,' she thought. 'There can't be anything nicer in the world than this – being with the others, having fun with them. No – I don't want to grow up!'"

  — Enid Blyton, 'Five Go To Billycock Hill'

• “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”

  — Jim Henson

What Are Helpful Thoughts When Raising Children?

Insight 5 – Childhood is their foundation for future life

In life, we can’t run before we can walk.

Our early years are the foundation of our adult life. It sets the direction, establishes a framework for living, and instills most of the values and principles we live by. 

In the seasons of life, childhood is arguably the most important, setting the stage for all that is to come. Help your children create a strong foundation for their future.

"Childhood is the best of life, and the longer it lasts with happy memories, the stronger the emotional stability in adulthood."

— Venugopal Acharya

• "All of us are products of our childhood. "

  — Michael Jackson

6. Childhood is an enchanting experience, but short-lived

Childhood is the only time when we can experience so many beautiful moments.   

As we learn with each passing day, our innocence lessens. We feel the weight on our shoulders slowly increase, graduating from school work, to exams, to household responsibilities. Those pure childhood moments, gradually becoming an ever more distant memory.

I can’t help but feel that childhood is wasted on the young! I took it for granted at the time – what I would give to sample its delights once more.

Revel in your children’s childhood years. As they get older, new experiences will be unlocked naturally.

Don’t rush their childhood – they won’t get another chance to be a kid again.

"The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.”

— Ellen Glasgow

• “Being a kid was much more fun than being an adult. Life was sweeter then.”

  — Trevor Carss

• "Childhood is like contemplating a beautiful region as one rides backwards, one really becomes aware of the beauty at that moment, that very instant, when it begins to vanish."

  — Soren Kierkegaard

• "When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood."

  — Sam Ewing

• “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”

  — Graham Greene

• "I spent my whole childhood wishing I were older and now I'm spending my adulthood wishing I were younger."

  — Ricky Schroder

7. Give them the best childhood – you don’t get a second chance

Childhood experiences are so important.

For a small window of time, we as parents have the power to create something truly magical: a childhood filled with authentic relationships and timeless moments. It doesn’t need to be complicated or cost a fortune. 

Look back at the childhood memories quotes and realise that children don’t need visits to Disney World or fancy toys. Childhood is one of the simplest and purest times that life has to give. 

What’s the greatest thing you can give them? Your time, love and undivided attention. 

And keep in mind that childhood does not last forever!

There will be a moment when they crave independence, and time spent with you will not be top of their agenda.

So enjoy it while it lasts.

“Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.”

— Regina Brett

• “The greatest legacy you can leave to your kids are happy memories; those special moments so much like rocks on the beach that are taken from the white sand and put in tiny boxes that lay unopened on shelves until one day they fall out and time repeats, with joy and sadness, in the child who is now an adult.”

  — Og Mandino

• “In family relationships, ‘love’ is really spelled ‘t-i-m-e,’ time. Taking time for each other is the key for harmony at home.”

  — Dieter F. Uchtdorf

How Simirity App Helps Preserve Childhood Memories

The scenes of my childhood are sketchy at best. They are flickering childhood memories, perhaps real, perhaps imagined. I wish I had more records so they could take me back in time. 

“Sometimes I wish I could go back to my childhood and capture all those happy memories.”

Anonymous

It’s too late for me to preserve the memories of my childhood, but it’s not too late to preserve those of my children. Not yet. 

Simirity is a family business with a thriving young generation enjoying their childhood years. 

We didn’t start preserving moments from their childhood early enough, and all too often we struggle to recall things we really shouldn’t…

• Their first words. 
• Their nursery friends and all the people who looked after and taught them.
• Even the clothes they wore, their favourite toys and the drawings they made.

Do you remember everything you would like to remember about your children’s childhood?

Will you be able to share these with your children in future years when they are interested to revisit their past? Don’t feel bad, I’ve yet to meet someone who can.

Simirity App is a private storytelling app that unites your extended family in stories.

You can create media-rich stories about your children’s childhood, your life, your sibling’s, your parent’s and even your ancestor’s. 

Over time, you build an archive of digital stories, filled with memorable photos, videos and audio, that share your experiences and preserve them for the future.

Stories are a way of transporting us back through a lifetime of magical memories, preserving moments from our lives to remind us of our journey. 

If you would like to learn more about Simirity App, visit our home page.

Summary of Childhood Memories Quotes

We hope these inspirational childhood memories quotes have stirred up happy and nostalgic memories of happy times with family and old friends. 

The things that have happened in our lives shape who we are today. Now, as parents, it’s our turn to give our children the best possible start in life and a childhood filled with memories that they will treasure. Enjoy your role in their childhood.

Find additional inspiration and wisdom from this collection of family quotes.