As a Child, what did you obsess about?

[cremebrulee]

I believe all Children at one time in their lives obsess about something....

For instance, for as long as I an remember, since the day I was born, I obsessed about horses, wanted a horse so badly at times I'd cry....

and that desire/obsession followed me most of my life, even after I obtained horses...

There was a time in my life, when horses were my life....

Another one of mine was food....we were poor and sometimes I was hungry...was a very active child, outside playing all the time, which helped to build up an appetite...so food was an obsession...loved food, loved to cook and create new recipes...

what was yours...

[Pitt Chick]

escaping abject poverty

[Katnan]

The house catching fire. I have a vivid memory of being about 5 years old and I had all my dolls and stuffed animals gathered up in a blanket and my dad asked me where I was going with all of them. I don't remember the conversation we had after but I can still see myself headed up the stairs with all of my worldly possessions ready to go in case the house burned down.

[cremebrulee]

Katnan, your post reminded me of my fear of tornadoes, and I still occasionally dream about then but believe that movie with Judy Garland was to blame....lol, and those monkeys, geeze louise, they were scary. lol

[in_newengland]

I don't think I obsessed about anything but I did love my stuffed animals. One time my aunt gave e a bunch of her old ones and I combined them with mine into a huge stuffed animal family on top of my bed. Was pretty upset when my mother pointed out that I would have to take them all off so that I could get into bed. I thought about cats a lot too and was extremely upset when my parents gave the mother and kittens away, just keeping one.

[Parnassia]

Like so many little girls I was horse-mad but I wouldn't call it an obsession. We never lived anywhere I could own a horse. Spent every penny on lessons or rental stable rides. Never played with dolls. When I'd concoct some sort of play house it would be for an animal toy (including furniture it could use), not a human doll.

I was also fascinated by the concept of living off the land and intended to walk off into the woods leaving civilization behind for years. Jean George's beloved 1959 novel My Side of the Mountain was my secret bible and I also read every book about edible plants, foraging, trapping and hunting small game the local library had. I would mentally picture and design various shelters, ways to make fires, cook and store food, deal with freezing winter cold, etc. I took every opportunity to go camping, but the rest of my family had their feet planted firmly on city pavement so it wasn't much. I was a Girl Scout of course, but soon lost interest. Our local troop leaders were more interested in indoor stuff like sewing, crafts, making $

One year the family took one of Princess Cruise Line's cruises through the Inland Passage to SE Alaska. I very nearly jumped ship armed with the pocket knife, parachute cord, fire starter, $40, map and compass in my luggage. Probably the only reason I didn't was the potential misery for my parents trying to search for me. In a way, I did come somewhat close to fulfilling that dream during my career, living and working in remote research field camps all over the US including AK.

[Sonic_Spork]

I was pretty obsessed with crafting, building. The idea that I could gather discarded bits and invent or create something out of them. The fantasy of living alone in the wild with a bunch of ingenious solutions to my every need. I read a lot of books that were basically about a kid going off and living in the wild, I vaguely recall one about a kid who got the egg of a hawk or falcon and trained it from hatching to help him get food, and another book about a girl living with a wolf pack. The movie, "Swiss Family Robinson" with the tree houses and stuff.

I never knew how to play like other little girls, all role play and pretend with dolls and so on. Instead I would build improvised structures out of cardboard boxes (indoors) or in the middle of a bramble bush (outdoors) to hide in. I was so proud of the bramble bush! I very carefully extracted one long cane vine after another, strategically, until I'd created a hollow cave in this massive thicket of thorns with a woven together "door" of thorny vines that could be placed over the entrance to totally hide me. Then I stole Little Debbie snacks and hid them in there. I made the mistake of showing another kid once and she blabbed about it to everyone and it ruined it, I was so upset about that.

I was also obsessed with the idea of creating a secret language that I could use to communicate with a friend in a way no one could understand. I actually snagged this and that letter from different alphabets I found at the back of a Dictionary and practiced until I could write with these alternate letters...but I never had a friend who would learn it so that we could pass secret messages. One time I thought, if I scratched arcane symbols into the surface of my Dad's desk, he'd think that aliens had visited us and we could solve the mystery of the aliens together and that would be great fun. Of course all he knew is that I'd vandalized his very nice desk and he was furious and had zero patience for my prattle of aliens. What makes me sad now is that I really just wanted some time and attention from my Dad, but as usual all he had for me was anger. I still do not see this as "acting out"...I remember quite clearly that I legit thought he would believe that aliens had come. I mean, the symbols were so weird looking how could anyone BUT aliens have done it??? Surely this would work and a great adventure would ensue, nevermind the actual absence of real space aliens.

[cremebrulee]

Boy you gals were creative
Interesting reads
Hated dolls and dresses

was a Tom boy all the way, played football & baseball with all the neighborhood boys
Didn’t beat lunch at school, saved all my money to go riding at the stables and hitch hoked there
The owners gave me a job taking people out on the trails, loved every minute of that
Went fishing a lot
And camping on weekends
We would alternate one weekend the beach the other the mountains
Life was good

[Jessie Mitchell]

I was obsessed with death and disease.

[Miso Blu]

Boys.

And growing up. For some strange reason I thought once I was an adult I would finally be happy.