the.com/childhood
the only kingdom you're exiled from the instant you understand you lived there
means The period of a person's life when they are a child, from birth through to the years before adulthood.
from A plain English compound: 'child' (Old English 'cild', a young human) plus the suffix '-hood' (Old English '-had', meaning a state, rank, or condition — the same '-hood' that gives us 'manhood' and 'brotherhood'). So 'childhood' is, quite literally, the condition of being a child. The word has been with us since Old English as 'cildhad', making it one of those native homegrown words that long predates the Norman influence on English.
- brain build
- Synapses peak around age two, then get pruned hard
- memory gap
- Most people recall nothing before age three
- new invention
- Childhood as a protected phase is barely 200 years old
- time warp
- A summer felt infinite because it was your whole percentage
- play work
- Pretend games quietly rehearse adult logic and rules
peter pan — j.m. barrie's 1904 character who never grows up, embodying eternal childhood
disneyland — theme park opened 1955 in anaheim designed to recapture wonder of childhood
winnie the pooh — a.a. milne's 1926 characters based on author's son's stuffed animals and early years