[Persephone]

Do you have anecdotes about how you were as infants, toddlers and young children that could point to your being INTJ?

My mother saw my personality early, it seems. She said I had "that intense, contemplative gaze" and that I "never cried, even when we forget to feed you for eight hours". I was silent and never complained about a lot of things and was well-behaved in public, but seemed hypersensitive and intractable. My parents threw away the piece of napkin I was playing with, and I bawled for a week, refusing to accept another piece.

My intuitive tendencies started to show around age 4. My mother still talks about my unrelenting questions about death, and my toying around with the concept. It was around that time I got a new nanny who was in her forties or fifties. Then I remembered that old people die (in those days death was my new intellectual toy. I couldn't get enough of it and constantly wondered about it), and that if she was old, then surely her mother would be dead, and I couldn't imagine living without a mother, so I asked her, in a very convoluted way, whether her mother was dead. My rough words are: "Some creatures don't live very long, while trees live for hundreds of years. Humans are somewhere between, so... Is your mom dead?"

When I was 8, when my grandmother died, I was the only dry-eyed person, aside from my two year old cousin who was probably too young to comprehend anything. Even my aunt (by marriage) cried, and knowing her she probably didn't care for my grandmother, but when other people cry, you tend to cry. Not me. Here was a woman who practically raised me, and I didn't cry. I don't remember the next part, but my mother reportedly (this was from her) asked me why I didn't cry, and I told her it was because death was a natural part of life, and we really lose nothing by it. It's quite amusing, actually, how your thought patterns don't change. Before my mother told me this particular story, I was thinking back on the episode and reflecting on my attitude towards death years later (when I was nearly an adult) and I came up with the exact same explanation: "Death is a part of life. There's nothing inherently bad about it." So when my mom told me about it, I was like: "yeah, sounds like something I would say."

I was a morbid little creep, no questions.

[FlaviaGemina]

LOL, great idea for a thread.

I was so quiet as a baby that my parents' landlady came over to check they hadn't murdered me. But that might be because my mum always anticipated her children's wishes, so there was nothing to cry about. I wasn't hypersensitive though and as soon as I could crawl I was quite active and always up to mischief.

By the time I was two, my mum had run out of German words to teach me, so she taught me the Latin names of all the plants in the house and when my grandma visited, I dragged her around babbling two- or three-word sentences with the Latin names in them. She couldn't understand a word I said because I was talking at light-speed.


When I was two-and-a-half, my brother was born. My dad took me to the hospital to visit my mum and him and when we went back in the car I was quiet for half an hour. Dad thought that was unusual. He took me to a restaurant and asked "What's up?" and I said: "You know, I think the baby isn't a human. It's a pig." My dad was shocked and asked "What makes you think that? Of course he's human!" I said: "Well, he's pink like a pig, he smells like a pig and he squeals like a pig, so therefore he is a pig." I argued with him for half an hour (while eating an adult portion of Croatian barbecue) and at the end I conceded:
“Fine, he’s a pig-human then.”

Another time when I was that age, I was at home alone with dad and he was cooking in the kitchen. I came in and said: “Hey, daddy, garlic floats!” So he said: “Yeah, yeah, hum, whatever.” - “DADDY, garlic floats!!!!”. He began to think… “How did you find that out?” – “Well, I took some of your garlic and peed in my potty and threw the garlic in and it floats!” – “If you nick any of my ingredients again I’ll slap you.” – Me: “Fine, I’ll laugh in your face then.” After a while I came back to the kitchen again: “Daddy, onions float too!” So he slapped me and I looked totally unimpressed and just laughed at him.


I was also the one who never cried at funerals or never even went to them because I had homework to do. But my parents didn't get on well with my grandparents, so I didn't know them that well.

[Persephone]

Another time when I was that age, I was at home alone with dad and he was cooking in the kitchen. I came in and said: “Hey, daddy, garlic floats!” So he said: “Yeah, yeah, hum, whatever.” - “DADDY, garlic floats!!!!”. He began to think… “How did you find that out?” – “Well, I took some of your garlic and peed in my potty and threw the garlic in and it floats!” – “If you nick any of my ingredients again I’ll slap you.” – Me: “Fine, I’ll laugh in your face then.” After a while I came back to the kitchen again: “Daddy, onions float too!” So he slapped me and I looked totally unimpressed and just laughed at him.

That's hilarious.

[A Little Bit of Cheeze]

I was kinda awkward as a child.....

I was quiet and shy in public, but I was so loud at home... and I had rage issues (which I have control of now...) ... I fought a lot. I was always stubborn and got my way... I started so many debates on topics I had incorrect information on and somehow got people to actually believe me because I was so unrelenting... I think my OCD was worse as a child too... and I can't even remember half of my childhood either... my memory is always so foggy. I was a lot more aware of my physical surroundings as well.

I apparently had a very outrageous wardrobe as well... my odd superhero costumes, neon colored clothing, huge floral print shirts, over sized hoodies... I always wanted to stick out in public... and I did too (but in a rather odd way )

And I had a very vivid imagination... I can't even begin to wonder why those f-ed up things were going through my head all the time.

....... just dots and faded memories ....... and a lot of hyper-activeness.

I think the only thing that somewhat pointed to me being an INTJ as a child was my attentiveness to schoolwork (only math and science at that, I actually hated any form of literature before) and my work ethic........

You'd probably have a hard time believing that that child grew into the 'me' of today

[knittigan]

I was verbally precocious, very inquisitive, very demanding, had a terrible temper, liked to boss people around, and had a lot of attitude. I was also spoiled ​rotten.

The two stories that get told most about me as a kid are:

-About the time when I orchestrated an elaborate kingdom game for my entire preschool class at the age of 4. I was the queen, naturally, and every single one of the 20 other kids in my class was assigned their own special role and tasks to perform. I had people building my castle out of blocks and pillows and holding up outfits for me to OK before they got dressed in their costumes. I refused to let any of the boys be king. They were all my loyal knights instead.

-My grandfather who likes to joke around used to have a porcelain/glass shar pei that sat by his fireplace and one day he decided to try and convince me that it was a real dog. I think that I was probably 2 or 3 at the time, but I immediately decided that he was full of shit, and when I did, I put a hand on my hip, gave him a scathing look that apparently was my ENTJ grandmother reincarnate, and said, "Actually, Grandpa, you're full of it." He still likes to make "Actually, Grandpa" jokes when I get ranty.

[TrippedOnReality]

Apparently for the first 9 months of my life I cried until I could not cry anymore then I slept until I woke up and would cry again. After I hit the 9 month mark apparently I was a very quiet well-behaved baby. As a young child I was very curious and good at entertaining myself with my imagination. I remember pretending I was an animal a lot, especially dogs or cats. I also spent hours playing with legos on my bedroom floor or putting together puzzles. I loved having Mom read to me, until I learned to read myself. Once I learned to read books were my constant companions.

One of my first strongest memories of an intuition was when I was about 5 or 6 and we were driving down the road and it suddenly occurred to me that water towers were not blue because they contain water and water is blue, but that they are blue to blend in with the sky. No one had told me this, but I just knew I was right. I was very excited and shared this discovery with my parents who were not nearly as excited about it as I was. I started keeping most of those little insights to myself after that.

I was very quiet around people I didn't know very well, but was very talkative around the family. During a walk when I was around 5 or 6 apparently I babble on for over a mile that I could be "quiet as an Indian" while walking through the forest. Which my parents found amusing because I wouldn't shut up. I still get teased about this.

I was pretty curious about cause and effect situations as well. "I wonder what would happen if I do this?" I remember one time when my little sister was sick Mom and Dad told her if she didn't feel well, that she should pound on the floor (their room was downstairs) and they would come upstairs to check on her. After they went back downstairs for about 5 minutes, I pounded on the floor, just to see what would happen.

I never have been very good at relating to my peers and from an early age I was usually hanging around with older kids or adults. I was prone to fits of frustration that came out as anger when things didn't go my way. I also hated losing to the point where we couldn't play games because if I didn't win I'd get very angry and frustrated. I did not deal well with change and wanted to know everything there was to know about new situations before getting involved. I'd sit back and watch before getting involved. At recess I spent almost all my time on the swings. In 3rd grade Mr. H had stilts we could use during recess and he taught us how to use them, so I would just walk around on those during recess instead of playing with the other kids.

All though my years of growing up I enjoyed helping Dad with whatever project he was working on. I would run back and forth getting whatever he needed and hold the non-measuring end of the tape measure. I would ask lots of questions and Dad was pretty good about explaining things to me. I was always amazed that my dad knew where all of his tools where at any given time despite about half of the tools not being put away. This is a skill that I now posses and find it very useful because I almost never lose things and if I do it's because someone else moved whatever I've lost or I wasn't paying attention when I put it down in the first place.

I have always been pretty interested in science and Dad and Mom encouraged this interest to the best of their ability doing little science experiments with me and my sister, buying me a microscope and an antfarm, signing me up for summer science classes, things like that.

I frustrated Mom with my inability to just do what she asked without always asking "Why?" if the reason was not clear to me. I also frustrated Mom by not being able to find things. This was partially intentional because usually I didn't really want to go look for whatever it was that she wanted me to find so I would half look and say I couldn't find it. Then she would come find it and I didn't have to look any more.

My parents say I only had one speed, slow, but they were almost never waiting on me. I'd be the last to get up and get ready for church, but I was always the first one in the car waiting for everyone else to get there. It bothered me that we were almost always late and I could never understand why we were late.

Overall, I was a pretty easy kid. I didn't get into too much trouble. I was only ever grounded 2 times, and of those times one was on purpose because I didn't want to go to a New Years Eve party and being grounded was a socially acceptable excuse for not being there. I guess the signs were there, even as a youngster.

[purplepokadots]

I was stubborn (my mom calls me "strong-willed" and laughs), and showed a ridiculous preoccupation with making things fit into my version of "the way things ought to be."

When I was around 6 or so, I had a bible story coloring book, and was coloring with an older lady, who asked me why I was making everything different shades of brown. I told her that I was making it brown because that was the color it should be--clothes, hair, skin, the ground, tree trunk, etc. What other color could I color those things?

I started reading at a very young age, and spent most of my time by myself immersed in chapter books.

[Persephone]

I was verbally precocious, very inquisitive, very demanding, had a terrible temper, liked to boss people around, and had a lot of attitude. I was also spoiled ​rotten.

You sound like me when I was young. I was a voracious reader and liked Chinese history a lot, and astounded my parents by almost memorizing five thousand years of Chinese history, and was quick to correct or supply names and dates whenever someone didn't know it. I read all the abridged versions of Chinese classics and when I finished them, I ran out of things to read and had to reread them. Before long I was speaking in a highly stylized Classical Chinese, like Elizabethan English, and that amused the shit out of people.

I was arrogant and had attitude as well. I would tell my nanny what I had learned from the encyclopedia and acted all condescending and superior when she didn't know. I also told her she was stupid.

[carlaviii]

I was a very shy and timid child. Around other people, at least; alone, I was very inquisitive. Danger and impropriety were very minor considerations.

I rarely believed what anyone told me, but I wasn't brave enough to question. I lived in my town library, almost, for much of my childhood. I liked games, the more complicated the better. Video games did not qualify, in that day and age, so I stuck to board games. School was something to be endured. Homework was about as interesting as DMV paperwork.

Fortunately, I'm a lot like my parents so they never thought any of this strange. Heck, my dad aided and abetted my gaming habit by having games set up and ready to go on the kitchen table when my brother and I got home from school. My parents taught me to read when I was four and never denied me a book -- though they did caution me about some. I went through phases where I read encyclopedias straight through, where I devoured piles of nonfiction books on the supernatural, various eras of history, astronomy, you name it. And a constant stream of science fiction and fantasy novels throughout.

Very few friends, and even they thought me strange. I was a natural target for bullies, but I made myself a boring target until they gave up. That stoicism has been a mixed blessing...

[animalcule]

I hated being swaddled as an infant, and did not like being held or touched as a baby (as soon as I could crawl, my mother says she never again held me without my struggling to get away unless I was sick). I was hypersensitive to noise, motion, and other people, and had to be fed in a dark quiet room as a baby or else I would scream and refuse to eat. I needed a strict routine otherwise I would 'melt down'. I was hyperactive from about age 1 until age 12. I crawled, walked, talked and read early and became an obsessive reader by age 6, reading at a college level by the time I was 8 or 9.

Very imaginative and spent most of my time playing alone (later in life more often with my little sisters or a good friend) or reading. Incredibly curious and explored my town from one end to the other, but naturally cautious and reasonable - I rarely got hurt or in any real trouble as a child, despite running free for most of it. From the beginning, I had very little innate respect for adults, authority, or 'the rules' and basically did what I pleased - though I have always been a polite person. I was stoic (poker face) in the face of discipline, anger and abuse, and it did not alter my behavior. I was considered a responsible kid by everyone, I was watching my younger sisters (5 and 7 years younger) alone by the time I was 9 and I was nannying and baby-sitting other children starting at age 11. My sisters have always felt more like my own children than my siblings (in large part perhaps because they are both flaky ESFPs), I am very protective of them and did more nurturing of them than my mother (a very emotionally underdeveloped ISTJ) did.

I couldn't relate to children well ever, avoided them as much as I could, but was precocious and fearless with adults. I looked and acted strange and was rather antisocial, but was extremely self-confident in my (admitted) strangeness so was never bullied - if anyone tried anything, I gave better than I got and often people who had gotten on my bad side feared me. School I considered useless and I refused to participate, preferring to read, write, draw, do my own research during school hours and never doing homework unless forced. I dropped out of high school.

I've always been cynical, morbid, irritated by other human beings though I enjoy observing and analyzing everything about them, fascinated by facts and systems (and frustrated with the stupidity of most systems that are in place), with a cutting edge to my humor. I have always felt that I know what is best for myself, and pay very little attention to what other people think I should do. People, except for a select few who I have a huge depth of caring for, have never been a big consideration for me - beyond me being a reasonably kind and moral person who treats others with respect, as everyone should be. That is very important to me.