CHILDHOOD
1. What
kind of relationship did your mother have with her parents?
2. What
kind of relationship did your father have with his parents?
3. Were
you wanted at birth?
4. Write
out the circumstances of your family at the time of your birth. Things such as
family size, age differences, financial status.
5. Was
there laughter?
6. Was
there arguing?
7. Was
there depression?
8. Were
there other relatives or people living with you?
9. In
general describe what you think your family thought of you?
10. Did
you feel your parents’ attitude toward you was different than other parents’
toward their children?
11. How
old were you at the birth of brothers and sisters?
12. How
did you feel about the new arrivals?
13. Were
either of your parents sick enough to need hospitalization?
14. Were
you separated from any important family member?
15. Was
there fear or guilt about this separation, did you feel responsible?
16. Were
you threatened by the Bogey man, or the Devil, if you misbehaved?
17. If so, what were your fears in this regard?
18. A
child is made to feel guilty about his or her normal sexual curiosity. This
comes about by his being caught and punished for touching him or herself;
masturbating; playing ‘doctor’; or for
participating in group masturbation. Many parents tell children that sexual
feelings are evil and must be punished.
With no sex education, taken together with this sort of teaching, a
child will naturally distort what he or she knows about sex. When a child is exposed to fully developed
nude persons he or she may begin to feel inadequacy in adult life, even as a
thoroughly developed adult. Write down
any of the above that makes you feel uneasy.
19. Did
you have a difficult time pleasing one or both of your parents?
20. Were you
constantly directed and redirected by your parents?
21. Did
you obey without question?
22. Did
you have feelings of distress and boredom?
23. Were
you afraid of the dark?
24. Were
you afraid to fight?
25. Or
were you afraid not to fight because of pressure of father or older brothers or
others?
26. Did
your parents submit to your whining and immature demands most of the time?
27. Did
you have temper tantrums?
28. How
did your parents punish you? Did they
try to reason with you, or was it punitive?
29. How
did you react to punishment?
30. What
kind of marriage do you think your parents had?
31. If
they fought, did you resent it? Did it scare you?
32. Were
you used to break up their fights? To
take one side or the other?
33. Were
your parents preoccupied with themselves?
34. Did
they lack awareness of your needs?
35. Was
there an absence of affectionate concern or loving attention in your home?
36. If
your parents were from different religious backgrounds, did you feel confused
about it?
37. What
particular idea of God was impressed upon you?
38. Did
you reject this concept because it seemed inadequate?
39. If you
did reject this idea did you imagine you had abandoned the God idea entirely?
40. Were
you afraid of storms?
41. List
all the feelings of guilt, fear, resentment you had toward each person, in your
life as a child (not your feelings now).
42. Did
you feel you were ‘bad’?
43. Did
you put yourself into situations that caused others to punish you?
44. Describe
the first time you ever stole anything. List all your thefts.
45. How old were you when you first masturbated?
46. Were
you ever caught and made to feel guilty?
47. Did
you feel guilty even though you weren't caught?
48. What
other sexual curiosities were you involved with (homosexuality, bestiality, and
sexual encounters with other members of family, sodomy - anything else)?
49. If you
were named after someone, what was that person like?
50. Did
your family move often?
51. If
so, did you make friends and then have to break off the relationship so often
that you became afraid to get too close?
52. Do you
remember starting school? What were your
feelings?
53. Try to
remember each successful grade in school and as you do, write out the
resentments you felt toward teachers, pupils, anyone. Any fights, slights, blurts and
embarrassments. Put it down on paper.
54. Did
you resent your relatives, friends, or parents?
If so, list them. No resentment
is too small to mention, AA’s Big Book
states, "Resentment is the number one offender..." (p. 64 AA’s Big Book)
55. What
kind of language did your parents use?
56. Were
you ashamed of them for this or anything else?
57. Did
you ever see your parents in the nude?
What were your feelings?
58. Did
you ever see or hear your parents having sex?
What were your feelings?
59. In
every family, a child usually has certain chores assigned. What were yours? Were they fair? Did you do them to please your parents?
60. Do you
remember longing for a carefree childhood because of the absence of play?
61. Did
your parents seem to like your friends better than they did you?
62. And
did your friends seem to like your parents better than they did you? Did you resent this?
63. Did
you have any bad experiences at Sunday School?
64. Did
you have any bad experiences at summer camp?
65. Were
you an only child? Did you resent this or did you enjoy it?
66. Did
your parents want a child of the opposite sex when they had you? Did they name
you, or dress you to match their gender choice?
67. Did
your appearance (looks, dress, etc.) embarrass you?
68. Did
you feel that you were ‘different’ from your classmates?
69. Were
you treated as a nuisance or a burden?
70. Did
you test possible friends with hostility or obnoxious behavior?
71. Did
you force friends to abandon friendly behavior?
72. Second
time answer. Did you feel that your
parents' attitude towards you was different than other parents toward their
children?
73. Write
down any other childhood memories that were/are painful.
74. Which
of the above questions about childhood was the toughest for you to answer? Do you know why?
Now you have reached the
first crossover point. Continue
writing. Place the pen to the paper and
spend some time just writing it all out.
The aftereffects, the afterthoughts, the new memories and understanding
that are falling into place. Use the Big
Four: Resentment, Anger, Fear and
Sexuality, if you like.
Get it on paper and look for
patterns.