That is a good article Deborah. I like this bit:
Overall, parents often find children’s claims to remember previous lives more remarkable than do the children, for whom the apparent memories are simply part of their experience of life.
Like Phoenix I remember remembering things, but mostly kept it to myself. Unlike Phoenix I didn't know what reincarnation was, as such, as a child. Last night I was thinking about the experience of being a little kid who remembered things and tried to talk about it. This is no reflection on my mother, who just had no idea what I was experiencing, and why should she? I have spoken to her about reincarnation for the first time recently and she is still pretty bamboozled by the whole concept.
I remember being at the Royal Agricultural Show (like a County Fair for my American friends) and seeing a parade of bagpipes going around the arena and I could recall a battle scene in old Scotland, blood, smoke, screams, etc. and of course, the pipes brought it all back vividly to mind. I would have been about 5.
Last night I was sort of meditating on this experience and I remembered looking at my mother with big eyes and asking something like "Mummy, did you have bagpipes in the war?". She looked at me a bit oddly and said "No darling. That's a funny question". (I often asked funny questions like that and made odd observations, you can imagine). I didn't push it, knowing she probably didn't understand what I was talking about. I think the reason I asked was to check if anyone else was having a similar flashback. I could tell by the funny look she gave me she had no idea what I meant.
She might have thought I meant the Viet Nam war, which was going on at the time. Although we were carefully protected from seeing anything violent on TV and so on, and I doubt I was even more than dimly aware there was a real war going on, it did not seem at all odd to me that I should be able to remember a completely different type of war and battle, understand all about what it was and such.
I felt perfectly normal about having these memories. It didn't feel funny to me to remember being a grown up man for instance, even though I was a little girl. I thought everybody shared the same experience when I was small. Later, on going to school, I began to realise that this was not the case and gradually learned to hide any odd thoughts and 'act normal'. Growing up I began to wonder if I was a bit mad having these strange memories/thoughts! I am very pleased to report that there is nothing (very) mad about me though.
So anyway, I thought that might be interesting for parents of small children who make inexplicably odd remarks! The memories are not always to do with the child's 'other family' although that seems to be most common. Kids also don't always forget about it as they grow up. I didn't.
I was not in any way scarred by not being understood when I asked about these things as far as I know. I just kind of accepted it. It probably bothered me more as an adult than it did back then, not having anyone to talk to about it.