It's never too late to have a happy childhood

Here’s a presupposition from NLP that might just turn your world upside down: "It’s never too late to have a happy childhood."

Let that sink in for a second.

For most of us, childhood feels like something that happened in the past - a time we either look back on with fond memories or, more commonly, with a bit of baggage. Whether you had a joyful, carefree childhood or faced struggles, there’s this belief that what happened when we were young is set in stone, that it’s a chapter we can’t rewrite.

But here's the game-changer: It’s not too late.

When I heard this for the first time during my NLP Coaching training, it took my breath away. I felt my blood boil up in side of me and rage begin to bubble. Talk about a trigger! I realised, I still had work to do.

Why this matters

The idea that we can still create a happy childhood, even as adults, is incredibly liberating. It’s a reminder that the way we experienced our childhood doesn’t have to define us. While we can’t change the past, we can reshape how we relate to it, how we understand it, and how we carry it forward into our present.

You might be thinking, "Sure, that sounds nice, but what does it really mean?"

It means that the feelings and experiences we associate with childhood don’t have to be a life sentence. If you missed out on joy, freedom, or play as a child, it’s not too late to reclaim that sense of wonder, joy, and lightness in your life today.

You can re-parent yourself

A key part of this presupposition is the power of re-parenting. Re-parenting means giving yourself what you needed back then but didn’t ge - whether that was love, support, adventure, or just a sense of safety. As adults, we have the ability to step in and provide for ourselves in the ways that may have been missing in our childhood. It’s about nurturing that inner child - the one who may have been overlooked or dismissed - and giving them the love, care, and attention they deserve.

What could it look like to parent yourself with compassion, creativity, and freedom?

Embrace joy, play, and curiosity

A happy childhood doesn’t have to be about grand gestures or perfect moments. Sometimes, it’s about the small, simple things: playing without worrying about the outcome, feeling curiosity about the world, or finding joy in the little things. As adults, we often forget how to do these things. We’re too busy, too tired, too serious.

But what if you allowed yourself to tap into the joy and spontaneity you once had as a child? What if you played just for the sake of playing? What if you embraced life with the same sense of curiosity you had when you were young, before the world taught you to be cautious or overly responsible?

Healing your inner child

Part of creating a “happy childhood” now involves healing the parts of us that are still holding onto the pain, neglect, or unmet needs from when we were young. It’s about giving ourselves permission to feel safe, loved, and accepted in the present, even if we didn’t experience that in the past.

It’s never too late to heal, and it’s never too late to embrace the freedom that comes with releasing the emotional weight we’ve carried from our childhood.

Creating your new story

If you’ve been carrying around an old, outdated story about your childhood - that it was "too hard," "too lonely," or "too painful" - then it’s time to rewrite that story. It’s not about denying the past or pretending it didn’t happen, but about choosing to see it through a different lens. You get to decide what that story means today.

Rewriting your childhood story means embracing the possibility that you can still create those joyful, playful moments. You can still be curious, carefree, and deeply connected to yourself and others. And you can do it right now.

It’s never too late

So, what does a happy childhood look like for you, today? Maybe it’s a spontaneous dance party in your living room. Maybe it’s learning something new just for fun. Maybe it’s allowing yourself to daydream, play, or explore without any guilt. Whatever it is, I challenge you to embrace it.

The past is part of who we are, but it doesn’t have to define us forever. You’re not stuck with the childhood you had - you have the power to create a new, joyful version of it.

And it’s never, ever too late.