For a while now, my therapist and I have been exploring what memories of mine are emotionally traumatic and which seem to have had the most impact on me today. We always end up talking about my relationship with my mom, who is wonderful but did not understand my emotional range and sensitivity growing up. 

I've only recently made a connection between experiences with my nanny as a child and my emotions/processing abilities now. But the more I think about it, I can't shake the feeling that this nanny made a bigger impact on me than I remember. I'm certain that she was physically rough with me, because my parents and sister have told me about a time when I was around 3 y.o. that she beat me with a wooden spoon from the kitchen. I don't remember this, but I really can't remember anything about this nanny other than her old beat up green car she used to have, and the spot she always parked it in in the driveway. My sister (who would've been around 5 at the time) only remembers this instance because I was "screaming/crying" and it scared her, and supposedly what initiated it was me not wanting to eat cottage cheese (my sister remembers this because at the time she loved cottage cheese, so she was confused why so much was happening due to me just not wanting to eat it). 

According to my parents, they considered firing her after this but didn't for two reasons: 1) Child care was difficult to find and difficult to afford for two parents working 40+ hours a week, and 2) they gave her the benefit of the doubt, acknowledging that this nanny was an older woman who was raised in a different time. When I ask my mom why they eventually did end up firing her, she's very vague but basically explains that this nanny became very deceitful and controlling over me and my sister. For example, my mom said if my grandma wanted to take us out for ice cream or visit us, this nanny wouldn't allow it apparently. Also, when my sister and I were a bit older (middle school age), this nanny would call the house every once in a while to see how we were and my mom never wanted us to answer or talk to her for long if we did.

My question is this: is the age range 3-4 a time when a child is capable of suppressing damaging memories? I don't understand why I have so few memories of this nanny, especially if she physically abused me. If I had suppressed a traumatic memory from that time, would it impact how much of her I was able to remember in general?