A question of Ser/Estar. . .

[SPX]

Disclaimer: I scanned the Ser/Estar thread and am still a little unclear.

If you're talking about a temporary life state, do you use Ser or Estar?

For instance:

"When I was a child I liked to eat ice cream."

"My life was hard when I was in China."

. . . etc.

These were obviously temporary conditions . . . but something tells me Ser should be used.

Thanks for the help. And I hate to put a rush on this, but I'm trying to type up an e-mail right now and I'm not sure which to use.

One other thing on the same subject, would the preterite or imperfect tenses be used?

Instinct tells me imperfect, but I really have no idea.