kill me mommy

[Monica]

My ds (will be 5 in Oct) has of late been very obsessed with the word kill. I don't know where he heard it (I suspect a neighbor kid whose house he is no longer allowed to play at - long story ). But quite often throught out the day he says. "Mom, I am going to kill you" "we should just kill dd" "Mom, why don't you just kill me" I am not sure he knows the meaning of the word. I tried to talk about what dead means and explain that to kill means to make something dead (I used a plant as an example, as in Mommy didn't water the plant, so I killed it. It is no longer alive, it is brown and shriveled etc.) I wasn't sure I was ready to explain killing animals or people. When I first equated killing with death, he seemed a little stunned like he hadn't known the definition, things quieted down for a few days, but he is back at it. It makes me CRAZY!! I can't stand to hear those sentances come out of his mouth. Has anybody had a kid go through this, what did you do? Most things I can tolerate and ignore them away, but this just rubs me the wrong way. Any ideas?

[amebt]

My three year old went through this. We had no idea where he heard anything like it but the morning I went into labor with ds#2, he said "I am going to kill you". We told him what it meant and that it hurt Mommy's feelings when he said that to her. And then we just ignored it. He said it a few more times and didn't get any reaction from us and we have not heard those words in 6 months.