Is this a problem?

[ShannonCC]

My dd is seven but when I go to the childhood forum it's all little kid stuff that just doesn't fit ANY of my problems with her EVER, so please allow me to post here

Ok, last night when I asked Bridget to brush her teeth she said there was no point because "I'm just going to die". She wasn't sad, she said it rather matter-of-fact like. I said yeah, but humans live a long time and if you take care of your teeth you'll have them with you all that time. I'm not sure if I answered the right way (I wasn't sure what she wanted to hear yk?) but she brushed them and the conversation ended.

Later we were talking about people growing up to teenagers. She said that by the time a friend of hers (a baby) was a teenager that she (Bridget) would be dead. I said no, when she's a teenager you'll be 20. Again, she said it just like that, not sounding sad or anything.

But then today we went to the museum and she dressed in an ankle length black gown with black hood (from dressup - I don't know where we got it). Which I probably wouldn't have thought anything about except for last night's conversation.

Ok, I'm a generally upbeat person but I dress head to toe in black most of the time. I also sometimes find myself thinking "why bother doing anything, I'm just going to die someday" but for me it's usually when I'm feeling down. And yeah, obviously, I have suffered from depression on and off for decades. The first time I really noticed it was in High School but now it's just seasonal and PMS related.

I mean, should I look in the mirror and get a clue? Is this all my fault? Should I even be worried?

Do other seven year olds talk like this?

[JesiLynne]

How much TV does she watch............I have a sister who went through a stage like this and she thought it was a cool thing
Due to something she saw on TV

Also does she have friends that are saying things like this?????????

[latinmom]

I second the friend idea. My dd spoke like this for a few months at that age, It turned out she had heard it from a friend, whose father had lost a beloved pet, and apparently ran around the house shouting about how he wanted to die during his grieving. Neither child really understood the meaning. Of couse, we only found this out from the school after months of therapy for dythymia!! Is it also possible that she heard you say something like this to a friend or other adult, when you thought she wasn't listening? I'm not trying to be rude, just wondering. My sons say the weirdest things at times, and its because they heard part of what we thought was an adult-only conversation!

[ShannonCC]

We don't have broadcast tv so it's all videos (and we homeschool so I can't blame it on school). But she's reading a ton and I think I at least found out the black gown thing. She's upstairs in bed reading (she doesn't feel well). The book is a Babysitter's club little sister book about a girl who thinks she has a witch next door. On the cover is a girl dressed all in black Ok, that's fine with me Phew!

She reads a lot though. So much that I can't possibly keep track of everything (seeing as how I'm not a 7 year old and don't have all the time in the world to do whatever I want). So maybe she was reading something a bit too adult for her recently.

The thing is, I *think* things like that a lot but I don't say it out loud. Other than philosophy class in college, sentiments such as "we're all going to die, what's the point in anything?" don't go over well This thread would probably be the first time since college ended that I've even discussed anything like this. I really can't imagine anyone *not* thinking about it at least at some point, but maybe that's because I'm me, yk?

Or maybe it's just her. She's very smart which is not to brag, but to say that sometimes smart kids have thoughts about things that maybe are a bit too mature for them. Or at least seem too mature for their parents. I dunno.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

I actually remember feeling similar when I was younger. I just couldn't imagine myself at any other age. 16 seemed light years away, so I figured it just meant that I was going to die before then. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but I grew out of it. I would just keep an eye on her, it may be that something sparked this, with me it was my sister turning 16 and I could never imagine myself so old or cool!!

[Flor]

I was a huge reader at 7 and now that I look back, my parents should have been paying closer attention to what I was reading. Stuff they never would have let me watch on tv, I read about-- sex, incest (VC Andrews, remember that?), ghost, hauntings, all that stuff. They seemed to think that as long as I was reading, it was ok, but it did put some weird thoughts into my head. Actually, even books for young adults (I was into the Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid-- Zilphia Keatly Snyder) have dark characters or "cool" teenagers who are moody.

[ShannonCC]

Everything I've *seen* her read seems to be age appropriate. She likes mysteries but we browse in the children's section so it's all Babysitter club, Cam Jansen, Nancy Drew and stuff like that. She did read her first thriller recently and it was aimed at older kids, but not teens or anything. It's just that since she does read so well I can't tell everything that's going into her brain yk? She's picked up some strange ideas just from reading a headline in the newspaper sometimes.

I think she's just thinking "too much" iykwim The more I think about it and talk about it, I think that's it. False alarm

[mazajo]

I'd say its just a phase lots of kids go through? My DS (10 now) went through a spell a few years back where he talked about his own death a lot. He even made me promise to bury him with his favorite toys. I assured him he wasn't going to die anytime soon, but remained calm and let him talk about it as much as he wanted. I haven't heard him mention death at all for so long now I can't recall how long its been.

Krysti