[veggiemama4]

My dd is nine. She is a "middle child" (second of four) and she is the only one that was not breastfed (long story.) In any event, she told me that she had a dream that my husband, my oldest son and myself all got cut up. I was like "wow that's a scary dream."
Later... she says, "in my dream when you guys got cut up" and I could tell by her face that she was lying. I said, "did you really dream that or are you making it up" and she says, "I made it up"
She says that she doesn't know why and starts crying. Now... I am no pshycologist but this freaked me out completely... any input?

 

[FiveLittleDucks]

: I'm not really sure what breastfeeding/no breastfeeding had to do with this situation, but maybe she wants more attention and figures this would be the best way to do it. It did work, I guess.

 

[Attila the Honey]

maybe it's something she thought of and felt ashamed of or upset about and didn't know how to talk to you about it, so she said it was a dream. Her reaction when you questioned her whether it was really a dream seems to back that theory up, she could have started crying because she was ashamed and/or upset about it.

 

[alegna]

It doesn't sound like anything to freak out about. Sounds like she's working through thoughts and feelings.

-Angela

 

[UnschoolnMa]

I agree that it was probably something she thought of and that probably scared her. Saying she dreamed it was probably easier than saying "I sometimes think about this awful stuff and it scares me."

 

[HappyNewMama]

Not like you can go backwards now, but I probably would not have asked her if the dream was real or not (especially if I could already tell by the look on her face what the 'truth' was), just listened to her story. To me, it sounds like she may have been trying to find a 'safe' way to tell you something--thinking that she wouldn't be 'blamed' for this if it were a dream. I imagine she felt like she couldn't really just say--so, I've been thinking about picturing you guys all cut up and bloody--and so she told you it was a dream. Then again, she may have 'invented' the whole thing as a way to get some other emotion across or attended to? My son is only 3 so what do I know! But, I was a middle child and I remember vividly trying to find ways to connect with my family--maybe you can (though you likely did already!) sit down with her and give her a hug and have a heart to heart about whatever might be on her mind. You could even tell her that it seems like she's having a hard time with something and that you want her to know that you love her no matter what. That you want her to know that she truly can tell you anything and if it's something she's uncomfortable talking about but wants to get out, that one way to make it go more smoothly is to literally say "Mom, this is uncomfortable for me to say, but..."
If your question was asking if there's something wrong with her because of the gruesomeness that she was thinking/talking about--I would think that if it were really a sign of something pathological that there would be MUCH more 'clues' that something isn't right or many more things that seemed off, you know? To me with just this one incident it sounds like she is definitely processing something, but may not know how to express it.

edited to add: I didn't read the other replies until just now, I guess they had the same things to say that I did...