Question
My 4 ½ year old has said some weird things lately. Sometimes when he’s in trouble he’ll say “I want to hurt myself” or “I want to kill myself”. Last night he was eating ice cream and said it was so good he wanted to shoot himself. We don’t talk that way in front of him, we try to limit any remarks that he could take literally. We have also tried not to over react when he says these things. But its just weird to hear a little kid talk about self harm. I know there have been instances of kids who really did hurt themselves. Is there some sign I should be looking for that this is serious? Do kids this age get interested in death? I remember my nephew saying something about a truck load of dead bodies when he was around 5 years old, so maybe this kind of thing is developmentally normal. Or maybe my family is just weird…
