should I get involved?

[purpleangel17]

My younger DD is an immature 8yo with some autistic traits. Her best friend at school is into horror and ghost stories and keeps telling her ghost stories and urban legends. It is literally two or three a day and my DD always comes home anxious about them and needs me to reassure her they aren't real. Every night I am spending extra time settling her and she is genuinely scared that Bloody Mary or the Girl with the Slit Mouth or whatever is going to appear out of the shadows and attack her! We are Christian and I have always taught her there is no such thing as ghosts and if anything ever scares her praying will help. So I pray with her and she does calm down but it is every night! WIBU to raise it with the teacher or other child's mum and ask her to tone it down?

I haven’t seen any “are fucking hateful” type comments or goading. Some people, me including are just saying “look OP, maybe your DD is having trouble distinguishing between things like religious spirits and ghosts, so praying maybe isn’t the best thing at bedtime’ The OP has said she doesn’t think this is the case. Fair enough.

One of my close friends went through a similar thing at about 10 (I recall it very well). The parents thought a chat with the local nice CofE vicar would help, it did! Maybe a conversation with a senior member of your church about how ghosts aren’t real might help?

Or you could just get her to ask the friend to stop telling ghost stories, as suggested. I still think that telling the teacher or the other parent is OTT. I think that children need to learn to handle situations like this themselves first before we as parents, do it for them. So YABU.

Ah can see that the DD has asked her to stop from the OPs recent post.

I haven’t seen any “are fucking hateful” type comments or goading

I find some of them fucking hateful. You don’t. Fair enough.

My DD2 (5) has clearly heard zombie stories somewhere, she regularly says she’s worried about them. I just reassure her that they’re not real and we move on. You may be overthinking this, OP.

purple "I have suggested she tell her friend she doesn't like scary stories but she still came home yesterday with two more. "

she might be embarrassed to say "hey, you're freaking me out", might be making polite interested noises and therefore hears more. I've always loved ghost stories but even as a child, you can see there are some kids just going along with it and maybe they went home to parents and said they were scared, but then don't want to tell the kid that because they're accused of being a scaredy cat?

She could try diverting the teller with other topics?

One of my concerns about praying is it's making it a bigger deal rather than a smaller one.

I get what you’re saying, Rosa, I normally only say, ‘Don’t be scared, zombies and ghosts are not real’, and play it down. If my DDs are scared at night-time, of whatever it might be (the dark, spiders at one time), then we pray about it.

The mean girlness because op is a Christian is pathetic.
Op, I’d tell the teacher.