My daughter is 8. An only child, but has lots of friends and is very sociable. Can talk to anyone - adults and children alike. She generally is a very happy, smiley person.
Can be exceptionally self critical which has reared its head within the last year, lost a lot of confidence with reading/drawing over covid lockdowns, but she picked herself up the last term at school and we had a fantastic school report and she's back to where she's expected to be.
The last couple of weeks have been quite up and down. We were away and she had an issue with an activity, part of the equipment didn't fit her properly and she took it very badly, she even exclaimed she was fat and then refused lunch. We gave her 10 minutes and she eventually ate lunch and the drama was over.
She's having what can only be described as mood swings, literally can turn in a heartbeat. She's cried more in the last few weeks than she had in a year.
This morning she awoke fine, I did her hair how she asked, she looked in the mirror with a face like thunder, so I walked away. I'm trying my hardest not to antagonise her as i know we are entering a difficult phase.
I went up to her room, she looked very sad and tearful. I asked her what was wrong and she said nothing. I Pre empted it by saying I walked away because I could see she seemed unhappy or cross with her hair.
I asked again what was wrong she said nothing is wrong, because I am just nothing, I'm nothing..... Like a dagger in my heart to me!
We had a chat, we have done an activity together and she's back to being the smiley bouncy child.
It's her words that are worrying me.
Frankly I had a shit childhood, lots of emotional abuse and neglect.
I thought very little of myself for years, that I was nothing, a nobody, because that is what I was told.
To hear those words from my child has devastated me. She has everything I didn't have as a child, I thought I was doing ok.
Or am I overthinking this, she's going through a change and I'm projecting what happened to me onto her?
I know from friends that her age can be tricky, the transition from small child to pre teen.
It's just the choice of words she used today.
Sorry if it seems like I'm rambling, but I'm feeling a bit crushed.