Drawings from 12 year old DSS

[LittleMe03]

He has always loved drawing and keeps a folder of all his drawings.

This morning I noticed his folder was left on his bed when I went in to put away his clean clothes. I decided to have a quick look at his latest drawings, they always usually impress me how talented he is.

I am quite disturbed thou what I came across. He has started drawing pictures of naked men and women which I guess probably isn't unusual at this age? What disturbed me thou is that when I turned to the next page it was full of small pictures of people being attacked.

One person was laid on the floor hands over the face as another person was about to stamp on his/her face.

One person was running from someone who was holding a gun towards them.

One was sat against a wall with blood all over after being attacked by someone walking away with a knife.

I'm really not sure what to think of this but feel it's not normal? WWYD? I am thinking to show my DP this evening and let him deal with it however he decides?

I do feel he is maybe learning a lot at school at the minute about wars, fighting, bullying etc as he has mentioned each of these on occasions over the past few months, so maybe this could be why.

What has he been watching/playing/learning about, and how 'graphic' are the pictures? Ds is a sketcher (13) and a few bloodspattered cartoons amongst his stuff wouldn't bother me unduly.

How old is he? If he’s a teenager then I would suggest that it’s not that odd... if he is a young child then I would be concerned as to what he’s been witness to or watching on tv

He is 12. He started secondary school last September and has recently had a project to do on WW2.

There was a 'talk' at school just before Christmas about bullying etc, he came home with a package about bullying which we looked over and read through with him.

He often mentions fights at school, usually older children than himself which I remember being quite common when I was at secondary school and scary when you first see something like this as it's usually rare in primary schools.

I can see the reasons as to why he may have done the drawings because of these things, he has often used drawing as a way of expressing himself. A few years ago he was drawing lots of pictures of two houses on different parts of the world, when DP spoke to him he said one was his house and the other was a friends house (said friend had just moved house and schools an hour away and DSS was feeling he was much further away)

I think I might tell DP and see what his thoughts are on it.

nobutreally - they are more like 'real' people than they are 'cartoon' drawings.

Honestly I wouldn’t worry too much then. It’s more likely his imagination is doing over time after what he’s been learning

Hi op - defo show to your dp & maybe have a gentle chat with dss about why he likes drawing certain subjects.
However I wouldn’t be too concerned though - my now 15 yr old used to draw & write all manner if weird & sometimes really violent images & stories. He’s now the most mature non violent person you’d ever meet.
I think for most young boys it’s a phase albeit one that should be monitored due to tv/game content as you don’t want his perception of violence to become normalized.

Thank you for your replies. Yes I think I will show DP tonight when DSS is in the bath and take it from there x