HELP IM FREAKED OUT!

[Upallnight91]

I think I've posted this in the right place, tried to search for a similar thread to see where they've posted. Sorry if I haven't! I'm more of a lurker!

So my 4 year old has just come up to me with a drawing of a family (I assumed ours with cousins etc added), I said oh that's a lovely picture of everybody. Mummy can put it on the fridge and we can show daddy when he's home from work. He turned around and said 'it's not my family now, it's my other family before me and Tommy got lost'.
Cue my mouth dropping! After a moment I did ask who tommy was and he told me his little brother (his baby brother isn't called this).
I tried to ask what he meant by getting lost, but he just shrugged and said he didn't remember. But don't worry his told them this time that he likes his new mummy and daddy and that tommy and him will be happy with us!

He has since gone on his way and is playing with his trucks. I don't want to ask anymore about it, partly because it's well and truly freaked me out! What does he mean him and tommy??

I've read about past lives etc but kind of brushed it off a bit. Now my mind is blown!
Can this possibly be just a phase or could it be a past life thing?

If anybody can rationalise it for me I'd appreciate it! I usually brush stuff off but I cant this!

It's a 4 year old's imagination, not evidence of his past life...

I've read loads of different accounts from people whose children have said very similar things, most appear to say you're my mummy now, I chose you, I had a different mummy before and none can explain where they were in the interim between mummies.

As far as I'm aware, that's just about all the detail a child has, I don't recall any giving specific details or specific locations to verify a former existence.
Also, the memory of the past mummy or family seems to fade pretty quickly and older kids can't recall saying anything.

It is interesting though as a 'thing', is it something some imaginative children just say, or is there more to it?

Can't help explain it I'm afraid, but we had something similar with DS.

He produce a detailed picture whereas his normal drawings weren't anywhere near.

He went on to explain his other family: dad a fireman, mum had died, two brothers and a dachshund. House on a hill. Names for them all. He was quite animated about it.

I had the same reaction as you but am interested in all that kind of "stuff" so just kind of accepted it...

My Ds used to draw pictures of us all in a house fire and then clouds with his real mum and dad on.
They lived in a house cloud because they all died in a fire and hopefully our house would go on fire so he can go back and live with his real parents.
😞Cue being overly terrified for a few months he was only about 3.

My youngest DS when he was probably around 4 years old told me all about his last family. He had names for them all and described his home as a cottage type house - it was bizarre. Definitely just their imaginations though - I think!

My DS was a triceratops in a previous life.

Where does our imagination come from? Why would some remember and others wouldn't?

Think about what is more likely. A past life and "Tommy" has remained with him but is invisible or he's seen/read/overheard/been told something that is being repeated back with the usual misunderstandings and embellishments of children?

Stay calm.
Write down everything he says (privately, if you're interested) and keep the drawings.
Don't make him feel weird or special because of it, it's fairly normal for small people to remember past lives.
He'll forget when this life has more experiences in it. Don't make him feel creepy about his past.

My daughter always used to tell the story about how I died in the the woods and a bad man killed my dog.

I don’t really go in to past lives etc much but her insistence freaked me a little!

Luckily she has forgotten all about in now (age 5)

Watch Surviving Death on Netflix, utterly fascinating series whether you "believe" or not. Last episode is about reincarnation.

I used to have an imaginary friend in a world that was just separate from real life.
Past lives are usually false memories. I researched it one time with hypnosis on people that claimed this. None were convincing.
Some of the 'adults' taken and returned by aliens are quite sure in their own ways.
Rest assured that it is just imagination, perhaps more intense than usual but not unknown. Maybe another world like the Harry Potter one is developing?
Relax.

@DoingItMyself

Stay calm. Write down everything he says (privately, if you're interested) and keep the drawings. Don't make him feel weird or special because of it, it's fairly normal for small people to remember past lives. He'll forget when this life has more experiences in it. Don't make him feel creepy about his past.

His past??

Thank you all for your replies! Have just had s chance to look over them.
He has come out with a few other things since and he told DH who he believed tommy was. Turns out he thinks its DS2 (my baby).
He also keeps mentioning getting lost, that he lost me and couldn't find me and was so sorry that they had run off, they know it was naughty now.

I'm not as freaked out now and am going to have a look at what some of you have posted.
Initially it took me by suprise!

Thank you everyone

One of my kids has said things like this since about age 2. We recently had work done downstairs and the living room layout is more completely different to how it's always been before. When ds first saw it he said ohhh, my living room was like this at my old house!

One of my DDs when she was about 4, used to say stuff like " you're the best mum, I like you better than my old mum". I asked her what she meant and she said I used to be the old lady but I went to sleep and then I was ( DD's name). She doesn't talk about this anymore but she is autistic so she can come out with some weird stuff, but nothing about past lives.