Oh boy do I know this one. When DD9 was in pre-school, she had me throughly convinced that she was being punched by a certain kid on a regular basis. I would question her and give her advice about involving the grown-ups. DD describe detailed scenarios to me, including teacher responses. The whole thing kept escalating. DD would be in tears as she told me about it. I was thoroughly convinced that my kid was being physically bullied by this kid.
When I finally went to speak with the teacher, the teacher said that my kid never interacted with the alleged perpetrator. She also told me that they had been keeping a close eye on the other child because she had been the subject of bullying by a different kid. The teacher said that she would keep a close eye on things over the next week. She also recommended not confronting DD but to just stop asking about it and see if things changed. Sure enough, when I stopped asking DD about it, the "hitting" disappeared. I have no idea why the whole story started but I bought into it hook, line & sinker.
DD also had a hard time distinguishing between visual media and reality. She was terrified of things as benign as Care Bears. Through second grade we had to warn people when she went to sleepover birthday parties that Dd could not handle movies. She has outgrown a lot of it but still hates movies because they are too stressful. She can only handle things where she knows the ending, i.e. Hugo, where she had read the book.
