I'm so devastated. This evening DH was with DD while she was brushing her teeth in the bathroom and DD started spitting in the mirror. DH asked her to stop and she said to him "I'm spitting at me because I don't like me"

I have no idea where this has come from or if it's normal. It definitely doesn't seem normal to me for a little girl to say that. She has said something similar once before but it was quite some time ago and she had been crying and didn't want to watch herself in her bedroom mirror so I thought maybe she was feeling a bit embarrassed. At the time I reassured her that I love her and we talked about all of her great qualities.

We are firm believers in gentle parenting but I know the last few months I have been struggling to have as much patience as usual because I'm tired and have less time for DD with a baby to look after. I have made an effort to make time for just her and I but maybe not enough? I'm so heart-broken to think she could feel this way because I've been less available (emotionally and physically) and more grumpy.

She is a very sensitive and emotional little girl (eg. if she accidently hurts someone she gets so upset and sobs) and I have been thinking lately that I want to look into how to help her become more resilient as I've been worried sick about how she will cope at school next year.

The only thing that I can think of that may have contributed to this is the sense of competition that seems to be rife at kindy at the moment. DD is very concerned with who is the prettiest/oldest/has the longest hair etc. and believe me this has NOT come from home. I am very careful to praise being kind/thoughtful/helpful/caring as well as telling her how beautiful she is but she gets very upset if one of her friends says they are more pretty than her and it doesn't seem to matter what we say

Have any of you experienced anything like this? Any advice would be so greatly appreciated. I so want to raise my lovely girl to be confident with who she is and I'm feeling like a total failure atm