What to Know
Toddlers and preschoolers can be an interesting group, but one mom got a little bit more than she bargained for as a parent when her four-year-old repeatedly insisted that he was “in a different body.”
TikTok user Schoen Love (@schoenlove) explained to the world that from the time her son could talk, he told her that he “didn’t understand” why he was in a different body.
Schoen claims her son was “cranky” about having to go to school, insisting he had already been to school and worked many jobs.
“He said, ‘I’ve already gone to school. I’m not doing it again. I didn’t like it. Then, I don’t like it now,” Schoen explained in the TikTok.
The four-year-old was so upset at the prospect of going back to school, in fact, that Schoen ended up homeschooling him. The preschooler insisted that he was a cowboy from Okeechobee, Florida and spoke often about missing his horse.
And the details the little boy shared about his past life were very specific.
According to the four-year-old, he became a cowboy after his father — who was a “real big jerk” — passed away and his mom died in a house fire, so he was left to inherit the farm.
“He used to get real mad at the big gators that would take his calves,” Schoen noted.
Some viewers were incredulous, but others were understandably just as freaked out as the mom by how oddly specific the preschooler was.
“Like what 4 y/o would know where Okeechobee is,” pointed out one commenter.
“I was like WHAT!?,” Schoen responded in agreement.
The mom explained that her son missed his "old life" so much that it even caused "behavioral problems" at times.
The wild part of the mom’s story is that he insisted her son had never been around anything farm, cowboy, or gator related, yet he loved, and continues to love horses and anything cowboy related.
“You should have seen him on his birthday around horses,” she quipped. “It’s like the old man came back out.”
She added that the family ended up moving to Florida, and while the little boy is overall a very easy, happy, go-lucky kid, he still mentions his old life once in a while.
For instance, during a trip to Walt Disney World, the boy mentioned off-handedly how he was “related” to the Disney family.
Research-savvy TikTokers even pointed out that the stories oddly do match up.
“Okeechobee Cattlemen’s Association was founded in 1937. Ranching and cowboys were active in that area of Florida in the 30s and 40s,” one noted.
“Elias Disney – He’s Walt Disney’s Father. Farmer, Had Horses…he was the only member of the Disney family whose wife died due to a gas leak/fire,” they wrote.
“Walt Disney’s parents and maternal grandparents owned farms in Florida,” added another.
(Walt Disney’s brother, Elias, did, in fact, purchase his father’s farm after his death, and his mother did die from a gas leak, ironically from a furnace purchased by Walt Disney himself.)
The little boy is now nine years old, and Schoen says while they don’t “push” anything from their son, she and her husband remain curious and open and do their best to encourage and cultivate his interests. Along with their move to Florida, they have introduced him to horses, taken him on trail rides and pony rides, and plan to explore the area more and even go camping.
“We’re navigating,” she said. “That wasn’t in any parenting books.”
She may never know fully what is happening, if her son really is remembering some past life thing, but it is super interesting, and a little freaky.
