Death by a thousand cuts

Okay kiddo, you know how sometimes when you have a paper cut it hurts a little bit? Well, imagine if you got a lot of tiny paper cuts all over your body. Ouch, right?

Well, that's kind of what we mean when we talk about "death by a thousand cuts." It's not actually a way that people die, but it's a way of describing a situation where someone is slowly and painfully getting hurt over a long period of time.

For example, imagine if someone was being bullied at school every day. Each time someone said something mean or made fun of them, it might not seem like a big deal. But after a while, all of those little insults and hurts would add up and start to really weigh on that person, both emotionally and physically.

The idea of "death by a thousand cuts" is often used to describe situations like that, where someone is being slowly chipped away at by many small hurts or stresses. It can be a very painful and difficult way to experience life, which is why we use this metaphor to describe it.