Advise requested: my 7 yo still has tantrums. Mostly he’s a happy chappy but goodness he can rage. Often when tired or hungry but I’m wondering if it’s normal. He’s a very clever boy, does well in school, has friends. Has a 3 yo sister, they mostly get along well. But he can be quite stubborn and argumentative and a bit impulsive, and it’s like he gets locked into himself and can’t stop.
An example from today: he’s pestering his little sister, just annoying sibling stuff (pretending to snatch her toy, sticking his face in her face). She was tied and asked him to leave her alone. He did it again and she asked him again. I also asked him to spot, and said if he didn’t stop by the time I counted to three he’d not be able to do his Lego until after tea. I asked if he understood and he said yes. Well, all of two minutes later he sticks his face in his sisters face, she shouts no, and he smacks her on the knee. (Not hard enough to leave a mark but hard enough that she yelled ouch). I called him up on it and told him no Lego t after tea and he went absolutely mad. Screaming, crying, stlamming his fists on the table, kicked me several times and hit/smacked me several times. DH was WFH and was able to calm him down but took at least 30 min of active trying, soothing, hugging, etc. By the end I was just drained. And that was only me listening to most of it!
is this normal? It doesn’t happen every day, or even every week, maybe once or twice a month. He had a rough period at school a couple of years ago (teacher said he was quite distracted in school and not finishing his work, turned out two classmates were constantly annoying him) and we had him assessed for ADHD and ASD at the time, they couldn’t find anything that would indicate a diagnosis. But he seems to old for this behabiour.