I have known my 6 year old step son since he was 16 months old. His parents split up when he was 8 months old and have always been very amicable. His dad sees him whenever he isn’t working which is at least one day & night most weekends. He has two half sisters that live here with me and his dad. His mum has just had a baby too and is in a stable long term relationship.
He has always had a lot of tantrums over the years, sometimes crying for hours in the night, we thought he would just grow out of them. However, he is now 6 1/2 and they’ve escalated to another level. He has started saying he wants to kill himself, punching walls, banging his head against walls, saying he hates his dad and will kill him. He’s also said he hates his younger half sister and me but not as often.
He is acting like this at both homes. He first started saying he wanted to kill himself because his mum doesn’t need him anymore (she’s just had a little boy) but he has always been very angry hitting and kicking since he was a baby but still now.
His mum doesn’t seem worried by this behaviour but myself and his dad are extremely concerned. Any on advice on how to approach this would be very much appreciated. Should we take him for counselling? Or is there a way we can improve things ourselves before taking that step?