Exhausting 5 year old

[coffeeneeded]

Is this normal?

When our 5 year old boy tantrums, these tantrums often involve him threatening to hurt himself (and sometimes other people). Today's one was "I'm going to throw myself down the stairs" and "I'm going to strangle myself"

The thing is that he has a twin sister who has never had this kind of reaction to things.

Is this something we should be worried about and involving the doctor?

It is always a good idea to talk to professionals to see what support they can offer. Feelings are hard to figure out never mind how to deal with them. All children need to learn how to deal with their feelings.
There are a couple of books, written psychologist, that are really useful to explore these concepts.

raising2children.com/the-power-of-showing-up-ultimate-book-review/

raising2children.com/mum-of-2-book-review-on-help-your-child-deal-with-stress-and-thrive/

I know I find it hard to keep my own emotions in check when my 2yo + 4yo are learning these skills. I love Dr Dan Seigel explanation on window of tolerance. I love it so much I wrote a post about it for us as parents rather than for the child.

raising2children.com/how-to-widen-your-window-of-tolerance/

It's weird that my 2nd son reactions to his feelings is completely different to my 1st son so it felt like starting all over again in trying to find want strategies work! its tiring that's for sure.

all the best

How is your son in other settings like school and friends’ houses? If his behaviour in other settings is fine it’s probably just a phase / testing boundaries. Whatever you’re doing around unconditional love, talking etc will probably be fine.

If he has the same behaviours in all settings then it may be worth speaking to your gp about a referral to a psychologist.

He's absolutely fine when he's at school and out of the house- but sometimes the mere suggestion of leaving the house is enough to set him off.

He can be an extremely loving and kind boy- he just has this other side to him that I'm hoping he'll grow out of.......