Hi there,
My son will be three in May. He is generally a really charming and lovely little boy. He's always been incredibly popular with his friends and nursery friends, and adults too. Since turning two, we've had our fair share of the 'terrible twos' behaviour, including hitting and lots of screaming/tantrums. This behaviour is usually aimed towards me, but on the odd occasion nursery will tell me at pick up that they'd had to remind him to use his kind hands on numerous occasions that day (this is quite rare).
I've noticed this behaviour has been getting worse and worse and has become incredibly intense. This Easter Bank holiday weekend for example, we've had four days of huge meltdowns and extremely aggressive behaviour towards me. The second I say no to something he has asked for, he'll grab hold of my hair and pull it, screaming at me whilst he's doing it (and he's a big strong boy for his age). He'll try kicking me, hitting me in the head, grabbing my glasses and pulling them off my face (they're nearly completely broken) and occasionally tries biting me when I'm restraining him. After one of these episodes he generally breaks down crying and is extremely emotional. Sometimes I ask him to say sorry, other times he'll say it by himself (but rarely). We have nice smiley happy times in between these episodes, but this weekend we've had multiple episodes within an hour, lasting all day.
Another example, this morning I woke him and we had about an hour before we had to leave for nursery. The second he woke up he asked if he could have some chocolate, I said no and he immediately swung his leg out of bed to try and kick me and then started screaming. He refused to get out of bed and laid there screaming "NO". I had a stern word with him and then he broke down crying. Seconds after he had calmed down, I said it was time to have a wee, wash his hands and brush his teeth, he immediately started screaming and hitting me because he didn't want to do this (we have this battle every morning). Getting dressed was another battle. Leaving the house was another battle. We'd basically had one whole hour of screaming and aggressive behaviour.
I always remain consistent; if I've said no to something I stick to my guns. He generally doesn't have this aggressive behaviour towards his dad or other people. I'm at my breaking point, I just don't know what to do or how to handle this behaviour. I've always been incredibly loving towards him and absolutely adore him, but recently I have occasionally lost my rag and shouted at him when these episodes happen (I'm only human). Generally I just try to remain calm and hold his arms down if he's hitting me, reminding him we don't hit and that it hurts me, but I am getting really emotional about the situation and I just don't know how to best handle it when it's happening.
Please, anyone who has experienced this, please let me know how you handled it and if you have any advice.
Thank you.