I have DS 4. I am struggling so much with his various behaviour and quirks that I feel out of my depth and that I am failing him. He is in school (a young August baby) and this has been developing over the last 9 months or so but escalated in the last 3/4.
I feel like I don't know where my child has gone. He's a super bright, wonderfully funny, intelligent, cuddly and sociable little boy but his behaviour is so challenging I find myself crying at the end of the week out of sheer frustration and exhaustion and I need to do better for him.
Examples of lots of different things that I'm trying to piece together:
- Short temper, incredibly rude specifically to me
- Absolutely militant about his environment - his latest things is all the sofa cushions must be removed before he sits there, no toy can be out of place, nothing out of place can be in his eyeline or he has a meltdown
- Punching or throwing toys when they don't work right or if he gets frustrated with them
- General stroppiness and rudeness
- Stressed about clothing, socks and tops not feeling right is the main one - this is quite new
- Anxiety triggered hives
- Poo withholding (since starting school)
- Intense control about where I sit / stand / walk
After some difficult newborn years, his behaviour from 12 months on has always been very good - kind, calm, easy to please, polite, a bit bossy at times but generally a delight to be around and listened / respected boundaries most the time. I am ashamed to say I'm completely out of my depth here. I am a relatively "strict parent" - we've always had calm and clear consequences that we've followed through on but now I have no idea how to handle all of these things as I feel permanently on the back foot.
Am I missing something? How would you approach all these things?