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advice on five year old's sudden outbursts of anger, please!

7 replies

stickylittlefingers · 28/08/2009 13:44

Hi - my dd1 is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde at the moment (or perhaps the girl with the curl). Anyway - she has the most tremendous rages (once every couple of weeks), normally about something seemingly very innocuous - she will absolutely scream her head off, will try and hit (tho not hard, more for effect because she knows it's naughty, I think) - which will generally end up with her sobbing in her room.

She is generally a very sunny happy little thing - it really is as if someone hit a switch. There seems to be no prior warning, either, tho perhaps I'm missing the signs.

Atm I'm just trying to be very calm about it, tho I do tell her to go and stay in her room until she feels better. It's only directed at dp and me, or the grandparents, but never her little sis (3 years younger) - so I'm guessing that it's about not feeling in control, whereas little sis will annoy her but she'll just get "reasonably" cross, if that makes sense.

Afterwards she is very contrite and wants to be cuddled and told everything's OK again.

Does anyone have any advice or similar experiences?

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
travellingwilbury · 28/08/2009 19:41

It does sound pretty normal to me , I have a 5 yr old ds and he does sometimes get uncontrollably cross atm . Nothing seems to start him off in particular , he just has a bit of a flip out and then afterwards wants lots of hugs and reassurance that all is ok .

Sorry probably not much help but hopefully now bumped and someone will have some better insight .

HerbWoman · 29/08/2009 19:51

DS (also 5) is like this recently. I think we have been mentioning school starting again and I have come to the conclusion that he is a bit worried about going back. It is coming out as anger over every little thing and he throws things about. Although I'm not putting up with that, I'm trying to talk with him about going back and giving him lots of hugs. He has said several times though that he doesn't want to go back ever again, so that did give me a clue!

EleanoraBuntingCupcake · 29/08/2009 19:57

yes completely normal. i try and head dd off at the pass with a combination of 'how to talk to children' and good old fashioned bribery via a reward chart.

clop · 29/08/2009 20:10

Oh heavens, I get this 1-3x/day with 5yo DS .

stickylittlefingers · 01/09/2009 13:27

thanks for your replies! I must admit I'm still a bit worried... there is no "pass" to be headed off at, iyswim - it's much more sudden and unpredictable. Not like a toddler tantrum - it's very very sudden.

I guess I just have to hope she grows out of it!

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Lio · 01/09/2009 13:30

ds, also 5, did this at the weekend and I am almost sure it was connected to his needing to eat. Just a thought.

bidibidi · 02/09/2009 09:52

Yeah, DC are far more volatile when they haven't eaten.

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