I have a 7 year old daughter who can be lovely or just plain awful (shouting at me, threatening to hit me, destructive, uncoopertive in the extreme) and it is like a switch has been flipped, it comes seemingly out of nowhere. It is becoming a daily event now, feels like we are partly regressing into toddler temper tantrums. She often says things like "and anyway, you don't love me" and I always assure her I do.
I try to be calm and consistent (she loses toys/activities such as watching telly as punishment which usually makes no difference to her behaviour) but she makes me so angry inside and also frustrated. I would like to add that we have never smacked her so I am especially horrified that she threathens to hit/kick us.
When she is nice, she is lovely. She is happy at school and not struggling academically etc., we haven't had any family upheavels and I just do not know why she becomes this sort of devil child - they know exactly how to press our buttons that's for sure. Her behaviour deteriorates rapidly when she is hungry but she can carry on like this at any time of day. It seems to be getting more frequent and I feel really sad - I sometimes dread after school and weekends as she can be so draining. It puts me off trying to do nice things with her outside of the home as she can be so awful.
Just don't know what to do to stop this. Any ideas? Is this normal seven year old behaviour and if so is anyone else absolutely dreading the teenage years??!