Just had a parents evening with my DD’s (age 5) yr1 teacher. It seemed like she was describing a different child. This has been the case throughout nursery and in reception. At school she is well-adjusted, happy, bright and engaged with learning. She has a nice group of friends and joins in during class. At home it is a different picture. She can be lovely but a lot of the time her behaviour is extremely challenging. She still has regular big tantrums (at least 2 a day) and struggles hugely with regulating herself. She is a real live wire and wants to be active all the time. Any games we play have to be dominated by her and if we deviate from her rules then she melts down. If we try and talk to her about her emotions once she has calmed down she will put her hands over her ears, get really upset refuse to engage.
We are very close and she relies on me to regulate her. Whilst I try my best is it extremely draining day after day. It can really impact on our family life with us all walking on eggshells hoping to avoid her next tantrum and her 3 year sister saying she wishes she didn’t have a sister who screamed so much.
Should we be concerned? She can also be very anxious and defiant (but very well behaved at school). Last year she got the school prize for being a role model for good behaviour. We were slightly amazed!!
We occasionally get to our wits end and discuss how we think that her behaviour can’t be ‘normal’ but are we overreacting? I feel that if we talked to the school they would think we are mad. Ultimately we just want her to be a kind ,well-adjusted and happy person. Any advice or comments would be hugely appreciated!