Extremely Emotional 6 Year Old - WTF is this?

[namelesswench]

We have a strong willed, but generally great 6 year old girl. Suddenly she is utterly exhausted, and fighting us on every little thing. Arguments galore, complaints about everything, the littlest thing can set her off. No changes in routine, school, friends etc. This morning's issue was because I asked her what she wanted for breakfast and she couldn't decide, which apparently justified true sobbing crying breakdown which escalated and lasted the best part of 30 minutes. Afterwards she said she said she was sorry for being mean, and that her head is bad, she is a bad kid etc (horrible stuff to think is in her head). Google tells me that she could be starting hormone changes, and at age 6-7 they have big emotional swings, but I don't hear any other mums complaining. Is this normal? Does anyone have any coping tips?

Our son was exactly like this just before he had chickenpox. Back to normal immediately afterwards.

My DS nearly 6 has been like this recently, he has been under the weather and we're linking it to this at the moment as he's not normally so argumentative or emotional over little things.

My little one is also like this. HUGE emotions and meltdowns over very little. This has been going on for about two months. I don’t have any solutions, sorry! Definitely lots of cuddles and trying to accept this while explaining it’s not okay to respond like this. The thing you said about calling themselves names is also happening, along with hitting themselves. They’d never hit anyone else but seem to think it’s okay to hit themselves.

Yes, that is exactly it! She is so emotional and all over the place and just sad/grumpy. She hit herself in the face this morning, which she would never do normally. Thanks for the solidarity (and I hope for all of us it passes so soon)!