Son (6.5 years old) gets upset and angry very, very easily.

[confusedinlondon]

My son's behaviour is getting worse and worse at home. He is normally fine but he gets very frustrated and then either becomes very upset or very angry if he doesn't get his own way.

He will start grinding his teeth and shouting for 10 and then he will burst into a flood of tears and start sobbing. The sobbing and anger will continue for an age (more than an hour). He will go to his bed and just sob loudly and then sulk. Then he will say things like, ' Give my toys away. I don't ever want another toy' or if we refused to take him to the park he will say, 'I am never going to the park again, ever, in my life'

I have tried reasoning with him, I have tried to ignore him, I have tried to put him in the thinking corner / time out but nothing seems to work.

He is normally very meek / lacking in confidence, when we go outside he is so shy that he will hold my hand and won't make a sound. He won't climb things because he is scared he will fall or ride a bike without stabilisers. At school is he very quiet and does whatever the teachers ask him to do without any problem. In the school pictures (both the yearly pictures and the ones the teachers take of kids doing their work) he looks startled and scared, in almost very picture. No smile but a rather sad face. He has sometimes complained of not having any friends.

I am stuck as to what to do when he throws these temper tantrums and how to break his habit. I read previously that children will grow out of this behaviour but he hasn't. I have never heard a compliant from his school / teachers. They also tell me how wonderfully behaved he is.

Is he an only child? Does he socialise alot? Does he only do this to you? It could be that he does behave well at school and is quite shy but has got into the groove of throwing his weight around at home? Does he behave the same with other adults like his father and grand-parents?

He sounds like a sensitive child. I haven't read it myself but a book called something like 'the sensitive child' is often recommended.
Some of what you say resonates with me. My DD is very thin skinned at times.
It sounds like the outbursts are maybe coming from feeling overwhelmed with emotion he's not regulating/expressing well.
I often found tiredness a real trigger for DD getting emotional (still is and she is a teen).
Shyness is not necessarily a bad thing, but maybe you need to help him foster a bit more self confidence and esteem.
Many kids are brilliantly behaved at school and then awful at home - home is where they finally feel safe enough to let go of everything bottled up.
I found with my DD when younger that giving lots of advance notice and signposting what was happening next was helpful. When she did something she perceived as wrong she would often direct her criticism at herself, so we've always had to have a very light touch with discipline. Luckily she's barely needed any!