Have had a horrific day with dd2 - mainly due to general exhaustion. Walked with kids and dog to town but she got in a state of high anxiety even before we left the house about refusing to to walk up alleyways because they are too 'lonely' and 'scary' and 'I don't like the fences' (I think it's partly also crossing the road near the train station and putting the dog on and off the lead repeatedly). She ranted/shouted/grimaced the whole way, all the time clinging on to me. The alley thing is new, but genuine – we took a slightly different route home across an open common, at which point she completely relaxed and after a 2.5-hour rant was pleasant, relaxed and back to normal.
After getting home a friend turned up with her kids. These are younger kids - dd2 enjoys playing with them because they just love to imitate her (so everything on her terms) but after they went home the wheels really came off. And rolled out the door. She was out of control for about an hour while attempting to wrap a box for the Smile shoebox collection.I should have stopped this much sooner than I did but sometimes I don't have the energy and escalation is unavoidable so I stopped her when rolls of sellotape started being flung round the room. At the height of her anger (which lasted ages) as I had to make demands about stopping and going to bed she screwed up her hands and eyes and did something that actually looked like a convulsion. This is not something I say lightly. It is scary seeing her like that and I hate it.
Thankfully she is now sound asleep but the ugly, out-of-control screaching is ringing in my ears. Hate hate hate days like these. Sorry I just needed to get that down. Thanks 