Hello,
I have a 7 year old whom has a very hard time staying calm. She has an explosive reaction, we start the rule of 3, she calms, but then immediately starts again with either tears or yelling and attitude problem body language. I’m not sure what to do as every time we begin to talk, we go back into behavior. She can easily rack up 5-7 chores, major maintenance, SODAS, and 24hr in a single interaction. I also find that we’ll have the parenting counseling session and she may be able to make it through that (though doubtful without having to re-calm down several times), then will try to put off doing anything during the 24hrs reporting that she’s tired and needs rest. If I push her and say we’ll have time for that later, but right now it’s time to work, we go immediately back into behavior. Do I just say within the next 30 min if there’s attitude, we will restart the 24 hours? I’m trying to tighten up a lot with her, as I’ve not had these issues with any of my others. She however, I’m not sure how much empathy to have with her or where to go from here when she calms down momentarily but is resistant to work, can’t get through a conversation, and even when appearing calm continues to tell her sibling to get away from her, stop making any noise, stop looking at her and just generally making the environment miserable for everyone else because she’s “not in a good mood”. There’s points where she’ll say she refuses to get calm. I guess where I’m unsure is when she says she’s calm, and willing to work, but then is having an attitude and making the home unpleasant for everyone else, or claiming she’s ready but then still not calm and clearly in behavior. How do I help her? What do I do?