Angry kids

Children who are persistently:

angry, unhappy, defiant,
non compliant, complaining, negative,
miserable or tantruming

Why is my child so angry

Parents inevitably ask why is my child so angry? Am I doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with me or my child? And so the questions and wonderings go on.

There can be a multitude of reasons why children behave like this. Generally these behaviours mean there is something wrong in your child’s world. Things like jealousy, family dynamics, sibling rivalry, teasing, bullying, school problems, learning difficulties, poor self esteem, feeling left out, loneliness, problems with friends and so the list goes on. Children are not always able to identify what’s going on for them or if they know, they are unable to talk about it . Some children don’t want to worry parents with their issues and think they should sort stuff out for themselves.

Impacts on the family

Living with an angry child can be draining, upsetting and very frustrating for parents and it often disrupts the whole family. Parents will often try a range of different parenting strategies to try and help their child.

If you have done this with no success, then it is probably time to seek some professional help. Intervening early before these negative behaviours become entrenched is recommended especially before you hit the teenage years.

How therapy can help

Engaging with a child therapist who is skilled in helping families with children’s behaviour problems can usually identify the underlying problem and set your child on the right track again. Usually the therapist will meet with both parents at the beginning and get a full background of your child and your family. Then the therapist would meet with your child a few times. Usually by this time the difficulties are identified and you are on the way to fixing things up. In therapy both parents and child can learn effective techniques to manage problematic behaviours express their feelings in positive ways.