I feel for you though! It’s so tough

Oh dang, that sounds like the girls I watched too. Yeah, when that happens, I would walk away (but still monitor from a distance) and tell them that I would talk to them when they wanted to be nice again. After they calmed down, we would have a talk about how people need to be nice to each other, and *whatever behavior* hurts me and makes me feel sad. I would also tell the girls “I don’t like when you *kick/hit/scratch*, and that doesn’t make me want to hang out with you right now. But if you can be nice, I would love to hang out again”. It does really suck though. I just made sure to never say anything that I would regret later on, but let them know it’s not okay

Oh okay, that makes sense then. He’s about at the age where that type of thing happens more frequently. Three little girls I used to nanny had very intense tantrums because of their background before they were adopted. Different scenario, but I would calmly tell them “Hey, I can’t understand you. Would you like to try again calmly?” Didn’t always work, but if you stay calm, but also let him know that tantrums don’t work- that should help a bit. It’s difficult when new behavior pops up out of no where. Hang in there!!

Maybe he’s having a growth spurt and is more uncomfortable? Mine gets like that too when he’s in a growth spurt.