Dinner has been an ongoing problem with difficult child and I am hoping for some ideas. Earlier in the day in mentioned that we were having hamburgers and difficult child said OK. At dinner time easy child 1 and easy child 2 are at the table and I am serving everyone and she come to the table and starts yelling that she wont eat a hamburger and I need to make her a sandwich now. I calmly say that she can make herself a sandwich but that I am sitting down to eat. She escalates as I continue to not make her what she is demanding. We are now trapped and dinner for me, easy child 1 and easy child 2 is ruined. She will not move away from the table or leave the room and keeps yelling, demanding and calling me names. easy child 2 gets up from his chair and starts handing her stuff that she is demanding because he just wants her to stop. A week or so ago easy child 1 and easy child 2 had to leave the table and go to a different part of the house until difficult child calmed down.
She is calming down faster than in past years. She did make her self a sandwich within about 15 minutes and we all finished eating but the toll on her siblings is very large. It is hard on a regular basis to have a meal that includes someone screaming and throwing things even for 10-15 minutes of it.
I am feeling very powerless. I feel that when this happens she needs to leave the room but I can not physically make her leave and I can not figure out what to say to make her leave (consequences etc). But I also feel that the rest of us leaving (and coming back to our dinner plates later) or sitting there and just taking it from her are not OK options.
Advice welcome
She is calming down faster than in past years. She did make her self a sandwich within about 15 minutes and we all finished eating but the toll on her siblings is very large. It is hard on a regular basis to have a meal that includes someone screaming and throwing things even for 10-15 minutes of it.
I am feeling very powerless. I feel that when this happens she needs to leave the room but I can not physically make her leave and I can not figure out what to say to make her leave (consequences etc). But I also feel that the rest of us leaving (and coming back to our dinner plates later) or sitting there and just taking it from her are not OK options.
Advice welcome