I think it's because she's 7. And a girl. My 7 year old step daughter began with the massive attitude pretty much the day she turned 7. She has an 8 month old (half) sister, which recently the jealousy has began to show its evil face. I have been mom to her for about a year before my daughter was born, so she has been "the only child" at our house for a while. She hasn't shown jealousy until recently, but it's not too bad. We try very hard to make time equal, she is not treated as anything less than our daughter. The main problem is her bursting into a tearful fit for no reason. We were in a store, shopping for back to school, had some shoes at the register. She turned around and asked if she could have a kitkat. She NEVER gets candy. EVER. I told her no. She immediatley started stopping her feet, crying, screaming about how unfair I was and mean, and I never get her anything she wants (remember, we are at the checkout, buying HER a pair of shoes) and on and on. Needless to say, we left the store without the shoes. I was mortified. I have never seen a bigger fit from her. Over a kitkat bar. She asked me just yesterday about those shoes, I reminded her that we didn't get the shoes because she threw a fit. She said, oh, yeah.... and that was the end of it. She also has been know to "hate" macaroni and cheese (she loves it) or chicken nuggets (loves them) or anything else, just because she doesn't want to eat it at that time. She sat at the table for 2 hours one night because she refused to eat. She ended up eating it, and then going straight to bed. I try and give her choices, which at first went bad, but only one night. Ex: TV at night. She used to take 2 hours to go to sleep because she'd keep the tv on in her room (I want it gone all together, but I lost that battle so far). I gave her the choice....since it took her so long to go to sleep with the tv on, she can watch it for 30 minutes then it goes off (cue horrified face and a few tears here) OR she can got to be with no TV. That first night she threw a horrible fit and wound up with no TV. We listened to her rant and rave and cry for almost 2 hours through the closed door. The next night, she chose 30 minutes of TV. It hasn't been a problem since. Gotta stick to your guns. Was it annoying? Yes. Did she wake up her baby sister? Yes. Did we add to the drama by punnishing her for that? No. I talked to her the next day about her fit and asked her if she thought it was a good idea to throw a fit when she didn't get her way. She said no. We don't have very many fits like that anymore. She has these "instant tears" when she doesn't get her way. She wants a snack, I tell her to go get one. She says she doesnt like any of them (she picked them out). I tell then don't get a snack. She starts crying and saying that daddy gets all the good snacks (for work...and she turns into a gremlin with sugar) and she doesn't get anything......I calmly tell her that she picked out her snacks and explained (again) that she doesn't get sugary snacks because sugar in certain foods, such as candy or those junk food little debbie snacks, gives her a horrible attitude and she gets in trouble if she has an attitude. She doesn't like getting in trouble, so we avoid the sugar. Usually she is fine with the snacks we have for her, just today, she decided they weren't ok. I told her she can go to her room if she was going to cry. 5 minutes later, she came out and asked if she could have one of her snacks. Her attitude is so drastic, so quick, I wonder sometimes if she is bipolar. She's probably not, she's just 7. That's how they act. Everyone I've asked about it, has the same issues. She's usually a good kid, but when she decides to be bad, my oh my. They say it ends around 9, just in time for preteens! We have started a chore chart she gets $ for each chore, if she gets an attitude that day, she gets a sad face and no money for the day. And still has to do her chores. The visual helps her