I need advice, please from any mom who may have had a similar situation.

I would like to preface by saying I do not believe in spanking or any kind of hitting as discipline.

My oldest is 3 and has very recently become very angry. Whenever he does something he's not supposed to or gets in trouble, he starts screaming and yelling, throwing things around and becoming somewhat unreasonable.

I've tried being firm in tone, we've tried time outs (but now he just gets mad and screams TIME OUT at his toys), we've tried time "ins" where we hug and hold until he settles. He will occasionally hit us in defiance of us giving him a "warning" on behavior and seems to do it just to test the line, but other times it seems plain vindictive.

He just seems so angry in general. He has his happy moments of course and loves to give kisses to us and his sister, sing, play. He's meeting and exceeding all of his gross motor, fine motor, speech and language skills just fine. But he cannot seem to regulate emotions.

I am so exhausted and worried that I've done something to make him so angry. Any advice would be so appreciated and if you've made it this far, thank you for reading.