I love Harry Potter dearly, but I do not love his pre-tween attitudes.

Yes “pre-tween” is a thing.

Harry Potter is a sassy kid. He’s the king of eye rolls, loud sighs, and saying things like “Seriously?!”

I’m sure I deserve his sassiness. I wasn’t a meek and mild child myself. I have a sarcastic side, I have mastered the eye roll, and everyone knows my kids say “seriously” because it’s my favorite overused phrase.

But heaven help me with that attitude. It is going to take ever ounce of self control not to lose my temper with that kid. 

The other day we went to the pool with our friends after school.

Thank goodness for these friends, seriously (yep, I said it), they put up with us even when we are a screaming mess.

Anyway, back to the story.

So we went to the pool, and it didn’t go particularly well.

Despite begging to go to the pool for days, Harry Potter was in a bad mood. He was just… well unpleasant. He was moody, sassy, and uncooperative all before he put his swimsuit on.

He got in a fight with his brother at the pool that resulted in some hitting (because violence is the way those two communicate), and yelled at his best friend.

At one point I made him sit on the side of the pool… this resulted in a number of eye rolls, loud sighs, and comments that went something like “MOM!!!!!! It was his fault, you don’t even care about me!”

Yeah… it was nice. I love the attitude.

Eventually it was time to go and despite his initial refusal to enjoy the pool, he didn’t want to leave.

After finally wrangling the little two, drying them off, and gathering up the 17,000 items we brought to the pool I told him it was “seriously time to get out”.

He looked at me and said… wait for it… “shut up”.

Yes, “shut up”.

Um… yeah that’s not going to work for me.

I can handle sass. I figure if I dish it out, I better be able to take it, but I can’t handle disrespect.

This was one of those kid misbehavior instances that you are so glad to have witnesses for so when you tell the said child’s father later that night he can’t assume you are exaggerating.

My witness responded with a sharp intake of breath.

Perfect response.

He knew he was in trouble.

We called Mr. Spreadsheets from the car on the way home and consequences were dished out.

This delightful… and by delightful I mean extremely irritating, attitude continued throughout the weekend. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to summer if this is how it’s going to be.

Even more than summer, I can’t wait for his actual teen years… seriously pre-tween angst is just… too much for my 32 year old brain to handle. I’m hoping this is a phase that ends… tomorrow, and really I’m hoping that the other two don’t catch whatever attitude Harry Potter has recently developed.

Shut up? Are you kidding me child?