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The 'teen years' come too early
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Published: February 26, 2009
My friends and I have started to notice a very disturbing trend among our 8-and 9-year-olds. It's called attitude, and everybody's got it all of a sudden.
I thought we were going to have at least another three years before the pre-teen angst set in, complete with glowering stares and rolled eyes. But I wasn't that lucky.
One night, while Josh was sound asleep, tucked under his Atlanta Braves sheets and stadium blanket, the Attitude Fairy paid a visit to our house, and things haven't been the same.
Point out that his shoes don't belong in the middle of the living room floor — eye roll.
Ask him to run upstairs and grab his sweatshirt — long, pained sigh.
Ruffle his hair or kiss the top of his head in front of his friends — bright red cheeks and body language that says "I do not know this woman, and she is clearly insane."
One of my friends has speculated that it's all the growth hormones in the chicken kids eat. She thinks it's making them develop earlier — all but one of the under-9 set in our group now needs deodorant — and she swears that along with their physical changes has come a pre-teen attitude we shouldn't have seen for years.
I'm not sure what's behind the changes, but I'm going to do my best to fight Mother Nature. When he rolls his eyes, I roll mine right back. The long sighs and complaints are met with a stern look and reprimand, which seems to be working, at least for now.
But I've had a preview of the years to come, and I'm not looking forward to the days when a look from mom won't exactly strike fear into his heart.
I may have to resort to the threat of embarrassment to bring about an attitude adjustment — if he thinks it's bad when I give him a big smooch in public now, just wait until he's 13.
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