You know you have a pre-teen when

I've been laughing with Arwen this year.  We joke around about her being a "pre-teen".  She puts on this really funny act where she pretends to be the stereotype of a "cool" teenager.  She tells me I'm "so yesterday", says she'll "upload her playlist" or send me a new "app" for my iPhone, all with a great deal of "attitude" and probably holding her hand up in a peace sign. You get the idea.  It's funny.

Today I asked her to change a lightbulb.  I guess I've never asked before. She responded with an "what? I don't even know how to!"  My husband overheard and said "do it" (not unkindly).  She said she didn't even know how to get it out.  He said to turn it to the left.

After a struggle to find the correct bulb with the correct wattage, Arwen stomped back towards the lamp to screw in the new bulb ("to the right")…and then, I heard it. It was classic. With all of that awesome pre-teen frustrated attitude (except this time she wasn't acting), Arwen made one of her best pre-teen debuts. She said to her dad:

"What do you think I am, an engineer or something?!!"

I burst out laughing.  We regaled Arwen about being a pre-teen, and she couldn't help but smile at herself as she said something about me being so weird.  I told my husband that I'm kind of loving this middle-aged parenting thing.  It's really fun!