Daniel's finger

How do you make your children stop doing something, without inadvertently teaching them something bad?

For example, my 3-year-old son, Daniel, got a cut on his finger. He proceeded to repeatedly show everyone his band-aid during yesterday's Men's retreat. The only problem was the fact that the cut was on his middle finger.

Making things worse, he realized that his middle finger is the third finger on his hand. Being that he is three-years-old, he decided that his middle finger is now his favorite finger. So in addition to showing off his band-aid, he keeps raising just his middle finger and declaring, "I'm three."

I will admit that part of me is finding this very funny, especially since people are clearly shocked every time he does this. I explained to him that he needs to stop, but I don't want to tell him that "raising your middle finger is bad." If I do that, he is more likely to repeat that information to his brother and sisters, thus making this a bigger issue than I want it to become.

Sooooo, if you happen to see us over the next few days and Daniel sticks his middle finger up and declares, "I'm three," just say, "That's nice," and pretend he didn't just offend you.