The Middle Finger

Okay, who has ever had this conversation with their children? The other night, while reading my oldest daughter her bedtime stories, she asked me this...


"Mommy, what is our middle finger called?"


"It's called the middle finger."


"Why?"


"Because it's in the middle of our hand."


"Mommy, what do we do with it?"

Okay this is where I could have used some help. A lot of help. I wasn't exactly sure how to answer this question, especially coming from a 3 1/2 yr old. This is why it was hard for me. You see, Caroline usually points to things with her middle finger, not sure why. I think it might be a family trait, my nephew does the same thing. I told her we use our fingers for many different things, like typing, writing, sign language, eating, and... pointing. I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to tell her pointing with the middle finger isn't such a good idea. Of course she asked why. This is how that conversation went.

"Why don't we point with our middle finger Mommy?"

"Because honey, pointing with your middle finger is like using bad language."

"Mommy our fingers can't talk."

"I know our fingers don't talk, it's like using sign language, but pointing with your middle finger means something very bad."

"Okay Mommy."

That seemed a little too easy. Let's just pray she stops pointing to things with her middle finger. Whew!!