In one of the great ironies of life, our kids were given squirt guns as presents this past Easter.

Since they’d never used squirt guns before, there was a bit of a learning curve. N, for example, kept wanting to pull the trigger with his thumb. In order to do this, he had to hold the gun in such a way that it was pointing directly at his face.

This was somewhat upsetting for him. Every time he tried to squirt one of us, he’d get a stream of water in his face.

After watching him shoot himself a couple of times, I called a brief timeout and walked over to help him out. I turned the gun around, put it properly in his hand, and then showed him how he could use two fingers (index and middle) to pull the trigger. His hands were a bit small to reach, but the two finger technique let him get enough leverage to squirt. That was why he’d been using his thumb.

It was a real old-west style bonding moment: a father showing his son how to shoot a gun.We took a couple of shots together, and then he looked up at me and said, in his cutest two-year old voice, ”Thanks, Daddy.”

Then he pointed the gun directly at my face and pulled the trigger.

I think we need to put the guns away and stick to the swords.