Most of the time, when I give my son a lecture, I feel like that Far Side cartoon -- you know the one, where the owner is talking to the dog, and all the dog hears is "Blah blah blah Ginger blah blah blah."

The chances of actually effecting behavioral change through talk, as I so often try to explain to his teachers, is pretty slight. Better to change the environment to keep the behavior from starting than to blah blah blah about it afterward.

Still, every so often, in spite of myself, I try to reason with the boy. And on occasion, he surprises me by actually absorbing the message. It happened a couple of weeks ago at a Special Olympics meet, when he took my advice on good sportsmanship. And it appears to have happened yesterday, when I had a talk with him about the way he says goodbye to his father in the morning.

Generally, his so long to Pop, who leaves about half an hour before my son leaves for school, is something along the lines of "Go away! Get out of here! Leave me alone!"

Not sure what that's about, but if it's like most of his rude declarations, he's borrowed it from a TV show somewhere.

His dad doesn't take it personally, but it bothers me. So yesterday, I told my son one of my family stories. Seems that when my father was a teenager, he ran off to school one day without saying goodbye to his father ... and that day, his father had a heart attack and died. When I was growing up, there were strict rules about saying goodbye and I love you, and giving a goodbye kiss, every time we parted.

It's not a story I'd expect my boy to engage with. Yet I'm pretty sure it's the reason he said the following to my husband at departure time this morning: "Hey, Dad, why don't you take the day off today? Do you really have to go to work? Why don't you just stay home?"

Not exactly what I had in mind, but it is pretty much the exact opposite of "Go away. Get out of here." And a lot better than "blah blah blah Ginger."

Does your child give good goodbyes? Share your routine in the comments.