When is it OK to make a certain gesture?

No, not that gesture.

I’m talking about the one where you…well, why don’t I start at the beginning.

So I am talking to this 8-year-old girl who is so cute it is ridiculous. We are in a room full of people.

I ask her how old she is.

She tells me she is 8.

“When do you turn 9?” I ask.

She gives me a look that is part “Hello?” and part “Well, Duh!”

Then she says, with a bit of a smirk, “Next year.”

I then cock my arm in such a position as to feign that I am about to give her the back of my hand. You know, the classic “Why I oughta” pose.

She seemed mildly amused. Though I know her parents, and I am quite confident that she has never seen that gesture in even a joking context. In any event, she never — not for one second — suspected she was actually going to be smacked.

I ask her to be more specific about her birthday.

It’s in March.

So here’s my question. The fake backhand thing — how horrible was that?

Obviously, I don’t think it was all that awful. But I did have second thoughts about it.