Hit Me, Baby!

Grrrrrr...... last night HandsomeBoy hit another kid at school and I just found out that CutiePie hit a teacher this morning. I'm going to...... um...... ack! What AM I going to do?

Now, I know that HB is only 6 and CP is only 5, so it's not like they were in a dangerous gang-related brawl or anything like that. BUT, hitting is NOT okay. I'm not sure exactly what happened with HB yesterday, but apparently he didn't like what the other kid was doing, so he punched him THREE TIMES in the face causing a NOSE BLEED! And the other kid is only THREE FREAKIN' YEARS OLD!!!! What was he thinking?

CutiePie might have been hitting the teacher in jest, but he apparently hit her on her butt, which just compounded the problem.

We're going to have a loooooooong talk about this tonight (again) and all violent play is going to be forbidden. I have to admit that we've been letting the boys play-fight each other lately. Mainly, we allowed it because 1). they're just playing and not actually trying to hurt each other, 2). it burns off energy and during the winter there aren't as many ways for them to do that, 3). I'm glad to see them playing with each other in any way at all, 4). they've been getting creative in their play, pretending to be various charcters and types of people or animals and I thought it was a good creative outlet for them, and 5).......... um, now that I'm looking at this list, it really seems like a bunch of rationalizations. Yes, they're active boys who like to be physically active, but it's NOT acceptable and they are NOT allowed to do this any more.

Any advice????