I recently read a post which discussed whether we should be teaching our kids to hit back when another child hits them in preschool.

Personally, I think hitting back in school should not encouraged at any age much less in preschool. If a child is being hit at school, it seems to me that the teacher should intervene. If the offending child keeps hitting that calls for parent/teacher discussions.

Our preschool does not tolerate hitting and deals with these issues directly with the offending child’s family. Apologies are expected from the child doing the hitting to the child or children that he/she hit. That is usually the end of it. I am not sure what happens if this type of behavior continues.

It seems that encouraging a child to hit back does nothing to solve the problem…it merely tells another child that hitting is okay in certain instances. To me, preschoolers, do not seem to have the ability to differentiate between when hitting back may in fact be appropriate.

I think preschoolers should defend themselves by telling the teacher and telling their parents.

The parent should then make sure that this is resolved swiftly and appropriately.

What do you think about teaching your preschool child to defend him/herself? Would you encourage hitting back? If so under what circumstances would you think hitting back was okay?

Do dads feel differently about this problem?