I and a friend of mine are both pregnant and due pretty close together. This wasn't done on purpose or anything, we just both happened to have this happen at about the same time. This is the first child for each of us.

So, we were just talking generally about things we'd like to do as new parents and the topic of siblings came up. I mentioned how I think my brothers and I physically fighting really hurt our relationship as we do not speak or have much affection for each other now. I said that I would like to keep that kind of stuff to an absolute minimum, teach them the importance of TALKING with WORDS, and using things like punishing both of them to keep them united in their relationship.

My friend though thinks it's totally dandy to let kids duke it out, not as a playfight, but out of anger. I think it's totally unreasonable and I was shocked, to be honest with you. I've seen parents who take that approach and their kids have always been too violent, rude, and very difficult for other people to manage. Plus, it's really uncomfortable seeing two kids punching each other and seeing adults just stand back and let it happen.

I told her that I thought that it wasn't the best idea to ALLOW children to physically hit each other, but that they should be encourage to resolve their differences in peaceful, non-booboo-inducing ways. Sure, they might hit each other when you're not looking and you should discourage any hitting from happening, but actually seeing the violence happening and choosing to not intervene, I think that instills a sense in the kids that you don't care about their feelings or about fairness. How do you trust an adult who doesn't step in when your sibling is beating on you?

My friend insists that this somehow makes sense and I didn't want to keep arguing about it. I do hope that she realizes what a terrible idea this is when she actually has the baby and winds up feeling differently.

Is it unreasonable to think letting a recreation of WWE between children is a bad idea?