My brother's keeper

We just had our first neighborhood incident - I opened the door to find a little girl informing me that Fletcher was being hit by ________. I was not extremely surprised or worried (does that make me a bad Mom?) - and was taking the whole "boys will be boys" perspective. A fight was bound to happen sometime and so I began to slowly walk down to assess the issue.
Here is the part that really got me... I could see the boys from a distance. Fletcher and Griffin were standing nose to nose with ________, and several other kids were watching the action. I could see really skinny, little arms kicking and hitting - that is when I realized that GRIFFIN was trying to take on the "bully". Now if you do not know my kids very well - it is probably not that funny. But realize that Griffin takes after his Dad- he is a peacemaker, a rule follower, very kind and loves everyone. Not to mention, he is at least a head shorter than _____. And with Fletcher standing beside him (crying after the big fight), Griffin had decided to defend his big brother.

After talking to both sides and several "big kids", the other mom, apologies, and so on - Fletcher stayed down to play (obviously not traumatized) and Griffin walked back up with me.

I asked him, "Griffin, were you trying to fight ________?"

Griffin began to defend himself, "But Mom, _____ was being mean to everybody and he was hurting Fletcher."

And I said, "So you thought it was OK for you to hit him?"

Griffin looked guilty, but replied, "Yes."

I said, "If you ever fight at school, you will get in big trouble. But if you ever get in a fight defending your brother - you will never get in trouble with me. Brothers are suppose to take care of each other. Good job."

Griffin smiled.

I don't know if encouraging your kid to hit someone is really great parenting - but all I know is that I was really proud.