As I alight from my car to fetch Ethan, his teachers were already at the school veranda waiting for me. I walked towards them wondering if something was wrong.

Hi! I said. Am I late?

Hello ma'm. You're just in time for the pick up. However, there has been a major incident regarding Ethan and a classmate said teacher 1.

My head expanded and on the verge of bursting! I was thinking some major accident happened to my grandson. Cracked skull! Slit lips! Fractured shin! Grazed face! His mom, my daughter, will kill me! I composed myself and asked what happened?

Teacher 1 with Teacher 2 narrated the incident. It seemed that Ethan and a girl classmate were fighting over the right to occupy a cubicle. As the two struggled as who the worthy occupant of the cubicle would be, the girl said that Ethan punched her while Ethan claimed the girl scratched him. Indeed, a band-aid covered the booboo on Ethan's arm. The teacher said that between the girl and Ethan, they can't rightly know which came first: the punch or the scratch. Anyway, Ethan and his girl classmate have made amends. The scratch was quite vicious, the punch, no tell- tale sign whatsoever.

When we came home, the punching and scratching tale was told and retold to everyone in the house. There was a variety of reactions like: tsk tsk , what???!!! (the beeatch), may i see the booboo?, ha-h-a-ha, did you say sorry? Though expressed in different words and sentiments all my children basically had the same advice to Ethan.

Don't punch anyone, especially girls. But if he/she goes first,
go ahead and punch him/her right back. Be sure to be win.

Sounds brutal? Nah! that was exactly the same piece of advice I gave my kids when they were in grade school. No one was ever caught in a fight.