Questionable Parenting Technique

I've never claimed that I have all the answers when it comes to parenting but I do always have an opinion. Besides, it's not like parenting is an exact science, it's more like a trial by error sort of thing. Of course it's better if you can minimize the errors by identifying them early and remembering not to do it again. So when I noticed a pattern of my son hitting my daughter and pulling her hair I came up with a theory and put it in place. The theory goes that when faced with an adversary (her 2 year old brother) who will not listen when you ask him to stop hitting you need to be able to defend yourself. Of course you could always come running to mom and dad or some other authority figure but the theory is if the perpetrator respects her fighting ability he won't do it in the first place. Most parents I tell this theory too visibly cringe but I thought I’d give it a try and see what happens. So on Monday, Juliette and Nicholas were fighting in the kitchen while my wife and I were in the living room. I've been trying to teach Juliette how to fight back for a while so I was hopping she could take care of it herself. As the fight got worse I kept waiting to hear Nicholas start crying but instead I only heard Juliette and it was getting louder and louder. Finally I had to go in, break it up, give Nicholas a huge timeout for hurting his sister and comfort my daughter. I told her again that mom and dad won't always be around and if Nicholas doesn't respect her fighting ability, he will hit her whenever he feels like it. So yesterday I heard them fighting in the basement. As usual Juliette started crying first but then I heard Nicholas start crying. Then Juliette said, "OK, let's stop now and play". At this point both of them stopped fighting is started to play again. Yippee!!! When Juliette got upstairs I asked her what had happened. She looked at me with big teary eyes because she thought I was going to get her in trouble. She proceeded to tell me that Nicholas hit her and she hit him back. To which I responded, “Just like daddy told you to do yesterday?” Juliette with a smile from ear to ear nodded yes and then she gave me a huge hug. It was a classic daddy daughter moment. I didn't even need to lift a finger during the whole thing. Of course the only way I think this has a chance of working is because Juliette is twice the size of Nicholas and Nicholas is almost always the aggressor. If this backfires and Juliette becomes the bully then I'll have to try something else (and Nicholas will have this blog as evidence when he visits his therapist years from now), but for now I think my daughter is enough of a pacifist who's more interested in playing princess than beating up her little brother. Wish me luck!