Ykaie's First Neighbor Fight??

As a mom, it's nice to know that your child is a fighter.Yesterday, a neighbor told me that Ykaie hit her child. I know her child is smaller and younger, a one year old. My heart skipped a beat, specially when I saw the little boy crying. I didn't see what happened but  I got angry. It was very unlikely for her to do that. I took ykaie home, reprimanded her and hit her hands with my hands, to give her a lesson. I told her it's a bad thing and that she shouldn't hit another person, specially someone who's smaller than her. She cried and told me she was sorry. I  told her to go to that kid and say sorry. Ykaie was crying so hard and it was a pinch to my heart every time I see her like that...but I wanted her to learn a lesson.

Going back to the house, another neighbor told me that the reason why Ykaie hit that kid is because the little kid hit her first. It's a little comforting to know that Ykaie's action was a REACTION. It was her instinct kicking in, telling her to defend herself, she's just too young to know that the little kid won't be able to hurt her and that she was bigger. This is what the mom of the one year old failed to mention so I assumed it was Ykaie's fault. I'm not taking sides because these are kids. They don't really know what they are doing.One of them is just mine so I just wished I was informed of what happened, I could've reacted much better and I would have been able to explained the whole thing much better to ykaie...