As a parent, putting your little kid to sleep often accompanies a bed-time story. One of the common stories where good triumphs over evil is the God and Lucifer story. God’s favourite angel Lucifer was banished to hell for hating God’s creation ‘mankind’ and hence, Lucifer pledged to corrupt mankind and became the ‘Devil’. Crisp as it can be.
Often children are called ‘little devils’ as they often do cute, mischievous acts in their innocence that we just can’t stop to adore. Awww! But what if your child does something bad just to grab your attention? And what if that bad eventually turns out to be evil in the long run? Psychology defines a condition called Lucifer effect- the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action.
Children who have an inferiority complex or who feel unloved often get engaged in ways that might demean/harm other children just to project themselves better. If they keep on doing this repeatedly and parents do not intervene, the child becomes habitual of such behaviour and evil actions. An example of this is seen in a popular show on television where one of the two step-sisters defames, hurts and conspires against the other just to be the sole winner of their same father. The child is barely 8 years old! She unknowingly turns evil just to get her father’s love and affection at the cost of her other sister. Even her mother is aware of it yet does not stop her. Uh oh!
Parents usually tend to overlook early signs of such behaviour thinking that the child will understand or is just acting ‘kiddish’ or ‘silly’. Pretending to get hurt or lying about being hit by others, projecting other kids in bad light just to grab attention and going to any extent for getting what they want are some of the very early signs of Lucifer effect.
As parents, it is important to to teach your child a clear demarcation between what is good and what is not because kids at such young age may not even be aware of what evil is. They do bad things and over time it becomes a pattern and the child crosses the boundary between bad and evil. Morals taught at home stay long with the child. It is the parent’s responsibility to set the child on the right path and exercising power over them to correct them, if need be.
Dancing with your ‘little devil’ is alright. But not with a ‘Lucifer-in-making’ at home!
However If the behaviour lasts for more than 6 months and is not corresponding with the child’s age, an early intervention of an expert is required.
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