There was this kid there, in my cabin on my way back to home from IIT a few days back. He was a small kid, might be 5 or 6 years old. And he was pretty active; kept running from here to there to the chagrin of his parents and custodians. And then there was this police police crap occurring every time he had to be stopped from running out of sight. I will tell you what I mean by that. Somehow the guys using the 'police police' fear factor had convinced the sweet little kid that if he steps beyond a not so well defined terrain, the police will take him away. Occasionally he used to forget that, but then he was reminded more occasionally and thus kept in control.

I do not really think it's a very good way of taming an otherwise agile kid. This sure is an easy way but certainly not the best way. The major disadvantage is that to the child, the word police becomes synonymous to something evil. After all evil is what you fear, don't you? I understand that when this kid grows up, he will come to know why we need policemen and what their real job is. But I am also sure that somewhere deep inside him, he will always fear police. And not because of any fault of his. There are things which settle deeply in your subconscious mind and they affect you later. The case is similar to the fear of ghosts. If you start trying to control a child by bringing in a ghost to him/her, it's a bad strategy. You are only making him a coward kid. Though I haven't read about child psychology at all, this sounds very intuitive to me. I at least remember reading some article somewhere which actually stressed on the need of talking about real things to children than making false stuff appear real. May be when I am back to IIT, I would catch up with some sites to see if my intuition actually has supporting data.

The lights were off; it was slightly more than half past ten, and the passengers were trying to sleep. And I heard this whisper once more: 'Police Police'. I guess the kiddo was not ready to sleep yet. Police at a rescue mission to make a naughty kid sleep! :)