We have a friend who has been at loggerheads with her eight-year-old daughter for a long time. It always starts off with the little things, such as homework, television privileges and attending extracurricular activities, and often ends with a fierce argument and the dreaded words, 'I hate you Mummy.'
Amelia, our friend's daughter, is brighteyed, intelligent, talkative, energetic and somewhat shy. Strangers and friends tend to find her charming, but she can be a right devil to her mother, especially when she is deeply unhappy about something.
Amelia is not a bad child with behaviour problems. Rather, she is part of a recent phenomenon of children considered unique by child psychologists and experts but displaying a special set of problems that require a special approach. These young people are known as 'indigo children', named for their strong 'indigo-hued aura' first noted by psychic Nancy Ann Tappe. (According to New Age metaphysics, an aura is the energy field or life force given off by people or objects, and these auras can be identified by their different colours.)
Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, authors of the book The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, published in 1999, say that 'indigo children' require a fresh parenting approach based on unconditional love and acceptance.
These children are strong-willed, wise beyond their years, see through all our hidden agendas, speak their minds, have problems with absolute authority and are often wrongly diagnosed with behavioural and learning problems.
Expert metaphysician Doreen Virtue believes these children come with many gifts. 'They are here to change our political, educational, nutritional, family and other systems,' says Virtue in her book The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children.