My 3-year-old has been saying, quite loudly, “666!” when playing. This is not my influence. 

Their teacher counts to five. When she gets to six, it means everyone pay attention to me.

Toddlers like to repeat. Toddlers like to scream. Toddlers like to be in control.

So my kid, who hears something like, “After the count of five, everyone pays attention to me,” is going to understand the power of skipping the one through five and getting to 666.

I attended Catholic school for the duration of my education. I am not and was not raised Catholic. I know the potential problem I have with a small child screaming the number of the beast*.

My kid does not attend a Catholic or Christian school. But we do live in America and while there’s a separation of church and state, I’m not an idiot. This is a judeo Christian nation for better or worse. So even through I think it’s just great my kid is yelling, “666!” with joy and abandon, I am realistic to its potential issues.

But I’m also a satanist bro (no god, love all major sports and the music of Pearl Jam) so I’m conflicted.

My kid has no god in their life. It’s just not a thing. We don’t attend mass or temple or service of any kind. We don’t have any religious iconography in the house. We don’t pray or talk about god or whatever, either pro or con. But I know my kid hears pleasant platitudes from well meaning adults (teachers, coaches, other parents) with religious overtones. Sooner or later I’m going to have to explain sayings like “God bless!” and prayer in general. And if one of those well meaning adults hears my kid screaming, “666!,” I’m thinking it’s going to be soon.

Do I attempt to curve this unintentionally cool behavior? Do I explain why this may be an issue for strangers? Do I tell them to double down?

I kinda did all three. I explained that some folks don’t understand numbers correctly (I’m trying to instill that all numerology is bullshit without calling anyone dumb or stupid) and may think yelling “666!” isn’t cool. So it’s ok to yell that at home because home is a safe “666!” friendly space. 

Will this work? Probably not. My kid is 3. I wouldn’t be shocked if they’re yelling, “777!” tomorrow and has no memory of ever being this cool. 

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Related, as a satanist bro, I know 666 is not the only number of the beast. 616 is the Latin number of the beast. We launched in June 16 for a reason.

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