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Okay so I’m not a parent or anything of the sort but I have heard a lot about this ‘Elf on the Shelf’ and it’s very interesting. Basically the elf “goes to see Santa” to report the behavior of the children every night and is back by the next morning in a new place. I’ve heard that sometimes it brings presents too. To me this is very strange, I never had this growing up, I was threatened with coal and no presents if I kept fighting with my sisters, I never had a creepy elf watching over everything I did.

It’s very odd to me that a toy is watching children and they’re believing it. I guess I believed in Santa for a very long time, but believing in a plastic toy watching you seems different. It’s also kind of creepy to me, like your mom and dad just stick this little guy on a fireplace, or the kitchen cabinets, or in your bedroom and he just watches you. What happened to Santa doing that? “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake,” if that wasn’t creepy enough already now his helpers are in your home.

I don’t think that as a child this would have changed my behavior, and of course I don’t know because I didn’t have it, but I think the threat of coal was almost enough for me, then the threat of no presents was definitely enough.  I don’t understand why the elf enforces it more so than threats because the way I see it they’re probably just going to end up getting the presents whether the “elf’s report to santa” is good or bad, it’s just another way to have empty threats and if a kid is going to bad they will realize this.

I’ve also heard that some people leave toys or small presents with the elf everyday too, like an advent calendar with toys. I don’t understand that either. I got a piece of chocolate every three days with an advent calendar because my sisters and I shared it. I did not get a toy everyday from Thanksgiving until Christmas, the advent calendars don’t even start until December 1st anyway.  I just don’t get why children can’t just listen to their parents, or maybe that’s just my jealousy of daily presents getting in the way of this toy.

So how does this work exactly? Do you use one or do you refuse or what about in the future when you have kids?

I think that a lot has changed between when I was five and five year olds now, I mean I  had dial up and Aurthur games to entertain me at most, not tablets and iPhones, but there is nothing electronic about this elf, unless I missed something where it actually does record everything a child does, which I do not think it does and if it does parents need to reevaluate how they monitor their children but that would be a whole different post.

Elf on the shelf, I would love to see different opinions and same opinions in the comments. Keep in mind I am a 20-year-old college student with zero children and no plans to have any in the foreseeable future so maybe I just don’t get it. I just think that I’ve gone 20 years without the need for an elf to keep watch over me during the holidays, so what’s so different now that kids do? I’m really curious to hear other opinions so let me know!

P.S.

Does anyone find him to look kinda creepy though? Maybe it’s just the fact that he “watches you” but I think he looks a little creepy.