Hate To Love To Hate

Okay folks, I have a confession to make. I have a love-hate relationship with that freaking elf! You know the elf I’m talking about.

Yeah, that elf

To be quite honest, I didn’t know about this Elf on a Shelf fad until about two years ago. I think that properly coincided with my increased interactions with mothers.  All of a sudden my social media feeds were flooded with daily sELFies. Get it? sELFies? Okay moving on…

I hate it! It’s like Big Brother but cuter. If the elf were a camera, the courts would call it an “unblinking lens” because it captures EVERYTHING.

It just.

Keeps.

Looking.

I’m convinced it comes to life at night when everyone is sleeping to make a daily nightly report to the North Pole.  Oh gosh, the thought! What if, I have one in my house and wake up in the middle of the night and catch it in action?

See ya! Gotta go!

And then it whispers into the walkie talkie like, “they’ve figured it out Nick (pause for effect) It’s time” //endscene//

I might have let my own imagination get away from me. Sorry. But you have to admit, the thing is freaky!

The whole idea behind Elf on the Shelf is supposed to be that the children will behave. After all, someone had to answer just HOW does Santa know when you are sleeping, awake, good, or bad.  He has miniature elf-spies in the house! I love it because the kids love it.

I don’t like the idea of introducing children to the idea of a surveillance state a la 1984. Not at all. I don’t want my yet-to-exist child(ren) to believe that everything they are doing is being watched by … someone.  I just think that behaving because you’re being watched doesn’t hold the same weight as behaving because you WANT to.

So, why do I love it?

It’s so popular I don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon.  Moms love it. Children love it. Dads love it even more! Really! They do!

Two secret guilty pleasures in one place | Daily Mail Online

And those dads are the reason I have a love/hate. Every year I look forward to the new and well, innovative ways that elf will be on that shelf. And I’ve even contemplated buying one for my home…even though we don’t have children.

Then I figured that’d be weird.

Just a little.

I do love that it gives parents and children something to do together. You can never have too much of a good thing like family time.  I also love that it really gets a lot of people into the holiday spirit.

But it just stares. Endlessly stares. Watching with that - smile.

Hate to Love that elf.