Anyways...I've noticed a lot of people with the Elf like to point out to their children that "the elf is watching..." when the children are not behaving well. I did that the first day, and then I started thinking, "what if she only decides to behave while it's Christmas time? What if she thinks that's the only time when it counts?" I try to do a lot of positive reinforcement with KBeaner anyways, with her I find that that outlook helps her more than me getting "mean". Not to say I don't yell...I mean I am human haha.
So now when KBeaner does something nice, or is listening well I say to her "I bet Merry is going to tell Santa how well you listened today!" When I say this KBeaner usually says "YEAH!.... oh but I not all the time...I did this.." and then tell me about something she did that was not too nice. I think try to reinforce the positive situation of the day, making that more important than the small part of the day when she was not behaving, because we all make mistakes. The other day KBeaner was throwing a fit, and was sent to time out, recently when she has a time out it is a big production of her screaming and crying. This time she went and took her time out and then we talked about it, there was no screaming! (I was so excited!!) We talked about how even though she did earn a time out, that I was very proud of her that she took her timeout right away and did not fight about it. That day I'm sure Merry the Elf told Santa about how even though KBeaner did make a mistake she took a break and then had a great day! ;)
I guess what I'm trying to say with all of this is that, we should make the Elf on the Shelf (or Holiday friend that comes to visit you) an even more magical thing! There is so much stress during the Holidays for everyone even kids, let's make it a little easier for them. Enjoy your elves!!
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