Growing up during the holidays, having an Elf on the Shelf was one of the necessities my family had. The day after my family put up our Christmas tree and decorations we knew the next day the Elf on The Shelf would soon come with. From what I remember my sister and I were always very excited to see their elf again, and if our friends had any they did too. We loved every morning searching for the Elf to see just what crazy thing they came up with over night.

As I grew older and learned new things it came to my attention on how much my mother despised our Elf, and it seems that many parents do as well. At first I didn’t get it, but after I thought about it for a while, it finally started to make sense on why many parents don’t like their elves. I asked my Mom why she hated ours and here is what she had to say;

Creativity:

Depending on how long your elf stays out it can be a lot to handle if it comes to hiding places. You have limited places and resources and it can be difficult to keep up with something new everyday, and it can be difficult to not reuse the same things from the year prior because the kids could remember. It would be difficult to one up another parent who built a whole playground while ours slept with napkins.

Responsibility:

This category can fit for both the child and an adult. It’s the parents responsibility to hide the elf every night. This can also be difficult for the children to understand the entire concept of the no-touching rule for the elf, which is one of the rules I still don’t understand. If my mom forgot to move the elf she would need to think of something quick and easy before my sister and I woke up to question the fact the Elf did not move.

Structure:

Something that I didn’t think about that my mom said she didn’t like was how difficult it was to pose the Elf or make the Elf stand/stay in place. Their limbs are very limp hence the lack of structure. It wasn’t until recently that we found and purchased a set of hard plastic legs in which the Elf fit to stand, she wished they released that years prior since it’s so much easier to keep the Elf standing.

With these negatives, my mom did say she liked the elf since it would get my sister and I to behave, but besides that my mom absolutely hated the Elf and I am sure a lot of other parents hated their elf as well.