@MeepyMupp
The posters saying that the kids probably don't talk about it at school.. you couldn't be more wrong. I used to work in a school and it was the hot topic of conversation with the kids young enough to still take part with elf on the shelf. It sometimes caused upset with the children, if the child didn't have an elf on the shelf or another child got presents, sweets etc with theirs. I remember one time a child crying uncontrollably at lunch because she didn't have an elf on the shelf and other children were teasing her. Another child just had the elf but didn't get a present with him and was told be another child it was because she was 'on the naughty list.'
Too true. (Former School Teacher)
We had all this shit to deal with one year when a school choir event fell on an Easter Sunday one year too but with the “Easter Bunny”. This seven year old kid bursts into the church hall with a huge, sparkly Jojo Siwa rainbow sparkly backpack with a big bow on it, sticking out of backpack was a big Build A Bear Bunny in a rainbow sparkly dress and matching bow, kid has matching mahoosive rainbow sparkly bow in her hair, plus new sparkly converses and some sort of very coveted T-shirt and sparkly bomber jacket plus a gift bag full of chocolate (Lindt bunnies, giant tube of creme eggs etc). Of course all her friends crowd round her and one parent said “oh Sophie! We didn’t know it was your birthday!”
“It’s not. The Easter Bunny brought me all of it!!!”
It was frigging carnage.
“Why did the Easter Bunny not bring me anything?”
“The Easter Bunny only brought me an egg”
“There’s no such thing as the Easter Bunny”
(which Sophie replied to with “my Mummy says anybody who says that is just jealous. Maybe the Easter Bunny didn’t bring YOU anything because you aren’t very nice?”)
Parents were looking on in disgust, palpable animosity towards Sophie’s parents but, in their absence, directed at Sophie. We persuaded Sophie to put her bunny, toys, jacket somewhere safe (instead of waving it around under the upset children’s noses).
Of course, Sophie then wouldn’t share any of her giant bag of chocolate “Mummy said it’s to keep me going until after the concert”. Later an oblivious parent turned up with a big bag of the same mini eggs that Sophie had for all the children to share and help themselves too. It got mixed up with Sophie’s, and a couple of kids had maybe 3 mini eggs and she threw a tantrum. Parents got involved and told Sophie she was being greedy and had a whole gift bag of sweeties and maybe she shouldn’t have brought things she didn’t want to share and that she shouldn’t have shown off. To be fair she wasn’t showing off, she was 7 and genuinely believed it all came from the Easter Bunny and was excited.
One Mum was crying as her child thought she’d been genuinely naughty and that’s why she didn’t get £200 worth of stuff for Easter. This Mum had recently separated, had no money, said the pressure was too much to deal with and she constantly felt she couldn’t keep up. She mentioned Elf on the Shelf, Christmas Eve boxes etc being bad enough but now all this Easter Bunny stuff on top was extra expense she couldn’t cope with. Lots of parents badmouthing Sophie’s parents. Sophie’s Mum arrived at pick up, some passive aggressive joking from other parents about them having to up their Easter Bunny game, “thanks for showing me up!” etc. Sophie’s Mum makes a comment about “refusing to be made to feel bad about other people’s lack of effort to make Easter fun and magical for their children.” Broke Mum bursts into tears. Rest of parents furious. Sophie is now crying, “why does everyone hate me?”
Honestly, you may all think children don’t boast but they absolutely do. They always have and it is really hard to deal with as a teacher. We always had strategies for Santa. As he came in the holidays we didn’t have to deal with the immediate fall out. But now with Elf on the Shelf, Breakfast with Santa, kids taken out of school to go to Lapland (either the U.K. one or the REAL one) etc etc, it just goes on forever. Every first of December I’d have to deal with 5 and 6 year olds sobbing because they didn’t have an Elf or because someone had said their Dad said the elves weren’t real etc... does that mean everyone shouldn’t do it? Well...no. But there IS a fall out. And the more lies we tell our children, the more upset there is further down the line.