DS (3.5) knows a monkey that does naughty things

[fruitsticksinyourstocking]

How do we deal with this? Everytime he does something wrong when we are not looking he says 'I didn't do anything, a monkey did it'!

He's a tiny monkey, we can't see him

It feels wrong to tell him off for telling lies somehow. So far I have told him that he needs to tell the monkey to stop doing these things as the monkey is getting him into trouble and making him fix them.

Anybody else?

My DSis was accompanied by a very badly behaved pixie.

Like you say - I think my parents handled the situation by making her take some responsibility for the pixie's actions - 'You must make sure that pixie knows not to empty the shampoo on the carpet', 'I'm relying on you to tell pixie that it is naughty to put playdoh in the lock' etc. etc.

I think it was meant to be a half way house to avoid telling her off directly but still communicate their displeasure.

She did grow out of it - although he still makes the odd appearance even today - and she's over 30 .

There's a story in the Blue Kangeroo series about this! EVentually Blue Kangeroo says sorry and writes a note when Lucy has to go to bed without such a naughty toy...

Us monkeys always get the blame for everything!

Yup, us too. Leo the lion is responsible in our house. Like piprobin, we explain that DD has to be a good girl and set an example for her leonine pal.

The monkey took half the Christmas decorations off this evening. Apparently DS told him not to but the monkey 'punched him in the face'

Would seriously consider home schooling if I didn't have a sneaking suspicion he got that particular catch phrase from DH.

Sorry fruitstick but that made me laugh!

DH said "oh dear"

That is a troublesome monkey you've got there.

In our house the new baby tends to do all the naughty stuff. Amazing what she gets up to when we're not looking, considering she can't crawl or in fact even roll over yet