A MUM revealed she’s banned Elf on the Shelf – because she fears he’ll teach her kids how to be bad.
Sarah MacRory, 36, uses a technique called “gentle parenting” to show her kids respect and boundaries.
She doesn’t let them watch certain telly shows, including Horrid Henry and Peppa Pig, to shield them from bad influences.
So she has no intention of inviting in a mischievous elf who will trash the house and cause chaos every night for almost a month.
Sarah, from Aberdeen, said: “Elf on the Shelf isn’t welcome in our house. I think it teaches children bad behaviour.
“Some adults melt chocolate and say it’s done a poo on the floor. I’ve seen one shave a dad’s eyebrows and others have cut hair and snipped pyjamas.
“Those are behaviours I don’t want to have in my house. We very much teach the children about respecting each other.
“I don’t want them to think it’s okay to go shaving your parents or siblings. Or cutting their eyebrows off. That’s disrespectful in my opinion.”
The elf is a worldwide phenomenon with parents having to cook up crazy ideas every night then posting the results on social media.
Aside from being a bad influence, busy mum-of-three Sarah fears that she would never have enough time to do it properly.
She said: “I’m not against it. I have respect for the parents who do it every year- but it’s a lot of work.
“I can understand why it would be fun. But the pressure of having to think of all these things
“It’s more the anxiety of forgetting. I would be lying in bed stressed to the max worried about what I’m going to do with this little elf the next day.
“That’s a ten year commitment I don’t think I’m prepared to make.”
Sarah, married to firefighter husband Scott, has seen first-hand the negative impact the elf can have.
She said: “One of my friends online had elves with whiteboard markers that drew all over the washing machine
“They stuffed their children’s favourite teddies in the washing machine and wrote ‘hahahaha’ on it.
“Then they got annoyed a few weeks later when their child drew all over the living room wall.
“But they modelled that to them. I think that it really can teach bad behaviour.”
Sarah fears the elf could be traumatising youngsters when it cuts up a prize painting they made for their mum and dad, for example.
And she’s concerned that some parents maybe don’t appreciate the deep impact some of the stunts could be having on the youngsters.
She said: “They’re being told the elf is there to spy on them for santa.
“When the elf is wrecking the house the child thinks it wouldn’t have happened if they had been good.
“A lot of the time children are taking responsibility for that and I don’t think adults realise it can be damaging.
“All this cute and funny content for social media could be having a real negative impact on your child.”
Sarah never used the elf with eldest son Tyler James, who is 16 and has additional needs
She fears that suddenly introducing him now could be confusing for the teen.
But if her two youngest kids Everleigh-Reign, three and Theo-Baylin, two, became dead set on having an elf she might have to change her mind.
She said: “If my children begged and begged for elves to visit, maybe I would cave.
“I want them to be happy and I definitely want them to enjoy the run-up to Christmas.
“But I would be more conscious of what they’re doing. I’d probably have them making breakfast and hot chocolate rather than being bad.”
Sarah offers tips and advice to mums online and has set up a community as the Half-Assed Hippie Mama.
