Why We Won't Be Getting An Elf On The Shelf

Last week Anna came home from school and shared that all of her friends have an elf at home that watches their behavior and checks in with Santa regularly. If you haven't heard of "The Elf on the Shelf", it is a kit that comes with an elf doll and a book. The book explains that Santa has sent an elf to watch over the children and the elf reports back to Santa each night. The kids get to decide the name for the elf together. You read through the book with your child, it explains all the rules, then each night mom and dad move the elf to a new spot while the children are sleeping, hence making him appear "real". Well, last evening Anna was drawing in the family room after dinner. I went around as I usually do each night collecting pjs, underwear and towels for bathttime. I laid the towels on the toilet seat like I usually do and went to put some laundry away. I called for Anna to finish her drawing and use the bathroom as it was time to shower and get ready for bed. All of the sudden, Ron and I hear a blood curdling scream. Enough to crack windows. She comes flying out of the bathroom completely terrified and screaming so hard she can't even speak for several seconds. Ron and I ran over to see what was the matter and at this point Sawyer starts crying because she is scaring him. After several times of us yelling over her "What's the matter?" She finally gets out "elf" and "bathroom". Ron runs into the bathroom and finds nothing -like he really was going to find an elf in the bathroom huh. I calm her down as we walk to the bathroom and as she sheepishly peers into the bathroom, she shares that she wasn't expecting to see the bath towels sitting on the toilet seat and made the assumption they were an elf. You all know its very easy to confuse bath towels piled on the toilet as an elf right??? So, in case you were wondering, we won't be one of those families getting "The Elf on the Shelf".