With school finishing for the year, the weather heating up, and Christmas just around the corner, if you've found yourself unleashing the "Santa is watching" threats a little more frequently this week, then you're not alone. #thestruggleisreal.
Christmas time bonus: I can use the 'Santa's watching you' threat when the kids aren't listening.
— Morgan Wieman (@morganwieman) December 13, 2016
If
Elf on the Shelf or
Santa Cam are no longer working for you, don't despair just yet. A US mum has come up with an even simpler - and possibly more effective - way to keep your kids' behaviour in check during the home stretch.
In a post to her Facebook page, Kristin Hensely shared that she simply changed her sister's name on her phone to "Santa".
"Then," she continued, " I get to work on voice-to-text."
Espionage and power play, indeed.
Speaking to
The Huffington Post, Ms Hensely, co-host of a
web series called #IMOMSOHARD, explained that she came up with the idea when her kids, Finn, 5, and Eleanor, 3, were misbehaving during bath time. That certainly sounds familiar ...
With desperate times calling for desperate measures, the mother-of-two reached for her iphone and said four simple words: "Siri, Text Santa Claus."
When Finn and Eleanor heard Siri reply, "What would you like to say to Santa Claus," the little ones stopped misbehaving and started listening. Pronto.
Playing along, Ms Hensley's sister, Megan, informed her niece and nephew, " Please tell Eleanor and Finn that I will give them a second chance. They should be nice and listen to mommy."
Ms Hensley described the hack as "highly effective," noting, "Santa is the single greatest piece of leverage parents have all year round."
"Some might argue this is manipulation," she continued. "They are correct. Just the other day my 5-year-old told me I was boring so I 'showed him' by taking him to a trampoline park. As you can see, it's a level playing field".
Ms Hensely's post has resonated with other parents, shared over 3,000 times as of Friday morning and garnering over 1,000 comments. While many parents simply took notes and expressed their gratitude, others added their own special ways of reminding kids that Santa is watching - and not just as Christmas time.
In the most "liked comment," one mother described her hack, which works all year round.
"When my son was little and wanting something in the store... to keep him from throwing a tantrum I showed him all of the security cameras in the store and said that how Santa watches you," she said. "I would tell him if I buy that toy for you right now then Santa won't bring you anything for Christmas. I said what you have to do is pick out all of the things you want and hold it up to his camera and tell him really loud so he can hear you" Santa this is what I want for Christmas. You have to put the item back on the shelf where it came from or Santa won't know where to find it. This works like a charm because Santa watches you all year long and he's everywhere!"
Another shared that she'd deployed a similar tactic, changing her husband's name in her phone to "Jolly The Elf."
Other parents commented that they use
apps, such as Portable North Pole, which connect them directly to Father Christmas.
One mum simply changed her ringtone. "I thought I was clever putting sleigh bells as my ringtone," she said. "Then whenever it went off I would ask my daughter if she had been behaving because Santa was texting for today's nice list."
Oh the things we do as parents ...
Do you have any other "Santa is watching" tricks?
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