Santa Is Watching

Christmas time is always a good time to promote peace and harmony among the kids, especially when you can throw in "Santa's watching" every now and then to ensure good behavior.  Katie and James were playing outside, occasionally taking turns barging in the back door to report wrong doing on the other one's part.   Tired of the constant tattling and petty arguments, I pulled out the "Santa's watching".   That worked for a short while, until they both came in yelling at one another and shouting about each other's offenses.  Trying to sort out the problem, I asked what was said.  Katie shouted, "James told me to shut up!"  James immediately interjected, "Katie was making faces at me and told me to shut up first!" and he stormed out of the room.  Left with just Katie, and already passed the point of annoyance, I said with a firm voice, "Santa doesn't like it when you are rude to one another, and he certainly does NOT like it when children say 'shut up'".  Katie looked at me and said, "But I didn't say 'shut up' to James."   I then added, "And he also knows when you are and are not telling the truth."  With deep worry in her face, she simply said, "Oh NO!!" (12/4/11)