Naughty...or Nice?

So of coarse I do what every mother does this time of year.  When a child misbehaves I tell them that "Santa is watching."  I even told my teenaged son that Santa was watching him just the other day.  He knew just what I meant too.  Santa can see into the rear view mirror in the van and see just what he is up to.  In years past I have even gone so far as to make a pretend telephone call to St Nick in front of the naughty child.  Why wouldn't any self-respecting mother resort to this tactic?  I say milk Santa for all he's worth while you still have kids believing and influenced by his magic mirror ball. This year I have had an interesting reaction from Little Girl.  No one has ever taken this message so internally before.  Each day when we go through the process of getting dressed there is stress.  Girls are so finicky about clothes.  What gives?  And it always seems that when time is short there will be some sort of clothing dilemma followed by short tempered mothers and crying girls.  Sometimes we make it through unscathed.

Anyways the usual conversation this Christmas season, after we have finally put clothing on her back, goes as follows: She looks up at me with her big blue eyes asking for an honest behavior evaluation.  She says sincerely "am I still on the good list?" I always assure her that she is still good in my book.  She refers to Santa's list of course.  Ever since I told her about it she seems obsessed with being on the right list.  In fact when things are not going well, I need only to mention the list and I get quite the reaction from her.  It is good in some ways but it has me wondering what windows to her personality I am getting a glance at here.  Since I have older kids too I know that some things they displayed as young toddlers are still with them later in life.  Does this mean she will be overly concerned with what people are thinking (or writing) about her.  Seeking too much for approval from others could be bad right?  Or good... Naughty or nice.  Only time will tell I guess.  I wish I had a magic mirror ball to see into the future for her.