An Update on the Gobble Bag (see earlier post)

This evening we set the timer for 15 minutes, and Allie did a fabulous job cleaning her room, asking me the whole time if the Gobble Bag was coming out yet. The timer rang, and she ran out jumping and laughing so proud of the work she had done. Out came the Gobble Bag, and she was immediately reminded about the books she had left out. The Bag generously gave her another two minutes to clean her books-- she was done in about thirty seconds, she was so freaked out. The timer rang again, and he came out again, and she screamed, "Noooo!" I calmed her down and told her he was just going to look around, but if he couldn't find anything on the ground, then he wouldn't eat anything. I honestly thought she hadn't forgotten about anything... but she did-- we all did. Earlier that day, Allie had dragged a toy stroller full of toys into Sami's room, and had dumped the toys in the glider. And the Gobble Bag found them. Since I have to give this bag almost a life of it's own, one that shows no mercy, I had to let him "eat" those forgotten toys. I, as Mom, apologized to and sympathized with Allie the whole time the toys were being "gobbled" up. She cried and screamed, and her face was red and soaked with tears. Poor thing (although, Kev and I did have to stifle some laughter on our part)-- she had worked so hard. But the Gobble Bag cannot be merciful. But I can. So, the Bag took the toys, but I hugged and cuddled Allie, spoke softly to her, and calmed her. We reassured her the Gobble Bag would give the toys back on Monday night, but that he would eat them again if she left them out. She seemed to understand and stopped crying. But, yowza!

Here's the address to view the Gobble Bag article from LDSLiving: http://www.ldslivingmagazine.com/articles/show/351